1905. 



Proceedings of Irish Societies. 



85 



BELFAST NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB. 



January 25.— Ai^kx. Mii.i.igan read a paper on " The Evolution of 

 Plant as compared with Animal Life." After dealing with several defini. 

 tions the speaker proceeded to trace briefly the pedigree of some existing 

 forms of plants and animals. In the Protozoa, he believed, were to be 

 found the common ancestors of both. 



February i.— Thk President, \V. J. Fennei.1,, M.R.I.A.I., read a 

 paper entitled " Half an Hour in Canterbury," in which he described the 

 pilgrimages to the famous shrine of Thomas a Becket, and briefly 

 sketched the history of the church. The paper was illustrated b}^ 50 

 limelight views, and attention was directed to various architectural 

 features. Previous to the lecture R. Hanna exhibited a number of alien 

 plants. 



February 8. — W, A. Green gave a practical demonstration on the 



Preservation of Birds." In his introductory remarks Mr. Green said 

 that primitive man must have had some idea of skin preservation. He 

 then reviewed the embalming processes of the Egyptians and of the 

 Dutch earl}' in the i6th century, and pointed out the high degree of 

 excellence in the work of present day taxidermists. 



February 15.— W. H. Gai^way read a paper entitled " Sea 

 Anemones, their Structure, Habits, and Life History." Mr. Gallway 

 referred in brief terms to the great antiquity of this group of animals, 

 which can be traced from the Silurian period to the present. By means 

 of a series of diagrams the structure of the group and their methods of 

 procuring food were described. 



February 21. — Robert Beet, read a paper entitled, " Observations on 

 our Home Hills." He said that probably no area within the three 

 kingdoms of such limited extent as the hills in the Belfast vicinity 

 exhibited so many formations worthy of the attention of the geological 

 student. Almost all the rocks yielded fossils, and rock exposures were 

 frequent and easily accessible along the hillsides. The picturesque range 

 of mountains that overlooked Belfast was crowned with Tertiary basalt. 

 Underneath were the Mesozoic rocks, the only rocks of that period now 

 found in Ireland, and therefore of considerable interest. The Mesozoic 

 rocks consisted of the following formations in ascending order : — Triassic 

 sandstone, Lower Lias, and Tapper Cretaceous. From the Ammonites 

 plworbis zone he had obtained the following fossils : — Vertebrae of 

 Ichthyosaurns, Ammonites planorbis, Cardinia ova/is^ Lima pedinoides^ Ostj-ea 

 liassica, and Pseiidodiadcma lobatum (Wright). This last-named fossil was 

 new to our district, and had first been recorded by the lecturer. The 

 Upper Cretaceous rocks showed great variety of composition, and yielded 

 many fossil remains. Some of his finds proved records for the first 

 time — namely, Ostrea dihiviana from the yellow sands and Beletnnitella 

 qiiadrata from the nodular band. Proceeding, the speaker described 

 ^ow he found for the first time a flint factory on the side of Squire's 



