UC-NRLF

B M S7E D73

LIBRARY

OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

Class

IRELAND

Industrial and Agricultural

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION FOR IRELAND

IRELAND

Industrial and Agricultural

H

DUBLIN • CORK • BELFAST

BROWNE AND NOLAN, LIMITED

1902

-'^I^ERAL

Printed by Bkowne and Nolan, Limitku. Dublin

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

In January, 190 1, the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruc- tion for Ireland decided to take part in the Glasgow International Exhibi- tion, 1 90 1, by erecting an Irish Pavilion in the Grounds, and displaying therein a representative selection of the characteristic products of Irish Industry. It was arranged, at the same date, that an official handbook deahng with Ireland's chief economic resources should be prepared in connection with the Department's Exhibit at Glasgow. This work was entrusted to my charge, and the original issue of what has now grown to be a very full and comprehensive account of Ireland's economic resources, was issued in June, 1901.

A word as to its scope. It was thought well to take the opportunity afforded by the publication of such a work to make it something more — indeed, something other- — than an ordinary guide to the Irish Pavilion. The book opens with a description of the general geological and physio- graphic features of the country, followed by articles on the climate, flora and fauna of Ireland. An analysis of the economic distribution of the population is then given, preliminary to an account of the internal means of communication, and the banking faciUties of the country. The next Section is devoted to agricultural and technical education and art instruction. As leading up to the functions of the State Departments in regard to agri- culture and industry, an account is given of the splendid work done by some of the great voluntary associations of Ireland in developing the material resources of the country. Two chapters are occupied with a neces- sarily curtailed analysis of the work of the Congested Districts Board, and the powers and constitution of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland. The principal institutions of Science and Art, which have now passed under the control of the Department, are briefly described. Special articles deal with agriculture, live stock, sea and inland fisheries, shipbuilding, the linen industry, the modern Irish lace industry, and the Art and Cottage industries of Ireland. The articles to which no names are attached in the Table of Contents were, with one or two excep- tions, prepared by the Editor, or compiled in the Statistics and Intelligence Branch.

The present issue of IRELAND ; INDUSTRIAL AND AGRICULTURAL, is

editor's preface.

more than a new edition ; it is practically a new book. No fewer than 250 pages of entirely fresh matter have been added; quite a dozen of the original articles have been re-written, and considerably amplified, and every contribution has been revised and, as far as possible, brought up to date. In addition a full Index has been appended. The new contributions include articles on the brewing and distilling industries ; the bacon-curing industry ; the milHng industry ; the leather and tanning industry ; the Derry shirt-making industry ; Irish canals ; the Royal Agricultural Im- provement Society of Ireland, and the North-West Agricultural Association. The book is still, no doubt, imperfect, if considered as a complete survey of Ireland's economic resources ; but, within its necessary limits, it presents, perhaps, a fuller and a fairer statement of the actual industrial position of this country than is contained in any other single volume. It is hoped, therefore, that, for several years to come, IRELAND; INDUSTRIAL AND Agricultural, may serve as a useful book of reference, which, if it does not always fully satisfy intelligent curiosity, will at least stimulate thought and suggest lines of enquiry. Economic Ireland is still a terra incognita to too large a number, even of Irishmen. The material resources of this country have, in turn, been unduly exaggerated and underrated. An unreasoning optimism, and an equally thoughtless pessimism have, too often, been substituted for the calm observation and consideration of facts quite accessible to scientific tests. In the following pages will be found what is believed to be an unbiassed account of Ireland's Economic and Industrial position at the dawn of the twentieth century, with some statement of the historical events that have led up to that position. Such a narrativre is essential to any serious study of the " Irish Problem "—-but, needless to say, it does not compass the whole of that problem. Issues, vital to its full consideration — the question of land tenure, for example — have, of necessity, been omitted from the present volume, for reasons that ought to be obvious. Such issues, however, are precisely those least likely to be overlooked in this country, or in Great Britain, and are those, also, on which a very large amount of information is already easily available in other publications. On the other hand, the matters — vital ones, too, to the progress of Ireland — discussed in this work, deal with questions on many of which full and trust- worthy information has not hitherto been generally accessible, and in regard to which, public opinion is not yet sufficiently enlightened.

The Editor has again to thank the following for permission to use, for the purposes of illustration, certain blocks of which they held the copyright : — The Secretary, Board of Education, London ; The Arts and Crafts Society of Ireland; Messrs. WiTHERBY AND SON, the pubHshers of Knowledge; Messrs. CHARLES GRIFFIN AND Co., the publishers of

editor's preface.

Professor Grenville Cole's Open Air Studies in Geology ; Messrs. GUY AND Co., of Limerick and Cork, and the publishers of the Irish Naturalist. Miss Mitchell has prepared the Index.

