1867.] WYNNE YOTJGHAL. 5 



to which I refer more particularly, as upon it Youghal Bay, at the 

 mouth of the river Blackwater, will be found marked. 



In this paper (p. 398) is the following : — " The South of Ireland, 

 however, seems to have been exposed as dry land ever since the 

 close of the Palteozoic epoch, with the single exception of the 

 de])rcssion which it suffered beneath the sea during the Pleistocene 

 or Glacial period." To some time during this Glacial period, there- 

 fore, evidences of disturbance of level might be referred if they 

 consisted of nothing more than the usual phenomena connected with 

 the Glacial Drift. It will be seen, however, from what follows, 

 that considerable alterations of level have taken place along the 

 coast of Youghal Bay subsequently to the formation of the recent 

 peat which so commonly covers the Glacial Drift of Ireland. 



The occurrence of submerged peat beneath Youghal Strand is 

 mentioned at some length by Dr. Charles Smith in his ' History of 

 Cork,' 1749, book ii. chap. 1, where it is recorded that " good turf is 

 dug every season, and also great quantities of timber trees, as fir, hazel, 

 <S:c.," from beneath the strand, and that the bog extends as far as 

 the lowest ebbs uncover it, and probably much further. 



He says also that, about eighteen years before he wrote, the strand 

 was entirely divested of all its sand and gravel, and, being left 

 quite bare, great quantities of roots of various trees were exposed — 

 that the sea has encroached, and is likely to gain more ground, as 

 the land within the strand lies low and flat ; and he cites several 

 facts to show that the sea was then encroaching on the land*. 



With regard to the submerged bay, the statements of Dr. Smith 

 seem to be correct, as far as can be now seen or learned ; but the 

 foundations of the mill of which he speaks are not at present 

 known. 



The strand may be said to commence at the very mouth of the 

 harbour, where, close to the rocks of the western side of the gorge, 

 just below a place called "Moll Goggin's Corner," peat may be 

 frequently seen stripped of the sand at low water f. 



Looking from this place to the south-west, the strand and beach 

 thrown up by the sea are seen to trend from the observer in the 

 direction of the hill called Clay Castle, about half an English mile 

 distant, and beyond it b}'- a slight protuberance in the shore -line, 

 called the Breakwaters (from some wooden constructions placed 

 there to check the wasting of the land), and so on by the mouth of 

 the Fanisk (or Fillmore) stream to the high land of Knockadoon 

 Head. On the landward side of the beach the low ground is covered 

 with peat ; and people still alive remember turf being cut where a range 

 of new houses, called " The Strand " or Lewisville, and the railway- 

 station, just behind the beach, are now situated. The water from 



* A rude engraving representing a view of the town of Youghal from the 

 Waterford side of the harbour, is given by Dr. Smith, which, save in the form 

 of the ground and the positions of a few buildings, but slightly resembles the 

 place as it is at present. 



t For some remarks upon this peat, and its bearing upon the denudation of 

 the cliffs close by, see a paper by the author (Geol. Mag. vol. iv. p. 8, 1867). 



