SYMONDS—NOTES OF A GEOLOGIST IN IRELAND. 377 



accumulation of shale and clay, and being less frequently consolidated 

 into limestone, while there was a great abundance of marine animals, 

 especially gigantic Cephalopods, of which the Ammonite, Eelemnite, 

 and Sepia were the predominant forms. The sea, too, was probably, 

 during most part of the Liassic era, of considerable depth, many parts of 

 which must have resembled a garden of flowers, from the groves of 

 beautiful Pentacrinites, bending their graceful heads with outstretched 

 arms to seize their food. Amongst these many strange species of fish 

 disported themselves, until dispersed in flying shoals as they sought to 

 escape the capacious jaws of some hungry saurian in search of prey. 

 We know from the occurrence of plants and insects and the bones of 

 Pterodactyles that the land and air had their strange inhabitants, and 

 that, in many cases, the coast- line was not far distant whence the rivers 

 conveyed their relics into the ocean ; and the contiguity of the insect- 

 limestones in most localities in Gloucestershire to rocks of greater 

 antiquity indicates, with something like certaint}^, where the old land 

 might be looked for, though, as to its extent or general outline, it is, 

 of course, now impossible even to conjecture. We must be satisfied to 

 search for truth in a humble, patient spirit, while we contemplate with 

 wonder and delight the marvellous records of the past, which is indeed 

 as a fairy scene seemingly rising up and passing away from us as in a 

 dream. 



NOTES OF A GEOLOGIST IN IRELAIS^D DUEIKG AUGUST 

 A^^D SEPTEMBEE, 1857. 

 Py the Rev. S. Symois-ds, Hector of Pendock, and President of 

 the Malvern I^atural History Eield Club. 



{Continued from page 835.) 



A NOTICE of the geology around Killarney having already appeared in 

 the Geologist, by A Brother of the Hammer," it will be sufficient for 

 us to indicate the best localities for sections and fossils, premising that 

 the upper and lower Old Eed Sandstone are unequivocally represented in 

 Ireland, independently of the up^er groujDS of conglomerates, and red and 

 yellow sandstones. 



The Old Eed Conglomerate in Ireland is in many places uncon- 

 formable to the Old Eed Sandstone, and constitutes the base of the 



2 F 