Messrs. Browne and Nolan, Limited, of Nassau-street, have printed and published this revised edition in accordance with the terms of a special agreement with the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland. Its Typographical and other merits — the work is printed on a specially made Irish paper — are the best evidence of the care and taste which that firm have brought to the enterprise. In the literary preparation of the volume, and in the arduous work of proof reading, Mr. THOMAS Butler, a Staff Officer in the Statistics and Intelligence Branch, and Messrs. Walier E. C ALLAN (who is a joint author of the important article on " The Brewing Industry "), and Ernest A. MORRIS, two other members of my staff, have given me valuable assistance. It is unnecessary to add that without the unstinted and invaluable aid of my colleagues in the Department, and the other contributors, this work would not have been possible.

WILLIAM P. COYNE.

Superintendent of Statistics and Intelligence Braiic/i, Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland. June, 1902.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page. ARTifLE. Author.

1 The Topography and Goology of Ireland, . . . Grenville A. J. Cole, F.G.S.

il7 Irish Minerals and Building Stones, .... Gre.vville A. J. Cole, F.G.S.

A^ The Soils of Ireland J. R. Kilroe.

^ 36 The Climate of Ireland J. R. Kilroe.

46 The Flora of Ireland T. Johnson, D.Sc.

V53 The Animals of Ireland, G. H. Carpenter, B.Sc.

64; The Economic Distribution of Population, . . [Charles Booth.]

V^73 ; The Railways of Ireland

\C82 ' Canals and River Navigations,

120 Irish Joint Stock Banks,

129 Irish Savings Banks

^ 131 Co-operative Credit Associations in Ireland, . .

» \,137 ■ Agricultural Education in Ireland, .... [The late Sir Patrick Keenan.

146 Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin, .... James Brenan, R.H.A.

148 Belfast Government School of Art George Trobridge, A.R.C.A.

152 The Crawford Municipal School of Art, . . . W. Mulligan.

155 Science Teaching and Technical Instruction, . .

175 The Royal Dublin Society,

181 The Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland, . . Thomas Carroll.

197 The Xorth-East Agricultural Association, . . Kenneth M'Crae (Secretary).

205 The Irish Flax Industry and The Flax Supply

Association W. Morton (Secretary).

213 The North-West Agricultural Society, . . . Ashmur Bond (Secretary).

\ 215 The County Cork Agricultural Society, . . . James Btrne.

218 Agricultural Co-operation in Ireland, . . . R. A. Anderson (Secretary,

I.A.O.S.) 235 The Dairying Industry in Ireland

241 The Irish Bacon-curing Industry, .... Alexander W. Shaw.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Pagk. Article.

258 The Congested Districts Board for Ireland,

» 271 The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, .

295 The Dublin Museum of Science and Art,

302 The National Library of Ireland,

•^304 Statistical Survey of Irish A griciilture,

!' 326 The Irish Horse-breeding Industry,

332 The Ponies of Connemara,

359 The Irish Cattle Industry,

364 Sheep-breeding in Ireland,

369 The Sea Fisheries of Ireland,

387 Inland Fisheries,

390 The Irish Woollen Industry, .

402 The Irish Milling Industry, . .

408 The Leather and Tanning Industry, .

413 The Belfast Linen Industry, .

417 The Derry Shirt-making Industry,

420 The Modern Irish Lace Industry,

433 Marketing of Irish Lace,

436 The Poplin or Tabinet-making Industry,

438 Art and Cottage Industries of Ireland,

416 The Shipbuilding Industry, .

451 The Brewing Industry in Ireland,

494 The Distilling Industry in Ireland,

513 Index, . . ,

Author.

Colonel Plunkett, C.B. T. W. Ltster, M.A.

J. C. EwART, M.D., F.R.S. Robert Bruce.

W. S. Green, M.A., F.R.G.S. W. S. Green, M.A., F.R.G.S.

T. W. ROLLESTON.

James Brenan, R.H.A.

T. W. ROLLESTON.

( T. Cai.lan Macardle. \ Walter Callan.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

N,B.— The titles in italics are those of Illustrations printed in the text.

Page. Title of Illustration.

