54 Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Roemer — A Visit to Ireland. 



Man, some well-preserved striations on the sandstone point to the 

 movement of the ice-sheet of the glacial period across even the hilly 

 island of Hoy in a N.W. and S.E. direction. Again in the green 

 corry at the Cam of Hoy, some beautifully perfect little moraines 

 remain to show that after the great land-ice had subsided, the snow- 

 fall in these northern regions continued heavy enough to nourish in 

 so small an island as Hoy groups of valley glaciers. Though the 

 general form of the hills and valleys remains now much as it was 

 when the last lingering glacier melted away, there have been 

 stupendous changes since then in the shaping of the precipices. At 

 that time the Old Man still formed a portion of the solid cliff. It is 

 in the ensuing interval that this impressive landmark has been left 

 during the destruction of the surrounding masses. Long may he be 

 able to stand his ground ! When his last hour comes, as come it 

 must, may some reverential geologist, duly impressed with a sense 

 of the potency of denudation in the relief of the land, be there to 

 pay the last honours to his dust ! 



11. — Geological Sketch of a Visit to Ikeland in August, 1876.^ 



By Dr. Ferdinand Roemer, 



Professor of Mineralogy in the University of Breslau. 



I HAVE been this autumn in the Land of the Giant's Causeway 

 and of the Giant Stag. For a long time it had been my earnest 

 desire to become acquainted with " The Green Isle." In my 

 colleague, Professor von Lasaulx, I found a wished-for companion 

 on my journey. It is easy to get to Ireland. In a single night's 

 journey one is whirled from London to Dublin via Holyhead. 

 In Dublin the best directions for a geologist are to be had at the 

 Geological Survey Office for Ireland, which forms a department of 

 the Government Geological Survey of Great Britain. Prof. Hull, the 

 Director of the establishment, and Mr. Hellier Baily, the Palaeon- 

 tologist attached to it, afforded me, with the greatest kindness, every 

 necessary assistance. Besides these two gentlemen, who reside in 

 Dublin, the Geological Survey includes a number of other geologists 

 scattered through the country, who carry out its purposes. A large 

 portion of Ireland is already surveyed, and the maps containing the 

 results for the most part published. Explanations of these maps 

 appear under the title of " Memoirs of the Geological Survey." The 

 last part that was published this year bears the title : " Explanatory 

 Memoir to accompany Sheets 21, 28, and 29 of the Maps of the 

 Geological Survey of Ireland, including the Country around 

 Antrim, Lame, and Carrickfergus, by Edward Hull, Director, 

 with Paleeontological Notes by W. H. Baily, Dublin, 1876." This 

 part treats of one of the most remarkable districts of the North of 

 Ireland. Several years ago a good general geological map of 

 Ireland was published by the late Professor Jukes, then the dis- 

 tinguished Director of the Survey, the title being : " Geological Map 

 of Ireland, by Joseph Beete Jukes (E. Stanford, London), 1864." 



1 From the Neues Jahrbuch fiir Mineralogie, Geologie und Palaontologie, Jahrgang 

 1877. Translated from the German by Richard J. 6. Mulrenin. 



