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



exception (which it is perhaps necessary to note) that the 

 matrix, or fine material of the coarse gravel with stones, was in 

 places of a reddish, clayey character. The junction of the 

 Estuarine Clay and the sands of the overlying beds was well 

 exposed in two places. It was observed that the finer sand at 

 the base of the upper, and the clay of the lower beds, gradually 

 blended, so to speak, and that a zone of a few inches, almost 

 entirely composed of shells of Littorina, &c., marked an apparent 

 beach line, which had formed during the transition period. No 

 section was made here as was done on the south of the railway. 

 It was, however, clearly observed that the deposit was a 

 stratified one, in every respect similar to the first section 

 systematically examined, with the exception above-named, and 

 also the absence of much of the sand from its lower bands. The 

 surface was a cultivated field, on which flakes and cores were in 

 abundance. An excavation southward, across a lately con- 

 structed street, or road, was next examined, but it added 

 nothing new, no lower beds being exposed, and much of the 

 gravel being hidden by debris. 



IV. — Conclusion. 



Your committee have ascertained that the sands and gravels 

 of the Curran form a stratified deposit ; that the various places 

 examined are portions of the same deposit ; that this extended 

 deposit of gravels rests upon the Estuarine Clay, and is 

 consequently of more recent date. Your committee are of 

 opinion that its basement beds of sand, and its clayey band 

 containing well-defined layers of littoral shells, indicate a shore 

 deposit which accumulated at a comparatively slow rate ; that 

 the coarse gravels with stones indicate a more rapid accumula- 

 tion, due perhaps to more rapid subsidence of the land causing 

 powerful currents to flow down what is now Larne Lough, 

 which currents were met at this point by conflicting currents in 

 the open channel, which caused the deposit of the heavy 

 material, thus forming a bar ; that a subsequent upheaval left 

 the Curran about its present elevation. Man seems now to 

 have appeared on the scene, attracted, perhaps, either by the 



