pullished respecting Antrim, Derry,^c. 267 



have lately been gratificH, through the kindness of G. B. 

 Greenoiigh, Esq. the able President of the Geological So- 

 ciety of London, who at the same tin)e lent tne some notes 

 made by hin)self, when in the country S of Lough Ntagh, 

 in the last vear, wiih the Rev. Dr. William Hamilton Driim- 

 mond's poem "The Giant's Causeway" (having a copious 

 Preface and Notes on the Mineralogy of Antrim) and the 

 Rev, Richard Barton's Lectures on Natural Philosophy, 

 giving many particulars r)f the shores of Lough Neagh. I 

 lament that I have not seen the Kev. G. Vaughan Samp- 

 son's Statistical Survey of Londonderry or Derry County*, 

 or the Surveys (>f Tyrone, Armagh or Down, or read any 

 connected account of their Strata; only the incidental cir- 

 cumstances, noted in the works and paper above mentioned, 

 except the sliiiht account of the DruntgLass Coal Strata 

 given bv Mr. Whitehurst in his •' Inquiry concerning the 

 Earth,"' 2nd Edit. p. 24fi, and which are quite insufficient 

 to prove l/ie identi/7/ or otherwise, of the Coal-measures near 

 the SW corner of Lough Neagh and those at the NE corner 

 of Antrim, and of Ireland? which to me appears a question 

 of considerable importance, and I have hopes, that by 

 stating some facts from the above sources, and conjectures 

 of my own founded thereon, as to this point, I may obtain 

 from Dr. Richardson or others of your Geological Readers, 

 the further facts necessary for confirming or correcting 

 what I am about to offer on this head ; as well as on an- 

 other scarcely less important, viz. Whether the Coal-mea- 

 sures at the NE corner of Antrim vnder-Ue or over-lie the 

 great Basaltic Seriesf which occupies the surface of great 

 part of that County ? a jwint which I lament to find Mr. 

 W. rather obscure upon, who after speaking of the Basaltic 

 Sea Cliffs, ranging from the west and finally terminating 

 upon a stratum of white Limestone at Ballycastle, says. 

 Inquiry, p. 259, " and where a new arrangement of strata 



* Who, I am told, intend? to make a Snlion across Antrim and Derry, 

 and continue it across the other Counties to the Western Coast of the 

 Island. 



•f Dr. W. H. Drummond dispatches this part of his description of the 

 NE extremity of Antrim, in the manner of too many Wernerians, by saying, 

 p. xiv. " at Murloch the jjrnnUive stratii are seen dipping to the NW in an 

 angle of ;ib.jut 45°. Freestone occurs here between the strata of Trap," 

 antl adds, " The Ba'-ahic loimation which is here renewed, atiains its highest 

 elevation at Fairhead, rising in proud inHgnificence nfer ahernate strata of 

 freestone and Coal, and thence gradually sloping down to the strand of 

 Ballycastle." Dr. R. speaUiirg of this same spot says, at Murlogh '■ the 

 precipice is composed of alternate strata of freeftaiie and Co.it, inserted be- 

 tween mighty strata of columnar Basalt." Appendix 81 : and says nothing 

 of the jinmilwe strata of Dr. D. ! 



S 2 commences 



