ON THE 'MANURE GRAVELS OF WEXFORD. 133 



Second Report of the Committee, consisting of Mr. E. Etheridge, 

 Dr. H. Woodward, and Mr. A. Bell {Secretary), appointed 

 for the purpose of reporting upon the ' Manure ' Gravels of 

 Wexford. {Draiun up by Mr. A. Bell.) 



Note. — In the following I'eport it bas been endeavoured to trace the 

 nature, limits, and contents of, first, the so-called ' manure ' gravels, their 

 mode of occurrence and geological position ; secondly, that of the sea- 

 coast marls ; and thirdly, the relations in v^^hich these stand to the drift 

 deposits south of Dublin with which they have been correlated. 



The fossils obtained have been transferred to the Geological Depart- 

 ment, British Museum. 



Nature of Ground. 



Before entering upon the main purpose of this report a few words 

 descriptive of the ground upon which the Wexford deposits rest may be 

 desirable. 



The bed-rocks of the district consist of purple conglomerates, slates, 

 and sandstones of Cambrian and Cambro- Silurian age metamorphosed 

 by the intrusion of vast masses of quartz rock into schists and felsites 

 of varying hardness, and forming considerable elevations, upon whose 

 summits the quartz stands out in precipitous masses. These elevations 

 rise from the shore of the Slaney river, forming the ridge, upon part of 

 whose seaward face Wexford city is built, to about 300 feet, and then 

 descend rapidly before rising again to produce the Forth Mountain, a 

 ridge extending 3 to 4 miles N.E. to S.W., with a height of 690 feet. A 

 ridge of Palseozoic rocks also continued across the present Slaney valley to 

 the north before the drainage of this part of Ireland was altered by the 

 breaking down of a portion of it at Ferry Carrig, by Fitzstephen's Castle, 

 forming the gorge of the modern Slaney river. 



Between the Wexford and Wicklow Railway and the sea the ground 

 rises into high hills and ranges, with occasional bog-lands at foot. Gneiss 

 and granite are present at the extreme S.E. at Carnsore Point, and black 

 calp limestones at Driuagh, near Wexford. 



The later deposits of Wexford fall into three divisions, viz., (1) the 

 so-called ' manure ' gravel series ; (2) marls and clays ; (3) an illusory or 

 fictitious drift. The first of these occur onlij on the landward side of the 

 elevations and hills just referred to; the second on their seaward faces and 

 cover in part the previous gravels ; the third is forming wherever the 

 bed-rock is exposed to atmospheric influences. 



(i) The 'Manure^ Gravel Series. 



These consist in ascending order of fine sands passing up into a com- 

 minuted shell gravel covered by a debris of, for the most part, local rocks. 

 Of these the sands are lowest and most persistent, appearing in the banks 

 of the Slaney river, which has cut through them since their deposition. 

 In a sandpit near St. Peter's College, Wexford, various igneous rocks, as 

 quartz and granite, are present on the floor ; but as in the side of the pit 



