412 . Mejjorts and Proceedings — - 



the President being Lord Talbot de Malahide, a nobleman wbom also 

 we still have among us, and who is alike well known to archteologists 

 and geologists. 



As the last meeting of the Association in this city took place 

 twenty-one years ago, it would at first sight appear that in opening 

 our proceedings I might with propriety dwell on the progress which 

 has been made within that period in the development of the geology 

 of Ireland. I must, however, remind you that it is only four years 

 since the Association held its meeting in what I may almost call the 

 neighbouring town of Belfast, when the accomplished chief of the 

 Geological Survey in Ireland presided over this Section and delivered 

 an address, in which some of the more interesting features of the 

 country, especially those of the volcanic district of the north-east of 

 this island, were discussed. During the present year, moreover, he 

 has published his comprehensive work on the Physical Geology and 

 Geography of Ireland, which I commend to you as far more likely to 

 call your attention to the characteristic features of the country and 

 the latest discoveries with regard to its geology than anything I 

 could compile. 



In addition to this, there has appeared during the present year 

 another interesting volume, which records the impressions of a highly 

 intelligent foreign geologist on visiting this country. I mean the 

 " Aus Irland " of Dr. Arnold von Lasaulx, Professor of Mineralogy 

 in the University of Breslau. For this volume, in which shrewd 

 remarks on the country and its inhabitants are mingled with geolo- 

 gical observations and valuable comparisons of the Irish formations 

 with those of other countries, we are indebted to the meeting of the 

 British Association having been held two years ago at Glasgow, 

 which attracted the author to visit the British Islands. 



So much having lately been published upon the geology of this 

 country, I shall content myself with making a very few general 

 observations with regard to it, and propose subsequently to touch 

 briefly on some of those questions which, within the last twelve 

 months, have occupied the attention of those who are engaged in the 

 advancement of our science. 



As to the geology of this country, I may observe that we are 

 here assembled just on the edge of that great central plain which 

 forms so important a feature in the map of Ireland, and which 

 stretches from Dublin Bay on the east coast to Gal way Bay on the 

 west, with hardly a portion of it attaining to an elevation of three 

 hundred feet above the sea, over a tract of country nearly one 

 hundred and fifty miles in extent in almost every direction. 



The boundaries of this great plain and those of the Carboniferous 

 Limestone almost coincide, so that we have here the somewhat 

 remarkable feature of a formation which in England is of such a 

 character as to have received the name of the Mountain Limestone, 

 constituting in the neighbouring island nearly the whole of the plain 

 country. In some of the north-western counties, however, as for 

 instance Fermanagh and Sligo, it assumes its more mountainous 

 character. Nearly the whole of this central plain is overlain with 



