1864.] TATE CEETACEOUS EOCES OE IRELAND, 27 



The White Limestone is very extensively quarried in the county 

 Antrim, it being the only rock available for lime-burning within a 

 very extensive area ; generally that obtained from the basement- 

 beds yields the best lime for building-pui'poses, notably so in the 

 quarries at Kilcorig; the lime obtained from beds below the "flinty 

 flag" sets more rapidly than that yielded by the stone higher in the 

 quarry. It is not used as a building-stone, as it very readily splits 

 along the planes of bedding on exposure. 



The fossils of the White Limestone are by no means plentiful, 

 excepting some ubiquitous species, as Belemnitella mucronata, Tere- 

 bratula carnea, and Ehynclionella octoplicata ; most of the species in 

 my list were obtained from the " flinty flag," at Lisburn, the higher 

 zones rarely yielding a single species ; elsewhere the fossils were 

 derived from the lower portion of the zone, the higher parts of it 

 being apparently but slightly fossiliferous. 



The characteristic species are — 



Ammonites GolleTillensis. 

 Belemnitella mucronata. 

 Tm'ritella unicarinata. 

 Cinulia catenata. 

 Ostrea vesicularis. 

 Pholadomya cordata. 



Stewarti. 



Pecten nitidus. 

 Terebratula carnea. 

 Rhynchonella octoplicata. 



Megerlia lima. 



Ananchytes ovatus, ty2^e and 



var. pyramidatus. 

 Cardiaster ananchytis. 

 Galerites abbreviatus. 

 Cyphosoma coroUare. 

 Parasmilia centralis. 

 Guettardia stellata. 

 Paramoudra Bucklandi. 



The above list of fossils not only indicates that the White Lime- 

 stone is of the age of the Upper Chalk, but points to its representing 

 a high stage in that formation, suggesting, in fact, its parallelism to 

 the Norwich Chalk. 



The lowermost portion of the White Limestone being thus known 

 to me as an equivalent of the highest portion of the Upper Chalk of 

 England, i. e. of the Norwich Chalk, I endeavoured to obtain fossils 

 from the upper part of it; but I have not been enabled to bring 

 forward direct proofs of a less antiquity than that just inferred for 

 any portion of our Irish Chalk, although the restriction of the fossils 

 to the lower part leads me to hope that the folloT\ing opinion of 

 Professor Forbes may yet be substantiated, though it can only be so 

 for the upper portion of the White Limestone. He writes *, " The 

 equivalents of the Upper Chalk, of which Cardiaster granulosus is a 

 guiding fossil, may be seen at Cipley and near Maestricht underlying 

 the Yellow Chalk with Hemijpneustes radiatus, i. e. the ' Craie supe- 

 rieiire ' of Hebert. I have never seen in England any beds which 

 could satisfactorily be assigned to the last-mentioned series, btit 

 think it extremely probable that the Chalk of Antrim, which 

 assuredly should be regarded in its greater part as equivalent to our 

 English Upper or Korwieh Chalk, ■wall be found to include equiva- 

 lents of Maestricht or Yellow Chalk of the Continent." 



''^ Quart. Journ. Geol. Sue. a'oI. x. p. Iv. 



