Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 3.djvu/219



Carrick-a-rede is the next remarkable headland to Kenbaan. Between these promontories the chalk twice rises above the level of the sea, and as often sinks beneath it; the strata exhibiting evident marks of dislocation, and either of elevation or subsidence.

Carrick-a-rede is an insulated crag of rudely prismatic basalt; the dangerous rope bridge thrown across to connect it with the mainland by those engaged in the salmon fishery, has rendered it celebrated.

Beyond Carrick-a-rede the limestone again rises, is traversed by some whin dykes and near Sheep island forms a cliff about 100 feet in height. Here a large detached basaltic rock rises close to it on the beach, appearing to have been brought by subsidence to the same level, and to a parallel position. The same remark may be extended to Sheep island, itself a basaltic mass.

Above these cliffs are seen the lofty basaltic hills of Knocksoghey and Croaghmore, where are the columnar strata mentioned in page 183; the wood coal described in page 188 also occurs in this neighbourhood, close to the village of Ballintoy, of which the spire is seen forming a conspicuous land mark.

The chalk suffers a partial interruption, attended as usual with dislocation of the strata, near Ballintoy, but again rises to considerable height on the sloping ground which skirts White Park bay. In a valley near Ballintoy, the inferior limit of the chalk is exposed, and a substratum of a bluish slate clay, containing gryphites and ammonites, (apparently the same which alternates with the lias near Glenarm) is laid open. The chalk is abruptly broken off on the east of White Park bay, in a little cove called Port Braddin. Here the basalt abuts directly against the chalk, and that arrangement of strata, so well known as constituting the magnificent