2 The Irish Naturalist. [Jan., 



Fair Head, which marks the northern point of the Antrim 

 coast ; and thence to the lovely wooded amphitheatre 

 surrounding the Ba}- of Murlough, one of the most charming 

 spots in the Kingdom ; and, on the other hand, to Whitepark 

 Bay, the sand-dunes and cliff-talus of which we searched from 

 Port Braddan to Ballintoy. The cliffs along the shore towards 

 Sheep Island and Carrick-a-Rede ; the golf-links, sand-dunes, 

 and riverside near Ballycastle, and delightful little glens on 

 the right hand of the riverside road leading towards Glenshesk, 

 and running therefrom into the high land, were all carefully 

 examined, and yielded many good things. Wherever 

 practicable, we made a point of bringing away bagsful of moss- 

 shakings and rejectamenta, &c., for future examination at 

 home, after drying and sieving. From the " pockets " of 

 windblown shells on the dunes at Whitepark Bay we obtained 

 a large quantity of exceptionally rich material. These 

 ** pockets " were found to contain an extraordinary accumu- 

 lation of minute land-shells brought down by wind and rain 

 from the herbage and bushes on the Chalk talus at foot of 

 cliffs, or maybe washed over the cliffs from above. Most of 

 the shells are " dead," and much w^orn by being blown to and 

 fro amongst the sand, but many are in good condition, and 

 some are alive — these probably live for a time upon the veget- 

 able matter and plentiful supply of rabbits' droppings blown 

 into the hollows along with them. It would require a vast 

 amount of searching in the ordinary way to gain such an 

 accurate knowledge of the molluscan fauna of a given locality 

 as is afforded by the systematic investigation of material 

 judiciously selected from such "pockets." 



The geological features of the district are extremely diversi- 

 fied and replete with interest, but an adequate description is 

 quite be3^ond the scope of this paper, and I must refer my 

 readers to Prof. G. A. J. Cole's " Scenery and Geology of County 

 Antrim," where the subject is most lucidly dealt with. I may, 

 however, notice one or two salient characters of the coastline. 

 The high basaltic cliffs are the most striking feature, but 

 here and there they are replaced by fine Chalk cliffs, bounded, 

 as at Whitepark and Murlough, by a sloping talus, the lium- 

 mocky grassy slopes of which are formed by the Chalk having 

 slipped in irregular masses over the soft Lias beds underneath. 



