TRANSACTIONS OF TIE SECTIONS. 65 
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origin is directly opposed to such a hypothesis. Still the object of the author is not 
to dispute the existence of a glacial period in his district, but simply to state his 
opinion that the conditions which the drifts exhibit must be ascribed to the effect of 
moving water, and not of ice. 
He alludes to Agassiz, as the first who applied the ice theory to the drift pheno- 
mena of the British Islands, and remarks, that it may be with the geologist as with 
the painter or the musician, in whose works, though they speak the universal lan- 
guage of genius, a national accent may still be noticed; and the ice or water theories 
may, to a great extent, owe their origin to the physical circumstances of the native 
countries of their proposers. An inhabitant of Switzerland, who has been accustomed 
to observe the vast powers of the glaciers grinding away the sides of mountains, 
scooping out their bed in the granite rock, and carrying the fragments of fallen peaks 
on the crests of their solid waves, must see that ice is indeed a great agent in geo- 
logical phenomena ; and, on the other hand, to a native of our western isles, who has 
been viewing the Atlantic from his childhood, and has seen cliffs pulled down, and 
the huge masses of their debris tossed about by the surge, the force of water will be 
considered unsurpassed. One as correctly as the other might found a theory of 
limited applicability on the great power he had been used to contemplate, but they 
would be equally wrong in giving it too great a generalization ; and the author hopes 
that, in his own opinions, he has not been unduly influenced by local associations. 
He thinks that the general contour of the country shows the existence of great 
denuding action from the east at a period anterior to the drifts; and the rise of out- 
cropping strata is generally towards the lowlands, proving them to be valleys of 
denudation, where the upheaval and disturbance of the limestone beds rendered them 
liable to be carried away. Looking south from Galway Bay, a grand illustration of 
this phenomenon may be seen, where the inclined beach terraces of ancient seas 
ascend the Burren Hills like stairs of giants; but the remark does not apply to the 
mountains west of Loch Mask and Loch Corrib. 
On certain Alterations of Level on the Sea Coast of part of the County of 
Waterford, and the cause thereof. By Dr. CLARKE. 
The author described the elevation of an ancient sea-beach on the coast of the 
_ County of Waterford, extending about two and a quarter miles, and reaching at one 
part an elevation of 60 feet. ‘The shells found in the upraised beach were exclusively 
those of Cardium edule; the elevation is believed by the author to be of later date 
than any of the other pleistocene deposits of Ireland. ‘The circumstances attending 
the formation of trap-rock at Newton Head were noticed as bearing on this pheno- 
menon, the elevation of the beach being apparently dependent on and due to the 
igneous agency which raised the dyke. 
On the Geology of the Neighbourhood of Tralee. 
By ¥. J. Foor, Geological Survey. 
This paper is descriptive of a section north and south, from Bird Island on the 
south shore of the mouth of the Shannon to the village of Castlemaine. 
The rocks seen in this section are given in a descending series, the uppermost 
being the coal-measure shales, consisting of thick beds of black shale, more or less 
_ fossiliferous, alternating with beds of olive-coloured grits, containing fragments of 
plants. ; 
___ The rocks under these are those of the carboniferous limestone, which may be 
divided into three parts, upper, middle, and lower. 
The upper limestone in this district varies from a light grey compact to a dark grey 
~ erystalline limestone, abounding in fossils. 
The middle portion is a thin bed, only a few feet thick, being a shaly impure lime- 
stone, representing the calp. 
The lower member is chiefly a light gray hard compact rock, abounding in fossils. 
The thickness of the limestone is very difficult to ascertain, partly because the 
limestone is often very thick-bedded, and partly that the great amount of drift in the 
(1857. 5 
