136 Epwarp Hutt—The Relations of the Carboniferous, Devonian, and Upper 
plant-like markings, probably those of fucozds, and of some species of plants of the 
group of vascular-cryptogams which have been found near Killarney by the officers 
of the Geological Survey. The Parkmore Point conglomerate, which occurs near 
Ventry in the upper beds of the formation, contains marine shells, &c., of Wpper 
Silurian age.* The shells are found in large pebbles of calcareous sandstone, 
apparently not far removed from their original sites, and therefore strongly sug- 
gestive of the age of the beds amongst which they occur. 
(b.) Geological Age of the Glengariff Beds.—Owing to the absence of fossil 
evidence, the geological age of this group has been somewhat indeterminate. In 
the coast section of the Dingle promontory the beds may be seen graduating 
downwards in a perfectly conformable and unbroken manner into those of similar 
character which contain Upper Silurian forms. On this ground the late Sir R. 
Griffith, as far back as 1857, suggested that they were themselves of Upper 
Silurian age,+ a view supported by the late Mr. John Kelly and other geologists ; 
and they are thus represented in the edition of Griffith’s map which was exhibited at 
the meeting of the British Association at Manchester in 1840, as we are informed 
by the interesting account of the progress of geological discovery in Ireland, given 
by the late President of the Royal Geological Society, the Reverend Maxwell H. 
Close.{ There seems at present to be a general consensus of opinion in favour of 
this view, based upon the intimate relationship of the Glengariff beds with the 
fossiliferous Upper Silurian, as exhibited in the Dingle sections, and the extreme 
discordancy between these beds and those of the Old Red Sandstone and 
Conglomerate, as evinced by numerous sections in the same district. It is the view 
which I myself am inclined to adopt, not only on the grounds ,above stated but 
for additional reasons which I now proceed to state ; namely, the apparent identity 
of the Glengariff beds with those which occupy the banks of Killary Harbour, and 
of which Mweelrea, the highest mountain in the west of Ireland, is formed. 
The Mweelrea beds consist of a series of slates, massive greenish grits and con- 
glomerates, the whole of great thickness. The highest beds, known as the “ Salrock 
Slates,” are found on the south bank of the Little Killary Bay and Killary Har- 
bour, dipping towards the north, and broken off in that direction against the line of 
a great upcast fault, which ranges along the western limb of Killary Harbour in a 
N.N.W. direction.§ The base of the whole series consists of calcareous shales and 
grits with Llandovery fossils and massive conglomerates. Throughout the whole of 
this series, fossils of Upper Silurian age occur at intervals, and have been described 
by Mr. Baily, r.¢.s.]) Owing to the original irregularities of the sea bed (formed 
*“ Explanation ” of sheets 160, 161, &c., of the maps of the Geological Survey, p. 24. 
t “On the relations of the rocks below the base of the Carboniferous Series, ée.” Brit. Assoc. Rep. 
1857. Trans. of Sections, p. 67. 
¢ Journ. Roy. Geol. Soc., Vol. V., 142. 
§ Geol. Survey Map, sheet 84; and Horl. Sections, sheets 25 and 26. 
|| Expl. Mem. Geol. Survey, sheet 83 and 84, p. 26, dc. 
