SOUTH-WEST IRELAND. 175 



between the coal measures and the Old Eed Sandstone. 

 Even if there are limestones, it is scarcely possible 

 to deny that a great fault, with a downthrow to the 

 northward, exists here, which can be traced from Dingle 

 Bay on the west, past Mallow towards Mitchelstown, 

 while a branch (pointed out in chap. vii. p. 101) seems to 

 run to Dungarvan. In this line of country are situated 

 the valley of the Glenflesk River and the major part 

 of the valley of the Blackwater ; consequently neither 

 of these valleys can be said to be unconnected with 

 faults. To the south of this line of fault all the rocks 

 are twisted and folded, sometimes the folds being even 

 inverted ; while north of it, except in its immediate 

 vicinity, the rocks usually lie in gentle synclinal and 

 anticlinal curves. Running across this great east-and- 

 west fault are others that have a northward-and-south- 

 ward direction. These in places shift the main east- 

 and-west valley and the other nearly parallel valleys ; 

 therefore, it is not unreasonable to suppose that these 

 cross-faults were formed after the valleys. These, then, 

 are movements which have more or less affected the 

 present surface of the ground. Furthermore, when 

 we know that the surface of the sea has been at least 

 350 feet higher, relatively, than at present since 

 the great glacial period, and afterwards has had at 

 least one or two changes of level, it seems highly 

 probable that there should have been some relative 

 movement among the different beds of rocks, more 



