Annelid Tracks in the County of Clare. 279 



These greenish-gray flags, as they pass downwards, appear 

 to lose the remains of plants, but in the place of them we have 

 the annelid tracks, at first rather sparingly, but at a slight dis- 

 tance below these seem to occur in considerable abundance. 

 We have the greatest amount of these tracks in the lower beds 

 of the quarry, and here they present a different aspect, the 

 nature of the flags and their colour also varying from the 

 higher portions of the strata ; and the most abundant occur- 

 rence of these impressions is in the strata which have a dark 

 colour, and these dark-coloured flags constitute the portion 

 which is wrought for commercial purposes, the higher and 

 lighter-coloured flags being rejected as rubbish. With these 

 dark-coloured flags there occur intercalated beds which are 

 devoid of the flaggy nature, in a great measure, not being 

 easily divided along the laminae of bedding ; and these are 

 regarded as building stones. The latter prevail most abun- 

 dantly in the lower portion of the flaggy strata, and they gra- 

 dually assume a more important position, until they form ex- 

 clusively the lower portion of the more solid strata as here 

 exposed. 



The inclination of the strata which form the deposits at this 

 locality is towards the north, at an angle of 15°. Beds of a 

 similar nature seem to form the whole south-west portion of 

 the county of Clare ; and we have them well developed at Kil- 

 kee, about nine miles north-west from Kilrush. Here they are 

 also worked for flags and building-stones, and they present 

 the same lithological features, and afford the same fragments 

 of plants, as well as tracks of annelids, as occur at Money 

 Point ; and in every respect they appear identical, having the 

 same angle of inclination and direction of dip at the quarry 

 where they are wrought. 



This, however, so far as respects the latter, appears only in 

 local circumstances, since we find the same deposits, which are 

 well seen in the cliffs of this coast, in the neighbourhood of 

 Kilkee, having various inclinations and directions. 



Referring more particularly to the annelid tracks, these 

 occur in three conditions. When they are in their most perfect 

 state, in the faces of the higher greenish-gray flags, they have 

 the form of meandering tracks, about half an inch across, and 



