At a point in the road along the west coast of Ireland, between Larne and Cushendall and near Ballygalley Head, is a gravel-pit giving a section which may help to determine the classification of the Irish Drift.
The exposed face is, as nearly as I could judge, about 30 feet high, the pit being cut into a grass-covered slope lying against the hilly ground which mostly flanks the coast-road landward.
The following is a sketch which I took on the spot last autumn; and although I did not measure the thickness of the beds, it may be relied upon as giving their proportionate disposition.
The base of the excavation (A) is formed by a bed of current-bedded gravel containing shells and shell fragments. The actual base of the bed is not disclosed, so it is impossible to say how thick it is, or whether it rests on a Boulder-clay or on the natural rock.
It is capped by a perfectly straight and nearly level bed of sand, about 4 inches thick (B), on which rest irregularly disposed masses of clay and sand containing boulders, and above this a band of red clay, C, which is again overlain by a mass of unstratified Boulder-clay, D, the surface of which is covered by a bed of subaerial detritus, E, forming the subsoil of the grassy slope.
Coming fresh from Lancashire, where some geologists, following
Section in Gravel-pit near Ballygalley Head.
A. Current-bedded gravel with shells. B. Sand. C. Red Clay.
D. Unstratified Boulder-clay. E. Subaerial detritus.
