The Sun.
London, England, 1852-09-09 00:00:00

SECTION C.---GEOLOGY.

A report was made on Crag Formations and Copro
lites, in a letter from Mr. Long; and papers were
read by Mr. Smith, of Jordan Hill, " Oa the condi-
tions under which Boulders occur in Scotland;" by
Mr. Bryce, " On the disposition of Granite Blocks in
Argyllshire ;" by Professor Nicoll, "On the occur-
rence of Glacier hlorains in Arran ;" by Major
Vicary, of Wexford, "On the Geology of a portion of
the Himalaya Mountains," communicated by Sir B.
I. Murchison ; by Mr. H. Twining, "On some pecu-
liarities of the Granite in certain parts of the Pyre-
nees ;" by Mr. Hennessey, " On some points in Geo-
logical Theory ;" and by Dr. Stanger, "On certain
Furrows and Smoothings on the surface of Granite,
caused by drift sand, at the Cape of Good Hope." Mr.
Smith, of Jordan Hill, exhibited a fossil fish from
Corinne, Lanarkshire.

StCTION D.-ZO)LOGY AND BOTANY, INCLUDING

PHYSIOLOGY,

Papers were read by 'ProCs;nr E. Forbee, "On a
new Map of the Geograp'2ical Di,qribution of Marine
Life, and on the Hornoinzio B-1,8 -" by the Prince of
Canine, " On recent Additions' t'n'the'Order of Birds
and on their Classification ;" by Professor Owen) a
"Demonstration of his vir-ors en too Cranial Vurte.
bran" by Dr., Glidstone, "On the Influence of
Light 01 Plant,;" by Dr. Allirtin Barry, "On
singular Locality y t•i,lected for Nest-bnildlng, by the
Black ItAst,irt ;by Professor Ilincks," On an :Ann-
midy of Trifolium repens ;"by Profess:,)r
" On a Monstrotity of Bellis .perennzs:
.by
Munro, `'On the Transmutation of (Egiir,p3 into
Triti,cum ;" by It. 04W3y, Esq., "Oa the Relation
between the Orizlnic Structure of Quldrup4(l3,
and
their Economy, and by Professor
Bilfour, "11 !marks on the Fiora of the Sant and
\Veg..; of Ireland ;" h. y Professor Wilarton Jones,
" On the ford by which the Circulation of the stood
is carried on ;" by Dr. Fowler, 6, On tie
what is the State of Mind and Vi'alit7 d (141'un'
Sleep, and the Sleep in which per.,ct
dream ;" bynclus
we Dr.
John Barker, "Oa the part slaved by the .lav 1-1 •
Sinus on the Circulation in ti:e Brlin "

