1886-1887.] C23 



men being dissimilar to the general character of the material 

 then being thrown out, the question was raised as to the 

 probability of its having fallen from the loose gravel of the 

 higher zone, against which the workmen might come in contact 

 when standing erect in the contracted space in which they 

 worked. No additional specimens were found in the section, 

 which was excavated to the base. About fifty yards further 

 south, on the same escarpment, another face had been cleared 

 of debris. Time would not permit of the same investigation 

 being carried out in it, but it was clearly an extension of the 

 same beds. It was observed, however, that the upper bed of 

 coarse gravel with stones had gradually thickened, and here 

 reached a depth of 1 2''6 inches ; the bottom beds being as be- 

 fore sandy with clay band — shells more abundant. 



Your committee — now joined by Mr. W. H. Patterson, 

 M.R.I.A. — next directed their attention to the section on the 

 north side of the railway (marked B on accompanying map), 

 where excavations had been made for clay for pottery purposes. 

 The place is marked " Pottery " on the 6-inch ordnance survey 

 map, and the excavations are there indicated. On the occasion 

 of the visit of your committee the deeper portion of the 

 excavation was hidden by water. Enough, however, was still 

 visible to show that the deposit at the base was a tough blue 

 clay containing shells, of which the following were collected ; — 

 Cardium edule^ Littorina litorea^ Turritella terebra, Tapes 

 aurea, and Scrobicularia piperata. From the character of the 

 clay and the few shells collected, this is undoubtedly the 

 Estuarine Clay,* of which the last-named shell, not now found 

 living on our coasts, is specially characteristic. Resting on the 

 Estuarine Clay is a series of stratified sands and gravels with 

 stones, about six feet in depth, very similar to the sections 

 already described on the south side of the railway, with the 



* The term Estuarine Clay is intended to signify those deposits, nnostly 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 deposits, and resting as they most 

 commonly do on rhe Boulder Clay they unite the present to the past. — See •' List of 

 Fossils of the Estuarine Clays of Down and Antrim," by Samuel A. Stewart, Eighth 

 Annual Report Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, appendix ii., 1871. 



