Address to the Royal Geological Society of Ireland. 113 



that might be instanced ; in respect of this the scientific labours of 

 iJr. Lloyd contribute to vindicate her dignity and her status 

 among those other lines of research by showing that they may 

 be in their turn indebted to her for important and unlooked-for 

 suggestions and indications. 



WASTE LANDS OF IRELAND. 



The subject which I propose now to consider may perhaps be 

 regarded by some as not of a sufficiently geological characte 

 to be suitable to the present occasion ; yet when we consider that 

 it relates to the practical application of geology to a matter of 

 vital importance to the country, and that I am not only addressing 

 the members of the Koyal Geological Society of Ireland, but also 

 those of tlie Royal Dublin Society, a society one of whose 

 principal objects is the development of the resources of the country, 

 the subject of the cultivation of the Waste Lands of Ireland 

 may not appear to be so much out of place. 



The connexion between geological phenomena and agricultural 

 interests is illustrated by the fact that the boundaries of better 

 and worse land, on Griffith's Map of the Soils of Ireland, agree 

 very nearly as a general rule with the boundaries of the different 

 petrological groups. It was in consequence of this connexion 

 that the small edition of Griffith's Geological Map of Ireland was 

 issued to accompany the instructions to the land valuators, and 

 to assist them in their work. There are, however, important 

 exceptions to the just mentioned agreement between the boundaries 

 of lands of different qualities and different rock formations ; these, 

 however, illustrate in their own way the same general principle ; 

 as, for instance, where " limestone gravel " has been carried by 

 geological agencies on to granite districts, producing there what 

 would be taken for a limestone soil; or where shale or schist 

 gravels and clays have been carried over sandstone areas ; or where 

 sandstone detritus has moved on to limestone areas, producing a 

 soil inferior to that which would be derived from the local rock 

 formation. 



I wish to point out on the present occasion, as briefly as possible, 

 how a knowledge of nature's laws, as far as they come within the 

 cognizance of Geological Science, combined with the experience 



