SYMONDS — NOTES OF A GEOLOGIST IN IRELAND, 
381 
were mucli interested, in travelling from Dandalkto Newbliss, in ob- 
serving the " Escar-drift " of the Irish geologists, which rests in long 
ranges of gravel-hills along the sides of the valleys. The underlying 
rock consists of Silurian slates, and the overlying drift appears to have 
been deposited by quiet eddies. 
The drifts of Ireland are divided by some geologists into : — 1st. The 
Clay Drift. 2nd. The Great Drift. 3rd. The Escar Drift. The last 
is supposed to be the effect of eddies, as the land approached the 
surface.* Much of Ireland has evidently been submerged long after 
the " Boulder-drift" epoch ; and the rounded hills of the "Escar-drift" 
being, to a certain extent, stratified gravels, must have been deposited 
by currents of water, and not by glaciers or floating bergs. 
As we travelled from Newbliss to Enniskillcn, our attention was 
directed to the remains of former lakes, which are now actually in the 
transition state, and turning into red bogs, of which kind the greatest 
portion of the bogs in Ireland consist. An able paper, by Mr. D. 
Moore, " On the plants, which, by their growth and decomposition, 
form the principal part of the Irish turf-bogs," read in section D, at 
the British Association meeting, has enlightened us on a subject of 
much difficulty. 
Mr. Moore divides the varieties of bog into red bog, brown bog, black 
bog, and mountain-bog, and considers " the differences of colour and 
consistences of matter, of which each variety is composed, to depend 
chiefly on the localities where the substances arc produced, according 
as they vary in different degrees of moisture, temperature, and altitude, 
whereby the growth and decomposition of vegetables are affected." 
Red bog and brown bog are the least valuable for fuel, and '''arc 
supposed to have been formed on the sites of extensive ancient lakes or 
very wet morasses, which may be inferred from the very small quantity 
of wood mixed up." Sphagnums constituted a large portion of the 
substance of the peat, and the roots and branches of phanerogamic 
plants form a kind of framework, and bear up the cryptogamic 
species. 
In the absence of all trustworthy experiments, " the rate of increase 
could not well be determined ; but holes, out of which turf had been 
cut, had been observed to be filled up with soft vegetable matter to the 
«See paper, by W. Birmingham. Edin, New Phil Journ., October, 1858, 
page 326. 
