CHAP. xiv. OOLITIC CONGLOMERATE. 203 



shells ; chalk flints ; a piece of petrified greenish marl, 

 with a small organism on its surface. He was occupied 

 a long day in exploring the clay, but the result was 

 comparatively nil. 



" As I was going along by the side of the stream," 

 said he, "a large boulder of oolitic conglomerate pre- 

 sented itself to my delighted vision. It had evidently 

 been washed out of the clay by the slow undermining of 

 a mossy rill, and there it lay, all unnoticed, telling its 

 own pathetic tale to the gnats and midges which were 

 dancing over it. 



" I had uniformly met with pieces of oolitic strata in 

 these cliffs of boulder clay, but this piece far exceeded 

 all that I had previously encountered. It was like a large 

 snowball, such as boys roll together in winter. It con- 

 tained a great abundance of broken shells, and broken 

 Belemnites not a few. I hammered at it a long time 

 until fairly wearied. Then I left it, and in a section ot 

 boulder clay beside it I found broken shells of Cyprina, 

 and one stout Turritella terebra" 



He next went across the county to Strathbeg Water. 

 " There are conical mounds," he says, " of granitic debris 

 all along its south side. I ascended to the top of one 

 of them, and looked along the Strath. As far as I could 

 see, the mounds stretched almost continuously, like the 

 ruins of some ancient Eoman dyke; and they spoke 

 emphatically of contending seas in times long gone by. 



"I waded Strathbeg "Water knee-deep, thinking of 

 poor Mungo Park fording the tributaries of the Niger 

 in the deserts of Africa. Ah ! true. But then it wa* 