Frontispiece— Glendalough, Co. Wicklow,

2 Limestone, Beauparc, Co. Meath, .

3 Section of Folds in S. Ireland,

8 Pass of Ballybeamagh. Co. Kerry

9 On the Great Central Limestone Plain of Ireland,

12 Dyke Cutting Chalk and Basaltic Lavas, Cave Hill,

Belfast

13 Ice-worn Rock, Loo Bridge, Co. Kerry,

14 Head of Killary Harbour

15 Granite Pinnacles near Slieve Donard, Mourne

Mountains, ... *

27 BaUyahinch, Co. Gal way,

28 Geological Drift Map of Ireland,

30 Speciincns of Clover,

45 View of Etiiiiskerry, Co. Wicklow

55 Bones of the Great Auk from Kitchoi-middcn, Co. Galway,

53 Skeleton of the extinct Giant Deer (C'cry«.s- Giffuntciis) commonly known as the Irish Elk

57 Sea Urchins in Rock Pools, Bundoran, Co. Donegal, .

57 TheKerry Spotted Slug, .

58 Dianthoecia Luteago,

59 Pyrenean Weevil,

59 Arctic Ground Beetle,

60 My sis Relicta, ....

61 American Freshwater Sponge, 109 Map of the Irish Canal System,

PhOTOGKAI'HKR.

Lawrence, Dublin.

Welch, Belfast.

After A. B. Wtnnk, reprinted from Knowledge.

Welch, Belfast.

Lawrence, Dublin.

Lawrence, Dublin. From the Iri^h Naturalist,

Welch. From the Irish, Naturalist.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page. Title of Illustration. Photographer.

128 Diagram showing the Deposits and Balances in the

Irish Joint Stock Banks

130 Diagram showing the Amount of Deposits in Irish

Savings Banks

140 Albert Agricultural Institute, Glasnevin, . . .

141 Munster Institute, Cork, — -

146 Design for a Skirt in Limerick Lace, .... — -

147 Sketch Design for a Counterpane,

148 Design for a Counterpane,

148 Design for a Damask Table Cloth

149 Design for Lace Flounce and Collarettes in Limerick

Lace and Crochet,

150 Design for a Lace Skirt,

151 Design for a Damask Tablecloth

151 Design for a Lace CoUarette,

152 The Crawford School of Art,

153 Design for Lace Fan

153 Design for Damask,

220 Map showing position and number of Co-operative

Societies, — ^

246 Swine from the Glasnevin Herd

'247 Swine from the Glasnevin Herd,

250 Typical Irish Bacon-curing Factory— Tin-making

Department, Guv & Co.

251 Killing Bar and Hanging House, ... „

254 Saiisage Room, „

"255 Packing Department, . . ... „

■258 Map of the Congested Districts

•259 Gweebarra Bridge, Co. Doneyal

262 Clare Island. Wall separating Farms from the

Mountain Commonage, Charles Green.

263 Clare Island. A New Farm House and "Stripes," . ,,

266 The Spring Mackerel Fleet in Berehaven, . . . W. S. Grekn.

■267 Mackerel being Despatched from West Coast Pier,

Kerry, „

268 Mackerel Boats of the Nobby and Zulu Type, built in

Connemara „

269 Herring Boats of the Zulu Type, Co. Donegal, . . „

The Tara Brooch, front and back views, ... A. McGoogan.

296) 297)

298 The Arilar/h Brooch,

298 The Dromnach Airgid

•299 The Shrine of St. Patricks Bell A. McGoogan.

502 National Library of Ireland Lawrence, Dublin.

-304 Chart to illustrate the relative areas under Crops,

Grass and Meadow in Ireland,

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page. Title ok Illustration. PiioTotiHAi'iiEn.

307 Map to show the Division of Land iindei- Crops

and Grass in Ireland,

308 Coloured Line Diagram to illustrate changes in Crop

areas,

328 Typical Weight-Carrying Hunter, Lafayette.

329 Agricultural Stallion,

332 Geological Map of the Conneniara District, .

334 Connemara Pony and Foal— Andalusian Type, . . Lafayette.

335 Connemara Ponies — Andalusian Type ,,

336 Connemara Ponies

337 Light Grey Connemara Filly

337 A Mountain Pony distinguished as a Hunter,

Sm Dexter Bull,

361 Kerry Cow,

365 RoscoviDion Ewe,

375 Types of Fishing Boats

376 French Mackerel Boat,

377 Arklow and Manx Mackerel Boats, ....

378 Map of Ii-ish Fisheries

'380 Mackerel Seine Boat

381 Kinsale Mackerel Boat

384 Interior of Marine Laboratory of Department of Agri-

culture and Technical Instruction for Ireland . Charles Green.-

385 The Departvient's Nohbii " Monica " ....

386 "Steam Drifters" at work,

386 Cape Clear Harbour,

387 The"Helga,"

388 Salmon Fass, Galway

388 The Falls of the Shannon, near Castloconnoll, . . Lawrence.

389 Salmon Weir, near Galway

389 Arklow Mackerel Fleet,

391 Treadle Wheel and Spindle ^rith Whorl, . . .

392 Plan of a Treadle Wheel,

392 Large or Hand Spinning Wheel, Arran Islands, . .

401 The Loom of Penelope,

418 Two Typical Londonderry Shirt-making Factories, . Kerr.

420 Venetian Needlepoint, 17th Century, ....

421 Genoese Pillow Lace, 17th Century, ....

421 Gros Point de Venise, 17th Century, ....

422 Snow Point Venetian, 17th Century, ....

422 Brussels Pillow LacC, 18th Century, .... •

423 Mechlin Pillow Lace.

423 Old Flat Point, Youghal, Ireland, '■

424 Modern Flat Point, Youghal, Ireland

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page. Title of Illustration.

