(Proceedings Belfast Naturalists' Field Club.— Appendix 1886-1887.) 



On The Estuarine Clays 



NEW ALEXANDRA DOCK, BELFAST. 



IN the construction of the new Alexandra Graving Dock, on the 

 County Down side of the river Lagan, some good sections of our 

 Post-tertiary Estuarine deposits have been exposed. Being constantly 

 on the ground, I have had a favourable opportunity of observing 

 the different beds over a considerable area, with the organic remains which they 

 contain, and I propose to briefly describe the various strata pierced through in 

 connection with this work, and some of their characteristic fossils. 



The Pleistocene Clays of the Lagan Estuary have already been closely 

 scrutinised by members of this Club, and in the very complete list compiled by 

 Mr. S. A. Stewart, F.B.S.E.,* containing the results of his own and Mr. (now 

 Eev. Canon) Grainger's t extensive researches, no fewer than 142 species of 

 fossils are recorded as occurring in these beds. An examination of the deposits 

 exposed in the excavations at the Alexandra Dock has resulted in some additions 

 to this list, and in the present paper I shall notice such species as are noteworthy 

 from their abundance or otherwise in particular beds, or which have not 

 previously been recorded from our North of Ireland Estuarine Clays, and an 

 annotated list is added of all fossils recently observed in the deposits in question. 

 Figure 1 represents a section measured with the spirit-level near the inner 

 entrance of the Dock, and it may be taken as a typical section of the beds 

 exposed. Their relative thickness varied considerably in different parts of the 

 works, but the same sequence was noticeable throughout ; and a similar general 

 relation may be observed, not only where borings or sections have been made 



* Stewart—" Fossils of the Estuarine Clays of Down and Antrim,' 

 Naturalists' Field Club, Vol. 1., Appendix II. 



t Grainger, in Natural History Beview, Vol. VI,, for 1859, 



-Proc. Belfast 



