BOULDER-CLAY AND GRAVELS NEAR BALLYGALLEY HEAD. 679 
51. On a Suction of BovtpER-ciay and GRAVELS near BALLYGALLEY 
Heap, and an Inautry as to the proper CuassiFication of the 
Irish Drirt. By T. Mertarp Reape, Esq., C.E., F.G.S., 
F.R.I.B.A. (Read June 25, 1879.) 
Ar a point in the road along the west coast of Ireland, between 
Larne and Cushendall and near Ballygalley Head, is a gravel-pit 
giving a section which may help to determine the classification of 
the Irish Drift. 
The exposed face is, as nearly as I could judge, about 30 feet 
high, the pit being cut into a grass-covered slope lying against the 
hilly ground which mostly flanks the coast-road landward. 
The following is a sketch which I took on the spot last autumn ; 
and although I did not measure the thickness of the beds, it may be 
relied upon as giving their proportionate disposition. 
The base of the excavation (A) is formed by a bed of current-bedded 
gravel containing shells and shell fragments. The actual base of 
the bed is not disclosed, so it is impossible to say how thick it is, 
or whether it rests on a Boulder-clay or on the natural rock. 
It is capped by a perfectly straight and nearly level bed of sand, 
about 4 inches thick (B), on which rest irregularly disposed masses 
of clay and sand containing boulders, and above this a band of red 
clay, C, which is again overlain by a mass of unstratified Boulder- 
clay, D, the surface of which is covered by a bed of subaerial de- 
tritus, E, forming the subsoil of the grassy slope. 
Coming fresh from Lancashire, where some geologists, following 
Section in Gravel-pit near Ballygalley Head. 
QW); 
WG DN “= \\\ mts .\ 
, = SSeS 
i finiled : \\ 
ay, ye 1 Wy Ih iT RF 
' BE =a oa il ee nil rani ah 
y iy te 
ag 
A. Current-bedded gravel with shells. B. Sand. O. Red Clay. 
D. Unstratified aida clay E. Subaerial detritus. 
