522 [Proc. B.N.F.C.. 



The layers of clay, sand, and gravel which underlie the thick 

 gravel bed are of the same age, and yield a similar fauna. Without 

 a good deal of further excavation, which your Sub-Committee 

 was unable to undertake, no determination could be made as 

 to the nature of the beds intervening between the base of the 

 section explored (road level) and the New Red Sandstone, which 

 crops out on the shore 1 2 feet lower, this portion of the deposit 

 being effectually hidden by the heavily pitched slope that 

 extends from the road to the beach. The gravel-bed is traceable 

 along the face of the bluff for about 100 yards southward, where 

 its surface has risen to 50 feet above high water mark. 200 

 yards further south the Keuper marls crop out 40 feet above 

 high water. Northward some 300 yards the gravels may be 

 seen on the southern side of the glen formed by the stream 

 which passes Milltown ; here, as occasionally elsewhere, natural 

 cement has consolidated the bed into a hard conglomerate, 

 especially in its upper layer. 



Conclusions of the Committee. — The deposits at Ballyrudder 

 consist of a bed of stratified gravels underlying a thick layer of 

 unstratified Boulder Clay. There is no clear line of demarca- 

 tion between the two beds, the one merging gradually into the 

 other. The fauna of the gravels shows that they were deposited 

 during a period of intensely arctic conditions : the gravels re- 

 present a former shore-line, which a subsequent submergence 

 has covered with marine Boulder Clay. The clay and all the 

 zones of the gravels yield flints derived from the Chalk. These 

 are frequently broken, and core-like objects and rude flakes are 

 the result. The flakes are usually quite shapeless, and only one 

 was found by the Sub- Committee bearing a bulb of percussion. 

 None of the flints found bore any characters which might lead 

 your Sub-Committee to suppose that they were formed by 

 human hands. 



The best thanks of your Sub-Committee are due to Mr. John 

 Dale, of Ballyrudder, for assistance rendered during the investi- 

 gation ; to Mr. J. T. Marshall, of Torquay, who gave them the 

 benefit of his conchological knowledge in the determination of 



