1893-94.] , 3 I 



clearly and concisely pointing out the different geological 

 features of the basaltic and Cretaceous formations. The weather 

 was particularly fine, which doubtless, coupled with it being the 

 national festival, accounted for so large a party turning out at 

 this early season of the year for field work. 



The President presided at the meeting, tea having been first 

 served in the ante-room, as usual, by Mrs. Leslie. 



Professor Cole, after a few introductory remarks, said — The 

 oldest rocks forming the floor of the county are well exposed in 

 the North, particularly on the coast from Murlough Bay to 

 Cushendun. They are schists and gneisses, probably older 

 than the Cambrian period. The next deposits are the coarse 

 Devonian conglomerates so remarkably developed at the caves 

 of Cushendun. These were probably deposited on the shore of 

 an old lake. The county then went under water at the opening 

 of the Carboniferous period, but plants were washed down into 

 the sandstone deposits, giving us the coalbeds at Ballycastle. 

 A slide was exhibited showing the probable appearance of the 

 old Carboniferous forests on the adjacent shore. In the Triassic 

 period lakes and continental conditions again prevailed, and the 

 drying up of the lakes gave rise to deposits of gypsum and 

 rocksalt. The sea again flowed over the land, depositing the 

 Rhaetic shales of Cave Hill, and the Jurassic period that 

 followed was also at first marine. On the land huge reptiles 

 lived ; others swam in the sea, and reptiles even flew through 

 the air, restorations of these strange Jurassic creatures being 

 shown upon the screen. County Antrim emerged from this 

 Jurassic sea sooner than England did, and remained dry land 

 until the middle of the Cretaceous period. Beds of glauconitic 

 sand and white, chalky limestone then succeeded, formed by the 

 accumalation of minute shells in a pure sea. The Lecturer 

 illustrated the characters of the white limestone by those of 

 modern organic oozes. Again, an upheaval came, and soon the 

 earth movements were followed by the opening of a number of 

 volcanic vents, which poured forth the great basaltic lava flows 

 that form the plateaux of Antrim. At Tardree, however, the 



