G. H. Kinahan — yEolian Drift. 155 



II. — ^OLiAN Drift or Blowing Sand, Ireland. 

 By G. H. Kinahan, M.E.I.A., etc., etc. 



I IS" many parts of the world large accumulations of blowing sand 

 exist, either on the sea-board or inland. When inland it usually 

 is composed for the most part of silicious particles ; but when in the 

 neighbourhood of the sea, it is more or less mixed with shells, corals, 

 etc. ; moreover, it may merge into shell-sand, a highly calcareous 

 Drift, formed of the debris of shells, coral, madrepore, and other 

 marine organic remains. 



Accumulations of ^olian Drift, such as the sands of the Sahara, 

 seem to be of marine origin, being old sea basins, while others may 

 be due to meteoric abrasion, frost, heat, wind, etc. disintegrating 

 finely arenaceous and other rocks, and thereby forming sands ; ^ 

 nevertheless other accumulations seem to be glacier-formed. These 

 quartziferous JSolian sands in Ireland are locally known as Bloioing 

 sand or Babhit sand, and large deposits occur in various places, being 

 most conspicuous when found near the sea, where they form dreary, 

 undulating, ever-changing wastes. 



On a casual examination, these sands would appear to be of recent 

 formation, containing as they do numerous recent land and marine 

 shells, and as is often the case in places overlying recent peat- 

 bogs. These facts, nevertheless, may not prove their age, and un- 

 doubtedly not their origin. The wind, more especially in exposed 

 situations, drifts them, on account of their loose and frail nature, 

 hither and thither, by which means they may submerge peat-bogs, 

 and as they are a favourite resort for all kinds of land snails, every 

 gust of wind must bury hundreds of the latter. Moreover, if they 

 are on the sea-board, during low water thousands of marine shells 

 will be blown up among them, as may be seen by any observer who, 

 braving the cutting shower of sand, traverses them during a gale of 

 wind. 



As they are ever changing their position, it is evident that they have 

 only recently assumed the forms we now find ; however, their origin 

 may not be so very recent, and that they are as old as the Moraine drift 

 would seem to be suggested by the position in which they are found.'^ 

 They seem only to occur at or in the vicinity of the mouths of valleys, 

 and the larger and more extensive the valley the greater the ac- 

 cumulation. Moreover, in all these valleys there appear to have 

 been at one time systems of glacier. Thus on the west coast they 

 occur north of the mouth of the Killaries, the fiord that divides the 

 Counties of Mayo and Galway ; also a little south of the Killaries at 

 the mouth of the valley of the Culfin river ; on Omey Island and 

 the mainland thereabouts, being immediately north and south of the 

 mouth of the fiord called Streamstown Bay ; further southward, 

 north and south of the mouth of Mannin Bay. There are large 

 deposits in the neighbourhood of Slyne Head, on the Aran Islands, 



1 Agassiz and others have noted vast thicknesses of Meteoric Drift in parts of Brazil. 



2 Only localities of which the writer has personal knowledge are mentioned in these 

 notes. 



