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III. 



THE riCTUEE-IIOCK OE SCTJBED EOCK NEAE EATHMULLAN, 

 IN THE COUNTY OF DONEGAL. 



By GEENVILLE A. J. COLE, M.E.I.A., F.G.S, 

 Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland. 



Read DECEMnKU 13. Ordered for Publication Decembeu 15, 1909. Published January 22. 1910. 



Mk. G. H. Kinahan, in the Memoir of the Geological Survey of Ireland on 

 North-west and Central Donegal,' mentions the peculiar surface of a sheet 

 of epidiorite, known as the " Scribed Eock," which lies in the extreme south 

 of the townland of Oughteiiin, some 2-|- miles north-west of Eathmullan. 

 He describes it as " blistered, pitted, and irregularly jointed or cracked, 

 like the surface of a sheet of slag that has been poured out from an iron 

 furnace " ; and this analogy, which is hardly a correct one, leads him 

 to regard the mass in this case as not intrusive, but as a lava-flow. The 

 marks on the Scribed Eock, he tells us, were " commonly supposed to be 

 due to the impressions of the feet of men, horses, cattle, sheep, and dogs, to 

 which they have some resemblance." 



It appears that this rock-face, though lying in a somewhat remote part 

 of the hills, has attracted attention for many years, and is now locally 

 known as the " Picture-Eock." In 1908, Captain Boyle Somerville, R.N., 

 then engaged in sui\eying the coast in and near Lough Swilly, addressed an 

 inquiry respecting it to the Director of the National Museum in Dublin, 

 and furnished several outline drawings, produced, after the manner of 

 rubbings, from the rock itself. He pointed out precisely the unusual form 

 of the excavated portions, and the curious resemblance of some of the 

 upstanding bosses to the footprints of animals, seen as casts in relief. In the 

 summer of 1909, Dr. B. Windle, f.r.s., also visited the spot, and wrote to 

 me at the office of the Geological Survey as to its puzzling features. His 



' .Mum. to sheds ;!, 4. ir. i 1n91), p. 6.5. 

 B, I. A, Plioc, vol.. XXVlll., SKl'T. I',. [/?] 



