•2-^0 Proceedings of the Rmial Irish Academy. 



ilav 18th, 1885, refers the " Dingle Beds" to the Lower Old Eed Sandstone 

 and Lower Devonian, the " Smerwiek Beds " to the May Hill Sandstone 

 (Llandovery) or " passage-beds " between the Ordovieian and Silurian 

 (Upper Silurian), and the "Annascaul Beds" to the Caradoc-Bala group 

 Professor Eeynolds and Mr. Gardiner, in their very exhaustive paper on the 

 fossiliferous Siliirian beds of Clogher Head, Dingle district, do not deal par- 

 ticularly with the " Dmgle Beds." They merely allude to them, and leave 

 them in the positioii provisionally assigned to them by the Geological Survey, 

 as probably belonging to the Lower Devonian. They, however, say that the 

 " Smerwiek Beds " " are undoubtedly the oldest beds in this area, and that 

 they are probably of Llandoveiy age, as they are conformably overlain by the 

 fossiliferous TVenlock Eocks,"' and with this I quite agree. 



Having had some opportunity of studying these rocks while I was attached 

 to the Geological Survey of Ireland, and recently, with the aid of a grant from 

 the Eoyal Irish Academy, of making further investigations in the Dingle 

 peninsula of the so-caUed " Dingle Beds," and the rocks adjoining them, I 

 have arrived at the conclusion that, with the " Smerwiek Beds." they form the 

 lowest portion of the Upper SUurian Series in this area, and that they are 

 probably of Llandovery age ; and, furthermore, that they rest uncouformably 

 on the Lower Silurian (Ordovieian) rocks, provisionally eaUed ' .Annascaul 

 Beds " on the Survey map, and that their seeming conformable overlapping 

 on the fossiliferous Wenlock and Ludlow Beds of "West Dingle, on the south, is 

 due to inversion and overthrusting of the strata from the south, as is shown 

 on the accompanying diagrammatic section. 



Fossiliferous "Wenlock and Ludlow rocks of "West Dingle at Feriiter's 

 Cove, Clogher, and Dunqiiin, have been fuUy described in the Geological 

 Survey memoirs on the district in 1863, and later, by Professor Eeynolds and 

 Mr. Gardiner, as already mentioned. Extensive lists of fossils are given iu 

 those publications, which fuUy prove the geological horizons of the "Wenlock 

 and Ludlow Eocks. 



A series of rocks to the north of Ferriter's Cove "Wenlock beds are 

 admittedly in their normal position, underlying the Wenlock beds in r^ular 

 order. These are shown on the Geological Survey map as " Smerwiek Beds," 

 and separated from the " Dingle Beds " in the peninsula. Having recently 

 examined those " Smerwiek Beds," I have no doubt that they belong to the 

 ■" Dingle Bed " series, and should not have been separated from them, as they 

 are identical with them in every respect. Du Xoyer noted on his field-map, 

 when surveying the district over fifty years ago, with regard to the " Smerwiek 



' Quarterly Journal Geol. Soc., voL Iviii, pp. 22&-266 (1902). 



