0\ THE BASALTIC COUNTRY IN IRELAND. £55 



The removed parts of the limestone stratum on thereat 

 side of our area have shared the same fate : for where the 

 'iiiiin of mountains extending from Magiiitgan Rock to 

 Bienbraddock is interrupted by the vallies at Stradreagh, 

 Urumrommer, and Ballyncs&,\t is obvious that the limestone 

 stratum was onee continuous to the high points where it 

 shows itself on Keady y and the mountains on each side;.' its 

 thickness too, wherever we can try it, is very great ; yetthis 

 stratum, which in its entire state must have spread like a 

 Toof far above the present surface of these valSies (which 

 are now sunk deep into the schistose substratum) has not 

 left a particle of its debris behind, nor is a single lump of 

 white limestone to be found, until we come to the quarries, 

 that is, to the edge of the solid, untouched stratum. 



Conclusions. 



The conclusions that unavoidably follow, from the consi- General infer* 

 deration of these facts, are, ences. 



That the hills and mountains, in the district I have been 

 describing, were not raised up or formed as they now stand, 

 but that they are the undisturbed remains of strata that 

 were left behind, when stupendous operations carried away 

 the parts that were once contiguous to them. 



That the inequalities of this surface were all produced 

 by euuses acting from above, and carrying off whatever they 

 touched, without in the least disturbing what was left be- 

 hind. 



Additional Evidences, Basaltic Hammocks*. 



The arguments on which I have founded my opinions Additional 

 have hitherto been alt taken from the hollows in our surface, evidence in th« 

 and the interruptions in our strata, both which the conco- mock*. 

 mitant circumstances have led me to consider as so many 

 excavations; but the lofty elevations, and the abrupt pro- 

 minencies rising suddir.gly from our surface, when minutely 

 examined, lead u^ irresistibly to the very same conclusion. 



When you aud I examined together the line of our 

 northern facades, we studiously sought for the points where 



* Navigators use the word hummock to express circular and elevated 

 mount?, appearing at a distance; i -adopt the term from them. 



nature 



