16 



visit was paid to the high banks of the river near Woodburn 

 factory, where is exposed in a fine section the " drift clay" of 

 the glacial era. Specimens were obtained of several species of 

 shells, the remains of boreal molluscs who had peopled the 

 waters of the glacial sea in a period long past. These were 

 the well known Leda oblonga, with Astarte compressa, Tellina 

 solidula, and fragments of Cyprina islandica, and several other 

 species not determinable with certainty. 



The Fifth Excursion took place on the 1st September to 

 Castle Espie, on the borders of Lough Strangford, County 

 Down. 



At Castle Espie the carboniferous or mountain limestone 

 occurs, dipping in a North-easterly direction, and probably 

 passing under the sandstone of Scrabo Hill, the latter belong- 

 ing to the new red sandstone, rather than to the old red, as 

 some have supposed. It is not likely that coal occurs any- 

 where in the neighbourhood ; but as the carboniferous limestone 

 of Castle Espie constitutes the base of the coal measures, and 

 the magnesian limestone of C ultra, near Holy wood, overlies 

 the system, the intermediate beds occupy the strata-graphical 

 position of true coal, and there only it could be found. The 

 Castle Espie limestone occurs very low — indeed, so low as to 

 require the quarries to be sunk very much below the level of 

 the water in Strangford Lough, on the margin of which they 

 are worked. Formerly they were worked without any system, 

 and when the difficulty of contending with the water increased 

 the works were abandoned. The property has recently been 

 purchased by Mr. Murland, and he has commenced to work the 

 quarries properly on an extensive scale, providing all necessary 

 plant, buildings, railway, and kilns. The latter were only in pro- 

 cess of construction on the occasion of our visit, and at first sight 

 looked more like the foundation of some dry dock than lime- 

 kilns. Those kilns are on Hoffman's principle, and consist of a 

 series of chambers or separate kilns, arranged in an oval form or 

 plan, and communicating separately with a main chimney shaft 

 of large dimensions. In the present instance, there are twenty- 



