1 78 The hish Naturalist, September, 



angular fragments of the local rocks, with some of the more 

 flaky boulders, as Kinahan observed, resting not hori- 

 zontally, but on their ends. Near Wexford town, along the 

 northern shore of the Slaney estuary, a little to the N.W. 

 of the new wooden bridge, good sections showing the suc- 

 cession of the three drifts are exposed. Here the marl may 

 be seen resting on the rock-floor, and overlying it several 

 feet of shelly gravel containing flints, jasper, coal, &c., the 

 latter drift being capped by an Upper Boulder-clay of 

 about 6 feet in thickness. Farther inland, at Little Clonard, 

 and at the Deeps, near Killurin, the same succession can be 

 traced. 



The marl with its numerous glaciated boulders is un- 

 doubtedly Lower Boulder-clay, differing from the com- 

 moner type of Lower Boulder-clay drift in consisting mainly 

 of material swept inland by the ice from the sea-bottom, 

 instead of having been derived from the unassorted products 

 of weathering accumulated on a pre-giacial land-surface. 

 This deposit really represents the englacial moraine of the 

 Irish Sea ice-sheet which invaded this portion of the Wexford 

 area from the north-east. 



As the general ice -sheet faded away, a portion of the 

 superficial layers of the " marl " were subjected to washing 

 and re -arrangement by waters from the melting glacier. 

 The finer material was thus washed away and the residual 

 coarser elements were rolled and concentrated by the 

 torrential currents from the melting ice. The sands and 

 gravels thus formed are obviously the equivalents of the 

 Middle Sands and Gravels described from other localities. 



When the great ice -cap disappeared from this region, a 

 local glacier, having its gathering-ground in the highlands 

 of the Leinster Chain, was at length enabled to establish 

 for itself an independent drainage, and to bring along with 

 it local material which it finally deposited on the surface of 

 the " marls " and gravels to form the Upper Boulder-clay 

 of the district. 



To account for the presence of Pliocene shells in the 

 Wexford drifts is somewhat difficult, but it is not un- 

 reasonable to suppose that they are derived fossils brought 



