Revival of an Old Escallop FisheryAuthor(s): R. J. WelchSource: The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Mar., 1934), pp. 41-42Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25532298 .

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March, 1934] The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 41

carrying quartzite pebbles but, owing to the fact that no similar beds occur in the north or east, it is quite probable that the delta extended much further north than the present Old Eed Sandstone. Only the southern half of this delta is preserved, whilst only the western margin of the delta of the porphyry bearing river remnins.

REFERENCES.

(1) iMem. Geol. Surv., Ireland, Sheet 14, pp. 12-13, 1886, Dublin.

(2) Rohleder, H. P. T., Geological Guide to the Giant's Causeway and the North Coast of Antrim, p. 8, 1929, Belfast.

(3) 'Nolan, Joseph, "

On the Old Bed Sandstone of the North of

Ireland,'* Quart. Journ. Geol. Boc, 'No. 144, p. 534, 1880.

(4) Gregory, J. W., and Barrett, B. H., General Stratigraphy, p. 100, 1931, (London.

ZOOLOGICAL NOTES.

THE LAST IRISH WOLF.

I believe it is generally accepted that the last wolf in Ireland is

supposed to have been killed in the Knttekmealdown Mountains, between

Tipperary and Waterford, in 1770 (Irish NatqJS, p. 95, 1924). I recently came across the following letter which w&s^mhlished in The Field of

September 18th, 1885, and seems to have been overlooked. It is from

Capt. G. A. Graham, the resuscitator of the Irish Wolfhound!, and runs as follows : "In answer to the query of your correspondent J.W.D., though I am unable to speak about the black-and-tan pack he alludes to as existing (?) in the West oi Ireland, I can inform him that the grandfather of the present Mr. Watson Of Ballydarton?a well-known master of hounds in Co. Carlow?kept a pack of hounds for wolf-hunting, and that he killed his last wolf at Myshall, close to Ballydarton, about 1786."

According to Scharfi (Irish Nat. 31, pp. 133-6, 1922) the last wolf is

variously given as having been killed in three different places; one in the south (presumably the Knockmealdown Mountains), another near Glenarm, Co. Antrim, and the third at Wolfhill, three miles from Belfast.

Capt. Graham's letter is reprinted in Dogs : their History and Develop ment, by Edward C. Ash, vol. 1, p. 226, 1927.

Public Museums, Liverpool. NORA FISHEK.

REVIVAL OF AN OLD ESCALLOP FISHERY.

Of late there has been a revival, at various places on the County Down

coast, of the old escallop industry which at one time, over half a century ago, formed the main source of livelihood for the fishermen, of Carrick

fergus, Bangor and Portaferry. At that time, too, Jersey fishermen came north to Strangford Lough and worked the escalloo and oyster beds near the bar. Since then there has been very little dredging for Pecten maximus until about four years ago, when Groomsport fishermen found a productive bed off Ballymacormick Point and have since worked it successfully.

A couple of years ago two Portaferry fishermen, urged by the father of one, an old man who remembered the Channel Islanders working The Bar beds, started dredging there with surprising results, and now these beds are being worked by both Portaferry and Portavogie boats. As a result of a survey car?ied out last summer by our Fisheries Department, other productive beds were discovered, including one off Black Head, Co.

Antrim, another off Annalong, Co. Down, in a position known as "

the old oyster bank," and an especially large bank, about eight miles seaward of Quintin Bay, Ards, Co. Down, in 22 fathoms. As this fishery is carried on mainly from November to

April, when herring fishing and trawling

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42 Thh Iuisii Naturalists' Journal. \y?h- V.

start again, it provides welcome remunerative employment. For instance, Blackhead fishery yielded from -40 to 60 dozen clams per day per boat, while the new bank off Quintin has yielded tipwards of 70 dozen some

days. This new bank being so far off shore, evidently very extensive

(certainly miles long), is being exploited by the larger motor boats, and, if the London demand continues as brisk as at present owing to the tariff

on the foreign ,shell-fish imported, our local fishermen should benefit consider

ably . The returns to the fishermen so far are satisfactory?two shillings per dozen being the ruling price. Besides, our form is the large deep sea

species, while the French, Dutch and English Channel shells are of the smaller southern form. iSome fine purely white shells are dredged on

the new bank off Quintin among the types. Another Pecten, called '*

Queen's," appears to be common in Strangford Lough itself. I am not sure whether this is a large P. opercularis or a small form of maxim us. I have dredged the former in the Lough, but never the latter.

Belfast. R. J. WELCH.

BOMBUS SMITHIANUS' ALLENELLUS : A CORRECTION.

In connexion with my idsescription of this new race of Bumbla Bee from the Aran Islands published in I.N.J, for November, 1933, I have to confess to having made a slight error. There the abdomen, is described

by me as "

having the dorsal surface of the first and second segments ....

clothed entirely, or almost entirely, with black hairs, though the second

may occasionally have an, admixture of fulvous hairs on its central apical portion." I regret to find that my observation is wrong and that apparently the second segment is never entirely clothed with black hairs, but always bears some fulvous hairs on its central apical portion. Also the longer hairs

forming a fringe to the aipex of the second segment are usually fulvous and not black. These latter, however, lie over the entirely fulvous* haired

dorsal surface of the thirdi segment and: therefore do not at first appear to belong to the second segment.

National Museum, Dublin. A. W. STELFOX.

ULSTER COLEOPTEiRA.

The Laccobius ytenensis Steph. (the authority wrongly quoted as Marsh at p. 19 ante) would appear from enquiries to be a record for Ulster (Co. Antrim). Professor Balfour Browne informs me it is now known as 'L.

atrocephalus Reitter. Stenus carbonarius Gyll. One specimen got at Loughbrickland, Co.

Down, in April, apparently a record for the County. Philonthus discoideus Gr. One got in cut grass in my garden at

Belfast in September, new to County Antrim.

Orissa, Marlborough Park, Belfast. W. M. CRAWFORD.

BOTANICAL NOTES.

A NEW STATION FOR THE MAIDEN-HAIR FERN IN WEST DONEGAL.

Hart, in 'his Flora of Donegal, gives several stations for the Maiden hair Fern on the coast near Slieve League, but none of these lies to the west of that mountain. Last August I discovered a nourishing colony on the cliff face in, a little sandy bay several miles to the west of Slieve

League in an apparently unrecorded station. Here the fern grew luxuriantly just above high water mark in an extraordinarily sheltered little nook facing S.E. and thus sheltered from the noon-day sun, the heavy winter seas and the S.W. gales. Its chosen habitat was a rock face where a kind--of calcareous tufa bad formed on the non-calcareous rock surface, from the sand blown up the cliff face and turned into a tufaceous deposit by the

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