6 6 2 [Proc. B.N.F.C., 



inside the lough, covered with mud and marine vegetation, but 

 fresh and loose, easily dried and shifted because recently formed. 

 In this manner it seems to me the vast accumulation of sand, 

 curtailed now through recent denudation, as compared with what 

 it has been, is easily to be accounted for. 



PEAT. 



The common depth of peat on the minor hills of the plateau 

 is 3 to 33^ feet. About 8 feet seems to have been the thickness 

 over parts of the fiat ground there ; and as much as 12 feet, in a 

 flat west of Sconce Hill, some four miles from Coleraine, westward. 

 It has been estimated as 20 feet deep in the valley of the Roe, in 

 a peat-bog a mile to the south of Drumsurn. 



It is almost needless to say that remains of ancient forests 

 abound on the peat-bogs, most commonly those of fir, though oak 

 trunks and roots are frequently to be met with. One of the most 

 notable circumstances to be observed is, that a layer of fir roots 

 occurs almost invariably in both valleys, and in the deeper bogs 

 on the plateau, about four feet above the floor of the peat, very 

 little or no other timber, or similar layer, being found in the four 

 feet between. Hazel and alder are frequently to be noticed as 

 well as birch. Remains of a thick forest of birch occur in a 

 large bog one mile south of Moys, near Limavady. 



Near the northern boundary of Ardinarrive, N.W. of Dun- 

 given, rows of pointed stakes, timber scantlings and "noggins," 

 were found in apparently an old mearing or " causeway," report 

 says, under 12 feet of peat; and, half a mile south-west of 

 Ringsend, near the Garvagh and Limavady road, stakes pointed 

 with a sharp implement, and charred wood, were reported as 

 occurring under 6 feet of peat, associated with oak trunks and roots." 



At the close of the paper the Chairman, in reviewing the 

 chief features of Mr. Kilroe's highly interesting paper, proposed 

 that the best thanks of the Club be conveyed to Mr. Kilroe. 



Several points of interest were raised by the Chairman, Mr. 

 Geo. Donaldson, and Mr. A.W. Stelfox, to which, in the unfortunate 



