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THE GEOLOGY OF HOOK POINT. 



By Professor R. Harkness, F.R.S. F.G.S. 



There is something about the margins of Ireland, as seen on a map, 

 and even more so when these margins are visited, which gives to this 

 island a peculiar rugged aspect. Its northern, western, and southern 

 sides are penetrated by deep bays, and cut into prominent headlands 

 by the force of the waves of the Atlantic ; and this erosive power of 

 the ocean has not only added much to the boldness and beauty of its 

 coasts, but has also revealed to us much information concerning its 

 physical structure, and the conditions under which many of its rocky 

 masses were formed. 



Among the many promontories which stand out to tell us of the 

 destructive operations of the restless sea, is one which forms the 

 western extremity of the county of Wexford, and which is known as 

 Hook Point. This has its records of history in connexion with the 

 state and condition of Ireland at a period when that country first 

 became the permanent abode of the Saxon. 



A short distance eastward from Hook lies Bag-un-brun, the spot 

 on which the Normans first trod in Ireland, when 1,300 English, led 

 by Strongbow, arrived to assist and foster those international quarrels 

 which rendered that country an easy conquest for its foreign foe. 



Hook Point has, however, a more ancient record to reveal — a history 

 of a state of things long antecedent to the period ere Ireland's 



" Faithless sons had betrayed her." 

 In its stony bosom, torn and lacerated by the angry waves, is written 

 the history of circumstances and conditions which existed at a time, 

 not only long previous to the English invasion, but antecedent to the 

 existence of the human race on the surface of the globe, — even 

 anterior to the time when many of those lands which are now the 

 abode of the human family were elevated from the bosom of their 

 parent ocean. The stony hieroglyphics of Hook Point speak to us of 

 a period so far back in the abyss of Time, that if we contrast this 

 period with that of other rocky records, we can only arrive at the 

 conclusion, that long ere the heads of the Alps or the Himalayas were 



