812 SoLLAS — A Map to show the Distribution of Eskers in Ireland. 



A railway-cutting, east of the town of Mo3'drum, affords a good section through 

 one of the eskers of this chain ; beds of gravel and sand with seams of hard 

 clay are exjjosed; oblique lamination is common, and the beds are cm-ved, 

 contorted, and faulted. 



ii. The Seven Churches chain (Clonmacnois). — This chain (fig. 4), which is 

 over 43 miles long, maintains throughout its course a general west-to-east trend. 

 It is fairly continuous, though one large gap, nearly 4 miles long, breaks through 

 it 2\ miles west of Clara. It runs transversely across the valley of the Shannon, 

 and thus lies on lower ground in the middle part of its course than at either end. 

 The main chain may be subdivided as follows : — 



1. Ballinasloe chain, with the Cloonigny tributary. 



2. Seven Churches chain, with the Clonmacnois loop. 



On the west of the system a confused cluster of eskers, which cannot be 

 reduced to order, occur over a considerable tract of country, about the watershed 

 of the tributaries to the Suck and the Dooyertha river. A definite chain first 

 appears about 6^ miles west of Ballinasloe. This is the commencement of — 



1. The Ballinasloe chain. — This, after running east to Ballinasloe (fig. 4), curves 

 gently to the south-east, crosses the valley of the Suck, passes near Oldtown, 

 and then, curving slightly northward, ends in the callows of the Shannon without 

 coming into direct connection with the Seven Churches chain. 



A tributary chain, that of Cloonigny, rises some 5^ miles west by north 

 of Ballinasloe, near the village of Cloonigny ; a continuation of this on the west 

 and north may be found in the eskers of Doon and Annagh. 



2. The Seven Churches chain. — North and south of the village of Aughrim, about 

 5 miles W.S.W. of Ballinasloe (fig. 4), several eskers converge towards a west-to- 

 east chain, which runs almost parallel to that of Ballinasloe. 



This is the Seven Churches chain ; it runs for a gi'eat distance almost due east, 

 crosses the Suck, traverses the great bogs which lie between this river and the 

 Shannon, affording almost the only dry land of this district, crosses the Shannon, 

 and soon afterwards turns somewhat sharply north-eastwards to Seven Churches. 

 From Seven Churches it again runs eastwards, and for some distance the chain 

 becomes double, consisting of two parallel members — a northern, over which runs 

 " The Pilgrim's Road," and a southern, which may be called the Clonmacnois loop. 



It is a remarkable fact, first pointed out by Mr. F. J. Foot, that the breach in 

 the Seven Churches chain, through which the river Shannon flows, is only just 

 large enough for the passage of this river ; attention is called by Mr. J. O'Kelly 

 to a similar feature in the Newtown-Loe chain, where the river Brosna passes 

 through it, and again in the Ballyduff chain, where this is traversed by the 

 Silver river. 



