1 8 The Irish Naturalist. 



about twenty-three feet high, standing on the beach opposite 

 Cultra Point, a mile north-east of Holywood, It formed part of 

 a windmill pump, which was erected, I am informed by Mr. 

 John lycnnox, in 1824 or 1825, to remove the water from an 

 old quarry. The upright standard above the much decayed 

 suction-pipe of the pump still remains, with a loose iron rod 

 attached to a small handle at the top. Although fifty feet 

 distant from present high water-mark, and surrounded by 

 the sea to a depth of three feet at high tide, this old pump 

 (Plate i) marks the centre of a sandstone quarry, opened in 

 what was formerly known as the Point Field. 



An inhabitant of Holywood, Mr. William Nimick, who re- 

 members the locality since 1829, informs me that the sea was 

 at that time fifty feet distant from the centre of the quarry, 

 and that the fields, through which a broad carriage drive 

 passed to Cultra Quay, and in which he saw numerous tents 

 pitched, and large crowds of spectators assembled, to watch 

 one of the celebrated regattas' of the Northern Yacht Club, 

 have now completely disappeared. He estimates that about 

 five acres of land have since been washed away between 

 Cultra Point and Cultra Pier."" 



Disintegrated by the action of rain, frost, and other sub- 

 aerial agents, portion after portion ofthe low cliffs have slipped 

 down, an easy prey to the warfare of wave and current ; the 

 destruction of the land being still further aided by the re- 

 moval of sand and gravel from the beach below. And now, at 

 ebb tide, instead of the vanished fields, we see low denuded reefs 

 that carry us back through vistas of time immeasurably vast. 



Here in this one small bay we find represented each great 

 division of the geological record. Shales that carry us back 

 to the Palaeozoic era, and recall the gradual submergence 

 of the Devonian continent, beneath the waters of the Carboni- 

 ferous ocean ; sandstones that bring us to the Mesozoic era 

 and restore for us the vast Triassic lakes ; dykes that link us 

 with the great basaltic sheets of Tertiary time, and covering 

 the low surrounding cliffs, drift deposits that bring us to Post- 

 Tertiary periods and gradually forward to the time we are 

 considering. ^^^ ^^ conci^ude^d.) 



iThe Belfast Regatta of 1829 lasted for nine days — See "The Belfast 

 Newsletter," June igtli, 1S29, and following Nos. 



''The extremities of Cultra Bay, scarcely a quarter of a mile distant 

 from each other. 



