1906. 
Proceedings of Irish Societies. 
81 
After a brief reference to the origin of the work some dozen years ago 
in response to a circular from the Erratic Blocks Committee of the 
Britisli Association to Corresponding Societies in Ireland, the reader 
described the manner of investigating each locality, the formation of a 
collection of Irish rocks and erratics for the Club, the submission of frag- 
ments of unfamiliar erratics to members of the Geological Survey and 
other experts in Dublin, London, and elsewhere, for identification, for 
the purpose of ascertaining their parent locality, which in conjunction 
with the study of striae left by the ice that flowed over Ireland gave 
valuable information as to its direction. One hundred and seven different 
erratics occurred in our North-Eastern drifts, many having travelled 
from vScotland. vSpecial reference was made to the wide distribution of 
fragments of Ailsa Craig rock over Ireland, England, and Wales, as well 
as Antrim flints. The occurrence of marine organisms in our drift 
deposits, studied and recorded in the Club's Proceedings a quarter of a 
century ago by Mr. Wright and Mr. Stewart, has become another factor 
of importance in indicating the direction of ice currents, since the con- 
ception of great confluent icefields moving outward over Great Britain 
and Ireland filling the North Channel and Irish Sea, has gradually taken 
the place of the former hypothesis of a deep submergence under arctic 
conditions, whose difficulties were ably pointed out by the Rev. Maxwell 
Close some forty years ago. The description of this work commenced 
with the supposed intrusion of a mass of Scottish ice in our Ballycastle 
district, which glaciated the surface of the headlands, scattering erratics 
from Cantyre, the Clyde, and Ailsa Craig over Rathlin, north-east 
Ulster, and passing on to meet with similar sheets of Irish origin with their 
cargo of local rocks streaming on by Lough Neagh, Belfast, and the Mourne 
Mountains southward over the centre of Irelancl. The thirty-six localities 
investigated are fully described in detailed manuscript schedules in the 
possession of the Club, tables of the results being compiled for publica- 
tion in its Proceedings. These thirty-six deposits were roughly grouped 
together (proceeding from P'air Head southward to Newry and Kilkeel) 
as inland, sea-shore, or mountain localities, and the special erratic facies 
of each type pointed out, the constant presence of Ailsa and North 
Antrim rocks, and the gradual introduction of rocks from the West in- 
creasing as the review passes southward, contrasted with the unexpected 
occurrence of rocks of southern origin north of their parental district. 
This led up to a mention of Lake Belfast, a great sheet of fresh water 
depositing sands and gravels described in the recent Memoir on the 
drift deposits round Belfast published in 1904 by the Geological Survey 
of Ireland. Further investigations are urgently needed to confirm or 
refute these interesting speculations, but the importance of careful and 
detailed local records was strongly insisted upon. A short reference to 
the fascination of erratic-hunting and the pleasant friendships developed 
between the members of Field Naturalists' Clubs concluded the paper. 
W. J. Knowi.es read a paper on " Stone Axe Factories near Cushen- 
dall." The papers were discussed by W. Gray, R. Welch, Joseph Wright, 
C. M. Cunningham, R. Bell, R. May, and G. C. Gough. 
