The Mesozoic Rocks of the North-east coast of Ireland. (Plate ii.)

Abstract

The grandeur, so distinctive of the scenery of this coast, is due to the nature of the materials of which it is composed. There are many who have heard about the columnar rocks of the Giants’ Causeway, but few know that it is not so much on the ground of possessing such objects of interest as the Causeway or Fair Head, that this coast lays claim to be one of peculiar geological interest. Here, in one narrow strip, we find the only representatives in Ireland of those Mesozoic deposits, which occupy such a broad expanse of country in England. Whether they were at one time deposited, and have been afterwards removed by denudation, or whether the geological history closed for Ireland in the carboniferous period, to be taken up again in the tertiary, must ever remain a matter of doubt. “While the north coast rejoices in the presence of these peculiar deposits, it is also characterised by the absence of the carboniferous limestone, the deposit par excellence, of which the rock surface of Ireland is composed. The deposits before mentioned, are invaluable in proving the western extension of their English equivalents, and indicating by their texture and contents, that we are approaching the limits of the area of deposit. Within the confines of the limited area under consideration, there is one of those coal-fields, which are all too few for the manufacturing prosperity of Ireland, for, though the carboniferous limestone occurs in Ireland in such great force, the deposits which ...