By PRoF. EDWARD HULL, M.A., F.R.S. 13 
been preserved to us as relics, or monuments, of more extensive 
tracts. Such patches are like the solitary columns, or noble 
gateways of the ancient cities of the world, the original extent 
of which is to be traced by the foundations of the walls, or 
buildings, which spread widely around the still upright monu- 
ments. Taking the series of strata as it occurs in the Kilkenny 
coal-district, we find that the thickness of strata originally 
superimposed upon the Carboniferous limestone of the central 
plain of Ireland, was at least nearly 2,000 feet as indicated by the 
following table :— 
Carboniferous series of Kilkenny and Carlow. 
Thickness. 
Feet. 
g. Upper and middle coal-measures, incomplete, in part 
denuded away, é : : : 390 
Jj. Lower coal-measures (with thin ala): : ; 400 
e. Flagstone series, : : , z 650 
d. Shale series (‘‘ Yoredale beds’ "), : ‘ 500 
1,940 
c. Upper, . - 550 
Carboniferous Limestone * 1s Middle, . : sen 1,850 
a. Lower, . . “00) 
3,790 
Now, of the above series, all the beds from ¢ to g inclusive, 
have been stript by denuding agencies from off the surface 
of the country lying at the base of the Dublin and Wicklow 
range of mountains, and having a combined thickness of about 
2,490 feet.t 
If we restore the strata as they existed at the close of the Car- 
boniferous period we shall have to pile up this 2,490 feet in thick- 
ness, of limestones, soft shales, flagstones and sandstones, beds of 
coal; all friable, more or less loosely compacted and easily des- 
tructible strata, and then it will be found that (allowing also 
some amount of denudation for the harder granites and schists of 
the mountains) the ground to the north will have been relatively 
higher than that now forming the ridge of Killiney and Shankill. 
Thus, on the elevation of the whole country into a land-surface at 
the close of the Carboniferous Period, and assuming a slight slope 
* “Explanation” of Sheet 137 of the Geological Survey Maps, p. 10. 
t The middle limestone (4) forms. the floor of the Dublin district. xo 
