236 The Irish Naturalist. 



THE RECENT IRISH GLACIERS. 



BY G. H. KINAHAN, M.R.I. A, 



The title of this communication may not possibly be strictly 

 correct ; however, the ice or frozen snow accumulations, to be 

 mentioned hereafter, have already been called by the Rev. 

 M. H. Close in his publications " corrie glaciers " ; it therefore 

 may be allowable for me to similarly classify them ; also 

 similar snow accumulations in British Columbia along the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway are called glaciers. The latter how- 

 ever are permanent, lasting from year to year, while those in 

 Ireland disappear in the summer. 



When examining the west Cork hills some forty years ago, 

 there were in the different cooms and valleys peculiar ac- 

 cumulations evidently in some way due to ice or its adjuncts. 

 It is probable that, at that time, in my ignorance, a wrong origin 

 was suggested, as it was supposed that they belonged to the 

 Glacial period ; while knowledge since gained would seem 

 to prove that these terminal moraines may possibly be 

 accumulating at the present day, similar to those that can 

 be occularly proved in the Cos. Galway, Mayo, and Wicklow ; 

 possibly also in other hill districts ; but the above counties 

 are specially mentioned, as this phenomenon has been studied 

 in them. 



Chance led to the study of these glaciers in Galway and 

 Mayo. When stationed one winter in Connemara we were 

 snowed up for nearly three weeks, and as our supply came 

 from Galway, all fresh meat had to be procured by the gun in 

 the hills. 



Previously to this there had been observed peculiar stacks 

 of blocks, such as that in Glen Inagh, that rose in the centre 

 of the valley 30 or 40 feet high ; also in places on a slope 

 below a cliff, part of the pasture would be more or less 

 thickly sprinkled over with stones. If you asked what 

 brought them there you were told they were " cloghsnatty " 

 or " snow stones," but at the time the reason for the name 

 I could not understand, not knowing Irish, and my man not 

 being able to properly explain in English. 



However, shooting in the Connemara Hills, during the big 

 snow, explained all. In the cooms and under the high 



