I RE LAND. 



273 



Sututirt depths on it are from 45 to TO fathoms ; the ground 

 > < consists chit-fly of pebbles and broken shells. It is a 

 great fishing bank, and abounds in cod, hake, ling, 

 bream, skate, whitings, red gurnet, &c. The sand 

 banks, or grounds, as they are called, between Dublin 

 and Wexford, have been already shortly adverted to. 

 They are very extensive, but not winding as grounds of 

 this description usually are, but running in a straight 

 line N.X.E. and S.S.W., being far short from the land 

 with their north end ; as they go to the south, thty 

 come nearer the land. Near the Tusker rock, two 

 leagues E.X.E. from Carnsore point, where they termi- 

 nate, they are not much more than 2 miles distant from 

 the land ; whereas the distance between the north end, 

 near the island of Dalkey, at the entrance of Dublin 

 bay, and the land, is above eight miles. They are all 

 of stony ground, in some places but one fathom deep ; 

 but, at the north end, two fathoms and a half, or three 

 fathoms ; the channel between these grounds and the 

 land is deep all over. The ground of the Irish Sea, 

 generally speaking, u well in the middle as under the 

 land, is almost every where clear sand ; in some places 

 black and muddy -earth ; in very few places, rough and 

 sharp ; and scarcely any where, but in the bay of Wick- 

 low, so bard that the anchors cannot take hold of it. On 

 the west side of Ireland the tide flows against the land, 

 and the ebb falls back from it into the sea ; the flood 

 tide going from, and the ebb towards the west. Hence 

 the tides on this coast are often very strong and high. 

 not only on the open shores, but in the bays and in- 

 lets. On the ether tide of Ireland the tide ebbs and 

 flows along the land. On the north side, the tides ran 

 in the same direction as on the west side ; that is, the 

 flood from the west, and the ebb toward* it. Rut upon 

 the east side, from Fairbead to Carlingford, the flood 

 comes from, and the ebb fall* to the north ; from t'ar- 

 unjrford to Carasore it flows from the south, and ebbs 

 from the north. For though, on all this side, the flood 

 tuns Jong the land, yet not beginning from the same, 

 but from opposite points, the two floods coming, the 

 eoe out of the main sea in the north, and the other out 

 of the main sea hi the south, the two meet and stop 

 each other before Carlingford haven. From the Tusker 

 rock and Carnsore as far as to Cape Clear, being the 

 whole south-east coast of the province of Munnter, the 

 flood falls along the coau E. N. E. and the ebb W. S. W. 

 bat upon the rest of the coast of Munster beyond Cape 

 dear to the westward, which coast lies west and by 

 south, the flood flows eastward, and the ebb falls to the 

 west. In the entrance to the channel or haven of 

 Wexford. the tide ebbs and flows three hours sooner 

 than without in the open sea ; so that when it is high 

 water in the entrance to the haven and upon the bar of 

 Wexford, the flood is still running by it to the north 

 for the space of three boon ; the effect of which is, 

 that the end of the great sand which lies jutt before the 

 haven of Wexford is cast up more and more to the north, 

 and the channel on the north side of that sand, which 

 is the entrance of the haven, i* more open to the north 

 than it was formerly. 



GHAP. It 



Soil of Ireland Bngi Foretli Climate Bottmy 

 Zoology Mimtrobgy Mineral Waltrt. 



M! f In, - I T it extremely difficult to give a clear, definite, and 

 accurate idea of the nature and properties of the toil, 



TOL. XII. PART I. 



even of a farm consisting of a few hundred acres ; for, Staii^ 

 in the first place, very different ideas are affixed by dif- """"Y" 1 

 ferent people to the terms by which the various kinds 

 of soils are designated. The fanner in Norfolk, for in- 

 stance, when describing what he deems a clay soil, has 

 reference to a very different kind of soil from that which 

 the Suffolk farmer means by the same term ; the lat- 

 ter, accustomed to soils of the most tenacious and stub- 

 born clay, would deem the soil to which the Norfolk 

 farmer gives that appellation only a loam, or, at most, 

 a clay /y loam. But, in the second place, in most tracts 

 of land, even of a few thousand acres, there are not on- 

 ly a grrat wiety of soils, but the passage from one 

 kind of soil tu another is often so sudden and extreme, 

 that no one appellation will properly designate the soil 

 even of a single field. 



The first of these difficulties applies, but only in a 

 slight degree, to any attempt to describe the soil of Ire- 

 land ; the second scarcely applies at all ; for if there be 

 one circumstance by which the soil of this country is dis 

 tinguished from the soil of most other countries, and 

 especially from the soil of England or Scotland, with 

 which we should most naturally compare it, it i;, that 

 the soil of Ireland is nearly uniform throughout the 

 whole of that kingdom. We do not by this mean, that 

 there are not varieties of the particular genus of soil, 

 which does prevail in Ireland ; but that, with very few 

 exceptions, there is only one genui of soil over the 

 whole country. In order, therefore, to give as accurate 

 and clear account of the soil of Ireland as we can, in a 

 few words, we shall, in the first place, describe it ne- 

 gatively, and then point out the soils that actually pre- 

 vail in it. 



There is no day soil in Ireland ; by that term we 

 mean such clays as are found in Oxfordshire, in some 

 parts of Essex, throughout high Suffolk, in some parts 

 of Sorry, &c. ; or, in other words, soils of uncommon 

 strength, stubbornesf, tenacity, and retentiveness. Ge- 

 nerally speaking, there is no sandy soil, such as is met 

 with in Low Suffolk, near Godalmuir, in Surry, &c. 

 and there is no chalky soils, such as abound in Surry, 

 Sussex, Hampshire, Wiltshire, &c. Gravelly soils, either 

 such as prevail in some parts of Middlesex, consisting 

 of yellow gravel, evidently tinged with the oxide of iron,. 

 or such as consist of uncoloured gravel, and are, in 

 Scotland, called sharp soils, are seldom or never met 

 with in Ireland. 



Having thus pointed out the kind of soil which are 

 not at all, or scarcely found in Ireland, we shall next 

 describe the kind of wit that prevails over the country. 

 It may be aptly described as a loam ; this is the genus, 

 but there are many varieties. Though there is no clay 

 soil in Ireland, there is in some places, especially in the 

 county of Tyrone, clayey loam so strong as to make 

 good bricks. The loams, however, most prevalent over 

 the whole island, are of a lighter nature ; they are fer- 

 tile, not merely on account of their component parts, 

 but also because they, for the most part, rest on a calca- 

 reous basis, and are, in fact, mixed up with limestone 

 rabble. One of the most striking features is the shal- 

 lowness of the soil of Ireland ; in many places the rocks 

 appearing on the surface, or at no great depth, even in 

 the most flat and fertile parts, as Limeric, Tippcrary, 

 and Mcath. Such is the nature of the soil of Ireland, 

 generally speaking, a fertile loam, with a rocky sub- 

 stratum. 



The extent of this rich soil is not very considerable Loss*. 

 in the hilly part of Ireland ; though, even amidst the 

 rocky and dreary mountains of Donegal, the soil of the 

 Sal 



