]94 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



shallow water or between tides. Further, the immense abundance of 

 flint flakes in the surface layers renders it probable that iN'eolithic 

 man persisted after that movement of elevation had set in which made 

 the top of the gravels a land surface. Eut Larne does not show us 

 for how long jN^eolithic man remained in possession after the elevation 

 began, except that the great abundance of the surface flakes postulates 

 a considerable period. 



Evidence from Whiteparh Bay. 



At Whitepark Eay, the black layers," or old land surfaces, occur 

 at various levels among the dunes. Blown sa]id, an aerial deposit, 

 lies not only above the old surfaces, but below them. We thus get 

 the following order of events : — 



(1) Elevation of the land till the ground on which the dunes rest 

 rose beyond the reach of the waves. 



(2) Accumulation of blown sand on this old surface. 



(3) Formation of sward on top of the blown sand, and settlement 

 of i^eolithic man thereon. 



(4) Accumulation of sand on this surface. 



Clearly, therefore, not only the surfaces on which the settlements 

 are situated, but the older surface at the base of the underlying blown 

 sand, must have been above the sea in not later than JN'eolitbic times. 

 If these surfaces below the blown sand were found to correspond in 

 elevation with Broighter, it would necessarily follow that Broighter 

 was elevated above the sea in times not later than Neolithic, instead of 

 between the fourth and sixth centuries of the Christian Era, as con- 

 tended at the trial. To test this point we visited Whitepark Bay, and 

 levels were run from high- water mark to Neolithic sites at four points, 

 and the nature of the deposits underlying and overlying the black layers 

 carefully noted. As regards levels, we found that the Neolithic sites 

 vary from 15 feet to 33 feet above high- water mark. 



In comparing these levels with that of the land at Broighter, one 

 important point must not be lost sight of. Broighter is situated on 

 a land-locked bay, wliicli on that side is extremely shallow. Hence, 

 large waves are not met with on the Broighter coast, and the land 

 proper, i.e. land on which terrestrial vegetation can grow, begins 

 immediately above high-water mark. 



Whitepark Bay and Portstewart, on the contrary, are open to the I 

 North Atlantic, and at both localities a well-marked storm-beach 

 fringes the sea. The elevation of the storm-beach at Whitepark Bay j 



