1878.] 
The British Association, 
54i 
found in crystalline formations which it was, in 1864, as- 
serted had been “ formed by a crystalline molecular re- 
arrangement of silicates generated by chemical process in 
waters at the earth’s surface.” 
In continuation of the same subject, a paper was read by 
Dr. Hicks on some new pre-Cambrian areas in Wales. 
Mr. E. T. Hardman, F.C.S., read a paper on “ Hullite,” 
a hitherto undescribed mineral. He said this mineral occurs 
in abundance at Carnmoney Hill, near Belfast, in the basalt 
forming the neck of a miocene volcano. It has never been 
described as analysed, and has been referred to in the Survey 
maps and labelled on the Survey collections as obsidian, 
doubtless from its black colour and waxy lustre. In physical 
character it somewhat agrees with the chlorophaite of 
Maculloch, but is entirely different in composition, which 
more resembles that of delessite : from this, however, it differs 
essentially in colour, hardness, streak, and specific gravity, 
but it appears on the whole to belong to the ferruginous 
chlorite group. Physical characters — Colour, velvet black ; 
hardness, 2 : brittle ; lustre, waxy to dull ; very slightly 
affeCted by acids : occurs at Carnmoney and Shane’s Castle, 
near Lough Neagh. Its most remarkable characteristics are 
its low specific gravity, and its resistance to the blowpipe — 
both curious points, considering the large quantity of iron it 
contains. The author proposed to call the mineral Hullite, 
after Professor Hull, in commemoration of the valuable 
work he has done in elucidating the microscopic mineralogy 
of the basalts of Ireland. Professor Hull has examined the 
microscopic struClure of the mineral, and of the rock in 
which it occurs. Under the microscope it is of an amber 
brown colour, nearly opaque. It permeates the whole rock, 
filling the interstices, and enclosing the other minerals. It 
appears very much to assume the character of chlorite, and 
is undoubtedly a distinct mineral, and not a produ<T of 
alteration. 
Prof. E. Hull, M.A., F.R.S., Diredlor of the Geological 
Survey in this country, gave a short account of the progress 
of the Geological Survey of Ireland from its commencement 
in 1832, under the late General Portlock, R t E,, down to the 
present day, stating that the whole country south of a line 
drawn roughly from Larne on the coast of Antrim to Sligo 
had been surveyed, while 160 sheets of the geological map, 
on a scale of 1 inch to the statute mile, had been published. 
Along with these had also been issued 78 separate explana- 
tory memoirs describing the structure and palaeontology of 
