198 Proceeding}^ of the Royal Irish Academy. 



are seen in the photograph. In some parts of the pit these surfaces 

 coalesce, and there is probably not much difference in date between 

 thera. It was from the upper of these old surfaces that Mr. Coffey dug- 

 out, in 1897, the fragments of a vessel of pottery, with round bottom, 

 and the scraper, borer, and other objects of flint shown in fig. 13. They 

 lay together within a space of 2^ feet square. A fragment of the 

 cutting end of a highly-polished stone celt was found loose in the pit. 

 These objects are characteristically Neolithic, and we are certainly 

 dealing with a [N'eolithic sui'face. 



The above observations at Portstewart, which lies only 13 miles 

 E.N'.E. of Broighter, prove conclusively that the ground on which the 

 gold ornaments were found has been a land surface, with an elevation 

 at least as great as at present, since IS'eolithic times ; the greater part 

 of the movement of depression, and the whole of the movement of 

 elevation, which fonned the post-Glacial raised beach of the north-east 

 of Ireland, having been accomplished during Neolithic times. 



Conclusion. 



Referring once more to the diagram constructed for Larne (Plate IV., 

 fig. 2), we can now get a step further. The Larne beach deposits 

 show that Neolithic man was in existence from almost the commence- 

 ment of the deposition of that series, until after its conclusion — =from 

 the point P, approximately, to some point beyond JSf. The further 

 evidence of Whitepark Bay and Portstewart carries on the Neolithic 

 period to y, the conclusion of the period of elevation. Applying this 

 to the Belfast diagram (Plate IV., fig. 1), we have the Neolithic period 

 extending from somewhere near the top of the lower estuarine clay 

 (or earlier), through the upper estuarine clay, to the beach deposit of 

 yellow sand which overlies it, or possibly later. 



The Mersey district in England, and the Eorth and Tay districts in 

 Scotland, present a series of deposits showing oscillations correspond- 

 ing closely with those of the North of Ireland. As regards age, the 

 evidence on the English side of the Irish Sea appears still to be slight ; 

 but the occurrence of Roman remains in the silts which represent the 

 final small depression, throw the main movements of the series back to 

 a remote period, and there is nothing to contradict the assumption that 

 these movements were Neolithic, as in Ireland. In Scotland the 

 evidence at present available is somewhat contradictory. The occur- 

 rence of early kitchen-middens with marine shells along the edge of 



