BARENESS — THE GEOLOGY OF HOOK POINT. 



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lifted up, the stony matter of Hook was formed, and had the arrange- 

 ment which it now exhibits to us. 



Its rocks are older than the great mass of rocks w^hich afford the 

 food of the steam-engine, — man's great organ of progress, — and they 

 equal in antiquity the hard grey limestones of the north of England, 

 which support the coal-bearing beds of that region. 



Hook Point is a spot of much geological interest, and the limestones 

 of which, in a great measure, it consists are perfect charnel-houses of 

 solid skeletons of beings which existed in an ancient sea. 



Although Hook Point is composed of strata which are know^n to 

 the geologist under the name of the Carboniferous Limestone, these 

 are not the only rocks which enter into the composition of the 

 promontory terminating in this headland. The whole of the geology 

 in connexion with this portion of the county of Wexford is of great 

 interest, and tells of circumstances and agencies which produced 

 different results, as these several conditions and agencies differed from 

 each other. The structure of the great mass of the county of Wexford 

 consists of rocky strata, which are designated Lower Silurian, and which 

 are equivalent, in geological age, with the great mass of rocks forming 

 the mountainous range traversing Scotland from north-north-east to 

 south-south-west, south of the Forth and Clyde, and which is now known 

 under the general name of the Southern Highlands of Scotland. Wales, 

 too, has rocks which occupy the same geological position ; and from the 

 circumstance that these rocks are well developed in the neighbourhood 

 of the town of Llandeilo, the illustrious author of the Silurian System 

 has given them the name of Llandeilo-flags. In the south of Ireland 

 these Lower Silurian rocks consist not only of deposits such as emanate 

 from the ordinary action of marine causes, but they have, associated 

 with the usual products of aqueous action, beds of ashes resulting 

 from the matter evolved from ancient volcanos, which were in active 

 operation at that remote geological epoch ; and these volcanic ashes, 

 falling upon the surface of the ancient sea, were sifted and arranged, 

 and finally deposited among shells and corals, imbedding these animal 

 remains often in particles w^hich retain, to a great extent, their original 

 crystalline form, as the ash of feJ spathic lava. None of these ancient 

 ashes enter into the structure of the promontory of which Hook Point 

 forms the southern termination, although they approach very nearly 



