1898] THE ESKERS OF IRELAND 251 
And similar forces, I should say, were at work in the ‘esker’ 
sea, as they are at the present day in Galway Bay, and must have 
been at work on some parts of the margin of the sea in every 
geological age. Mr Kinahan makes incidental reference to the 
ridge from Co. Wexford to the Saltees. Within three miles of the 
mouth of the Corrib River, on which Galway stands, there are 
examples of what I take leave to call Chesil Bank formation in 
progress at the present hour, some to the east and some to the west 
of the outlet. 
East of the town, and separated from it by the inner bay known 
as Lough Atalia (crossed by the railway) is the promontory on which 
stands Renmore Military Barracks. Off this headland is Hare 
Island, a rather remarkable fragment of the boulder-clay drift 
which appears in cliffs just opposite and in other places around the 
Bay. At low water this island is connected with the mainland by 
a natural causeway, about half a mile in length, of so regular 
construction that it would, at first sight, appear almost as the work 
of man. At high tides this causeway or bar is covered under water 
deep enough to float a small schooner. At the land end it joins 
other ridges more of the ‘ harbour-bar’ character, running to right 
and to left along shore, and cutting off lagoons from the Bay, the 
bars being above the reach of all but the highest tides. ‘Who 
made this road ?” I asked an old man residing in the hamlet hard 
by. “The tide,” he answered; ‘the bank has grown out from 
the island, and is still growing.” The island divides the flow-tide, 
and the shingle and sand are ridged up very much as Kinahan’s 
theory lays down. More curious still is the great loop which the 
ridge makes at the island, forming a deep pond or loch of over an 
acre in extent, the surface of the enclosed water being, when I saw 
it, at ebb-tide on 24th May 1898, fully ten feet above the level of 
the surrounding waters. Near the famous Claddagh, a great bank 
of shingle has cut off many acres inshore, flooded only at high 
tides through a gap in the ‘bar. At the western end of this ridge 
there is also a fragment of boulder-clay. Again, about a mile to 
the west of the beautiful sea-side suburb, Salthill, is a conspicuous 
promontory of the boulder-clay known as Mount Gentian (now the 
Golf Links). Off this headland is another island fragment of the 
elay-drift; and this too has been joined to the shore by a long 
narrow causeway of shingle which stands clear of the highest tides, 
and may be traced for a mile in the direction of Salthill promenade, 
in the form of a ‘harbour-bar, cutting off a considerable space of 
old beach now converted into grazing ground.. 
The two marine causeways here described present some striking 
resemblance to many of the inland ridges I have seen. There is 
resemblance in contour, of slope, of proportion, of bedding; and if 
