2 5 [Proc. B.N.F.C., 



not know what to do. We had known each other previously, but 

 we formed friendships then which lasted the whole of our lives. 

 We didn't know what to make of it, and Mr. Stewart said "You 

 can meet at my shop one evening in the week and we will go 

 somewhere for a walk ; " and that was the origin of it all. We all 

 fell in with that idea, and met usually on Wednesday evenings 

 when our business was done, for we were all working at that time. 

 We had rambles round the town, either for Geology, Botany, or 

 Zoology, or mixed, as the case might be, for we gathered up 

 everything and recorded everything more or less. We had 

 passed the whole Summer in this way meeting on Wednesday 

 evening, usually at Mr. Stewart's, and if it was wet we met on 

 Friday evening, and often we took a Saturday evening run on 

 some of the excursion trains. That continued till next Winter, 

 when Mr. Tate went to London in the early part of the next year 

 to read a geological paper. While he was away we had a fortnight's 

 vacation, and during this fortnight a letter appeared in the paper, 

 as Mr. Praeger has said, from Mr. Chew, advocating the formation 

 of a Naturalists' Field Club in Belfast. It struck us like a 

 thunderbolt. We couldn't understand it. We thought we had a 

 Naturalists' Field Club in our own way, and didn't know what to 

 do with this letter. We had a meeting and appointed Mr. Stewart 

 and Mr. Robinson to reply in the newspaper, and they did 

 so. Mr. Chew wrote back to the newspaper office and got 

 their addresses. He wrote to them personally, asking them to 

 meet at his house to see what could be done. Mr. Tate, in the 

 meantime, had come back from London and was delighted with 

 the idea. We made arrangements and decided to get a requisition 

 signed by all who would like to form such a club. It was signed 

 by a great number at our Science classes, and in three or four 

 weeks we had between 70 and 80 names. We got a small 

 circular printed calling a meeting of these people. At this 

 meeting in 1863 we formed rules, appointed officers, and started 

 the Club. That was the whole origin of the Club. Its history 



