StratigraphicaL Geology. 69 



north of this ridge the rocks dip towards the north-west at 

 about thirty degrees, but this dip is subject to many local 

 variations ; to the south-east of the ridge the dip is towards 

 the south-east. Similar rocks (lithologically) form another 

 ridge in the highlands of Donegal. These two ridges are 

 probably the results of great earth movements that took 

 place at the end of the pre-Cambrian times : since then 

 the rocks have undergone many further vicissitudes of 

 elevation and depression, as well as surface weathering. 

 The rocks, as we now find them, are mica schists and 

 gneisses, with many local variations of character ; in places, as 

 at Torr Head, bands of black calcite occur four inches thick ; 

 here also the gneiss is altered into "augen gneiss," with 

 rounded grains of quartz, the other materials seemingly 

 flowing round and enclosing the quartz grains. In other 

 places the schists are highly foliated, with an easy cleavage 

 along the flattened micaceous planes, which glisten brightly 

 on exposed surfaces. 



In the neighbourhood of Torr the rocks are much 

 faulted. In many places the beds are highly foliated and 

 contorted ; numerous veins of quartz occur traversing irregu- 

 larly the planes of foliation. Reference to the (ieological 

 Survey sheets, Nos. 8 and 14, may be made. These two sheets 

 include all the Archaean rocks exposed at the surface in this 

 district. On the west the outcrop is bounded by a long 

 fault, the position of which is closely followed for a con- 

 siderable distance by the line of the Ballycastle railway. The 

 mountain of Knocklayd, adjacent to this line on the east, is 

 crowned with a capping of basalt, which allows us to arrive 

 at a conclusion as to the downfall throw of the fault, by 

 comparing its altitude with the level of the corresponding 

 exposures on the west side of the fault. 



Near Cushendall is found another boundary of the schist 

 series. The line runs from Retreat station in Ballyemon 

 Glen to Cushendun. To the south-east of this line are found 

 the conglomerates of the Old Red Sandstone. 



The southern boundary of the outcrop pursues an irregular 

 line, along which occur Cretaceous beds capped with basalt. 

 As to the age of the series, the only conclusion that 

 can be arrived at, from local evidence alone, is, that the 



