Devon and Cornwall, Belgium, the Elfel, Sfc. 289 



which (as indicative of old red sandstone) is made everywhere 

 to surround in symmetrical order the isolated bands of lime- 

 stone which occur in the south of Ireland, (save and except 

 those of Bantry bay, Skibbereen, and Courtmacsherry *), 

 and which is also introduced in the vale of the Blackwater and 

 Dungarvan, as underlying the limestone there. Old red sand- 

 stone is not within my cognizance in the positions indicated ; 

 and the occurrence of a grey or yellow sandstone with some 

 calamites is another question. For I contend that the old 

 red sandstone formation, in the legitimate sense of that term, 

 nowhere passes to the south of the river Blackwater; and 

 the two districts of that formation which occur in Kerry, 

 namely, in the Slieve Meesh range and Kerry head, lie north 

 of that parallel. 



Doubtless influenced by similar systematic views, Mr. Grif- 

 fith represents the whole series occurring between the valley 

 of the Suire and Cork head as consistino; of a regular se- 

 quence ; which taken in an ascending order between the 

 Suire and the Blackwater, is said to be composed of grey- 

 wacke and slate, conglomerate, quartz-rock, red slate, yellow 

 sandstone and sandstone-slate, green slate and limestone; 

 and that in traversing the country further south, between 

 the vale of the Blackwater and Cork head, we meet only 

 with a repetition of the same succession between the different 

 bands of limestone encountered in our progressf. That all 

 these rocks are to be found in the sequence there is no doubt; 

 but I know of no such regularity of order as is proposed, and 

 excepting wholly the old red sandstone formation from the 

 series, south of the Monavoullagh range. I must also remark 

 that the disposition of the rocks as given does not correspond 

 with the results of my researches, and that anticlinal and 

 synclinal lines appear to be introduced where there is no proof 

 of their existence. I advert in particular to the three bands 



* But in the new map, these limestones are also boimded by the 

 brownish-yellow stripe, which likewise is made a border to what is desig- 

 nated as reddish-brown " old red sandstone," wherever the latter is arbi- 

 trarily introduced, e. g.,at the heads ofKenmare and Bantry bays, &c., where 

 certainly no old red sandstone has been seen by me. Again, on the western 

 side of the Lower Lake of Killarney, extending westward on the south side of 

 the river Laune, Mr. Griffith confounds with the old red sandstone, the red 

 conglomerate, sandstone, and red slate of the transition series, which pre- 

 vail in that quarter, and are well exposed in the pass to Dunloe Gap, all 

 dipping south, yet subject to some inflections\ 



t Proceedings of the Geol. Soc, May 23, 1839, p. 137; and Journal of 

 the Geol. Soc. of Dublin, June 13, 1839, pp. 8G to 88. 



* Geol. Trans., vol. v., second series, Memoir on the South of Ireland, 

 § 10. 

 Phil. Mag, S. 3. Vol. 16. No. 103. April 1840. U 



