II. Some Notes on a Recent Trip in Ireland, and Thoughts suggested by them

Abstract

Having a few days to spare in the month of July, I bethought me of a ramble in Ireland, and taking ship, I landed at Sligo on the north-west coast, finding myself at once on the Carboniferous limestone, the uppermost of the hard rocks in that neighbourhood, and which is immediately overlaid by deposits of quaternary age. On a reference to the geological map, it will be seen that, speaking roughly, Ireland consists of a great central plain, girdled with rocks of lower palæozoic age. This central district, which forms about one-half of the whole area of the island, is a very noticeable feature in the physical geography of the country, and is well seen on the railway journey from Sligo to Dublin, where, in many places, as far as the eye can reach on either side, there is neither hill nor even hillock to be seen, nothing but a country so uniformly flat that, but for its colour, you might take it for the sea, with sluggish rivers and peat bogs, which are neither few nor far between. Throughout the whole extent of this great plain, with the exception of a few patches, the uppermost rock is Carboniferous limestone, as might be guessed from the fact that it is used for all the buildings, public and private, the bridges, the roadside and field dykes, and even for metalling the roads. Its peculiar fossils—corals, encrinites, and shells—may be seen weathered out wherever there is an exposed surface. I now exhibit This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract