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movements on a grand scale were displayed- — movements so 

 vast, even in our own region, that he could not help thinking 

 that the term " cataclysmal" was properly applicable to them 

 despite the protest of a powerful and imperious school of 

 modern British geologists, who will not admit the words'cata- 

 clysm or catastrophe into the geological vocabulary. At the 

 close of the Glacial era a period of comparative repose was 

 ushered in. But the rest was only comparative ; the Quater- 

 nary gravels, esker ridges, raised beaches, and estuarine clays 

 since formed, prove that the geological forces are still active, 

 and have not ceased working since the times of the boulder 

 clay. Movements of elevation can be shown in some places ; 

 in others, depression seems to have occurred ; while many 

 localities exhibit evidence of alternate elevation and subsi- 

 dence. The latter was undoubtedly the case here ; and, 

 indeed, it is likely to be established ultimately that these 

 upward and downward movements of the land were not only 

 general but simultaneous over the country. At an era subse- 

 quent to the Glacial drift the land here stood at a higher ele- 

 vation than at the present. This is shown by submarine peat 

 mosses and buried forests found on both sides of the bay, on 

 the shores of Strangford Lough, on the shores of County 

 Antrim, and at many points round the Irish coasts, as also in 

 England and Scotland, The submerged forests are succeeded 

 in our bay by a deposit of estuarine clay, composed of the 

 silt of the existing estuary. The various harbour im- 

 provements carried on at Belfast afforded good chances 

 for examining this clay, and noting the shells entombed 

 in it. The number now collected exceeded one hundred 

 species, and from the character of these fossils it could 

 be inferred that changes of level had taken place during 

 the time the sediment was being deposited. The subject 

 was treated at length. The following is a summary of the 

 conclusions arrived at : — i. Era of submerged peat. The land 

 some thirty feet higher than at present — shore fringed with 



