16 PEOCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [NoV. 9, 



the true relationship of the Irish Cretaceous beds would have been 

 satisfactorily determined by him from the study of his own collection 

 of local fossils. That geologist has passed away from amongst us 

 without having accomplished these researches ; and as his collection 

 has not been applied to the furtherance of the much-desired object 

 up to the present time, I have undertaken the task he may have in- 

 tended to perform. During a residence of two years and a half in 

 BeKast, I have worked assiduously in collecting fossils from the Irish 

 Cretaceous strata, and in studying their lithology and stratigraphical 

 characters, with the hope that these materials would enable me to 

 correlate them satisfactorily ; and I shall now endeavour to show 

 that they belong to the so-called Upper Greensand and to the Upper 

 Chalk. 



The general features of the disposition of the Neozoic rocks in the 

 neighbourhood of Belfast may be understood by reference to the 

 accompanying section. 



Fig. 1. — Section from the River Lagan to Blade Mountain. 



Black 

 N.W.'^. Mountain. S.E. 



+ +N 

 + J 

 1+ + 



River River 



Biaekstaff. Stranmillis. Lagan. 



1. Basalt. 4. Lias. 



2. Hard Chalk. .5. Keuper. 



3. Greensand. 6. Tertiary Sands. 



II. Absent Formations. 



1. Oolitic Strata. — In the foregoing section, the Cretaceous beds 

 are represented as overlying the Liassic, without the interposition 

 of any Oolitic deposit. Conybeare was the first to notice this fea- 

 ture*; he observes that "The numerous beds of coarse calcareous 

 OoUtes, which in England succeed this green sandstone, are entirely 

 wanting in Ireland, and the Mulatto reposes immediately 07i the Lias 

 limestone.^' 



Subsequent writers on this subject have not been free from error ; 

 for instance, Sir E. Griffith remarks f, in 1838, that " we may be said 

 to possess portions of the whole upper series of the Secondary rocks 

 of England, with the exception of the Oolite, though traces even of 

 that formation have been discovered on the coast, near Larne/' while 



* Trans. Geol. Soc. 1st ser. vol. iii. p. 130. 



+ Outline of the Geology of Ireland, 1838, p. 20. 



