708 PROF. E. HULL ON THE DINGLE BEDS AND 
and grits were considered to be ‘‘ Upper Old Red Sandstone,” but in 
reality they in no way differ from the beds of the Glengariff-grit 
and slate series. This view is confirmed by the examination of the 
beds for several miles on both banks of the river; and we therefore 
conclude that the Lower Carboniferous beds rest directly on the 
Glengariff-grit series, the Old Red Sandstone being altogether 
absent. 
Prof. Jukes and Sir R. Murchison have drawn attention to this 
section as illustrating the rapid thinning of the Lower Carboniferous 
slate and Coomhola-grit series as compared with their development 
at Bantry ; this explanation seems to me insufficient. 
2. Section between Kenmare and the Suspension Bridge.—In this 
section hard green grits and purple slates, characteristically repre- 
senting the “ Glengariff-grit series,” immediately underlie the Lower 
Carboniferous beds, so that there is clearly no space for any of the 
strata representing the Old Red Sandstone. The purple slates be- 
longing to the upper division of the series are well laid open in the 
river Sheen, above its confluence with the Roughty. 
3. Section at Sneem.—The sections in the hills to the east of 
Sneem are remarkable for their continuity through a vast thickness 
of strata from the Lower Carboniferous beds downwards. At Knock- 
anamadane and Knocknagullion, a thickness of beds of not less than 
8000 feet may be traversed bed by bed, maintaining a steady dip 
towards the S.S8.E. at angles of 60°-70°. The beds belonging to the 
‘‘ Glengariff series” consist principally of purple slates with occa- 
sionally beds of green grit, and these are overlain by beds which I 
consider to be Lower Carboniferous. The first section we visited is 
that laid open in the bed of the Tahilla river, which falls into Coon- 
gar Harbour. Commencing at the chapel by Tahilla Bridge, we 
find ourselves on dark grey and blue slates which yield fossils 
of Lower Carboniferous age. Below these come olive-grey and 
greenish grits, sometimes calcareous ; and at a distance of about 500 
yards above the bridge we arrive at the junction of the Lower Car- 
boniferous with the “ Glengariff-grit series,”, the Old Red Sand- 
stone being evidently absent. At this junction there is some ap- 
pearance of unconformity between the two formations, several beds 
of Carboniferous grit apparently terminating obliquely against the 
purple slates of the ‘‘ Glengariff series.” I here give a section and 
plan of this very interesting spot (fig. 3), as it thoroughly satisfied 
us of the complete absence of Old Red Sandstone, and that we had 
here representatives of formations separated from each other by 
the wide interval of a whole geological period. 
4. Several other sections in the neighbourhood of Sneem go to con- 
firm the view of the entire absence of the Old Red Sandstone ; for on 
descending the mountains towards the coast, you pass over the highly 
tilted edges of similar beds of purple slate, several thousand feet in 
thickness, and then reach the grey grits and olive-coloured shales of 
the Lower Carboniferous series. The notion, therefore, of a passage 
upwards from the Glengariff beds into the Carboniferous through 
the Old Red Sandstone seems to have been founded on a miscon- 
