ii4 Ma >*» 



NOTES. 



GEOLOGY. 

 Erosion at Newcastle, Co. Down. 



Eight }-ears ago I drew attention to the encroachment of the sea on 

 the north-west coast of County Down, as shown by the position of an 

 old windmill pump, near Cultra (ZrisA A r at., vol. ii., Nos. ] and 2, 1893). 

 It was then surrounded by the sea at high tide, but in 1825 it marked the 

 centre of a quarry of Triassic sandstone. The greater part of this old 

 landmark was blown down in the great storm of December, 1S94, and 

 only seven feet of the old shaft now remains. The same county furnishes 

 on its south-eastern coast another very small but interesting landmark 

 bearing testimon}' to considerable erosion. 



As the tide recedes at Newcastle a band of wrack-covered stones about 

 a hundred feet wide, locally known as the Black Island, comes into view. 

 It is about four hundred feet long, and extends from opposite the 

 Constabulary Barracks to within three hundred feet of the ruined 

 harbour. This band of stones, I have been assured by more than one of 

 the oldest inhabitants of Newcastle, marks the position of laud on 

 which houses and gardens stood a century ago, with a sea-embankment 

 in front. The stump of a thorn tree, two feet high, and nearly a foot in 

 diameter, still remains, a solitary landmark, to recall for us the gardens 

 of the past. Its distance from the present sea-wall is 350 feet. Fairly 

 clear when seen more than a } r ear ago, it is at present so covered with 

 sea-wrack as to be barely distinguishable from the surrounding boulders. 

 The first inroad of the sea is said to have been so sudden that a child 

 was washed away in his cradle, but was afterwards happily recovered 

 uninjured. The site of a house 120 feet from the present sea-wall has 

 also been pointed out to me, and its position is confirmed by an old map 

 of Newcastle, dated 1814, which shows houses on the sea side of the road, 

 near the Black Island, but not so far out. I am indebted to Mr. Moore 

 Garrett for above information regarding the map. 



At low tide two semicircles of stones can be traced on either side of the 

 projecting point of contorted Ordovician, known as Black Rock, but 

 these are connected with former fisheries, and are quite distinct from 

 Black Island. Round the north and north-west coasts of Dundrum Bay, 

 the terrace of raised sea-beach shows evidence that the land has been 

 upraised in recent geological time, but the sea is again asserting its 

 power, and before it levels the old thorn stump I thought a note of its 

 position in Dundrum Bay might prove of geological interest. 



Mary K. Andrews. 

 Belfast. 



