. Manual of the geology of Ireland. cquired theirelevations above the surrounding country (Clare, Limerick,and Tipperary). In South-west Munster, especially in Cork and theadjoining portion of Kerry, during the end of theSilurian period the land was gradually sinking, whileelsewhere in Ireland, except in South-west Ulster, theolder rocks were being elevated into hills and sinking in South-west Munster seems to have Hills. 305 continued until after the accumulation of the CoalMeasures, when all the rocks of the country weresubjected to violent convulsions that squeezed them uptogeth
. Manual of the geology of Ireland. cquired theirelevations above the surrounding country (Clare, Limerick,and Tipperary). In South-west Munster, especially in Cork and theadjoining portion of Kerry, during the end of theSilurian period the land was gradually sinking, whileelsewhere in Ireland, except in South-west Ulster, theolder rocks were being elevated into hills and sinking in South-west Munster seems to have Hills. 305 continued until after the accumulation of the CoalMeasures, when all the rocks of the country weresubjected to violent convulsions that squeezed them uptogether, and formed ridges and hollows afterwards to bemodified into the present hills and valleys. Among thehills thus formed is Carrane-tual (3,414 feet) the highestin Ireland. In this area is the greatest extent of groundabove the heights of 1,000 and 2,000 feet; although thehigh land does not form a continuous mass, being traversedand cut up by deep valleys, one of which, the well-knownGap of Dunloe, is sketched in Fig. 20. Fi6. Gap of Dunloe, County Kerry, looking north. The crumpling and distortion of the Cork rocks tookplace after the end of the Carboniferous period. InUlster and Leinster, in the country in the neighbourhoodof Carlingford Lough, are hills of granitic rocks that wereelevated since the Carboniferous period, and probably x 306 Geology of Ireland. during the Triassic age. It is therefore not impossiblethat the vulcanicity to which they were due may havehad some connection with the crumpling up, dislocations,and other disturbances of the Cork rocks. The Coal Measure hills of Leinster and Connaught,the Limestone hills of north Clare (Burren), QueensCounty, and Sligo, and the Dolerite hills of Ulster, areprincipally due to denundation, that cut away por-tions of the strata, leaving other portions to form thehills. It, however, was not the sole agent, as in manyplaces the same bed or series of beds are now at veryunequal heights, proving that they were either el
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