F. R. Cowper Reed—The Coast of Waterford. 503 
few or no stones overlies it with a thickness of 1-13 feet, as on the 
south side of the headland. At the spot where the fossiliferous 
Raheen Shales are exposed on the foreshore the recent removal of 
shingle and slipped material from the base of the cliffs which has been 
obscured in former years has exposed in section the pre-glacial 
platform and the deposits immediately overlying it. This platform 
is cut across the edges of the steeply-inclined Ordovician beds 
elsewhere described, and its surface forms a fairly regular and 
horizontal line in the face of the cliff about 3 feet above its base. 
The height of this rock-platform above the present high-water mark 
seems only 3-4 feet, and its upper 1-13 feet is somewhat shattered 
and rotten, though the line of demarcation from the drift deposits is 
always sharp and clear. In one place a small stream running down to 
the present seashore has cut a narrow gully through the Boulder-clay, 
but its vertical corrosion has been stopped by the pre-glacial platform 
so that it falls over its eroded edge in the cliff in a small waterfall. 
There is a layer of angular débris here and there resting on the 
platform, composed of small angular fragments of the underlying 
rock, but in several places bedded sandy fine shingle or sand with 
larger well-rolled beach pebbles in it is found to a thickness of 2 feet. 
The Boulder-clay rests directly on it, and contains near its base a few 
large rounded or subangular boulders (some as much as 3 feet in 
diameter) of the local Old Red Sandstone or local igneous rocks, but 
no true Lower Head. Probably the absence of the Lower Head may 
be explained by the fact that the pre-glacial cliff lies now some 
distance inland and that the Head did not extend far out from its 
foot, while here we are dealing with the more seaward portion of the 
platform. In most cases the Boulder-clay rests here immediately on 
the solid rock without any intervening deposit. The activity of post- 
glacial coastal erosion at this point and the non-resistant character of 
the rocks are illustrated by the solid rock of the old pre-glacial 
platform being cut back as rapidly as the drift cliffs, so that they are 
both exposed in section in one and the same vertical face. But where 
the rocks are of a tougher nature traces of the old platform extend 
over the foreshore as irregular ridges and reefs of rock. 
On the north side of Raheen stream, which has cut down right 
through the platform to the present sea-level, there is an excellent 
exposure of the platform, for it forms a flat-topped shelf several yards 
wide jutting out on the foreshore at the base of the present cliffs of 
drift, and has not been so much eroded or dissected as a little further 
south. It is here cut across the edges of the nearly vertical slates 
and flags, almost at right angles to their strike, and its level surface 
has 2-8 feet of coarse angular débris (Lower Head) of the same 
rocks resting upon it and capped by the usual Boulder-clay. 
About half-way between the gap at Raheen Bridge and the gully of 
Carey’s Stream we find a true beach deposit on the platform in the 
shape of well-rounded pebbles cemented together in a little coarse sand. 
The Boulder-clay reposing directly on these deposits is of a reddish 
colour and marly character, and contains few stones; it averages 
2-8 feet in thickness, but generally it passes up into the normal type 
of Boulder-clay except from the spot where this beach deposit occurs. 
