Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 25.djvu/467



existence of deposits containing vegetable remains, interstratified with the basaltic rocks of the Island of Mull, was first made known by the Duke of Argyll, through the medium of this Society, in January 1851.

This important discovery, from its supplying reliable, indications as to the climatal condition and period of eruption of the basaltic rocks of that portion of Scotland, also led to the inference that a corresponding age might reasonably be assigned to the basalt of the north of Ireland, a conjecture which could only be satisfactorily determined by actual proof of the association of similar plant-beds with the basaltic rocks of that part of the country.

This question is now rendered capable of solution by the required evidence having been obtained, during the progress of the Geological Survey of Ireland, in the neighbourhood of Antrim, where the late Mr. G. V. Du Noyer, District Surveyor, discovered a bed containing fossil plants, a large proportion of which are dicotyledonous leaves, interstratified with and lying between masses of basalt, and therefore occurring under very similar conditions to the leaf-beds of the Isle of Mull.

This plant-bed was exposed in a cutting through the basalt on the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway, between Templepatrick and Doagh Stations, about seven miles east of Antrim. From a rough section furnished me by Mr. Du Noyer in September 1868, the following measurements and descriptions are taken, the beds being enumerated in descending order.