265 



the south-east side the surface rock is trap, the layers dipping eastward 

 into the water. 



This rock is visible in many places round the shores of Larne Lough. 

 Land-slips have taken place occasionally, by which the public road was 

 rendered impassable. An account of one of these slips, by Mr. James 

 Mac Adam, is printed in the " Dublin Geological Journal," I., 100. 



The lias is also visible at Collin Glen, four miles south-west of Eel- 

 fast. Again, in the little deerpark, a mile south-west of Glenarm, 

 where it is about 100 feet thick, and where the whole eastern face of 

 the hill is covered with masses of chalk, which have slipped down from 

 the outcrop of that rock, which rises inland, and takes a south-west 

 course from this place. This is occasioned by the soft beds of bluish- 

 grey clay which are interstratined in the lias rock, and which, when 

 at all accessible to water, grow quite soft, and are not able to hold up 

 any superincumbent mass when it so softens. "When one mass of rock 

 slips down, or is removed, new fissures are made above it, by which 

 the drainage water of the surface descends again to act upon the blue 

 clay stratum, and thus become the source .of another slip, and so on. 



It is seen next at Parishagh, a mile north-west of Glenarm. The 

 line of the road appears to be cut out of the steep ground near the bot- 

 tom of the lias there — and a troublesome neighbour it is to the road. 

 Every week of wet weather acts upon it, so as often to cover half the 

 road with the black muddy mass which slips down from the higher 

 ground. In the townland of Bay, half a mile farther on, last summer, 

 (1858) about half the width of the public road slid away into the water 

 for several perches in length ; and to prevent danger at night, there was 

 a temporary fence of stakes and ropes put up along the edge of the 

 breach. 



So it is wherever the lias clay occurs in steep escarpments. At 

 Garron Point, three large masses of chalk have slipped down from the 

 cliff, where the outcrop of it stands between 200 and 300 feet above sea 

 level, besides many smaller masses. A mile or two to the west of 

 this, towards Ardclinis, the public road has many a time subsided, and 

 slipped down in parts, so that it is often inconvenient, and sometimes 

 impassable — so much so, that it requires constant attention to keep it 

 in order. 



"No more lias is seen to the west of Ardclinis until it reappears 

 twenty miles off on the north coast at "Whitepark, near the village of 

 Ballintoy. At Clegnagh, the height of the top of the chalk precipice 

 is 311 feet. The chalk is about 210 feet thick, so that there is about 

 100 feet from sea level up to the base of the chalk ; of this, the green- 

 sand may be 20 feet, leaving 80 feet over water for the lias ; it may 

 be as much more under. It is seen only in spots, as there is a great 

 talus of sand hills along the base of the cliff down to near the water. 

 The shore itself under high- water, is all covered with sand, smooth, 

 hard, and gently sloping seaward. 



Lias is again visible at the Skerries rocks, and at Portrush ; but 

 here it is in the condition of a flinty slate, and very hard, being in con- 



