272 DRIFT AND BOULDERS IN IRELAND. CHAP. XIV. 



rein-deer, horse, &c., were found in a cave ; * another in the 

 centre of the island near Belturbet, in the county of Cavan. 



Perhaps the conversion into land of the bed of the glacial 

 sea, and the immigration into the newly upheaved region of 

 the elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus, which coexisted 

 with the fabricators of the St. Acheul flint hatchets, were 

 events which preceded in time the elevation of the Irish 

 drift, and the union of that island with England. Ireland 

 may have continued for a longer time in the state of an 

 archipelago, and was therefore for a much shorter time 

 inhabited by the large extinct post-pliocene pachyderms. 



In one of the reports of the geological survey of Ireland, 

 published in 1859, Professor Jukes, in explanation of sheet 

 184 of the maps, alludes to beds of sand and gravel, and signs 

 of the polishing and furrowing of the rocks in the counties 

 of Kerry and Killarney, as high as 2,500 feet above the sea, 

 and supposes (perhaps with good reason) that the land was 

 depressed even to that extent. He observes that above that 

 elevation (2,500 feet) the rocks are rough, and not smoothed, 

 as if by ice. Some of the drift was traced as high as 1,500 feet, 

 the highest hills there exceeding 3,400 feet. Mr. Jukes, how 

 ever, is by no means inclined to insist on submergence to 

 the extent of 2,500 feet, as he is aware that ice, like that 

 now prevailing in Greenland, might explain most, if not 

 all, the appearances of glaciation in the highest regions. 



Although the course taken by the Irish erratics in general 

 is such that their transportation seems to have been due to 

 floating ice or coast-ice, yet some granite blocks have 

 travelled from south to north, as recorded by Sir E. Griffiths, 

 namely, those of the Ox Mountains in Sligo ; a fact from 

 which Mr. Jamieson infers that those mountains formed at 

 one time a centre of dispersion. In the same part of Ireland, 



* E. Brenan and Dr. Carte, Dublin, 1859. 



