182 PEOFESSOR EDWARD HULL, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., ON 



western end of the estuary to the shore of L. Lomond at Bahnaha, 

 being only eleven miles. During the submer«jence L. Lomond 

 must have been a salt-water tirth or sea loch. (See Map, p. 175.) 



Raised hcacli of tlie Irish Coast. — The northern coast of 

 Antrim is at so short a distance from that of Cantyre that it is 

 natural to suppose that whatever changes of level affected the 

 latter must also have been, to a greater or less extent, extended 

 to the former, and such is unquestionably the case. The 

 " 25-feet raised beach " of the west coast of Scotland is 

 represented also on the coast of Antrim by " the 15-feet beach" 

 which may be traced at intervals all round the coast of 

 Donegal, Londonderry, Antrim, Down, and southwards to that 

 •of Wicklow, wherever protected from the direct action of the 

 waves. Its highest limit is about 15 feet above high- water 

 mark at Portrush, Larne, and Belfast Lough ; but, with the 

 exception of a diminution of level as compared with the raised 

 beach of Scotland, it presents all the features which I have 

 described as characterising the Scottish terrace. At Larne 

 Harbour, for example, tlie terrace rises from 15 to 20 feet high, 

 composed of stratified sand and gravel, with numerous blanched 

 marine shells of existing species. At Kilroot on the north 

 shore of Belfast Lough, the beach contains numerous arrow- 

 heads or spearheads of worked flint rudely sculptured. These 

 are the only works of human art which have been found in this 

 Irish beach.* The level of the beach itself gradually falls as 

 we trace it southwards by the coast of Louth and Dublin bay till 

 at CO. Wicklow it almost descends to the level of high-water of 

 spring tides.t All along the inland border of the terrace in the 

 north of Ireland we find similar features to those of Cantyre, 

 namely, the old coast cliff, sometimes perforated by caves in 

 which bones of deer, sheep, goats, otters, badgers and birds 

 were found by the late Dr. Bryce and Dr. McDonnell some 

 years ago. . Kemarkable sea-stacks occur at Ballycastle and 

 Island Magee rising above the terrace and now out of reach of 

 the waves. From the above account it will be seen that the 



* The gold " Celtic " ornaments, etc., recently discovered lying on the 

 surface of the raised beach, and covered over by the soil, have been 

 determined by the Court of Chancery not to have been directly con- 

 nected with the raised beach itself, but to have been liidden for safety 

 under the soil after the elevation of the land. This does not uphold the 

 view of Mr. Arthur Evans as to the deposition of the ornaments as 

 described by him in Archceologia. vol. Iv (1897). 



t I have described this beach in some detail in my Physical Geology of 

 Ireland, 2nd edit., p. 138. 



