574 Geological Society. 
the foot of which Argostoli is built, nowhere exceeds 400 feet in 
height, sloping gradually towards the sea, and is surrounded by com- 
paratively shallow water. The whole of the ridge consists apparently 
of coarse limestone, presenting on the surface large, detached blocks. 
Col. Brown’s account of the excavation agrees with those already 
given. He notices the springs of fresh water, and the fact, that when 
the sluice is first shut the pool is drained to a much lower level than 
that at which it afterwards stands, and this phenomenon he conceives 
may be explained on the principle of natural siphons. 
He says that there are three other openings on opposite sides of 
the promontory, through which sea-water flows into the land, and he 
is of opinion that there may be many more. 
With respect to the question what becomes of the water, Col. Brown 
has always believed that the streams are conducted to subterranean 
fires, and that the earthquakes so common in the island are caused 
by the expansion of the gases generated by the action of those fires 
on the sea water. 
A notice accompanying rock specimens from the caves of Bally- 
bunian, on the coast of Kerry, by Lieut. Col. W. H. Sykes, F.G.S., 
was then read. 
The author states that his principal object in bringing this commu- 
nication before the Society is to induce geologists to examine a part 
of Ireland seldom visited, but which he conceives to be highly deserv- 
ing of attention. 
The coast of Kerry, in the neighbourhood of Ballybunion, presents 
a series of cliffs varying from 100 to 150 feet in height, and is in- 
dented by numerous bays. The stratification consists of several feet 
of debris, composed of angular fragments of silicious rocks and earth ; 
a bed of alum shale follows, breaking into rhombs; then a stratum 
of lignite or carbonaceous schist, and another of iron shale. These 
strata are occasionally repeated, and said, on the authority of Mr. 
Ainsworth, to rest on limestone. 
A principal feature in these beds is a disposition to separate into 
rhombs; and the clifls in several places present the solid angles pro- 
jecting beyond the vertical line of the cliffs, while the roof of some 
of the caves is groined like the intersection of Gothic arches. The 
general inclination of the strata is about 13° to the east, but it 
is frequently altered by faults, and sometimes presents anticlinal 
dips. 
‘Or the exact age of the beds the author offers no opinion, but he 
thinks that it is not posterior to the carboniferous series. 
Among the specimens which accompanied the memoir were some 
from the west end of the Isle of Innisfallen, in the Lake of Killarney. 
The strata at that point consist of narrow vertical and alternating 
ridges of asilicious rock and limestone : the former projecting beyond 
the surface of the latter. 
A paper was last read, entitled, “ An Account of some fossil vege- 
table Remains found in the sandstone which underlies the lowest bed 
of the carboniferous Limestone, near Ballisadiere, in the County of 
Sligo, Ireland,” by Sir Alexander Crichton, M.D., F.GS., &c. 
