28 
THE GEOLOGY OF HOOK POINT. 
By Professor E. Harkness, F.RS. F.G.S. 
There is something about the margins of Ireland, as seen on a map, 
and even more so when these margins are visited, which gives to this 
island a peculiar rugged aspect. Its northern, western, and southern 
sides are penetrated by deep bays, and cut into prominent headlands 
by the force of the waves of the Atlantic ; and this erosive power of 
the ocean has not only added much to the boldness and beauty of its 
coasts, but has also revealed to us much information concerning its 
physical structure, and the conditions under which many of its rocky 
masses were formed. 
Among the many promontories which stand out to tell us of the 
destructive opei'ations of the restless sea, is one which forms the 
western extremity of the county of Wexford, and which is known as 
Hook Point. This has its records of history in connexion with the 
state and condition of Ireland at a j^eriod when that country first 
became the permanent abode of the Saxon. 
A short distance eastward from Hook lies Bag-un-brun, the spot 
on which the Normans first trod in Ireland, when 1,300 English, led 
by Strongbow, arrived to assist and foster those international quarrels 
which rendered that counti-y an easy conquest for its foreign foe. 
Hook Point has, however, a more ancient record to reveal — a history 
of a state of things long antecedent to the period ere Ireland's 
" Faithless sons had betrayed her." 
In its stuny bosom, torn and lacerated by the angiy waves, is written 
the history of circumstances and conditions which existed at a time, 
not only long previous to the English invasion, but antecedent to the 
existence of the human race on the surface of the globe, — even 
anterior to the time when many of those lands which are now the 
abode of the human family were elevated from the bosom of their 
parent ocean. The stony hieroglyphics of Hook Point speak to us of 
a period so far back in the abyss of Time, that if we contrast this 
period with that of other rocky records, we can only arrive at the 
conclusion, that long ere the heads of the Alps or the Himalayas were 
