RIDGES OF GRAVEL ON LIMESTONE PLAINS OF IRELAND. 209 
and at an elevation reaching to two, three, and four hundred feet 
higher than the existing surface of the limestone rock itself.” 
“ The limestone field also abounds in rolled calcareous masses, 
pebbles, gravel, sand, and marl, often raised into hillocks or long 
extended ridges, which seem to owe their form to the action of eddies 
and currents. There is scarcely any part of the extensive limestone 
tract in the centre of Ireland, that is not more or less marked by 
them. Sometimes these ridges appear like regular mounds, the work 
of art, forming a continued line of several miles in extent: that 
which passes by Maryborough, in the Queen’s County, is a remarkable 
instance of this kind; and similar mounds, hillocks, and ridges, 
occur also in the counties of Meath, Westmeath, Kildare, Carlow r , 
and other portions of the limestone field, in which the calcareous 
gravel and sand frequently exhibit a stratified disposition, the alter¬ 
nate layers being very distinct from each other.”—Further details 
as to these ridges of limestone gravel may be seen in the Irish Bog 
Reports. 
It is needless to adduce further evidence than this to show the 
effects of diluvial action to be as unequivocally displayed in Ireland 
as in other parts of the British Islands. I do not recollect to have 
seen in England examples of such distinct and lofty ridges of 
diluvial gravel, as those in the limestone plains of Ireland, excepting 
in the level district of Holderness, on the east coast of Yorkshire. 
Here there are similar ridges, known locally by the name of barfs, 
and composed chiefly of rolled chalk flints, and a few primitive 
pebbles (apparently Norwegian). The most remarkable of these is 
near Bransburton, on the north-east of Beverley: it stretches across 
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