126 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



on the " Map" as calp, is of the Coal series. Every variety of sandstone, 

 ironstone, shale, and fossil to be met with in it is identical with a variety 

 to be seen in some or all of the coal-fields of Leinster, Munster, and Con- 

 naught. 



The fourth Calp district shown on the " Map" is in the county of Gal- 

 way. A straight line fromBanagher to Monivea would pass nearly through 

 the middle of it. This district occupies nearly 500 square miles. It is, 

 like Dublin, low and flat, and mostly covered with drift. The substra- 

 tum of the soil is formed mostly of strong clayey gravel, with pebbles 

 of limestone. There is much bog, which lies on similar drift, in this 

 district. Like that near Dublin, there is no section anywhere showing 

 that any limestone overlies the black shale. In Galway it is the same 

 as in Dublin — the base of the Coal series. 



The question may naturally be asked here, — Is there any chance of 

 finding coal in Galway ? No one can answer this. While the Calp held its 

 sway in the country, this idea could not be entertained ; but if this myth 

 should give way, men would begin to think about it. We find in Tip- 

 perary, about Fethard and Cashel, detached patches of the base of the 

 coal shales, left on hills or on high grounds, where the limestone attains 

 a good elevation, and it appears that on those high grounds denudation 

 has swept away the greater part of those shales, but not the whole, as 

 the Killenaule coal district, on high ground, still remains to testify. The 

 land of the black shale in Galway is for the greater part in a low posi- 

 tion, and now covered over with bog. It may have had more shelter 

 or a greater depth of sea over it at the time the denuding agency was in 

 operation, which would leave it less exposed to the action of that agency 

 than the hills about Cashel, and, therefore, a chance that a considerable 

 thickness of the strata may remain untouched, — thus affording grounds 

 to suppose that coal may be found in Galway, in a low country at least, 

 as well as at Killenaule on a high one. 



I have thus noticed the four principal Calp districts, and shown, 

 according to my interpretation, how they ought to be apportioned on the 

 " Geological Map," or at least an approximation to it. 



In addition to the objections already urged, it may be stated that 

 there are many clear and satisfactory sections across the whole of the 

 limestone in Ireland, from the Old Red Sandstone at its base to the coal 

 shales above it, in which there is no trace of calp. I shall enumerate a 

 few of the localities where those sections occur. 



1. In the county of Clare, on the parallel of Corofin, the Old Red 

 Sandstone occurs on the west side oftheDerrybrian mountains; proceeding 

 westwards from those mountains, the limestone is surmounted by the 

 coal shales near Corofin. Here the succession is clear, the dip constant 

 to the west, and the rock visible, indeed quite bare of drift in most part 

 of the section, and there is no calp. 



2. A similar section occurs near Ennis, some miles farther south, in 

 which there is no calp. 



3. In Limerick, from the Old Red Sandstone at Knockaderry, to the 

 coal shales near Ardagh, there is no calp. In this part there appears 



