357 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



POSTPONED PAPER. 



Notice 0/ Plaint-remains /rom Beds intekstratified lyi^^ fAe Basalt 

 in the County of Antrim. By William Hellier Bailt, Esq., 

 E.L.S., F.G.S. 



(Read January 27, 1869*). 



[Plates XIV. & XV.] 



The existence of deposits containing vegetable remains, interstra- 

 tified with the basaltic rocks of the Island of Mull, was first made 

 known by the Duke of Argyll, through the medium of this Society, 

 in January 1851 1. 



This important discovery, from its supplying reliable, indications 

 as to the cHmatal condition and period of eruption of the basaltic 

 rocks of that portion of ScotlaiiS, also led to the inference that a 

 corresponding age might reasonably be assigned to the basalt of the 

 north of Ireland, a conjecture which could only be satisfactorily 

 determined by actual proof of the association of similar plant-beds 

 with the basaltic rocks of that part of the country. 



This question is now rendered capable of solution by the required 

 evidence having been obtained, during the progress of the Geological 

 Survey of Ireland, in the neighbourhood of Antrim, where the late 

 Mr. G. V. Du Noyer, District Surveyor, discovered a bed containing 

 fossil plants, a large proportion of which are dicotyledonous leaves, 

 interstratified with and lying between masses of basalt, and therefore 

 occurring under very similar conditions to the leaf-beds of the Isle 

 of MuU. 



This plant-bed was exposed in a cutting through the basalt on 

 the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway, between Templepatrick 

 and Doagh Stations, about seven miles east of Antrim. Prom a 

 rough section furnished me by Mr. Du Noyer in September 1868, 

 the following measurements and descriptions are taken, the beds 

 being enumerated in descending order. 



■* For the Discussion on this paper, see p. 162 of the present volume. 



t " On Tertiary Leaf-beds in the Isle of Mull. With a Note on the Vegetable 

 remains from Ardtun Head, by Prof. E. Forbes" (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 

 Tol. vii. 1851, p. 89). 



