September, 1920, The Irish Naturalist. 



81 



THE GLACIAL AND POSTGLACIAL DEPOSITS OF 

 WATERVILLE, CO. KERRY. 



BY H. R. CALLAGAN. 



Waterville and Lough Currane are widely known to the 

 devotees of shooting and fishing, but the artist and geologist 

 have scarcely arrived. 



The rugged ranges of mountains, tilted up at high angles 

 and clothed sparsely with heather and gorse, are at times 

 marvels of colour, and the numerous loughs scattered in 

 profusion amongst their recesses are scenes of stem beauty 

 and solitude. 



The rocks of which the country is composed are ancient 

 in a geological sense, the Old Red Sandstone series pre- 

 vailing, but the latter is not so fossiliferous as in the district 

 that Hugh Miller made famous. Fossils are indeed rare 

 and very badly preserved. The strata are classed as 

 " Glengariff grits " and are of a very hard and durable 

 nature, and very difficult to work for building purposes. 



One consequence of this hardness is that the markings 

 due to the Great Ice Age are almost as sharp to-day as when 

 made by the moving ice. 



An example of the weather-resisting character of these 

 grits is to be found in a fine cromlech in a field on the right 

 hand side of the old road to Rineen, just past the crossing 

 of the Finnyglass river, half a mile from Waterville bridge. 

 Although this cromlech is prehistoric and probably many 

 thousand 3- ears old, and its upper surface has been exposed 

 to the damp weather of the west of Ireland all these 

 centuries ripple-marks are only just beginning to be 

 discernible. As most flags and grits similarly exposed 

 would show strong marks in less than 50 years, this serves 

 as a measure of the hardness of these grits. 



On the south-east side of Lough Currane there are many 

 striking examples of " Roches moutonnees," perched blocks, 

 striations, drift, etc, and all the manifestations found in 

 glaciated districts. The hillsides in places are strewn wdth 

 "erratics " and most of the hollows drift-filled. It will be 



