The Raised Beaches of Inishowett 2S5 



decomposed shell-fragments ; further up this glen are sands 

 and gravels at 100 to 150 feet above the sea, with contorted 

 bedding, and without shells. These deposits are probably of 

 glacial age, and the shelly gravel in Kinnagoe Bay may belong 

 to the same horizon. Some miles of wild heathery moors and 

 slopes were next crossed, with the sea far below on the left, 

 and Inishowen Head was reached. This also is a very 

 picturesque spot ; a grand cliff overhangs the bay to the north 

 of the signal-station, and there is a very extensive view of 

 L<ough Foyle, the I^ondonderry and Antrim coasts, and the 

 Scottish Islands. From the lighthouse to Greencastle there 

 is a rather sandy flat at about 25 feet above high water, with 

 bare projecting rocks here and there ; it extends in a broad 

 belt along the shore, the ground rising abruptly behind it, 

 and it is evidentl}^ an old foreshore. According to the Geo- 

 logical Survey there is a raised beach with many shells here, 

 I could find no sections, and the surface-fauna, w^hich is some- 

 what abundant, is not to be relied on, owing to sea-weed 

 being used as manure ; but Mytilus edtdis, Tapes mrgineus^ T 

 aureus, Vemis cxoleta, Cardium edule, Patella, Buccinum, and 

 Purpzu^a appeared to be i7t situ. 



It was late when I passed the ruin from which Greencastle 

 derives its name, but I stopped to examine the grand old pile, 

 which must have been a place of immense strength in its day ; 

 and then pushed on in the twilight to Moville. Next morning 

 the early steamer took me up I^ough Foyle, past Culmore, the 

 scene of my first ramble, and up the river to the " Maiden 

 City." 



I find that I have written the following memorandum at the 

 end of the notes which I took in the field: — the Inishowen raised 

 beaches differ from those of the east coast in their greater 

 average height above the sea, their.coarse and unfossiliferous 

 nature, and their occurrence as sea-terraces rather than as 

 bottom-accumulations ; the greater rise of tide, and the greater 

 exposure (and consequent much greater height of waves) will 

 probably account for these differences. 



