1909. Cole. — A Late Glacial Clay at Templeogue. 233 



Dublin district. The torrents descending from the mountains 

 during the melting of the ice were usual!}' strong enough to 

 carry even pebbles beyond the present coast-line.^ The con- 

 torted clay exposed by the flood of 1905 on the north bank of 

 the Cookstown River between Bnniskerry and Fassaroe^ was 

 distinctly stratified, and may point to a more considerable 

 deposit than has been yet revealed. In this case the stratified 

 clay is overlain by the great mass of ordinary boulder-clay 

 that forms the Fassaroe plateau. The occurrence now to be 

 described is very limited, but seems of sufficient interest to be 

 recorded. 



In August, 1909, the construction of a drain for new 

 labourers' cottages led to the cutting of a deep trench through 

 and along the main road in the village of Templeogue. The 

 ground underlying the road-metal had probably not been 

 exposed for some centuries, though old cross-drains may be 

 seen in it here and there. North-west of the road, boulder-clay 

 has been observed, and the fine sections cut by the Dodder in 

 this material lie close against it on the south-east. On the 

 course of the road, however, the recent excavations showed 

 that boulder-clay extended from the north-east only as far up 

 the village as the north end of the tramway station — a point 

 where there is a gap in the houses on the north-west side. A 

 stiff blue-black clay was then met with, overlying the boulder- 

 clay, with occasional interstratified seams of a more sandy 

 nature. The section revealed it in places to a depth of five 

 feet below the ancient road-metal. About two hundred yards 

 farther up the village the deposit becomes much more sand}-, 

 with gravelly layers overlying it. The sandy beds contain 

 small lumps of clay, doubtless washed from the underlying 

 material, and these have become coated with the yellow sand. 

 Stratification is apparent in the sands, and layers of clay are 

 occasionally intercalated. In the almost pure clay of the 

 north-eastern and lower part of the section, very delicate 

 lamination occurs, indicative of times when the gentle flow of 

 water brought down alternately fine clay and clay mingled 

 with a little sand. 



^ Lamplugh, " Memoir on the Country around Dublin," 1903, p. 51 ; on 

 stratified clay, see p. 39. 

 2 British Association Handbook to Dublin District, 1908, p. 37. 



