1C05-1905.J 321 



The work was commenced on the 12th of August, 1893, 

 when Miss Mary K. Andrews, Mr. Stewart, and the writer visited 

 a. fine section of boulder clay 25 feet in depth, exposed (in 

 making subway) at Greenisland Railway Station. A short 

 description of the work may be of interest, as all sub- 

 sequent examinations were similarly conducted, sometimes by 

 solitary workers, sometimes by the whole geological section, 

 but usually by two or three members, amongst whom I must 

 gratefully single out Miss Andrews and Mr. Robert Bell, whose 

 unwearying toil made this summary a possibility. 



Boulder clay usually contains innumerable stones of all 

 sizes embedded irregularly throughout its mass. Of these 100 

 ■or more stones were selected at random, broken and counted to 

 give the percentage of erratics, an erratic being defined as "any 

 stone found in a glacial deposit that is not resting on its parent 

 rock, no matter how short a distance it may have travelled." 

 The subjacent rock at Greenisland being Trias, every stone 

 not of Triassic origin was an erratic, and it was surprising and 

 interesting to note what a varied assortment occurred, varying 

 in size from chalk boulders, five feet long, down to' tiny pebbles 

 ■of far-travelled rocks from Scotland, Ailsa Craig, North Antrim, 

 Derry, and Tyrone, and large, beautifully-scored, and polished 

 blocks of Silurian slate, hailing from either Scotland or the 

 County Down. Shells were looked for, and bags of the clay col- 

 lected to be submitted to Mr. Wright for microscopical examina- 

 tion. This is the most troublesome and tedious process con- 

 nected with our researches, involving hours of monotonous 

 labour on Mr. Wright's part, with only occasional assistance 

 from Miss Smythe, as sometimes several pounds of stiff clay 

 when washed, dried, and floated, yield one tiny foraminifer too 

 small to be visible to the naked eye ! 



Fossils found in the clays were carefully collected, and 

 photographs of the section taken by Miss Andrews for future 

 reference. Specimens of well-known rocks were listed in the 

 field, other fragments being brought to the Museum, to be num- 

 bered, mounted, labelled, and submitted to Mr. Stewart, Mr. J. 

 St. J. Phillips, A.R.I. BA., or Mr. Seymour to ascertain theii 



