1883-1884.] 279 



seen precisely similar iron concretions covered with impressions 

 of fir, which would certainly have been described as Sequoia. 

 The foliage of the yew would also be taken for Sequoia, and it 

 has long been the fashion to refer all such impressions to that 

 genus. I do not, however, yet know enough about them to say 

 that they cannot be Eocene, or even older. These concretions 

 seem to have nothing volcanic in their composition, and are 

 indistinguishable from the concretions met with at Bacton, on 

 the Norfolk coast, at certain states of the tide. The variations 

 of the matrix are similar, and the main mass of the deposit in 

 both places is a closely similar blue clay, with lignite and lignitic 

 matter. On the other hand, very similar or identical nodules from 

 Greeenland, which may belong to the same horizon, contain 

 plants that are certainly not Pliocene, and are as old as those 

 of the basalts. A search at Lough Neagh, where the nodules 

 are, I am convinced, in situ, though possibly derived, would 

 probably lead to the discovery of plenty of fruits and seeds 

 in the lignites, which would thoroughly establish their age. 

 Silicified wood is not uncommonly associated with basalts or 

 volcanic deposits, and I have found beautifully silicified pieces 

 in situ in Madeira. Moreover, the wood has been determined 

 to belong to the Cupressineae, and while members of this family 

 positively abound in the inter-basaltic beds of Ballypalady, no 

 representatives of it are known in British Pliocenes.* Thus, if 

 the wood occurs in situ in it, the beds cannot well be Pliocene, 

 except it be derived. Against the theory that the deposits are 

 in any part contemporaneous with the basalts, I would set the 

 absence of any layers of tuffs or ashesf in them, and it would 

 seem impossible for any considerable sediments to have formed 

 in the immediate vicinity of such intensely active volcanic 

 displays, without abundant traces of such being enclosed. Re- 

 latively very mild eruptions, we know, cover areas of hundreds 



* Since this was read, I have been able to collect further specimens from Lough 

 Neagh, including a very Eocene type of Cinnamon, and a Platanus indistinguishable 

 from the English Lower Eocene species. 



1 1 am unacquainted with Messrs. Tate and Holden's " Ash-bed," with Platanites 

 and Sequoia. 



