1012. HalUssy. — Superficial Deposits of Co. Wexford. 177 



stage of East Britain. Bell regarded the "marl" as a 

 newer deposit than the manure gravels, and agreed with 

 Kinahan in supposing it to have been deposited in a post- 

 glacial sea. Like Kinahan, he recognised an overlying 

 drift which he termed an " illusory or fictitious " drift. 



Taking up a different attitude from the previously 

 mentioned observers. Professor Hull saw in the "marl" 

 with its striated boulders a drift deposit equivalent to the 

 Lower Boulder-clay of other parts of the country. He 

 likewise regarded the manure gravels as equivalent to the 

 Middle Glacial Sands and Gravels, and the overlying drift as 

 an Upper Boulder-clay due to a second glaciation.^ With 

 Professor Hull's conclusions, the writer, from his personal 

 observations, finds himself in complete accord. At various 

 points throughout the area the true succession of the drifts 

 can be plainly seen. On the shore at Greenore Point, 

 about 60 feet of "marl" may be observed resting on 

 glaciated rock with w^ell-marked striae bearing N. 47° E. 

 All along the coast near Rosslare and to the south of Greenore 

 Point, equally good sections of "marl " were noted, either 

 resting on the rock-floor or on a few feet of local rubble 

 representing the " head " on the pre -glacial rock-platform 

 which occurs in this locality. Some lens-shaped beds of 

 fine sand were noted in these sections, and the marl some- 

 times exhibits the tea-leaf type of stratification. On the 

 southern coast of Wexford occur similar marl chffs, but of 

 less vertical dimensions. The marly drift diminishes on 

 the w^est towards Kilmore, where it is seen to thin out and 

 disappear. 



The cliff-sections on the southern shore exhibit also the 

 true stratigraphical relations of the various drifts. At 

 Bastardstown, 15 to 20 feet of stratified shelly sands and 

 gravels rest on the " marl," and a similar succession is 

 shown at other points along this coast, as at Ballygrangans 

 to the west of the former locahty. These deposits are nor- 

 mally overlain by about 5 to 7 feet of drift containing many 



1 " Physical Geology of Ireland " (1878), p. 84. P. F. Kendall and R. 

 G. Bell have also regarded the Wexford Gravels as Glacial ('' On 

 i liocene Beds of St. Erth," Q. Joiirn. Geol. Soc. London, vol. xlii. 

 (1886), p. 201). 



