is concerned. The species thus excluded from his list of the estuarine clay fauna are as follow:-Pholas dactylus, P. parva (probably recent), Solen siliqua, Ceratisolen legumen, Tellina fabula, Donax vittatus, Venus exoleta, Cyprina islandica, Montacuta bidentata, M. ferruginosa, Mytilus modiolus, Pleurotoma rufa, Terebella conchilega, Serpula vermicularis. It is probable that some of these were derived from the washing down of estuarine clay in the vicinity. In 1871, S. A. Stewart published his Paper, "A List of the Fossils of the Estuarine Clays of the Counties of Down and Antrim," which has been already referred to, and the same year read before the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club a communition on 66 The latest Fluctuations of the Sea-level on our own Coasts."2 In the latter Paper the lessons that may be learned by study of the estuarine clay series are for the first time pointed out, and the conclusions of Mr. Stewart correspond very much with those at which the present writer has arrived, and which have been already set forth. The former Paper comprises annotated and tabular lists, showing the results of Canon Grainger's and the author's investigations; the latter having been conducted during the construction of Spencer Basin in Belfast Harbour, as well as at Magheramorne and Newtownards. In this Paper no less than 110 species and varieties of Mollusca are recorded from the Belfast beds, and a few Crustacea, Annelida, and Foraminifera. A list of 29 species of Ostracoda, found at various depths in estuarine clay obtained from excavations in Belfast Harbour, is given in the "Monograph of the Post-tertiary Entomostraca of Scotland," published by the Palæontographical Society in 1874, and is quoted on a subsequent page of the present Report. The Foraminifera of the Belfast beds were catalogued by Joseph Wright3 in 1880, from clay obtained at Cooke's Statue, from a well at Kingstreet, and from Mac Laine's Dock in Corporation-street. In 1887 the present writer took advantage of the fine sections exposed in the construction of the Alexandra Graving Dock, to make a careful examination of the beds and their fauna, and the results appear the Proceedings of the Belfast Nat. Field Club, 1886-7, Appendix. Lately, Alfred Bell has added a few more species to the Belfast fauna. From the above it will be seen that the Belfast beds have been thoroughly examined, and our knowledge of them is tolerably complete.

1 Eighth Annual Report Belfast Nat. Field Club, 1871, Appendix.

2 Eighth Annual Report Belfast Nat. Field Club, 1871, pp. 55-7.

in

Op. cit.

The area covered by the Belfast Lough estuarine clays is considerable. They stretch up the banks of the River Lagan as far as the first lock on the canal, and down the shores of the lough as far as Holywood on the southern, and Whitehouse (at least) on the northern side, and they extend over an area of some ten square miles. In Belfast they underlie a considerable portion of the town; the old sea-cliff which formed their limit, and which is still distinctly traceable, is well described in Mac Adam's Paper. This escarpment consists of New Red Sandstone, capped by Boulder clay, and its abrupt slope, rising from the estuarine flat, can be seen with advantage extending from near the Northern Counties Railway terminus in a south-westerly direction, between York-street on the lower side and North Queen-street and Millfield on the upper, for nearly a mile, being especially conspicuous in the neighbourhood of Pepperhill-court, where the steepness of the escarpment has caused flights of steps to be used to surmount it. It is again conspicuous at Utility-street, beyond the Great Northern Railway terminus, where a high ridge of Boulder clay rises abruptly from the flats. A tongue of estuarine deposits extends up the valley of the Blackstaff; and Hyndman' has recorded Scrobicularia piperata as obtained eighteen feet below the surface at Linfield Mill, as well as thirty feet below the surface at Durham-street Mill, and the clay can be traced westward to Broadway factory, two and a-half miles distant from the present sea-margin. On the Co. Down side of the Lagan the Newtownards road probably forms the southern boundary of the deposits; but a tongue of clay runs up the valley of the Connswater nearly a quarter of a mile above the bridge which carries the Newtownards road across the stream, as shown by the following species obtained by the writer from excavations made on the river bank for the construction of a reservoir there:-Ostrea edulis, Mytilus edulis, Cardium edule, Tapes decussatus, T. pullastra, Tellina balthica, Scrobicularia piperata, Littorina rudis, L. litorea, Corylus avellana. The estuarine clays underlie all the upper end of the lough; but near Sydenham and Tillysburn the Boulder clay and overlying red sand and submerged peat rise to the surface; at Holywood the estuarine clay is again of considerable depth. An outlier of the Belfast beds occurs at Kilroot, on the Antrim shore, near the entrance to the lough, and twelve miles below Belfast; and narrow beds of this age underlie the gravels of Ballyholme Bay on the opposite shore. The submerged peat appears

1 Report of British Association, 1857.

to underlie the clays throughout the greater part of the Belfast Lough area, as will be seen from the details which follow.

