ON FOSSILS OBTAINED AT KILTORKAN QUARRY. 73 



On Fossils obtained at Kiltorkan Quarry, Co. Kilkenny. 

 By Wm. Hellier Baily, F.L.S., F.G.S. 



This celebrated fossil locality, in the Upper Old Eed Sandstone, is situated 

 between Kilkenny and Waterford, about six miles south of Thomastown and 

 a mile south-east of BaUyhalc, ou a ridge of Old-Red-Sandstone hills rising 

 gently from beneath the Carbonifcroiis Limestone plain to heights of from 400 

 to 500 feet above the sea-level, and sometimes to even 800 feet, as near the 

 boundary of the parishes of Derrynahinch and Jerpoint West. 



This quarry has been visited from time to time by private individuals, by 

 the representatives of scientific societies in Dublin, and by the officers of the 

 Geological Survey of Ireland, on all which occasions it has furnished some 

 most interesting fossils, remarkable for their preservation and beauty, each 

 time yielding specimens either new to science or such as would assist in 

 elucidating those already collected. 



At the meeting of this Association in N'orwich last year, I advocated the 

 importance of further excavations at this place, and applied for a grant of 

 .£40 towards that object ; £20 was, however, the only amount voted. I felt 

 some hesitation in accepting this sum in consequence of its insufficiency to 

 carry out the extent of excavation I had intended ; and had I not been aided 

 by the Geological Survey, it would have been comparatively useless to attempt 

 reopening this quarry with the sum placed at my disposal. 



I did, however, proceed there last month, accompanied by an efficient and 

 zealous assistant, Mr. A. M'Henry, and pro\ided with tools, such as bars 

 and picks, for excavating with vigour. We were engaged for a fortnight, 

 working most laboriously ; and fortimately we had very favourable weather, 

 except that it was extremely hot in this exposed situation for the heavy 

 work we were occupied upon. 



We engaged the services of two men, who ably assisted in removing the 

 superficial soil and unproductive strata to the depth of about four or five feet, 

 which was carted away at once ; and we calculated that the total quantity 

 removed in this manner and excavated by us amounted to at least 200 loads 

 of stone and rubbish. 



The character of the beds beneath this superficial covering, a fine-grained 

 greenish sandstone, admitted of great facility in working, splitting up into 

 layers, sometimes of large size ; occasionally, however, it is much cut up by 

 joints and small dislocations, which prevents its being worked so readily. 

 Some of the surfaces of these layers are covered by plant-remains ; and when 

 first opened the fossils are most beautifully exhibited, as, from the dampness 

 of the stone, their darker colour makes them appear very conspicuoiisly. 



The following is an enumeration of the fossil plants observed : — 



Falceopteris Hihernica, originally named by Prof. Edward Forbes Cyclo- 

 pteris Hihernica, then referred to Acliantites by Brongniart, and now placed 

 by Prof. Schimper in his genus Falceopteris, the name signifying ancient fern, 

 in allusion to the antiquity of its type and its first appearance with the most 

 ancient terrestrial vegetables known, before the commencement of the Coal 

 period*, that celebrated author on fossil plants observing that it differs 

 from Cychpteris in the arrangement of its leaflets &c., and from Adiantides 

 (Adiantites) in its mode of fructification. 



Two other ferns have been collected from this place ; they are, however, 

 of less frequent occurrence. One of these has already been brought before 

 the notice of the members of this Association, and described by me as SpJte- 

 nopteris Hooheri; the other, an undescribed species, I propose to name 



* Traits de Paleontologie V^getale &c., par W. Ph. Schimper. Paris, 1869. 



