1866.] JITKES — OLD RED SANDSTONE AND DEVONIAN. 327 



above referred to, Foteriocrinus crassuSy Actinocrinus jpolydactylus, a 

 species of Platycrinus and Pentremites ; Corals of the genera Mich- 

 elinia, Zaphrentis, and Syringopora ; and the following shells ; Orthis 

 Jlli'aria, 0. crenistria, Sjpirifera disjuncta, S. glabra, Athyris squa- 

 mosa, Strophomena analoga, Producta Martini, and a species of Pi- 

 leopsis (Acroculia). 



4. Extent of the Old Bed Sandstone, north and west of Waterford. 

 — The Old Eed Sandstone of "Waterford just described extends con- 

 tinuously northwards into Kilkenny, and westwards through the 

 counties Waterford and Tipperary into Cork and Kerry. Following 

 it northwards to Kiltorcan and Thomastown it retains the same 

 general character as near Waterford, but a few miles north of 

 Thomastown, it gradually thins out, and finally dies away near Gores- 

 bridge (see Explanation of sheets 147 and 157 of Irish Maps) ; and the 

 Carboniferous Limestone then reposes directly on the Lower Silurian 

 slates and the Granite of the County Carlow. 



a. The Kiltorcan Section. — At Kiltorcan, near Ballyhale, which is a 

 village about five miles south by west of Thomastown, in the Parish of 

 Knocktopher, are the quarries which have become celebrated for the 

 fossils discovered in them. For a full account of the geology of the 

 neighbourhood I must refer to the Explanation of sheets 147 and 

 157 of the Irish Maps in the Memoirs of the survey ; but wiU give 

 here the following brief summary of it : — 



The Old Eed Sandstone lies at a very low angle, the lower beds 

 gradually rising towards the east into some brown arid moorlands, 

 one of the highest points of which is in the townland of Coolroe-beg, 

 785 feet above the sea. This conglomerate forms a little escarp- 

 ment there overlooking the valley of the Arrigle brook, which runs 

 northwards into the Nore below Thomastown. 



Lower Silurian slates and grits, partly altered into mica-schist, and 

 Granite with highly crystalline greenstone, also probably of Lower 

 Silurian age and altered by the Granite, appear from under the base 

 of this Old Eed Sandstone on the east, while towards the west it 

 dips gently to the village of Ballyhale, where it is covered by black 

 shales, and those again by grey limestone, as near Waterford *. 



About half-way between Coolroe and Ballyhale some quarries 

 were opened at Kiltorcan in a greenish grey flag, interstratified with 

 brown sandstones and bright red slates. This greenish flag was 

 luckily not aifected by the slaty cleavage, and when our fossil-col- 

 lector, the late James Flanagan, was assisting Mr. Wyley in the 

 examination of the district, he discovered some large ferns and 

 bivalve shells there. This was in the year 1851, when the late 

 Professor Edward Forbes was with me near Cork, and we immediately 

 inspected the district together. Forbes afterwards named the shell 

 Anodonta JuJcesiif and the fern Cyclojoteris Hibernica ; but M. Adolphe 



* The north-west boundary of the Granite under the Old Eed cannot be 

 seen in this locality, and its place therefore is a little uncertain. 



t There is much inconvenience attending this practice of affixing personal 

 appellations to species of fossils. I can never speak or write of this shell without 

 feeling guilty of egotism, and conscious of the appearance of a wish to thrust it 

 into importance, because it has my own name attached to it. 



