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



against the flanks of the Mourne range, and stretching out 

 over Down and Armagh, we have a vast accumulation of 

 Silurian rocks, containing in some places abundant remains of 

 a strange and very ancient fauna, as described in Mr. Swanston's 

 exhaustive and very interesting paper dealing with that subject. 

 Immensely newer than the Silurians are the lowest beds 

 exposed in this part of the County Antrim — the Triassic rocks 

 which crop out along the slopes that flank the base of nearly all 

 our Antrim escarpments, and which consist of red sandstones, 

 clays, and marls, containing beds of rocksalt and gypsum. The 

 upper strata of the Triassic rocks pass gradually into the Lower 

 Lias beds, where the latter occur, but we miss the great series 

 of Jurassic rocks, such as the Bath and Portland Oolites. The 

 Cretaceous rocks, Chalk and Greensand, rest upon the Lower 

 Lias, or on the New Red, where the Lias is absent. The Chalk 

 constitutes the white cliffs that are so familiar to us all round 

 the Antrim coast, and which so enhance the beauty of our 

 district. It is made up almost entirely of the shells of micro- 

 scopic animals, and was deposited as soft mud at the bottom of 

 an ancient sea. Then, above all, is the Tertiary formation, 

 represented by the exceptional series of basaltic rocks, which 

 have been forced up by internal forces from profound depths 

 below, and have spread in the form of great sheets of lava over 

 the ancient surface. It will therefore be seen that the geology 

 of County Antrim includes five main formations, which occur 

 in the following descending order — Trap, Chalk, Greensand, 

 Lias, and New Red Sandstone. The sequence may be diagram- 

 matically represented by one's open hand, a space being left 

 between the second and third fingers. The thumb indicates 

 the exceptional trap rocks. The four fingers represent the 

 stratified deposits, Chalk, Greensand, Lias, and New Red 

 Sandstone. The parting between the second and third fingers 

 represents the absent series of Oolitic or Jurassic rocks. 



Meanwhile the photographers of the party, regardless of the 

 fascinations of geology, were preparing for a royal salute from a f 

 whole battery of cameras; and a pretty study they had to 



