Associated Hocks South of Wexford. 495 



bands striking to the west-south-west, and respectively consisting, 

 taking them from south to north, of (1) granite, (2) metamorphic 

 schist, and (3) unaltered Ordovician. This arrangement, if accepted, 

 would seem to lend some support to Mr. Kinahan's opinion of a 

 gradual passage between the granite and the Ordovician, or, accord- 

 ing to his more recent view, Cambrian. But the three unbroken 

 strips of colour do not truly represent the facts. It would be more 

 correct to describe the district as a mosaic of irregular fragments. 

 The ground is scored with faults, some of them so close together 

 that, within an acre, at least three formations sometimes crop to the 

 surface. The broken nature of the district is, indeed, recognized by 

 Mr. Kinahan in the " Survey Memoir," and in his " Geology of 

 Ireland ; " but he nevertheless maintains that there is a passage 

 between the metamorphic and the unaltered rocks, though no clear 

 case of transition is recorded in his works, and all the facts I 

 observed in the field were inconsistent with such a supposition. 

 But some details must be given. 



Carnsore Granite. — There are two points to be considered here. 

 First, is the rock metamorphic or igneous ? Mr. Kinahan affirms 

 that it is metamorphic, with igneous intrusions. Of the former 

 point I' could find no proof. I searched the coast section from 

 Carnsore Point to the most northerly limit of the granite band, as 

 indicated on the map, and could detect no trace of anything but 

 undoubted igneous granite. I examined the ground for some 

 distance inland, and searched dozens of stone walls, but the result 

 was the same. The rock is perfectly crystalline, and is, indeed, 

 porphyritic, large prisms of felspar being tliickly scattered through 

 the matrix. If metamorphic granite occurs in mass, it is singular 

 that in so limited an area it should be so difficult of detection, 

 especially as I searched all the localities in which Mr. Kinahan 

 states that foliation occurs. There is, however, plenty of parallel 

 jointing, which may have been taken for bedding. 



Second, does the Carnsore granite pass into the schistose band ? 

 Of this no proof is even adduced. No sections are given or localities 

 named. We have nothing but the general statement that the granite 

 graduates through schist and "submetamorphic" rocks into unaltered 

 Cainbrian. Very few exposures occur near the line of junction, but 

 I found, about 200 yards north of the line, south-east of Lady's 

 Well, a thin-bedded dark gneiss with garnets, a rock which certainly 

 bore no signs of a character intermediate between porphyritic granite 

 and the schists of the second band. Indeed, this gneiss is far less 

 granitoid than some beds which occur much further from the granite. 

 The granite of the Saltee Islands, which I did not examine, is also 

 said to be metamorphic, but, as it lies several miles south of the 

 second or schistose zone, it is obvious that it is of no use for our 

 purpose. 



Metamorphic Band. — This zone is about one mile wide, striking 

 west-south-west to Crossfarnoge Point. The rock is typically a 

 greenish chloritic gneiss, spotted with grains of felspar. It some- 

 times varies into chlorite schist, and is often interfoliated with 



