330 [B.N.F.C. 



parent localities of definitely-recognised erratics shows a sur- 

 prisingly frequent mixture of southern rocks, even in our most 

 northerly districts. 



In the drift memoir already referred to (p. 87) Mr. W. B. 

 Wright suggests that our records of Mourne granite may be 

 really due to the presence of a closely similar Arran rock found 

 by him in drift on the basaltic plateau. Our Mourne erratics, 

 however, include various dykes identified by Mr. M'Henry as 

 Tertiary intrusions in the Mourne range, one of the most 

 distinctive being a pink eurite which he locates near Annalong. 

 This we found in many brickfields round Belfast, in several 

 places in Dundonald Valley, and on the shores of Strangford 

 Lough. Our S.S.W. record is a. large composite block of grit 

 and Slieve Croob granite, weighing about 9 tons, discovered by 

 Miss Andrews and Mr. Stewart on Rough Island, near the 

 northern extremity of Strangford Lough, 18 miles distant from 

 its home. 



In connection with this question of drift from the south, 

 which suggests a gradual amelioration of the local climate, I 

 must not omit referring to an ox skull and vertebra and frag- 

 ments of wood found by Mr. Bell in apparently undisturbed 

 boulder clay at Springfield brickyard in 1895, an inch and half 

 of horn protruded from the clay seven feet below the surface. 

 The fragments were submitted to Professor Haddon, F.R.S., 

 and Mr. E. T. Newton, of Jermyn Street Museum. 10 Mr. 

 Stewart and I subsequently visited the spot with Mr. Bell, and 

 collected a bag of clay from the point where the bones were 

 found, which was examined by Mr. Wright, but did not yield 

 any marine organisms. When we recall the faunal conditions 

 of Arctic regions in the present day, where the ice age still 

 prevails, there seems no inherent impossibility in the coeval 

 existence of animal life and many local icefields. Mr. Maxwell 

 Close, Professor King, and many other geologists believed that 

 the West of Ireland was relatively higher during the glacial 



10. Proc. B.N.F.C. Report of Geol. Section. Miss Sydney M. Thompson 

 (1895-6), p. 304. 



