66 The Irish Naturalist. 



And so on I might quote from his descriptions of two 

 hundred and seventy-one specimens. The point I wish 

 specially to note in those I have quoted is, that \\\^y are part 

 wood and part stone. Dr. Barton then describes minutely 

 the locality — Ahaness, half a mile south of the mouth of the 

 Glenavy river — where he found the petrifactions in the greatest 

 abundance, remarking quaintly that: — 



"This place seeming to be the forge where these materials receive part 

 of their form deserves a particular and accurate description ; because 

 future reasoning concerning these productions must in a great measure 

 depend upon it." 



: After a description of the surroundings, he says that : — 



"Upon digging a pit in this place (of which there are several made), 

 the upper stratum of matter is red clay, three feet deep ; the second 

 stratum is stiff blue clay, four feet deep ; the third stratum is a black 

 wood lying in flakes, four feet deep ; the next stratum is clay, etc." 



In 1837, Dr. Scouler, of Dublin, was commissioned to ex- 

 amine these deposits of clay and lignite, and did so most 

 systematically, engaging men to bore and otherwise excavate 

 for examples. The results of this survey is given in the 

 Jourjial of the Geological Society of Irela7id, and the beds were 

 in his opinion stated to be of Tertiary age,' and he further 

 adds that " to Barton therefore is due the merit of being first 

 to ascertain the relation of the Silicified Wood to the Lignites." 



Griffith wrote fully on these clays and lignites, and pointed 

 out the probability of silicified wood found in the drift as 

 having been derived from these beds.^ 



Portlock, in 18.43, states — "In respect to the connection of 

 the Basalts and Silicified Wood more evidence is necessary."3 



Two early members of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, 

 in 1869, read a valuable joint paper before the Geological 

 Society of London, on the *' Iron Ores associated with the 

 Basalts of the North-east of Ireland." The iron nodules with 

 plant-remains, found on the lough shores, are referred to, and 

 considered identical in age with the then only known leaf- 

 beds of Ballypallady, and all are grouped as of Miocene age. 



(to BB CONCIvUDKD.) 



^ Dublin Geological Journal, vol. i., part 3. 



^ Griffith — Second Report of Railway Commission, p. 22, 



^ Keport of the Geology of Londonderry, 1843, page 76. 



