74 Guide to Belfast. 



in which these pebbles occur is highly silicious ; the whole 

 mass, after consolidation, has been subject to considerable 

 crushing and shearing ; the hard quartz blocks often are 

 found split into several slices. So thoroughly does the 

 matrix cement the various materials, that, in the face of the 

 shear plane, the fracture passes through the quartz block 

 rather than dislodges it out of the matrix. The strata are 

 much broken and displaced by small faults and dislocations, 

 on the face of which these features can be clearly seen. 

 In the exposures of this rock near Cushendall, the rock 

 is less coarse in the character of its contained blocks, and 

 a greater percentage of pebbles of quartz porphyry occurs. 

 Still further to the south, in Ballyemon Glen, the rocks 

 become more sandy; good sections of the beds can be seen 

 in the stream to the north of Retreat station, and at this 

 point their relations to the underlying and overlying beds 

 can be well observed. The general strike of the beds is 

 N.E. and S.W., and the dip varies from 30 to 60 degrees 

 south-east, according as the dip has been modified by local 

 dislocations. 



Carboniferous System. 



Lower Carboniferous Sandstone. — Rocks of this age 

 are found exposed in the neighbourhood of Ballycastle, in 

 the north of Antrim, where the series is represented by 

 thick sandstones, shales, coal seams, thin limestones, and 

 ironstones. In character, the rocks of this district differ 

 from the Lower Carboniferous series in the central plain 

 of Ireland, and have been correlated with those of the 

 west of Scotland; their appearance has also been likened 

 to the colliery of Burdie House, near Edinburgh. On 

 this account they have been referred to as Calciferous 

 Sandstone. Professor Hull states: "The series in County 

 Antrim belongs, in all probability, in part to those of the 

 'Upper Calciferous,' the 'Carboniferous Limestone,' and 

 the 'Yoredale' stages of Scotland and the North of England; 

 and amongst the points of analogy are the occurrence of thick 

 beds of red and yellow sandstones, of black band ironstone, 

 and of earthy limestone in thin beds, containing marine 

 fossils. These beds, only a few feet in thickness, are the 



