194 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



mountains, eacli bay spreading out into the Ijroad expanse of the 

 Atlantic to^wards the west. 



"Although the clUffis round Duxsey Island and Ballydonegan and 

 Coulagh Bays are often lofty, and the land above them mountainous, 

 they are not generally so precipitous as those whicli stretch eastward 

 from Blackball Head along the north shore of Bantry Bay, or from 

 Kilcatherine point, along the south shore of Kenmare Bay. There 

 are black jagged cliffs, often quite perpendicular for 300 or 400 feet. 

 They, are, however, more broken into than the former by narrow 

 passages, giving admission to sheltered harbours, instead of open bays. 

 The beautiful harbours of Ardgroom and "Kilmakiloge, in Kenmare 

 Bay, are intances of this, and a still more striking one is Bearhaven. 

 lying between Bear Island, and the main." 



Memoir Geolog. Survey of Ireland (Sheets 200, 203, 204, and 

 205, and part of 199). The district described belongs wholly to the 

 county Cork. Cape Clear and Mizen Head, the two southern promon- 

 tories of Ireland, are comprised in it. 



(p. 6.) — "As a subordinate feature of the main central ridge may 

 be mentioned the small ridge which runs on each side of Skull Harbour 

 and from thence to Toormore Bay. To the south-west of Toormore 

 Bay it is again met wdth, and continues out south-west to ]i[izen 

 Head, where it forms a bold cliff nearly perpendicular and over 

 300 feet in height. 



" The islands that fringe the coast on the south lie in lines parallel 

 to the hills just mentioned, showing that they also are the summits 

 of ridges which are partly submerged, the islands answering to the 

 peaks, and the straits to the longitudinal and transverse valleys. The 

 most northerly of these partially submerged ridges is that forming 

 House Island, Castle Island, Long Island, Goat Island, and the part 

 of mainland that lies to the south of the beautiful land-locked harbour 

 of Crookhaven, and is only prevented from being an island by a sand- 

 flat between the head of Crookhaven and Burley Cove. 



" Another forms Inisodriscoll and the Calves ; and on the line of the 

 most southerly is Sherkin and Clear Island and the Fastness Rock. 

 The Pastness Bock is remarkable, not only for being the most south- 

 erly portion of Ireland, but also for its aspect, as it rises, with nearly 

 perpendicular sides to a height of 97 feet from the water, with not 

 much more than room for the base of the lighthouse that stands on 

 it." 



