156 G. H. Kinahan — JEolian Drift. 



and a little south of Black Head, whicli places are respectively north, 

 opposite and south of the mouth of Gal way Bay ; south of the mouth 

 of the Shannon ; also towards the east end of Dingle Bay, in the 

 neighbourhood of Castlemaine Harbour, at the mouth of the Larne 

 Eiver ; at Yalentia Harbour, on Beginish and the mainland, at 

 the mouth of the valley of the Cahersiveen Eiver ; also at Ballin- 

 skelligs Bay, north of the mouth of the valley of the Eiver Inny. 

 The foregoing localities are on the sea-board, but deposits will 

 also occur inland, as, for instance, large accumulations of " Eabbit 

 sand" are found banked against the south slopes of the Clare hills, 

 that lie north-west of the town of Limerick, being north of the 

 mouth of the valley of the Shannon ; also in the neighbourhood of 

 Killonan, a station on the Limerick and Waterford Eailway, opposite 

 Glencoloo, the valley that separates Slieve Kimalta from the Silver- 

 mines hill ; and in the neighbourhood of Birdhill and Kilmastulla, 

 opposite the valley that divides the Silvermines hill form the Arra 

 mountains. 



As all these deposits of ^Eolian Drift occur near the mouth of some 

 valley, is it not possible, if not probable, that their original formation 

 had some connexion with the different valleys ? That glaciers once 

 flowed respectively down each of these valleys would seem to be 

 suggested by the ice etching, grooving and polishing, which have 

 been observed in nearly all of them,^ and as rivers flowing from 

 glaciers are described by various observers as being " turbid and 

 white," from the silt in suspension, or, to quote Principal Dawson, 

 " The glaciers are mills for grinding and triturating rocks. 

 The fine material which has been produced, the flour of the mill, so 

 to speak, becomes diffused in the water which is constantly flowing 

 from beneath the glacier, and for this reason all the streams flowing 

 from glaciers are turbid with whitish sand and mud." From this 

 might not a solution of the problem be found for the formation of 

 all these large Blowing sand deposits ? As they may possibly be the 

 " flour of the mill," or in plain words the glacier-formed silt, at or in 

 the neighbourhood of the mouths of the valleys down which glacial 

 rivers once flowed. 



Against this suggestion it may be urged, that the silt carried down 

 by a river ought to have been carried out to form a deep sea deposit. 

 This may be true to a certain extent, and from personal experience I 

 cannot say what occurs at the mouths of the present glacial rivers ; 

 a nearly similar action however is at present at work on the Allihies 

 Eiver that empties itself into Ballydonegan Bay, County Cork, and 

 from the facts there to be studied, it would appear that some at least 

 of the sand will remain at or near the mouths of such rivers. On 

 the Allihies Eiver are situated the stamps, dressing floors, etc., of 

 the Bearhaven Copper Mines, and its waters night and day are white 

 and turbid with the washings from the floors and mills ; where goes 

 on artificially a similar grinding process to that which naturally exists 



^ The tracks of ancient glaciers are quite conspicuous in the valleys in Yar-con- 

 naught, and those of Kerry mentioned above. Of the other valleys the author 

 cannot speak personally. 



