1911-12.] 5 , 5 



formed mainly from fine shell debris, urchin tests, spines, and 

 foraminifera. The best known of these are the Campion Sands, 

 at Rosapenna, and the famous foraminifera sands at Dog's Bay, 

 Connemara. That vegetation greatly assists dune formation is 

 well known, and in our country Bent, Marram, or Star-grass is the 

 chief assistant to the wind as a dune-builder. Many of the plants 

 which live on sand-hills possess long roots, or spreading rhizomes, 

 and they probably act in a chemical as well as in a mechanical way, 

 especially where calcareous matter is present. When the natural 

 vegetation of a dune area is broken through by man, rabbits, or 

 cattle, or destroyed in any way, the sand often starts to drift 

 inland, and great devastation in all parts of the world has been 

 caused in consequence. Perhaps the Landes area in western 

 France is the best known European example, and the Culbin 

 Sands in Scotland the most marked British one. One of the 

 worst cases of devastation by blowing sands in Ireland was 

 at Rosapenna, Donegal. Here the Campion Sands from the 

 great dunes which fringe Tramore, Sheephaven, covered and 

 destroyed sixteen farms and Lord Boyne's house and grounds 

 in 1784. These light calcareous sands are composed of finely 

 comminuted shells, sea-urchins, and foraminifera from Tramore, 

 and even now have to be carefully watched in dry windy 

 .seasons. Rutland Island, Burtonport, in Donegal, was completely 

 devastated by blowing sands between 1806 and 1846. It was a 

 green island, a thriving fishing station, the herring fishery in 1784 

 yielding ^80,000, and the Government established a military 

 station there. In forty years the sand had completely buried the 

 place, only the chimney of the school showing above it. At Horn 

 Head part of the road is completely buried, and the sand has 

 drifted up the hill to an altitude of 350 feet. In south-west Mayo 

 the inhabitants near the shore have great difficulty in keeping the 

 sand from travelling inland. Near Broadhaven the Bent was 

 burnt off the sand-hills, and the sand commenced to travel up the 

 hill to the north-east. In rSyS it had crept up 700 feet, destroying 



