
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 53 
whole rocks doubled (from 3000 to 6000) between Cork and Kinsale, a distance of 
20 miles, the slope of the bottom would not amount to 2° or 35 in 1000, or 184 feet 
(30 fathoms) in a mile. 
On the Permian Fossils of Cultra. By Professor WM. Kine, Queen’s Coll., 
Galway. 
Before noticing the fossils*, Prof. King made a few observations on the rocks form- 
ing the Permian system of the north of England. This system is so called from an 
extensive division of the Russian empire bearing the name of Perm, and situated on 
the western flanks of the Ural mountains. The name was originally proposed by Sir 
Roderick Murchison, who was the first to show that the rocks occurring in that 
region are of the same age as certain magnesian and fossiliferous deposits largely 
developed in thé county of Durham. The name ‘ Permian’ has consequently been 
applied to the last-named deposits, and on the same grounds it must also be applied 
to corresponding rocks wherever they may exist. The Professor proceeded to prove 
that the remarkable patch of magnesian limestone occurring at Cultra, on the shore 
of Belfast Lough, is a member of the Permian system, the fossils it contains being 
identical with the Schizodus Schlotheimi, Pleurophorus costatus, Bakevellia antiqua, 
and other species common to the Permian rocks of England and Germany. 
On the Mines of Copiapo. By Colonel Lioyp. 

Report on Crag Formations and Coprolites. In a Letter from Mr. Lone. 

On the Fossiliferous Beds of the Counties of Antrim and Down. 
By James MacApaw, F.G.S. 
These beds were described in descending order. The town of Belfast is in a great 
measure placed upon deposits of sand and silt that have been formed in the estuaries 
of the rivers Lagan and Blackstaff. Great quantities of shells have been found in 
these beds, and a list of them was laid before Section D, at the present meeting of the 
Association, by Mr. John Grainger. They are all of species now existing, but some 
are not found at the present time living in the bay. These shells occur at levels, 
none of which seem to exceed that of present high water. Beds of shells, however, 
are found at various elevations. At the Kinnegar of Holywood, four miles down 
Belfast Lough, beds of shells similar to the above occur at elevations from 10 to 20 
feet; and on the opposite side of the bay, below Carrickfergus, a shell-bed occurs in 
a like position. On both sides of the bay other beds may be observed from 60 to 80 
. feet above the water with similar contents; and they are found also at some distance 
inland, up the valley of the Lagan, and in the valley running from Beltast to Comber. 
In the latter valley there is a branch of the County Down Railway, and during its 
formation many shells were obtained from the cuttings. It is also worthy of being 
recorded, that in a cutting near Comber rolled lias and chalk fossils were found, the 
nearest beds containing such fossils being behind Belfast, and at a distance of ten 
miles. Beds still more remarkable occur at elevations from 100 to 150 feet. One of 
these, at the Belfast Water-works, on the Antrim side, was examined by Messrs. 
Hyndman and Bryce in 1842, and an account of it was copied into the Appendix to 
Col. Portlock’s ‘ Geological Report on Londonderry.’ Another bed, precisely similar, 
was discovered by Mr. MacAdam in 1850, at the Knock on the Down side. The 
most abundant shell in it is the Nucula oblonga, and the deposit may be perhaps con- 
sidered as belonging to the newer pleiocene. Some years ago, Mr. Smith, of Jordan 
Hill, described a shell-bed occurring at Port Rush, ont he northern coast of Antrim ; 
it occurs at an elevation of 10 feet, and contains a great variety of recent marine 
shells mixed with some land ones; a list of them is printed in Portlock’s ‘ Report.’ 
In Belfast Lough there are deposits of submerged wood, in one of which, near 
Carrickfergus, hazel-nuts have been obtained, having their kernels replaced by car- 
bonate of lime: this fact had been remarked by the late Dr. M‘Donnell, and a note 
of it is entered in the 4th volume of the Geological Transactions. Throughout the 
_* The Cultra fossils were noticed by Dr. Griffith in a paper read at the Cork Meeting of 
the British Association (vide Report Brit. Assoc., 1843, part 2. pp.45 and 46). 
