428 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
supposed humerus of tlie DryopitJiecus, from the miocene of the South of 
France, as figured in M. Lartet's memoir (Comptcs Rendus de V Academie 
des Sciences, Juillct 28, 1856), agrees with that of the Eppelsheim femur." 
Ieish Dkift Fossils. — The rarity of the occurrence of fossils in the 
deposit known as the " Drift," which extends far and wide over the low 
country in Ireland, may excuse the folloAving communication. 
For a long time past I have taken advantage of opportunities to search 
these gravels, clays, and sands, m the hope of finding even, a fragment of 
a drift fossil, but imtil lately without success : — In the early part of last 
month, however, I was driving from the town of Sligo southwards, towards 
the micaceous and gneissose range (continuous with the Ox Chain), which 
passes along the southern shore of Lough Gill, and near the foot of these 
mountaii.s having observed a tract of drift hillocks stretching from the 
lake to Ballysodare Bay, I stopped to examine a gravel pit in one of 
them beside the road, situated in the townland of Drumiskybole, and- 
about two miles from the sea. It appeared to have been opened at first 
to a depth of about five feet, and a smaller pit was sunk within it to a ver- 
tical depth of some six feet more ; apparently, to obtain fine sand, like that 
on the seashore, which occurred irregularly amongst coarse gravel and 
small boulders of the local rocks ; the sand predominating at the bottom 
of the pit. I searched in this sand with no better success than usual, but 
was surprised to find in the vertical side of the pit, within three feet of the 
top, a cluster of mussel shells, together with small, decayed, woody frag- 
ments among the coarser rubble. The place immediately over and about 
the shells bore no trace of having been disturbed, \Nhile a couple of feet 
above them the upper edge of the pit had somewhat this appearance. 
The shells lay in irregular positions, rather than upon their sides, in the 
interstices between the stones ; some of which, just above them, were 
nearly a foot long. Many of the shells were unbroken, some were closed, 
and they seemed to have slipped downwards into where I found them, 
but there was no trace whatever of a space large enough for them to 
have passed through in the overlying and apparently undisturbed gravel. 
I have them by me now, and they resemble in almost every respect the 
dead shells which might be found along the seashore, except that they are 
not so clean. From the position in which I found them, if they were there 
before the pit was opened, they must have been some seven feet below the 
surface of the hill, and I saw nothing about the place to show that they 
had been artificially introduced since. The rarity of the occurrence only, 
led me to look about the neighbouring fields, where I saw that the ground, 
as is usual in that country, had been manured with seaweed, along with 
which such shells might possibly have been brought from the sea ; but I 
found nothing to connect this circumstance with the occurrence of the 
shells in the gravel-pit, and I only mention it to show that it was not 
overlooked, in case there should exist a remote possibility of the shells I 
found having been brought in this way. 
On the other hand, supposing the shells to have been really in situ, was 
it equally as likely that they would be 'found in the coarse gravel, etc., as 
in the fine sand beneath P 
The general uncertainty regarding the contents of most drift deposits 
would have prompted me to leave the shells \a here they were, if it did not 
seem more likely that they would come do-o n and be carried away in some 
of the next few cart-loads of sand taken from the pit, than that they would 
ever be visited by any one so accustomed to finding drift fossils as to be 
able to say whether they were really in place or not. 
I have only to add, that such shells as have been hitherto found in the 
