Coffey and Praeger — The Antrim Raked Beach. 149 



sections have occasionally been laid open to examination.^ For our 

 present purposes the extensive exposures on the site of the Alexandra 

 Dock, which have been fully described,'^ may be taken (fig. 1). Here, 

 overlying the latest Glacial deposits (fine red sands and clays), we find 

 an old land surface,^ represented by a bed of peat, lying at a depth of 

 some 28 feet below high-tide level. This is the oldest post-Glacial 

 land surface in the district ; and it shows, moreover, a higher level of 

 the former land than is apparent from other local evidence. In this 

 peat remains of " Irish Elk," Eed Deer, and Wild Boar occur, but no 

 remains of Man have been detected. Overlying the old land-sui'face is 

 a series of marine deposits, showing varied depths of superincumbent 

 sea. At Alexandra Dock there is first 6 feet of shallow-water clay ; 

 then above that 6 feet of clay of a deeper-water type, to which local 

 workers, on faunistic evidence, have assigned a depth of at least 

 5 fathoms ; and overlying this, further shallow-water deposits of 

 clay and sand. The deep-water type of clay, which is the most 

 remarkable bed of the series, is seen again in Larne Lough, in Lough 

 Foyle, and in Strangford Lough.* It varies but little in character in 

 these different places, and has a remarkably abundant and beautifully 

 preserved fossil fauna, which is indicative of a climate if anything 

 milder than the present.^ 



1 See S. A. Stewart: "The Latest Fluctuations of the Sea-level on our own 

 Coasts." Eighth Ann. Report Belfast Nat. Field Club, pp. 55-57. 1871. And "A 

 List of the Fossils of the Estuarine Clays of Down and Antrim." Ibid., Appendix, 

 pp. 27-40. 



2 Praeger: ''On the Estuarine Clays at the new Alexandra Dock, Belfast." 

 Proc. Belfast Nat. Field Club, series 2, vol. ii.. Appendix for 1886-87, pp. 29-52. 

 1887. 



^ It may be noted that Sir A, Geikie, who believes that many of the submerged 

 peats do not represent former land- surfaces in situ, but were formed in lagoons, or 

 by the sliding of beds of Peat, has recently referred to this Belfast bed as one of 

 the most satisfactory instarces of submerged land-surfaces. (Q.J. G. S., vol. Ix. 

 (Proc), page c: 1904.) 



^ Praeger : " Report on the Estuarine clays of the North-east of Ireland." Proc. 

 R. I. Acad., series 3, vol. ii., pp. 212-289. 1892. 



5 It is worthy of note that in the Firth of Clyde, similar evidence of a slightly 

 milder climate during the post-Glacial submergence has been adduced by Brady, 

 Crosskey, and Robertson (Monograph of the Post-Tertiary Entomostraca of 

 Scotland, &c., pp. 80-84. Pala^outographical Society, 1874). 