124 Modern Raised Needlepoint, Yoiighal, Ireland,

424 Modern Flat Needlepoint, Kcnniare, Ireland, .

425 Birr Pillow Lace, 425 Old Limerick Tambour Lace, .

425 Modern Limerick Tambour Lace,

426 Modern Limerick Run Lace, .

427 Old Applique, Carrickmacross,

427 Sketch of Fan Design,

428 Modern Applique, Carrickmacross

429 Modern Carrickmacross Guipure,

430 Carrickmacross Lace Fan,

431 Old Crochet Lace, 431 Modern Crochet Lace, Ardara, Co. Donegal

431 Modern Crochet Lace, New Ross,

432 Irish Spinninp Wheel,

432 Cork Crochet Lace, .

433 Designs for Lace Handkerchiefs

434 Design for Collar in Carrickmacross Lace

435 Worked Crochet Panel for Dress,

444 Specimens of Brass and Copper Work

Fivemiletown

Photographer.

445 Bookplate by Mr. John J'inycomb, M.R.I.A

446 S.S. "Oceanic," ......

450 S.S. " Egga,"

470 Guinness's Brewery, Frontage of Premises,

471 One of the Malting Floors

472 View of Mash Tuns, .

472 The Cleansing House

^'■3 View of the Cooperage Yard,

*73 Loading Wharf on the River Liffcy

476 The Cork Porter Brewery,

477 The Lady's Well Brewery,

478 The Fermenting Room, Dundalk Brewery (Macardl

Moore & Co., Ltd.) ....

479 Views of the Castlebellingham Brewery,

488 An old advertisement of Irish Porter,

489 D'Arcy and Sons' Prize Horse " Butterscotch, .511 Modelled DeaiQti for Card Trail, .

made at Belfast

Allison.

C. J. Thornhill.

Robinson.

THE TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF

IRELAND.

Ireland, lying on the western rim of the great Eurasian continent, occupies a position of extreme geological interest. The line along which a large body of water meets with continental land is now recognised as one of in- stability and unrest. It has long been obvious that the breakers are wearing away the rocks at one point, while at another they are depositing beds of shingle and fine sand. But, at the same time, the very floor of the ocean is rising or falling with the slow movements of the crust ; the ocean is thus forced to recede before the elevation of a new coast-line, or is allowed, by subsidence, to creep in upon the land. Each movement, this way or that, leaves its record m the rocks. The masses that are already solid become crumpled together like a cloth ; old marine deposits are forced up to form the outposts of a continent, until we find the shells entombed in them lying thousands of feet above the sea ; or the land surface, carved by rain and rivers, sinks beyond the reach of the destroying agents, and is gently buried beneath sheets of sediment in the ocean. The resistance or yielding of the border-lands that protect a continent often determines the fate of the con- tinent itself. The rocks of Ireland thus record the main features of the history of Western Europe.

The present outline of the country is, geologically speaking, of modern date. The island rises, in fact, from the continental plateau, and is essen- tially a part of Europe. The line marking a depth of lOO fathoms upon the Admiralty charts runs from Norway, outside the Shetlands and the Outer Hebrides, keeps west of the Irish coast by 25 to 100 miles, and then passes down southward until it almost touches Spain. Beyond this line, the depths increase rapidl)', as we reach true oceanic waters. Only 100 miles west of Co. Mayo, we find a depth of 1,000 fathoms, and 300 miles west of Co. Kerry we have the abyssal depth of 2,700 fathoms, or more than 16,000 feet. On the east, the channel between Ireland and Scotland is, at one point, only thirteen miles wide ; and at Wexford it is only some fifty miles across to Wales. Between Stranraer and Larne, there is a singular depres- sion, reaching down to 140 fathoms (840 feet) ; but this is quite local, and the sea between Ireland and Great Britain is rarely deeper than seventy fathoms. The small granite hills of Killiney, in- Co. Dublin, could be cut off at the sea level and pushed across from Kingstown to Holyhead, without their summits ever becoming covered by the waves. On the other side of England, the broad North Sea, except for one channel that reaches down to 300 fathoms close against the Norwegian coast, is similarly a mere film of water on the submerged plateau, and is rarely fifty fathoms deep. The connexion of Ireland with the continental mass is further emphasised when we note the outline of its coast. On the east, it is fairly smooth, with few conspicuous inlets ; on the west the sea runs up by a number of long valleys into the land. This is the essential feature of the indented western coast of Scotland, and of the corresponding coast of Norway ; in fact, the edge

B

2 TOFOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.

of Europe possesses the same characters from Bantry Bay to the North Cape.

