NOTES AND QUERIES. 



71 



are confined to the Caradoc group, yet I believe that it will be eventually 

 acknowledged that the fossils from Duncannou are Llandeilo types, such as 

 Calymene duplicata, Beyrichia compUcata, Lingida attenuata. 



All the Silurian mollusca from Duncamion, except the black homy Lmgula, 

 have a white silky appearance, in striking contrast to the dark matrix in which 

 they are imbedde(i. This, I imagine, is owing to the shells having been at a 

 reniote period slowly and partially calcined by the action of the heat from the 

 igneous rock in the vicinity. 



The mineral character of the rock also agrees with the Llandeilo flags and 

 dark-coloured schists so well developed in Wales, I therefore wish to record 

 my view of the age of similar dark-coloured rocks at Duncannon, more espe- 

 cially as I cannot ^vithout great difficulty refer them to the Caradoc series, a 

 patch of which I discovered on the opposite shore of Waterford Haven. The 

 trilobites which I obtained there were lent to be described in a work on a 

 northern Irish county then publishing. 



It is to be regretted that, in Portlock's Report of Londonderry and Tyrone, 

 the trilobites which I obtained at Ne^iown Head are stated to have been dis- 

 covered by me at Tramore. The mistake no doubt arose from there being two 

 localities named Newtown Head, one near Tramore, and the other situated 

 between Passage and Woodstown, on the western shore of "Waterford 

 Haven, which I fully explained at the time, but which was unfortunately lost 

 sight of. 



Although a paper of mine, giving a brief account of these fossiliferous strata 

 had been read at a meeting of the Geological Society in ISil, the discovery of 

 those Silui'ian rocks has been erroneously ascribed to the Ordnance Geological 

 Survey in Ireland (Mem. Geol. Surv., Decade 2, pi. x., p. 4) ; and one of the 

 very trilobites which I had lent, has been dedicated by Mr. Salter (at page 3, 

 pi. 7, decade No. 2), to the author of the work above alluded to, as its dis- 

 coverer. So far from the Government Surveyors having discovered the 

 fossiliferous rocks in question, they were wholly unknown to the Survey 

 uutn I pointed them out to Colonel James, R.E., in the spring of lSi-1. 

 Well might the Suiweyors pass them by, for they can only be approaclied 

 M^ith an ebb tide ; and as they are quite level with the shore, the adjacent 

 cliif being destitute of fossils, they did not attract notice till the publication of 

 my paper. 



Eventually these rocks will be covered by the accumulation of the silt and 

 sand which are deposited at every tide, so that all trace of them will be lost. 



Continuing my search for organic remains on the Waterford side of the 

 estuary, I was rewarded, as above indicated, ^-ith the discovery of lower 

 Caradoc rocks of limited extent, which, as I have related, are situated on the 

 shore at some little distance from the cliif at Newto^vn Head, near Woods- 

 town. Prom collecting fossils, I proceeded, in company with my son, Mr. T. 

 Austin, to examine the clay which caps the mass of trap and other rocks 

 forming the headland. The clay which covers the rocks along the line of 

 section, with the exception of the quarry, where it has been removed for the 

 purpose of procuring stone for road-mending, is continuous from Woodstown 

 Strand to Raheen Bridge, which latter is a small structure over the shallow 

 brook that runs down from the high ground to the south of Crook Church and 

 Castle — both edifices in ruins. The rivulet, more to the south, is a mere rill, 

 that has cut its way rather deeply down through the clay. This clay is similar 

 in composition to the diift which covers a great part of the south-eastern district 

 of Ireland. When engaged in examining the clay and tracing the line of a 

 bed of cockles, which, with occasional breaks in its continuity, extends along 

 the coast, and for a considerable distance inland, from Raheen Bridge to 

 Woodstown Strand, a distance of upwards of eight hundred yards, a bone was 



