94 



Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



South of the Shannon the Upper Limestone crops out on the shore 

 three-fourths of a mile east of Foynes station ; and its junction with 

 the shales passes due south to a point ahout eight miles south of New- 

 castle. The west boundary shows, in the northern portion, the 

 Carboniferous Limestone from Elack Head to Fishergate, where it 

 passes beneath the shale series. From Fishergate to some ten miles 

 north of Kerry Head the Carboniferous Limestone is some little dis- 

 tance out to sea, but here it again appears in the cliffs. On the 

 southern boundary the limestone stretches from the shore of Dingle 

 Eay via Killarney to Mallow, a tongue of the Upper Carboniferous beds 

 stretching west from Kanturk to a point south-west of Doneraile. 



In the Barren district, and through the larger portion of County 

 Clare, the beds dip very slowly and regularly into the basin on all 

 sides, often at 5° to 8°, and faults are rare and unimportant; but 

 south of Mutton Island, the dips increase in magnitude, and there is 

 some faulting, which appears to be very local and of no great throw. 



There is, therefore, a regular basin of Carbouiferous Limestone in 

 which the overlying beds rest conformably. 



The junction of the upper beds of the Carboniferous Limestone 

 with the shale series above is well seen at many places in the north 

 and east of the county. 



In the neighbourhood of Lisdoonvarna, the River Aille and its 

 tributary streams have cut down through the shales to the Carboni- 

 ferous Limestone below, and in many cases have sunk through the 

 fissures and cracks of the limestone, leaving a dry, slightly sloping 

 bed of rock which forms the bottom of the ravines. Several sections in 

 the River Aille and the stream flowing due south into it at Lisdoon- 

 varna, called the Kilmoon stream, show exactly the same sequence — 



Black shales, with limestone bullions, i.e. concretionary nodules 

 (with Glyphioceras diadema, Dimorphoceras Gilhertsoni, Ortho- 

 ceras sp.). 



Carboniferous Limestone, well bedded (with Fterinopecten papyra- 

 ceus, Corals and Brachiopoda). 



Similar sections were observed north of Lisdoonvarna, in the 

 streams coming down the east slope of Slieve Elva, also in streams 

 which cross the bog overlying an outlier of the shales in the town- 

 lands of Cullaun and Gregans West. 



In some places the bullions, so conspicuous elsewhere, are absent 

 and the fossils occur flattened and crushed in thin shales. In the 

 Kilmoon Stream, immediately north of Ballydonohoe Bridge, bullions 