For the purposes of the present Report, the estuarine clays of Belfast Lough were examined at six points-at Kilroot, on the Antrim shore, where a small outlier of clay and peat occurs; at Broadway, by the river Blackstaff, and Albert Bridge, by the Lagan, both at the upper extremity of the estuarine area; at Alexandra Dock, by the river, two miles below Albert Bridge; at the West Bank, in the centre of the lough, two miles below Alexandra Dock; and at Holywood, the limit of the deposit on the County Down shore.

(6.) Kilroot.-A small patch of peat, underlying typical Scrobicularia clay, and resting on Boulder clay, occurs between tides on the shore close to Kilroot railway station, where it was first noticed by Stewart. The peat contains hazel nuts and stumps of Scotch fir in situ. The estuarine clay yields S. piperata, Tellina balthica, and a few other littoral shells, and rests directly on the peat. I am informed by Mr. Wm. Swanston, F.G.S., that before the existings ea-wall was built, the clay was seen cropping out on the beach from high-water mark to about half tide, and running in under the raised beach, containing flint implements and marine shells, which has been described by Professor Hull1 and others, and which extends for some distance along the shore to the westward.

A continuation of the peat bed occurs at Carrickfergus, two miles west of Kilroot, on the shore between tides, where it underlies the sand and gravel of the beach. At this place hazel-nuts have been obtained, in which the kernel is replaced by crystalline carbonate of lime. Reference to these nuts may be found in the Minute Book of the Geological Society of London, under date 1810, February 2, and in their Transactions, Series 1, vol. 4, p. 443; in M'Skimin's "History of Carrickfergus" (Belfast, 1811), p. 110; in Mantell's "Medals of Creation," vol. 1., p. 71, and Plate ш, figs. 6 and 7; and in Dickie's "Flora of Ulster," p. 117. Specimens of the nuts are preserved in the museum of the Geological Society of London, the museum of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, and in the Canon Grainger Collection at the Belfast Free Public Library. In the paragraphs above-mentioned the nuts are described as having the pericarp unchanged; but in some of the specimens in both of the Belfast museums, the shell of the nut is quite as hard as the interior. M'Skimin states that some of the willow and elder timber which

1 British Association Report, 1872.

accompanies the nuts is likewise petrified. I have not succeeded in obtaining these nuts in situ, nor do I know of their having been obtained recently.

In Bangor Bay and Ballyholme Bay, on the opposite shore of Belfast Lough, the submerged peat may be seen again, appearing on the beach near low-water mark. At Ballyholme, the peat is only four to six inches thick, but contains trunks and branches of large Scotch firs, and stumps of considerable size in an upright position. It rests on Boulder clay; above it is six inches of gray, unfossiliferous sand, which is capped by some twenty feet of stratified gravels containing marine shells. The occurrence of the Ballyholme peat bed is mentioned by M'Skimin (p. 111).

(6a.) Broadway.-In the bed of the Blackstaff stream at Broadway damask factory, a deposit of blue sandy clay may be seen, which is several feet thick at least, and perhaps much more. Although no shells could be found there, a number of species of Foraminifera occurred, as detailed below, attesting the marine origin of the bed. Though this is the most western point to which I have traced the Belfast estuarine deposits, there can be little doubt that they extend further up the valley of this stream, and underlie the Bog meadows, which stretch in a level expanse south-westward for a further distance of over a mile.

(7.) Albert Bridge.-During the excavations for the County Antrim abutment of the new Albert Bridge, over the Lagan, in the winter of 1888, a good exposure of the bed occurred. The section was found to be as follows:

High-water mark is here thirteen feet above the surface of the estuarine clay. The upper clay, if ever present, has been washed away, and the bed that replaces it is the recent creation of the river. The estuarine clay was typical lower clay, brownish in colour, rather sandy in texture, and full of Cardium edule, Tapes decussatus, Tellina

1 See R. Young, "Remarks on the Recent Changes of Coast Level at Ballyholme Bay, Co. Down," Proc. Belfast Nat. Hist. and Phil. Society, 1871, p. 39.

balthica, Scrobicularia piperata: hazel nuts and elytra of beetles were noticed in it; and the pelvic bone of a red deer occurred near its junction with the underlying gravels. Foraminifera were very rare in the clay, and the specimens poor.

(8). Alexandra Dock.-The construction of the Alexandra Graving Dock, in 1886-7, furnished the most complete sections of the local estuarine clay series of which there is any record. The excavations extended over an area of one thousand feet in length by about one hundred feet in breadth, and reached a maximum depth of fifty feet below high-water mark. Over the greater part of this area the section was as follows:

The surface of the estuarine clay coincided with Ordnance Survey datum, or, in other words, was five feet below low-, and thirteen feet below high-water mark.

Towards the northern end of the excavations, the red sand rose up as a thick bank, the peat and gray sand thinned out, and the thickness of the estuarine clay was much reduced, the section at the dock entrance being :