522 eeport— 1878. 



which should probably be classed as Oligocene, and the Bovey Tracey beds of 

 Devonshire, these are almost the only deposits of Miocene age in the British Isles. 

 The contrast presented by the scarcity of deposits of this period in Britain with 

 their abundance in the north-west, centre, and south of France, Switzerland, and 

 generally in the south of Europe, is striking. Instead of thick deposits covering 

 hundreds of square miles of country, like the Miocene beds bordering the Pyrenees 

 or those of the great system of the Auvergne, we have small patches owing their 

 preservation either to volcanic outbursts having covered them up, or to some 

 favourable circumstance having preserved them from total denudation. Whether 

 we are to assume, with the late Professor Edward Forbes, that the general dearth 

 of these strata in the British Isles arose from the extent of dry land which pre- 

 vailed during the long interval between the Eocene and Pliocene periods, or whether 

 we assume the former existence of widespread marine deposits which have since 

 been entirely removed, the case is one not without difficulty. At all events, the 

 absence of representatives of this period within the Biitish area has a tendency to 

 prevent a due appreciation of the enormous extent of the Miocene period being 

 generally felt in this country. Nor, generally speaking, do we, I think, take a fair 

 estimate of the remoteness in time to which we must date back the commencement 

 of that lengthened period. Professor Haughton, judging from the maximum ob- 

 served thickness of each successive deposit, has calculated that a greater interval 

 of time now separates us from the Miocene period than that which was occupied 

 in producing all the Secondary and Tertiary strata from the Triassic to the Miocene 

 epoch, and, without endorsing the whole of my accomplished friend's conclusions, 

 I incline to concur in such an estimate. When it is considered that the Ballypalidy 

 beds of Antrim and the Lough Neagh clays are the sole representatives in Ireland 

 of two periods of such length and importance as the Miocene and Pliocene, their 

 high interest will be more apparent, and I trust that no opportunity of minutely 

 studying them will be neglected. 



There is one other point with regard to Irish geology on which it will be well to 

 say a few words, though it is of a negative rather than a positive character. I mean 

 the absence, so tar as at present known, of Palaeolithic implements in this country. 

 It is true that Professor Hull, in the book to which I am so much indebted, speaks 

 of a raised beach on the Antrim coast as containing worked flints of that rude 

 form and finish known as Paleolithic ; but this is a slip of the pen, by which the 

 author has fallen into the not uncommon error of applying a term which is merely 

 significant of the age of the implements to their external character. However 

 rude may be the workmanship of the flint implements found atKilroot, they belong 

 to the Neolithic, and not to the Palaeolithic period. So far as I am aware no example 

 of any implement belonging to the age of the mammoth, rhinoceros, and other mem- 

 bers of the post-pliocene fauna has as yet been found in Ireland. Indeed, the 

 remains of Elephas primiyenius and its associates are of exceedingly rare occurrence 

 in this country, though they have been found with those of bear and reindeer in the 

 Shandon Cave near Dungarvan. It is, of course, impossible to foretell what future 

 researches may bring to light ; but judging from analogy it seems hardly probable 

 that until ancient river-gravels containing the remains of the post-pliocene group 

 of mammals are found in this island, veritable Palaeolithic instruments will be 

 discovered. The association of the two classes of remains is so constant that we 

 may fairly assume that the animals formed the principal food of the Palaeolithic 

 hunters, and that any causes which lead to the absence of the one class will lead to 

 the absence of the other also. 



There is, however, one member of that old quaternary group which is far more 

 abundant in Ireland than it is in England or on the continent of Europe — the 

 megaceros — which has rightly received the appellation of Hibernicus. 



I hope that we may have an opportunity, under the guidance of Mr. Kichard 

 Moss, of seeing some of the remains of this " antlered monarch of the waste " in 

 the position in which they were originally interred, and it will be an interesting 

 question for consideration whether these remains can be regarded as of the same 

 geological age as those of the English caves and river-gravels, or whether they do 

 not for the most part belong to what Professor Boyd Dawkins has termed the Pre- 



