504 Prof. Cole & T. Hallissy—The Wexford Gravels. 



rubble, which probably represents the ' head ' on the pre-glacial 

 rock-platform whicb has been noted in this locality.' The sands and 

 gravels appear in these cliffs as a coarse gravelly bed near the surface, 

 and in places the loam is represented by a few feet of soil at the top. 

 Some lenses of fine sand were also noted interstratified with the 

 ' marl ', and the latter sometimes shows a very delicate lamination, 

 like that referred to by Sollas & Praej^er ^ as the ' tea-leaf ' type. 



The same succession of drifts that has been observed in the sections 

 already described prevails also in the low cliffs along the southern 

 coast from Kilmore eastwards. A section similar to that of Crosstown 

 is exposed at Bastardstown, where the ' marl ', the base of which is 

 not seen, underlies some 15-20 feet of stratified shelly sands and 

 gravels, and another section at Ballygrangans exhibits the same 

 stratigraphical succession. In both these cases Kinahan ^ has 

 described the basal drift as glacialoid. Both the ' marl ' and gravels, 

 like those described from other localities, contain, besides fragmental 

 shells, coal, flint, chert, glaciated limestone boulders, etc., and they 

 normally underlie about 5-7 feet of non-calcareous loamy boulder- 

 clay. The ' marl ' is seen to thin out gradually towards the west, 

 and it disappears locally at Kilmore. 



A very interesting section was noted in the cli:ffs at !N'emestown, 

 west of St. Patrick's Bridge, near Kilmore, in which the following 

 succession occurs : — 



6. Non-calcareous gravelly loam 



5. Gravel ..... 



4. 'Marl' . . . . . 



3. Ferruginous stratified clay . 



2. Brownish stratified clay 



1. Greenish sandy loam, the base of whicli is not seen 



5 feet. 

 9 inches. 

 5 feet. 



5 inches. 



6 inches. 

 2 feet. 



The greenish sandy loam, which we may call the ' Nemestown 

 Loam ', underlies the marl along this part of the coast ; it is sharply 

 differentiated from the superincumbent ' marl ', and appears to have 

 undergone denudation before the latter was deposited. Kinahan * 

 supposed the Nemestown Loam to be glauconitic in character and 

 similar to the Greensand associated with the English Chalk. A 

 microscopic examination, however, shows that the green colour of 

 the deposit is due, not to the presence of glauconite, but to that of 

 chlorite, which is probably derived from the altered Palaeozoic rock 

 (gneiss and slate) on which it rests. The material contains angular 

 fragments of the local rock, lying at all angles in it, and quartz 

 pebbles, possibly derived from Old Red Sandstone, and may represent 

 a pocket of the pre-glacial soil that remained undisturbed by the 

 passage of the great glacier from which the 'marl' was deposited. 

 In the eastern part of Nemestown Strand, the Nemestown Loam and 

 the chocolate marl above it are alike overfolded, no doubt by the 



^ W. B. Wright & H. B. Muff (now Maufe), " The pre-Glacial Kaised 

 Beach of the South Coast of Ireland": Proc. Eoy. Dublin Soc, vol. x, 

 1904, p. 300. 



^ Irish Naturalist, 1895, p. 321. 



^ Mem. to Sheets 169, etc., 1879, p. 47. 



* Mem. to Sheets 169, etc., p. 43. 