In general surface Ireland may be described as basin-shaped. The traveller will be struck by the mountainous appearance of the coast. Jour- neying westward from Holyhead, he may see from afar the blue line of the Wicklow Mountains, rising 2,000 to 3,000 feet above the sea. As he approaches Dublin, the details become clear ; the rounded bosses of KiUiney, the bold promontories of Howth and Bray, the broken masses of the foot- hills above Enniskerry, are only a foreground for that great granite moor- land, which extends for seventy miles into the south. At Greenore he meets a still more picturesque coast, the huge domes of the Mourne Moun- tains contrasting with the rugged Carlingford ridge, above the quiet water that stretches up to Newry. At Belfast the rim of the country is presented to him in the form of long black scraps, terraced and forbidding, the edges of the high plateaux that spread from Carrickfergus away to Limavady. If our traveller passes westward, and rounds the coast of Donegal and Mayo, he views walls of rock at times 2,000 feet in height, the noblest cliffs in all the British Isles ; he then encounters rugged Connemara, and the high limestone terraces of northern Clare. Farther south, peak after peak, range after range, bars him out from the interior of the country, culminating in the grey and cloud-capped masses that look down on Bantry Bay.

Surely this Ireland must be a land of mountains. Yet the same traveller may cross from Dublin to Galway, a distance of 1 1 5 miles, without encoun- tering a genuine hill upon the way. He may pass, again, from Dundalk to Mallow, and will feel himself in a great plain, above which a few ranges rise, quite unimportant when compared with the extent of brown bog and level meadow land. The highlands of Ireland are, in fact, massed upon its margin ; while the central area is a broad depression, in which numerous bogs and lakes have gathered. There is thus no well-defined watershed in the country, with rivers radiating from it. It seems much a matter of chance whether a stream rising in one of the central counties should run into the Irish Channel or the Atlantic. The plain is, in fact, a sort of gathering ground for the waters that trickle from the surrounding hills, and for the sand and gravel that they wash down.

It is well known that definite mountain-ranges result from the crumpling together of rocks in the earth's crust, and that this crumpling has been repeated after very long intervals of time. M. Bertrand and Professor Suess have shown us how the main folds in Europe can be grouped into four series, each of which has probably some representative in Ireland. By its very mode of occurrence on the spherical surface of the earth, an upward fold, called by geologists an anticlinal, is accompanied by a downward fold, styled a synclinal ; and commonly a number of anticlinals and synclinals occur together, giving us a contorted series (Fig. 2). The results of earth movements are complicated by actual fracturing of the crust ; and the rise of one region usually implies the breaking up and faUing in of another. When we examine the mountain chains in detail, it by no means follows that the crests of ridges are formed by individual anticlinals. Where the rocks are brought up from below in the crowns of the folds are such as resist the atmospheric agents, while softer beds lie in the synclinals, the rise and fall of the weathered surface may correspond fairly with the underlying folds. This is beautifully exemplified throughout the south of Ireland. Commonly, however, the surface ridges give us little clue to the precise type of fold that underlies them. A s)'nclinal of resisting rock, like

TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY. 3

the coal-measures of Kilkenny, may be left standing out as a highland, while an anticlinal, fractured at the top and exposed to rapid denudation, may be the first mass to be worn away. The general trend of mountain ranges, however, is determined by the directions of the axes of their folds.

Before the existence of the Cambrian fauna, which is the first well-marked assemblage of life-forms upon the globe, the still older crust had become locally crushed and folded, giving rise to the " Huronian " system of moun- tain chains. The sediments laid down in periods earlier than the Cambrian were thus converted into gleaming mica-schists and hard flinty quartzites ; limestones became altered into crystalline marbles, and volcanic rocks into tough and dark amphibolites. Molten masses oozed into these from below, baking and often dissolving them, and giving rise, when consolidation took place to granites, and, more especially, to the striped and streaky type of granite known as gneiss. These materials formed the hills and shores against which the Cambrian strata were laid down. In Ireland, there are but few traces of these " Huronian " chains. Yet they existed, and probably underlie part of the north-western highlands. Their gnarled and twisted rocks are clearly visible in Western Sutherland and the Outer Hebrides, and this axis, if continued southward, should reappear in Donegal and Mayo. But, as we shall see later, the existing features of these areas owe most of their characters to the later " Caledonian " folding.

Blocks of crumpled and gneissic rocks, however, are found included in

Tyrone in the granites that are connected with the " Caledonian " folds.

