454 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



l^ow, however, the force of the efflux is much less, and the Dogger 

 bank has changed into a long, narrow jS^.E. and S.W. shoal,* consider- 

 ably overlapping the mouth of the estuary and the end of the Raven 

 ridge. This shoal is gradually accumulating, so that now there is a 

 long, narrow N.E. and S.W. island formed. The change in the efflux 

 from the Wexford lagoon has not only affected the Dogger bank at its 

 immediate embouchui'e, but also the off shore shoals ; as when the 

 current from Wexford harbour was pushed northward, the Lucifer 

 shoal began to be denuded, and is now gradually wasting away : the 

 outline of the Blackwater bank is also changing. The present Dogger 

 bank also forms a half-tide "counter-tide," running to the S.W., 

 which strikes on the Rosslare ridge, and is rapidly cutting a passage 

 through it. On account of the present currents and diiftage, the 

 passage and bar of Wexford harbour are ever changing ; this, how- 

 ever, could be materially prevented by an artificial regulation of the 

 cuiTents, and consequently of the driftage. 



Between the North bay and the Cahore shingle beach there ai'e 

 high drift cliffs, which are weathering rapidly, as high tides wash 

 their base ; some of this drift is very stony, but the stones out of it 

 do not form a shingle beach at the base of the cliff, but are sucked out 

 seaward to low- water of neap tides {d, fig. 5), along which line they 

 are drifted northward, some of them eventually to be cast iip to 

 augment the Cahore shingle beach. In the neighbourhood of Cahore 

 Point there is a slight " counter- tide," in connexion with the shoals 

 called the Rush bank and the Eam ; this forms a race called the 

 " Sluice of the Ram." This counter-tide slightly affects Cahore 

 shingle beach, on which account the largest fragments are not found 

 at its northern end. 



The Cahore shingle beach margins a ridge of -3Eolian sand, and 

 when the sea was at the height of the present Ordnance twenty-five 

 feet contour line, there was an island at Cahore Point having a con- 

 siderable sheet of water to the S.W. of it ; this was subsequently a peat 

 bog, when the land was about thii'ty feet higher than at present ; 

 afterwards a lagoon, separated from the sea by a ridge, and now it is 

 all more or less reclaimed. At first, to di'ain it, a canal was made 

 through the centre of the ridge on the S.W. of Cahore Point. This, 

 however, was always being tilled by the di^iftage from the south, and 

 now the tract is drained by a canal which empties itself into the sea 

 through a culvert in a pier that has been built at PoUduff, a little 

 !N.W. of Cahore Point. This canal, unfortunately, is not effective, on 

 account of the site of the pier ; opposite to the mouth of the culvert 

 is a breakwater, behind which the sand collects and dams up the water ; 

 and between tlie Point and the pier is a bay, in which the di'iftage 

 collects: this, dui'ing jST.E. winds, which are those that most prevail at 



* Admiralty Chart, Sheet xv., 1873, and enlarged plan "Wexford Harbour, 

 ). 1873. 



