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stone gravel, is similar to that which forms the bed of the 

 Shannon at all the other fords over which bridges have 

 been erected, as at Banagher, Shannon Bridge, Athlone, &c., 

 and these gravel banks in most cases are in connexion with, 

 and in fact form a part of those low, but steep, ridges or 

 liills, composed of clay and rolled limestone, which occur so 

 abundantly in the King's, Queen's County, and the counties 

 of Westmeath and Longford, on the east side of the river, and 

 in the counties of Clare, Galway, and Roscommon, on the west. 

 These gravel ridges, or eskers, as they are generally called, 

 usually affect an east and west, or north-west and south-east 

 direction, and consequently cross the river Shannon, whose 

 direction between Athlone and Killaloe is north-east, south- 

 west, nearly at right angles ; hence the fords, which, particu- 

 larly at Athlone, Shannon Bridge, &c., are merely gaps cut 

 through the eskers by the action of the water, run directly 

 • across the river, and present shallow, having deep ponds of 

 water on either side, so that when the falls are not consider- 

 able, as at the fords of Banagher, Shannon Bridge, &c., 

 the excavation of the bed of the river at the ford will bring 

 the water on both sides to a level, and there will still remain 

 amj^le depth above for the purposes of navigation. 



But to return to Keelogue, I have already mentioned 

 that the upper part of the excavation consisted of two feet 

 of loose stones, gravel, and sand, and the lower part of four 

 feet of a very compact mass, composed of indurated clay and 

 rolled limestone. In excavating in the loose material of 

 which the upper two feet was composed, the labourers found 

 in the shallowest part of the ford, a considerable number of 

 ancient arms, consisting of bronze swords, spears, &c., in 

 excellent preservation, which are similar to those whicii have 

 been frequently discovered in other parts of Ireland; and to- 

 wards the lower part of the upper two feet they discovered a 

 great number of stone hatchets, also similar in many respects 

 to those which have been so frequently met with in different 



