*7 18 Proceedings of the Rojjal Irish Academy. 



The storm-beach or spit of Kinnacorra occupies the most easterly point 

 of Clare Island; it is V-shaped in outline, and the limbs of the V bound a 

 salt marsh, which is the only one of its kind in the district. 



The peat and alluvium, shown on the map, occur mostly in the hollows 

 of the glacial drift, but, in addition to the deposits so represented, much of 

 the high ground, mapped as " bare rock," is, or has been, covered with thin 

 peat. This material is undergoing denudation by the natural processes of 

 weathering and decay, and some of it is being rapidly cut away for fuel. It 

 is interesting to note that roots and trunks of trees, principally Scotch fir, the 

 remains of post-glacial forests, are dug in numbers out of some of the low- 

 lying bogs. 



Recent Changes in the Relative Level of Sea and Land. 



A short time prior to the advent of the Glacial l'eriod, the land and sea 

 in western Europe occupied pretty much the same relative level that they 

 do to-day. Ireland had already been separated from England, and, except 

 perhaps that the Straits of Dover had not yet been cut, both stood isolated 

 from the Continent of Europe, and the Clew Bay basin admitted the waters 

 of the Atlantic, insulating Clare Island from the mainland, just as at the 

 present time. This statement is borne out by the following facts : — 



A late pre-Glaeial beach occurs at some few feet above the present sea- 

 level, not only round the Irish coast, but at many widely separated points 

 throughout the British Isles and the coasts of France. In the south of 

 Ireland it forms a remarkable feature, recurring persistently along the coast. 

 Its presence here has been recorded by Messrs. Wright and Muff (now 

 Maufe), to whom we are indebted for an exhaustive study of the 

 phenomenon. 1 



On the rock-platform representing the pre-Glacial beach, a series of 

 deposits reposes. First, immediately above the rock, is found the old beach- 

 gravel, over which has accumulated a stratum of blown-sand ; this deposit in 

 turn is covered with " head " or waste from the cliffs behind, and then follow 

 in ascending order a boulder-clay drift and an upper or recent "head." 



An important conclusion to be drawn from this succession is that, prior to 

 the advent of the ice, the land had been raised beyond the reach of the waves 

 for sufficiently long a period as to permit of the accumulation of the lower 



"'The Pre-Glaciul Beach of the South of Ireland," Sci. Troc. Koyal Dublin Soc, vol. x 

 (1901), p. 250; and Irish Naturalist, vol. xiii (1901), p. 291. 



