30" 1 he Irish Naturalist, . [Feb., 



many persons. I happen to have been peculiarly well circum- 

 stanced for being impressed thereby. In the years 1834-5 

 my family was living at Beechwood, near the S-B. end of 

 Rochestown Avenue, at the foot of Rochestown Hill, 

 the most southward of the three Killiney Hills. The 

 ground from Beechwood on towards Ballybrack was thickly 

 sprinkled with granite boulders, large and small. This was 

 so on both sides of the road to Ballybrack ; although some 

 clearance was going on on the lower or westward side of the 

 road. The speckled appearance of the district, owing to the 

 contrast between the dark green furze and the light grey 

 boulders, was very striking ; and there can be no doubt that it 

 was this which gave name to the locality — " Ballybrack " 

 meaning the " speckled place." There is another place of 

 the same name a few miles off, viz. : the upward, north-west- 

 ward continuation of Glencullen behind the mass of the Three 

 Rock Mountain. It doubtless received the same name for the 

 same reason ; although the speckling is not there so strongly 

 marked, being somewhat obscured by the heather and the 

 peaty covering of the ground. Thirty-two years ago, although 

 the fields on the lower, or westward side of the first-mentioned 

 Ballybrack road, were perfectly cleared of boulders, a most 

 interesting relic of the former state of things was preserved 

 in a belt of plantation, near Kilbogget Farm, which is on a 

 way or passage from near Cabinteely to the said Ballybrack 

 road. That plantation had been made before the clearance 

 of the land, and the contrast between the boulder-encumbered 

 ground within it and the smooth fields on each side was most 

 striking and interesting. I fondly hoped that, as the boulders 

 were out of the way of the plough, they would remain there 

 as a memorial of the past ; but, on visiting the place a few 

 days before reading this paper, I was greatly disappointed to 

 find that they had been taken away for building purposes. No 

 signs of them now remain except the hollows showing where 

 the larger or more deeply sunk ones stood. I happened to 

 meet Mr. MacCormick, who now occupies the farm ; he was 

 fully aware of the former state of the ground about there, 

 though it was before his time. 



^- Mr. O. H. Kinahan, of the Geological Survey, corroborates 

 what I have said as to this locality, and 3peaks also of his own 



