174 APPENDIX TO REPORT ON OYSTER CULTURE 



county of Kerry. — Sample of soil of enclosed pond or tank constructed by 

 Charles Saunders, esq. This mud appears to represent also the soil of 

 the fattening beds at the outer end of the island. 



Description. — Unctuous highly hydrated blackish-brown silty clay, 

 free from pebbles, but full of minute fragments of grits and gritty shales. 

 The mud did not effervesce. It is apparently derived from the calca- 

 reous and other shales of the Coal Measures. 



26. Carrig Island, southern shore of the Estuary of the Shannon, near 

 Ballylongford, county of Kerry. — Sample of the mud now deposited in 

 the tank, after a quantity of the old bottom had been thrown up on the 

 bank. This tank has been hitherto a failure, but apparently from causes 

 not connected with the soil. 



Description. — Blackish-blue or grayish mud, drying hard, and breaking 

 into fragments like some kinds of shale-clay. It did not effervesce, and 

 contained very little animal matter. It is only a somewhat more sandy 

 variety of No. 23, and, like it, full of fragments of plants. 



27. Valentia, county of Kerry. — Sample of the soil of the Knight of 

 Kerry's oyster ground. 



Description. — Blue and greenish clay-slate debris, with fragments of 

 red grits imbedded in a clay mud of a dark colour, which became very 

 black in the interior when kept moist, and air and light excluded. There 

 was also a great abundance of Cerithium reticulatum, Cardium edule, a 

 species of Ccecuni, a species of Astarte, Buccinum undatum, Adeorbis 

 subcarinatus, a species of Trochus, probably T. cinerarius. The gravel 

 was rather abundant, and was derived from the local rocks — Silurian 

 slates and sandstones. This soil resembled in many ways the mud of 

 Auray (No. 1). 



28. Sneem, Kenmare River, county of Kerry. — Sample of soil from 

 an oyster pond of about one statute acre in area, belonging to Mr. 

 Bland. This pond has proved a failure. 



Description. — A mass of finely comminuted bivalve shells intermixed 

 with some yellowish fine mud, consisting of fine silt and extremely fine 

 quartz sand. The mud was highly hydrated and contained some animal 

 matter, so that the mass blackened slightly here and there wherever there 

 was any mud. The mud freed from the shells did not effervesce. The 

 rocks of the district consist of Silurian slates and grits, and Carboniferous 

 limestone. 



29. Foaty Island,, Cork Harbour. — Sample of mud from the oyster bed 

 of A. H. Smith Barry, esq., m.p. 



Description. — Fine plastic dark-blue clay marl, containing some red 

 grit pebbles coated with Confervas, and comminuted oyster shells. The 

 interior of the moist mass was of a most intense black. When exposed 

 to air and light it rapidly oxydized and became of a rusty colour. This 

 mud abounded in microscopic animal matter, Diatomacese, &c, and was 

 one of the most unctuous of all the muds examined. The quantity of 

 carbonate of lime in it made it, however, sufficiently porous. This mud 

 is derived from the denudation of Silurian grits, and shales, and Car- 

 boniferous limestone. It is also, no doubt, affected by the sewage of 

 the city of Cork. 



30. Tramore, county of Waterford. — Sample of soil of Mr. Malcolmson's 

 ponds. 



Description. — Brownish yellow sands and gravel, consisting of frag- 

 ments of local rocks (slates, grits, felstones, greenstones, and limestone of 

 the Cambro-Silurian or Lower Silurian formation), intermixed with a little 

 clay. This clay was not flocculent, and contained scarcely any organic 

 matter ; indeed, with the exception of a periwinkle shell and some frag- 

 ments of other shells, there was no evidence of animal life in the soil. 



