Praeger — On the Raised Beaches of N.E. Ireland. 35 



Tellina halthica. f. Turritella terelra. e. 



Mactra suMruncata. v, c. CerWhium reticulatum. c. 



Solen ensis. r. Nassa reticulata, r. 



Patella vulgata. f. Buccinum imdatum. c. 



Trochus cinerareus. r. Fusus antiquus. f. 



Littorina obtusata. c. Murex erinaceus. v. r. 



X. litorea. v. c. Purpura lapillus. f . 



The deposit is, however, practically composed of Ostrea, Mytilus, 

 Cardiuyn, Mactra, and Littorina litorea, mixed with sand. Immediately 

 above this bed was a layer of grey sand a foot deep, succeeded by 

 the gravels which form the Kinnegar. The sand was destitute of 

 shells, nor have I found shells in the overlying gravels,^ though they 

 have unquestionably been thrown up by the sea as a bank between 

 tides, or at low-water mark. And this leads me to repeat that the 

 term ' raised beach ' is commonly used to describe not only leaches, 

 but also lanlcs and sea-heds, that have been elevated. The Kinnegar 

 was imdoubtedly a bank thrown up by currents, rather than a beach ; 

 the Cuiran at Lame, to be referred to presently, is a very fine 

 example of an inter-tidal or submarine bank which has been elevated. 

 A bank of similar character, still at its original level, and, like the 

 Kinnegar and Curran, forming a sickle-shaped spit, may be seen at 

 low tide at Killowen, near Eostrevor. 



"West Bank. 



Though it cannot be described as a raised beach, being situated 

 between high and low-water level, reference may be made to a curious 

 deposit of shells occurring atthepoiat of the West Bank, which projects 

 eastwards across Belfast Lough, three miles below Queen's Bridge, and 

 which, till cut through in the formation of the Victoria Channel, 

 formed a barrier round which all vessels approaching Belfast had to 

 steer. The point of the bank, which is composed of over thirty feet 

 of solid estuarine clay, gleams white at low water on a sunny day 

 but it was not until I visited the spot, in 1891, that I learned the 

 cause of its brilliance. At low spring tide, amid miles of dreary mud- 

 flats, the point of the bank rises out as a steep slope of pure shells, 



1 Canon Grainger has recorded, in "Nat. Hist. Eeview," 1859, Proc, p. 15, 

 the following shells from " ten-feet elevation, Eianegar, Holywood": — Anomia 

 aculeata, Ostrea edulis, Cardium edule, Mactra subtvuncata, Littorina Uto>-ea, 

 Turritella communis, Cerithium reticulatum., jVassa reticulata. 



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