Clearly, then, an ancient gneissic floor existed where Ireland now is, and

became broken up and involved in all the later movements. A great part

of the tumbled uplands of the county of Londonderry,

North-West from Limavady westward, and almost the v/hole of

Highlands. Donegal, are composed of crystalline rocks which are

the oldest in the country. Mayo and Connemara also

continue the same series, until it is lost to sight under Galway Bay. These

romantic highlands, now carved out into peaks and ridges, with little lakes

nestling in their hollows, carry us back to a time when Ireland, as we know

it, had no separate existence, and formed a region on the edge of a great

continent stretching north towards the pole.

We do not know if any " Cambrian " rocks were laid down in the Irish area, or if it remained in that period above the sea. Possibly the slates and quartzites of Howth and Bray, and their southern repre- Bray Head sentatives in the lower land near Wexford, belong to Area. the same period as the Cambriati slates of Wales.

The Great Sugarloaf, in Co. Wicklow, owes its beau- tiful form to the uptilting of a bed of altered sandstone (quartzite) belong- ing to this early series ; the hard rock forms the peak,' and its debris are showered, like a crown of snow, upon the slopes. The broken surface of Bray Head and of the promontory of Howth is due to the resistance of masses of similar quartzite among the more easily weathered slates and shales.

The " Ordovician " or " Lower Silurian " strata were deposited almost continuously over the Irish area, followed by the Gotlandian {Upper Silurian of the Geological Survey maps). The edge of the northern conti- nent must have dipped beneath the sea, and sands and muds were washed down from it, while beds of limestone, due to the growth of shell-fish and corals, accumulated off its shores. Such limestones are traceable in the Chair of Kildare, and at Portrane, near Dublin, full of Ordovician fossils

TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY

The more ordinary muddy sediments are now found in the foothills of the Leinster chain, and also in a broad area stretching from Drogheda and Cavan to Belfast Lough.

At the close of Silurian times, the subterranean forces began their work

ao-ain in Europe. Volcanic eruptions had already indicated a considerable

amount of unrest. Off Portrane, a cone had been

Portrane and reared, spouting out its lavas and ashes into the sea

Lambay Island, m which the corals grew — an interesting precursor of the conditions that prevail in the Pacific of to-day. The neck of this volcano, cold and crystalline, now forms Lambay Island ; and the famous green " Lambay porphyry " is the mass that last consolidated in the vent. In Kerry again, we have a unique little volcano, of Gotlandian age, which has left its lavas and banks of agglomerate in the cliffs of the Dingle promontory. Then the wrinkling of the crust set in. A series of huge folds were formed, with axes running north-east and south-west. Sometimes these were pressed over obhquely, and became broken through, while one part moved over another along surfaces of shding known as thrust-planes. Old rocks, that ought to have been comfortably buried down below, were thus brought to the surface, and became piled on others of far later date. The Huronian chains were in part remoulded, and frag- ments of them were worked up into these new Caledonian chains. The latter take their name from the Grampian region, which was conspicuously involved in these disturbances at the close of Silurian times. Thus some of the leading hnes of Ireland became early impressed upon our area. The north-east and south-west " Caledonian " trend, the trend of the axes in Scandinavia and in Scotland, is clearly seen in the structure of Donegal and the Ox Mountains, in the axis from Cavan to Belfast, and notably in the Leinster chain. The folding was accompanied by the uprise of molten granite from below. This hot igneous rock, squeezed upward by the earth pressures, filled the arches of the anticlinals, inch by inch, as they were formed. It attacked its surroundings, melting mass after mass from the walls, absorbing them into its substance, and sending insidious offshoots into the adjacent shales and sandstones. The sedimentary rocks forming the arches thus became baked and crystalline, and in places are bound to the invading granite by a network of interlacing veins. As the weather worked down against the uprising chains, the coating of sediments was often worn away, and the granite, now cold and hard, was exposed as a moorland in the midst.

The backbone of Leinster, running south-west from Dalkey to the junc- tion of the Barrow and the Nore, a distance of seventy The Leinster miles, was thus formed by the Caledonian movements. Chain. On its flanks, Ordovician, and, perhaps, Gotlandian,

strata, rise in contorted masses, consisting of dark shales for the most part, and easily cut into by the rivers that flow from the central axis. Picturesque ravines and valleys, like those of the upper Liffey, with woods and old demesnes along them, mark this region on the east or west. In Wicklow, similar features, including the Glen of the Downs and the Devil's Glen, have been carved out of the older strata of the Bray series, which have also become involved in the flanks of the chain. As a contrast to this varied country, the high moors of Dublin, Wicklow, and Carlow, stretch in a uniform series of great domes, heather-clad and impres- sive in their vastness, where the granite core comes to light along the axis of the chain.

TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY. 5

This rock, with its broad even joints and powdery products of weathering, gives rise in the course of ages to round-backed hills, with few conspicuous peaks, and with valleys smoothed by crumbling debris. The contrast be- tween its characters and those of the stratified masses round it is well seen at the Upper Lake of Glendalough (Fig. i), where the sheer walls of shale and schist abut on the spurs of Lugnaquilla.

In the corresponding axis of Newry, granite has similarly welled up, and at Castlewellan it is seen to be stuck full of frag- The Axis of ments derived from its stratified neighbours. The

Newry. whole Newry granite probably owes its darkened

character to the material absorbed by it ; and the in- clusions in it are often completely altered and crystalline, and are pene- trated on a microscopic scale by the granite that attacked them. The Ordovician and Gotlandian rocks of Louth, Monaghan, and Down, form a broken country of small and frequent hills, with one of the most irregular surfaces to be found in Ireland.

As alread}- liinted, the west and north-west highlands were certainly refolded in Caledonian times. Old knots of gneiss, like that of East Tyrone, had the younger masses lyroiie. pressed against them, and formed " eyes " round which

the Caledonian earth-waves flowed. Granite veins traversed them, becoming especially conspicuous in the counties of Mayo and Donegal. It is often difficult to distinguish between the older Huro- nian granites and the new, throughout this mingled region of the West. But the trend of the Ox Mountains, with their granite The core, invading the schists and amphibolites, and run-

Ox Mountains. ning from Castlebar to Sligo, and the lines of fold and fracture in Donegal, such as the great glen from Gweebarra Bay to Sheep Haven, are clearly due to Highlands of the Caledonian system of movements. At the same Donegal and Mayo, time, the Gotlandian beds were uplifted high and dry in Mayo, and have since been carved out into the noble masses of Muilrea and Ben Gorm, which look down on Killary Harbour. The quartzite cone of Croagh Patrick is now known to belong to the same series of strata, which have thus contributed largely to the rugged scenery of the west.

This uplift at the close of Gotlandian times formed a continental area on which detritus began to gather, Vi^hile the great lakes spread across the hollows. The sea still lay to the south-east across Devonshire and Belgium ; but the Irish and Scotch areas were included in the land. The weather soon laid hold of the Caledonian masses, and rolled down sand and pebbles fiom them into the lakes. Under the burden of debris thus poured into them, the lake floors sank, as those of Eastern Africa have done since the time of their formation, and thousands of feet of freshwater strata were thus enabled to accumulate. This was the origin of the Old Red Sand- stone, laid down in the Devonian period.

The boundaries of the old lakes are nowadays difficult to determine. The sandstone and conglomerate that form a hilly land between Lough Erne and Pomeroy may have been at one time continuous with corresponding beds in Southern Scotland. The great masses of the south of Ireland may have been connected on the east with the Devonian estuary of Hereford and Wales. In any case, the lake deposits extended far and wide across

TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.

our area, and their sandy nature has contributed markedly to the scenic features of the south.

The continental region again sank, and the sea flowed gently in, every year farther and farther, across the borders of the lakes. The Carboni- ferous period dawned. The Caledonian ridges remained long above the level of the waves, in the form of promontories and islands. The sea thus stole round the Leinster Chain, washed, and finally submerged the isles of Bray and Howth, and Lambay, and spread far to westward, dominating even the stubborn hills of Donegal. Patches of Carboniferous sandstone, laid down on the ancient shore, still cap some of the Caledonian masses in the West. The submergence was here less marked, fi r 1 however, and the coal-beds of Ballycastle, in county

Ballycastle Coal. Antrim, occurring in the lowest Carboniferous strata, show tliat a coast, with its accompanying forests and deltas, was near at hand upon the north.

The Carboniferous sea was an extensive one — a veritable ocean. Marine life was abundant in it, and foraminifera, corals, and shell-fish of all kinds, formed vast thicknesses of limestone on its floor. Here and there, the muds washed in from the relics of the Caledonian mass rendered the water turbid, and gave rise to the black shaly limestone locally known as calp. Elsewhere, even up to the shore-line, the deposits were remarkable for their purity. It is possible that no great rivers were scouring the adjacent land. The sea-floor went on sinking, the limestone grew in thickness, and to this day it forms the most continuous and most characteristic of all the Irish deposits.

The period closed with a general uplift, as gentle as that which had admitted the sea across the lakes. On the flats and deltas thus formed, the forests of the Coal Measures grew ; and there is little doubt that at one time they extended far across Ireland. Tree-ferns, and giant club-mosses and horse-tails, the familiar vegetation of that remote epoch, clothed the I.einster Chain, spread westward into Kerry, and sheltered among the Caledonian ribs of Donegal. Very little of the coal that was formed by the decay of all these forests has, however, been left to Ireland. The new wrinklings of the crust wrought havoc with this valuable material (Fig. 2).

