1883-X884.] 2^9 



of Ireland, says the worked flints are mixed through the gravel 

 to the " lowest layer." He describes the gravels as being 

 " heaped together in a most irregular manner, and notices a 

 general absence of stratified arrangement." He therefore con- 

 cludes — " The whole formation appears to me not to be a raised 

 beach in the ordinary sense of the term, but rather something 

 of the nature of an esker which has received glacial matter on 

 its surface at the time of submergence." " If I am correct," 

 continues Mr. Knowles, " the term Palaeolithic might be too 

 modest an application for these implements. They would pro- 

 bably be the oldest implements not only in Ireland, but in the 

 British Isles." A bold surmise. Mr. Gray contended that the 

 above description of the gravels was inaccurate, and the con- 

 jectures founded thereon untenable. The gravels are not 

 heaped together irregularly ; they are manifestly a well-defined, 

 stratified marine deposit ; they have no relation to " glacial 

 matter ;" they are deposited upon a thick bed of estuarine clay, 

 and are thus of a comparatively recent date.* Moreover, the 

 worked flints are not mixed through the gravel, but occur only 

 on the surface of the undisturbed gravels, and therefore the 

 men who worked the flints lived subsequent to the formation 

 of the raised beach. 



The election of several new members and the examination 

 of the valuable and highly interesting collection brought by 

 Mr. Day to illustrate his paper terminated the meeting. 



The Annual Meeting was held on Tuesday evening, 29th 

 April, in the Museum, College Square. The President, W. H. 

 Patterson, Esq., M.R.I. A., having taken the chair, called upon 

 the Honorary Secretaries and Treasurer for their reports 



* The term Estuarine Clay is intended to signify those deposits, mostly of clay, which 

 have been accumulated in our existing bays and estuaries since the close of the Glacial 

 Period. They are the latest of a long series of Geological deposits, and resting, as they 

 most commonly do, on the Boulder Clay, they unite the present to the past. See 

 " A list of the Fossils of the Estuarine Clays of the Counties of Down and Antrim." 

 By Samuel H. Stewart. Eighth Annual Report — Belfast Naturalists' Field Club. 

 Appendix II., 1871. 



