22 Praeger — The. Estuarine Clays 
of sand above. Shells are far more abundant than in the upper clay, hut the 
number of species much more limited, and they are many of them in a fragile 
condition. Eare forms which were noticed here are Scaphander ligmrius , 
Pleurotoma septangularis , and Eulima bilineatcr, also Philine scabra, Pectenpusio, 
and Jllactra solida , var. ettiptica , which are new to the Clays. At the base the 
bed becomes very sandy, and Tellina Palthica is abundant, along with quantities 
of Cardium edule of small size. The lowest zone consists of grey sand, and is 
quite unfossiliferous. 
5. Immediately underlying the basal sandy layer of the lower clay is the 
hed of peat before -mentioned, which is now some 27 feet helow high water 
mark, showing a corresponding subsidence of the land. Of course a far greater 
subsidence, followed by upheaval, has taken place ; for if the upper clay was 
deposited in 40 feet of water, the total depression must have amounted to 50 or 
60 feet, followed by 30 or 40 feet of subsequent upheaval. The peat is one to 
two feet thick, very much compressed, and had originally a much greater depth, 
as is shown by the flat ellipses into which round branches have been pressed. 
It is full of trunks and boughs of trees, some of which extend upward into the 
grey sand. Among the vegetable remains, Willow, Hazel, and Alder are easily 
recognisable. Hazel nuts occur, and the cones of the Scotch Fir. The broad 
leaves of the Iris are frequent, with remains of rushes and sedges. But the 
most interesting fossils which the submerged peat yielded were thebones^of 
laige quadrupeds— a tusk and two portions of the jaw of the Wild Boar, and a 
rib, vertebra, and leg-bone of the Eed Deer. Wing-cases of insects are of not 
unfrequent occurrence, and in a tolerable state of preservation. In one place a 
layer of grey sand occurred in the middle of the peat, rapidly thinmng out m 
all directions. A sample of this was kindly examined microscopically by Mr. 
Joseph Wright, F.G.S., but no organic remains were found. That the vegeta- 
tion which formed this peat flourished on the spot on which it now rests, and 
was not drifted thither, is proved by the abundance of fine roots which descend 
several feet into the underlying deposit, which consists of 
6 Grey sand, some two to three feet deep, very fine on the top, coarser 
below. In addition to the roots from the peat, of which the sand is fufl, me 
only organisms which this bed yielded were Foramimfera ana Ostracoda, oi 
which Mr. Wright, who has very kindly examined samples of all the deposits a, 
the Dock for microscopic forms, detected seven species, namely 
seminulum, Sulimim pupoides, Lagena lavigaU, Jtotalia Beccarn, honvmna 
depressula. Loxoconcha guttata , Cythere pellucida. 
7 The grey sand merges into fine red glacial sand, a deposit winch is 
largely developed all aronnd Belfast. It is very barren in organic the 
only fossils detected being two Foraminifera and two Ostracoda : t ySl °” 
striato -punctata, Rotalia Beccarii, Cythere pellucida, Loxoconcha guUcua^ 
This sand, which contains occasional clayey layers, had a thickness o 
four feet, and rested on „ , , iTl not 
8. Very fine tough red clay, of glacial age, the base of whxc 