SECTION 2.—GEOG2APHY AND ETHNOLOGY.
The Rev. Dr. BUMS read a curious and entertain-
ing paper, entitled "Some Account of the Origin,
Cesrecteritties, and Dialect of the People in the
Counties of Down and Antrim." The district, he
observed, of which &Past is the natural centre, is
one which has exercised a most important influence on
the destinies of the hum=an race in these islands. In
Down the patron saint made his first convert, and there
his eshes repose; in Antrim. the real Ossianic.: poems are
tweeased to here existed. In Down was the ancient
thidia, from whinh the extended name Ulster is
derived; in Antrim was the ancient Dalndia' the
name of which was applisd to a large portion of modern
Scotland. Ireland was originally known as Scoaie,
or Scotia Major; and, when the name was superseded
at home, it was retained by our enterprising colonists
to Argyle and Lern, and afterwards extended to all
North Britain, after the conquest by Kenneth in the
ninth century. The line of kings descended from
Fergus, the son of Ere, not only mingled his blood
with Saxon monarchs of England, but was afterwards
transferred to England ; so that Qaeen Victoria traces
an authentic descent from the petty chieftains of this
neighbourhood in the fifth century. More then a
thousand years afterwards the debt of colonisation
was repaid, at the time of the plantation of Ulster.
The Anglo Saxon population had been so long sepa-
rated into two branches, the English and Scotch,
differing in country, laws, religion, manners, preju-
dice, &c., that they must be regarded as two peoples,
and not one. If to these we add the remnant of the
_loathe Irish, there are three distinct elements, from
the composition Of which, in different quantities
and localities, the inhabitants of the two countries
are derived. Tceir localities are the following :
the Irish in the hilly districts, as in the glynnes of
Antrim, end the Irish•speaking population in the
neighbourhood cf Cuabendall. Tesee are a few in
almost every parish, and several in the great towns.
In Down, few occur north of Downpatrick, and
Baliynahinch ; they thee converge to the mountains
of Mourne, by the parish of Loughinisland. In the
past generation Irish was frequently spoken in the
markets ofiDownpatrick, Castle wellan Demmer; and
and Bellynahinch ; now it is rarely, Wearer, used as a
sesparate mode of communication. In the districts of
The Celts they preserve their traditional antipathies,
though they assimilate in language; and the terms
"Irish" and "English" are used correctly by neigh-
bours, in reference to their ancestral origin. The
Scottish immigration followed two natural routes—
by the Mull of Cantyre to the county Antrim, near
the Causeway; and by the Mull of Galloway to the
county Down, by Donaghadee. From the earliest
time:co t'
sk .
-3
llete iff, and coaster must have passed in
this way, andthe two dtrict streams ran right
across the counties. In Down, the Scotch currant
is traceable in Comber Saintfi ld li'll'le h d An-
nahilt, nearly to 11.11'sb e ' 1 1 'ag
' and
orough; also by Castlereagh
and Pardysbae, toil,ineabr Belfast.Bi In the county. of
Antrim the course
'Dena, up to the toe, ofyAntrlirTTl Ballymoney and Belly-
'Dena, over the bac
of D 31713 and the Ceeeshin.
English settlers
occupied mainly the low countries, such as the
basins of the Laren and Biti
*, , Bslrses n Und the banks of
Lete4ii .1N I.'-',t=ga• -• 4 was originally an English
its external increase has b
districts. Lisburne was
eoeon, but . ,
the two Scoetisde .
a small
; it is now practically 2.,, .p ,
Welsh colony - t - --- amgesu town.
In one barony of An.trim of 128 townnlands the ieopu-
and Agbelee,
Wien is all of English origin
Eaten-
decry, &c,, look like parts of England. At various
points the various minglein
several races meet, but refuse to e
There are English, Irish, and Scotch quarters
Dewnpatrick and Carrictseer-
several towns, such as .
ear Lisburn, separates the two
sus, and the Lapp, - n---
races. In one-half of the parish of Hillsborough the
people are all Scotch, in the other they are all Eng.
HA. A hill near Castlewellan separates P
the two
races, and the island of Ret
hlin has its two romon.
tories occupied, one by the Irish, the other by the
English and Seotch. The religion, habits, customs,
&c., may all be deduced from this distribution. In
religion, for instance, the rule ie that
the English
are Episcopalians; the Scotch, Presbyterians; and
Scottish
the Irish, Roman Catholics. The lines of
population may be marked on the map by
a double chain of Presbyterian meeting-houses,
while in the English districts they are rare or un-
known. About half of all the congregations in
Ireland are situated in these two countries, or con-
nected with presbyteries that centralise in them.
More than one-half of these are in rural districts, un-
.r*tcted with villages, and called by the name of
w.atailde esshowing that the Scotch were in general
Agriculturists, and less settled in towns than the
Iniaggli'fiate,_ln. the English districts the church-and-
Irat:dsrong, but, from the magnitude of
the parishes
aeelar points, they the distance or churches from parti-
be to their iell
Catholic
_are less attentive than they should
duties. In the Irish districts
the Roman
congregations are large, and
?nose of the two branches
ere small. The habits ofth
of the Protestant Church
the people, as well as their
creed, indicate their origin,
there is more cremfort and tidiness than
English districts
of seettishse than we find else-
where ; for the man
e
_ancestry does not
enjoy life so well, though he maybe actually richer.
The Scotahman is often more intelligent
than his
English neighbour, but be rarely
weight of character. In the marketszeela him in
of Lurgan
down, the le
Lisburn, Moira, and Porta
farmer'
is known from the Antrim one, GT. Down
rather
Scotohman from the Englishman, by. his ha , the
The old English raness
in driving a bargain. worts and
till recently at Lamb
pastimes were kept up
Maypole is still known in Helywood, and tradition
leads us to believe that certain mystery plays have
been performed in the district. The custom of hiring
servants at stated fairs is followed in Antrim, as is
the case in many other towns and places of England ;
and while those who attend for the purpose at Car-
lisle carry a straw in the mouth, those at Antrim
oarry a little white rod in the band. The settlers on
the Marquis of Hertford's estate were in general
natives of the shires adjoining the Bristol Channel,
a. • as their ancestral district •
apple district of
13 th® . ,
• : • • .ttalAik—, opy ofUpper Massareene is the
rwifriliospier . reland. 200
After the lapse of
4,7 M'ess'rs the-an •• ..4,
(4s stem is preserved as if it were of
eve and Hel:
ee Ogliercl,-ay..: 'Mks, , • rStithily of
.as " - to-
IF"' 'Wein nee still riifead, and not ."1Y"
eP one of the ceremonies
'o\-111 Thiriise's pa- ena ieinegleted, though - ugh their origin is
\;unknown. ' Thanaies of persona
'a=atio hiithly iiliditratil-of the and
people. of places are
Having given
leenutener 4 exernp es of Irish
a ~ names, Dr. Hume