1905-1905.! 331 



period than at present, and its western shores conterminous 

 with the 200-fathom line of sounding — a belief sanctioned by 

 recent dredgings off our western coast on a muddy plateau, on 

 whose margin rest many Donegal boulders close to the^ edge of 

 the Atlantic abyss. A post-glacial elevation followed, indicated 

 by the submerged peat round our shores, while glacial strise and 

 even eskers disappear beneath the waves of to-day. May we 

 imagine these traces of land-ice and land-bogs to be con- 

 temporaneous during that post-glacial elevation, which some 

 geologists consider was sufficiently great to connect Ireland with 

 England, and permitted the re-peopling of our island by 

 animals from the less severely glaciated sister land ? 



In compiling this summary of the Club's recent glacial 

 work, I have felt strongly the lack of more thorough familiarity 

 with similar work in other countries than is possible for those 

 residing at a distance from great scientific libraries. When our 

 work commenced in 1893, Ailsa erratics had been found for the 

 first time in Ireland by Professor Cole, and we can still recall 

 the warm interest excited by our first schedule handed in at the 

 British Association meeting at Oxford in 1894, when its frequent 

 occurrence in our drifts was mentioned. Ours was the first report 

 ever received from Ireland by that Committee during its exist- 

 ence of fully 20 years. Our Club's Annual Proceedings have 

 also furnished the Geological Survey with many useful data for 

 their drift memoir, showing the value of careful local records, and 

 the patient accumulation of details only possible to residents in a 

 locality. The corresponding assistance rendered to local work- 

 ers by such a memoir, which correlates our own observations 

 with a wide experience of drift deposits in other parts of our 

 islands is also inestimable. 



We have proved the ubiquitousness of Ailsa rock, and the 

 frequent occurrence of other Scotch erratics, whose presence at 

 Belfast was noted by Messrs. Bryce and Hyndman in 1843. 11 

 We have established the unexpected occurrence of rocks many 

 miles north of their parent locality, and traced many trains of 



11. Report on the Geology of Londonderry, Tyrone, and Fermanagh. 

 By J. E. Portlock, F.E.S. Appendix, p. 738. 



