Geological Relations of the East of Ireland. 
I, Primary Tracts . 
§ 12, The Eastern mountain chain comprehends by far the 
most interesting groups within the field of our examination; the 
rocks that constitute its basis being various and important, and the 
surface no less remarkable for the variety of its wild and picturesque 
beauties. My residence in the interior of this interesting country, 
where I took up my abode on my return from Freyberg in the year 
1793, could not fail to attract my attention to the geological features 
around me: and I had afterwards, unfortunately, during the rebel- 
lion of 1798, and the disturbances which followed that event, an 
opportunity of extending my observations into the wilder and 
uninhabited mountainous region, in the course of the military 
duties, which fell to my lot as a yeomanry officer, at that unhappy 
period. In my farther researches also, of more recent date, the 
county of Wicklow afforded the centre, from whence my excursions 
diverged in various directions, into the remaining tracts that I am 
about to describe, 
§ 13. The leading geological characters of the Eastern district, 
in its northern and north-eastern portions, have been already stated 
in the notes on the mineralogy of the vicinity of Dublin, published 
in 1811, by my friend Dr. Fitton, from the papers of the late Rev. 
Walter Stephens;* by whom several points of contact on the lines 
of junction between the granite and the slaty rocks have been 
correctly pointed out, and some very interesting appearances, on the 
northern and north-eastern confines of the granite, have been described 
in such a manner as to excite regret, that an observer so accurate and 
* See the memoir in the Geological Transactions, Vol. I. p. 169; subsequently 
reprinted with additions in the Philosophical Magazine, Vol. 39. and in a detached 
volume. Phillips, London. 1811, 
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