With the close of the Carboniferous period, the third important epoch of earth-movement in Europe gave us the Hercynian folds, so named from the region of the forest-ranges in Western Germany. The general trend of their axes is from west to east. The floor of Belgium, of southern England and Wales, and of southern Ireland, became crumpled from south to north like a cloth pushed back across a table. As the slowly heaving earth-waves met the Caledonian masses, some deviation from the general trend took place, usually producing a conformity with the direction of the earlier axes. Thus, in England, the recoil from the tough old masses of Westmoreland and Wales drove the axis of the Pennine Chain into a north and south direction, perpendicular to that of the southern folds, which are seen in Wales and

Mountain ridges ^"^^er London. In Waterford, Cork, and Kerry, the „ o ,, east and west trend is distinct and unimpeded ; but

the Hercynian anticlinal from Limerick to Portarling- ireiana. ^^^^^ including the Slieve Bloom Mountains, follows

the direction of the far older Leinster Chain. Away, again, in the north- west, it is probable that the antique core of the Ox Mountains served to direct the course of the earth-wave which rose against its slopes in Her- cynian times.

TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY. 7

The crumpling of Cork and Kerry was of immense significance to the scenery of southern Ireland. The crests of the anticlinals were at first formed of Coal Measures, of Carboniferous Limestone, and, in places, of Carboniferous Slate. These rocks were stripped off by weathering, and the Old Red Sandstone lay revealed below (Fig. 4).

The action of the atmosphere was hereupon greatly retarded, while it could still carve away at the softer and often soluble strata that occupied the synclinal folds. Hence the anticlinals weathered out as ridges, running east and west, and the synclinals were worked down into valleys. The structure of the W'hole south is as simple as that of the Jura Range, when we take a broad survey of that classic area.

The beds are, however, so compressed together as to be often overfolded ; and numerous minor wrinkles accompany the main and obvious ones. In

Courses of Rivers J^^^^ f,^^^^^^ ^'^^' ^I'^J'^^'^""'^ structure is evidenced . « ,, by the courses of the Bandon River, the Lee, the

m boutnern g^^^^^ ^^^ Upper Blackwater, and the lower portion

Ireland. ^^ ^-^^^ Suir. All these rivers run east along synclinal

hollows, which are mostly still filled by Carboniferous Limestone. West of the watershed that passes through the Boggeragh and Derrynasaggart Mountains, the streams run similarly along synclinals to the Atlantic ; but their former valleys have been largely invaded by the sea, owing to subsi- dence of the coast in comparatively recent times.

The courses of the rivers in southern Ireland at the present day are thus clearly dependent on the direction of the Hercynian folds. But some of them, like the Lee and the Blackwater, seem at last to defy the anticlinal and synclinal axes, by turning abruptly south and cutting across them. Pro- fessor Jukes long ago supplied the explanation of this bending of the streams at right angles to what appears to be their proper course. The earliest drainage from the mass that was upheaved at the close of the Car- boniferous times gave us a system of streams running north and south. The general wearing down of the surface by denudation, in long subsequent times, carved out the systems of east-and-west valleys in the synclinals, and in these the tributaries of the main streams ran. But certain southward- running streams, having got the start, and working down the steep slope of the countr}^ kept ahead of the tributaries, and maintained their own valleys at a lower level. Hence, although these tributaries spread farther and farther back, and became in time the most important portions of the rivers, their waters were still turned south where they joined the original gorges. As Professor Davis shows us, moreover, only the more active of the south- ^\•ard running streams would cut their way down at a sufficient rate. While the valleys grew deeper along the synclinals, some of the tributaries would altogether fail to get into their original main streams ; the latter would be, as it were, " beheaded," and would dwindle, while their former tributaries would swell the volume of the nearest successful primary stream.

Hence the rivers of southern Ireland, and, indeed, of Ireland generally, are older than the present form of the surface. General denudation has lowered and widened their valleys in some places, leaving other parts of the adjacent country standing at a higher level ; and the rivers seem to cut across mountain-ridges, because the hard rocks of these ridges have resisted denudation, while the gathering-ground of the rivers, up stream, has been more rapidly worn down.

The original Hercynian mass was far more continuous than the present ridges, which have been carved out by ages and ages of denudation. We

8 TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.

have pointed out that the Old Red Sandstone, where now exposed, once bore upon its back the thick mass of Carboniferous Limestone, and this in turn was covered by the Coal Measures. The loss of the latter is surely atoned for by the magnificent mountain-scenery to which the Old Red

Sandstone has given rise. The Reeks of Kerry, the __. , . „^ brown and purple masses of Killarney, the bare