224 [Proc. B. N. F. C, 



On 2nd June, to 



CULTRA AND ROCKPORT. 



The second excursion for the season was to Cultra and Rock- 

 port. The 1.30 train from town landed a party of upwards of 

 thirty members and their friends on the platform at Cultra, 

 where they were joined by several others. Proceeding at once 

 to the shore, geology claimed the first attention ; here for 

 almost a couple of miles the strata is very varied, and embraces 

 representatives of five distinct geological formations, exhibiting 

 many phenomena. A short distance west of the pier thin bands 

 of Carboniferous Limestone are noticeable, beneath which is a 

 grey shaley band rich in fish remains. The members who were 

 fortunate enough to be possessed of hammers and chisels 

 attacked this vigorously, and soon were handing round slabs 

 showing scales and spines of Holoptychms, one of the ancient 

 race of armour-plated fishes, which attained its highest period 

 of development in the old red sandstone or Devonian seas. 

 This limestone band seems to be the lowest carboniferous rock 

 in the neighbourhood, and the rocks of that formation here 

 exposed are supposed to represent the very lowest of that system. 

 Dipping as the beds do seaward at an angle of about forty 

 degrees, the superior zones, if still existing, are lost to view 

 beneath the waters of the lough. It is clear, however, that they 

 do not extend far, as we find on the Antrim side they are re- 

 placed by the new red or triassic sandstones. A few yards farther 

 west of this outcrop of limestone the triassic beds are brought 

 in by a fault, the line of which, like most of the fault lines here, 

 is occupied by a basaltic dyke. 



After the excitement of the search for fish remains had in 

 some measure abated, a brief notice of the geology of the neigh- 

 bourhood was read by one of the party, and before leaving the 

 spot Dr. S. M. Malcomson showed a coloured drawing of 

 Placopsiliiia cenomana — a species of foraminifera which he had 

 recently discovered in shore sand gathered a short distance off. 



