Ainsworth*s Caves of Ballyhuniaru 287 



of that island; and we should have been much pleased to 

 find, in the present volume, such a clear description of the 

 district in which the caves are situated, as might be intelli- 

 gible to the general reader; and the scientific details in ac- 

 cordance with the present state of geology. That our author 

 has failed in these respects is, we think, rather owing to the 

 want of proper arrangement, than of ability. There appears 

 a desire of display, by a parade of new names, " to amaze 

 the unlearned, and make the learned stare;" while the ex- 

 ploded terms " geognosy," and " geognostic," are still re- 

 tained, and the reader left in doubt whether he is among 

 strata equivalent to the lias and alum slate of England, or to 

 slates and limestones of the transition series, or whether the 

 older and newer strata are here in juxtaposition. Only one 

 fossil is named to elucidate the subject. From the form in 

 which the book is published, and the woodcuts that accom- 

 pany it, the author evidently intended the work to be popular. 

 To have insured this, the physical structure and scenery 

 should have been under one head ; the geology under another ; 

 and the mineralogy and natural history under a third : in 

 place of which arrangement, the parts are so intermixed as 

 to prevent the reader from obtaining a clear connected notion 

 either of the parts or of the whole. 



The caves of Ballybunian are excavations in the cliffs, 

 formed by the action of water impelled by winds and tides 

 into fissures, or excavating softer portions of strata in the 

 cliffs. These caves, arches, and excavations are not of great 

 magnitude, when compared with those in Scotland and the 

 Hebrides, but they present many grotesque forms, and are 

 well represented in the woodcuts in the present small volume. 

 From the nearly horizontal form of the stratification, as re- 

 presented in the cuts, and the description of the alum slate, 

 and from its spontaneous combustion, we should rather have 

 inferred that the strata belong to the lias group, than to the 

 soft slates of the transition series ; but the mineral characters 

 of the limestones identify them with the mountain limestone 

 so extensively spread over many of the Irish counties. The 

 principal metallic substances are iron pyrites and copper 

 pyrites. The latter mineral is, however, so much intermixed 

 with extraneous matter as to offer little prospect of its being 

 advantageously worked. Our author says that " the rich- 

 ness of the ore at Ballybunian, the abundance of the veins, 

 and the facilities of working them, from their geognostic 

 position and association, do not hold out any sanguine hopes 

 of their ever being turned to very lucrative purposes." From 

 the former part of this sentence, the reader would have in- 



