Dr. John Evans's Address to Section C. 415 



dry land which prevailed during the long interval between the 

 Eocene and Pliocene periods, or whether we assume the former 

 existence of widespread marine deposits which have since been 

 entirely removed, the case is one not without difficulty. At all 

 events, the absence of representatives of this period within the 

 British area has a tendency to prevent a due appreciation of the 

 enormous extent of -the Miocene period being generally felt in this 

 country. Nor, generally speaking, do we, I think, take a fair esti- 

 mate of the remoteness in time to which we must date back the 

 commencement of that lengthened period. Professor Haughton, 

 judging from the maximum observed thickness of each successive 

 deposit, has calculated that a greater interval of time now separates 

 us from the Miocene period than that which was occupied in pro- 

 ducing all the Secondary and Tertiary strata from the Triassic to the 

 Miocene epoch, and, without endorsing the whole of my accomplished 

 friend's conclusions, I incline to concur in such an estimate. When 

 it is considered that the Ballypalidy beds of Antrim and the Lough 

 Neagh clays are the sole representatives in Ireland of two periods of 

 such length and importance as the Miocene and Pliocene, their high 

 interest will be more apparent, and I trust that no opportunity of 

 minutely studying them will be neglected. 



There is one other point with regard to Irish geology on which it 

 will be well to say a few words, though it is of a negative rather 

 than a positive character. I mean the absence, so far as at present 

 known, of PalEeolithic implements in this country. It is true that 

 Professor Hull, in the book to which I am so much indebted, speaks 

 of a raised beach on the Antrim coast as containing worked flints of 

 that rude form and finish known as Palaeolithic ; but this is a slip of 

 the pen, by which the author has fallen into the not uncommon error 

 of applying a term which is merely significant of the age of the 

 implements to their external character. However rude may be 

 the workmanship of the flint implements found at Kilroot, they 

 belong to the Neolithic, and not to the Palaeolithic period. So far 

 as I am aware, no example of any implement belonging to the age 

 of the Mammoth, Ehinoceros and other members of the Quaternary 

 fauna has as yet been found in Ireland. Indeed, the remains of 

 Elephas primigenius and its associates are of exceedingly rare oc- 

 currence in this country, though they have been found with those of 

 Bear and Eeindeer in the Shandon Cave near Dungarvan. It is, of 

 course, impossible to foretell what future researches may bring to 

 light ; but judging from analogy, it seems hardly probable that until 

 ancient river-gravels containing the remains of the Quaternary group 

 of mammals are found in this island, veritable Palaeolithic instruments 

 will be discovered. The association of the two classes of remains is 

 so constant that we may fairly assume that the animals formed the 

 principal food of the Palaeolithic hunters, and that any causes which 

 lead to the absence of the one class will lead to the absence of the 

 other also. 



There is, however, one member of that old Quaternary group which 

 is far more abundant in Ireland than it is in England or on the Con- 



