330 



KOTES OF A GEOLOGIST IN IRELAND DUEING AUGUST 

 AND SEPTEMBER, 1857. 

 By the Rev. W. S. Stmoitds, Rector of Pendock. 



( Continued from page 296.) 



On leaving Dublin, we travelled northwards, for the purpose of 

 examining the carboniferous rocks, and visiting the magnificent collec- 

 tion of fop^'il-fishes in the museum of the Earl of Enniskillen ; we 

 then journ( yed south for Killarney and the Dingle district, but as it 

 may be more convenient to the reader to travel geologically, we will 

 reverse tlie order of our journey, and visit the Upper Silurian and Old 

 Red Sandstone districts before we examine the carboniferous deposits. 



The lower Cambrian rocks of Wales, of which the Oldhamia-schists 

 of Ireland are believed to be the equivalents, pass upwards by insensible 

 gradations into the Lingula-flags, to which they are altogether conform- 

 able. The Lingula-flags are reckoned to be four or five thousand feet 

 thick, and the Llandeilo or Builth-beds, which cover up these, are 

 probably as thick ; but geologists are, as yet, uncertain whether they 

 possess in Ireland any trae equivalents either of the Lingula-flags or of 

 the Llandeilo and Builth deposits. There are, however, fos "'iferous 

 roots of the Bala and Caradoc age in Ireland similar to those wh^'ch, in 

 "Wales, succeed conformably to the Llandeilo and Builth beds, and they 

 may be examined at Courtown, in the county of Wicklow, and again at 

 Tramore, south of Waterford. They are unconformable to the rocks 

 below, which are undoubtedly Cambrian, and thence, we imagine, has 

 arisen the suspicion that the Lingula-beds and Llandeilo-flags have 

 never been deposited in Ireland, or that if they were, they have been 

 denuded and swept away before the deposition of the Bala or Caradoc 

 Btrata. This part of the geology of Ireland is very unsatisfactory, and 

 local geologists appear to know very little respecting the history of the 

 Lower Silurians. 



Eor glorious physical geology and picturesque scenery, commend me 

 to the Reek district beyond Killarney. The geologist should examine 

 carefully the phenomena of the Dingle promontory and the neighbour- 

 hood, and return by the Macgillicuddy's Reeks to Killarney. The 

 Dingle peninsula has been called the key to the geology of the south of 

 Ireland : it may be the key, but the lock is one difficult to open — the 



