Dr. Hamilton is of opinion, that the Atlantic storms on the west coast of Ireland are of more frequent occurrence, and superior potency, to what they formerly were. "Every person on our coasts," (he observes,) " whose situation has made the construction or preservation of embankments against the influxes of the ocean necessary, knows, by pain ful experience. how much his labours have of late years increased, and how impotent works, formerly effectual, are now found to he repelling the increasing tides of the pre sent day ; public roads encroached on, walls beaten down, e? strands less passable than heretofore, meadow and tillage land oftener and more deeply inundated ; all concur to prove eucreasing tides and frequency of storms on our coast." A short description of the Nymph bank seems proper ly to belong to the hydrography of Ireland, and may there fore be inserted in this place. It lies in Saint George's Channel, about 10 leagues off the coast of Waterford in Munster. Its distance from the high laud of l)ungarvon is about 11 leagues S.S.E. The appellation of Nymph bank strictly applies to that part of this sand bank which lies opposite Waterford ; the extreme point of it is nearly 20 leagues from the land; the depths on it are from 45 to 70 fathoms; the ground consists chiefly of pebbles and broken shells. It is a great fishing bank, and abounds in cod, hake, ling, bream, skate, whitings, red gurnet, &c. The sand banks, or grounds, as they are called, between Dublin and Wexford, have been already shortly adverted to. They are very extensive, but not winding, as grounds of this description usually are, but running in a straight line N.N.E. and S.S.\V., being far short from the land with their north end ; as they go to the south, they come nearer the land. Near the Tuskcr rock, two leagues E. N.E. from Carnsore point, where they terminate, they are not much more than 2 miles distant from the land ; where as the distance between the north end, near the island of Dalkey, at the entrance of Dublin bay, and the land, is above eight miles. They are all of stony ground, in some places but one fathom deep; but, at the north end, two fa thorns and a half, or three fathoms; the channel between these grounds and the land is deep all over. The ground of the Irish Sea, generally speaking, as well in the middle as under the land, is almost every where clear sand ; in some places black and muddy earth ; in very few places, rough and sharp; and scarcely any where, but in the bay of Wicklow, so hard that the anchors cannot take hold of it. On the west side of Ireland the tide flows against the land, and the ebb falls back from it into the sea ; the flood tide going from, and the ebb towards the west. Hence the tides on this coast are often very strong and high, not only on the open shores, but in the bays and inlets. On the other side of Ireland the tide ebbs and flows along the land. On the north side, the tides run in the same direc tion as on the west side ; that is, the flood from the west, and the ebb towards it. But upon the east side, from Fair head to Carlingford, the flood comes from, and the ebb falls to, the north ; from Carlingford to Carnsore it flows from the south, and ebbs from the north. Forthough, on all this side, the flood runs along the land, yet not beginning from the same, but from opposite points, the two floods coining, the one out of the main sea in the north, and the other out of the main sea in the south, the two meet and stop each other before Carlingford haven. From the Tusker rock and Carnsore as far as to Cape Clear, being the whole south-east coast of the province of Munster, the flood falls along the coast E.N.E., and the ebb W.S.W. ; but upon the rest of the coast of Munster beyond Cape Clear to the westward, which coast lies west and by south, the flood flows eastward, and the ebb falls to the west. In the en trance to tin channel or haven of Wexford, the tide ebbs and flows three hours sooner than without in the open sea ; so that when it is high water in the entrance to the haven and upon the bar cf Wexford, the flood is still running by it to the north for the space of three hours ; the effect of which is, that the end of the great sand which lies just be fore the haven of Wexford is cast up more and more to the north, and the channel on the north side of that sand, is the entrance of the haven, is more open to the north than it was formerly.
It is extremely difficult to give a clear, definite, and ac curate idea of the nature and properties of the soil, even of a farm consisting of a few hundred acres ; for, in the first place, very different ideas are affixed by different people to the terms by which the various kinds of soils are desig nated. The farmer in Norfolk, for instance, when describ ing what he deems a clay soil, has reference to a very dif ferent kind of soil from that which the Suffolk farmer means by the same term ; the latter, accustomed to soils of the most tenacious and stubborn clay, would deem the soil to which the Norfolk farmer gives that appellation only a loam, or, at most, a clayey loam. But, in the second
place, in most tracts of land, even of a few thousand acres. there arc not only a great variety of soils, but the passage from one kind of soil to another is often so sudden and ex treme, that no one appellation will properly designate the soil even of a single field.
The first of these difficulties applies, but only in a slight degree, to any attempt to describe the soil of Ireland; the second scarcely applies at all ; fur if there be one circum stance by which the soil of this country is distinguished from the soil of most other countries, and especially from the soil of England or Scotland, with which we should most naturally compare it, it is, that the soil of Ire:and is nearly uniform throughout the whole of that kingdom. We do not by this mean, that there are not varieties of the particular genus of soil which dues prevail in Ireland ; but that, with very few exceptions, there is only one genus of soil over the whole country. In order, therefore, to give as accurate and clear account of the soil of Ireland as we can, in a few words, we shall, in the first place, describe it negatively, and then point out the soils that actually pre vail in it.
There is no clay soil in Ireland ; by that term we mean such clays as are found in Oxfordshire, in some parts of Es sex, throughout high Suffolk, in some parts of Surry, &c. or, in other words, soils of uncommon strength, stubborn ness, tenacity, and retentiveness. Generally speaking, there is no sandy soil, such as is met with in Low Suffolk, near Godalmuir, in Surry, &c. and there are no chalky soils, such as abound in Surry, Sussex, Hampshire, Wiltshire, &c. Gravelly soils, either such as prevail in some parts of Middlesex, consisting of yellow gravel, evidently tinged with the oxide of iron, or such as consist of uncoloured gravel, and are, in Scotland, called sharp soils, are seldom or never met with in Ireland.
Having thus pointed out the kinds of soil which are not at all or scarcely found in Ireland, we shall next describe the kind of soil that prevails over the country. It may be aptly described as a loam ; this is the genus, but there arc many varieties. Though there is no clay soil in Ireland, there is in some places, especially in the county of Tyrone clayey loam so strong as to make good bricks. The foams, however, most prevalent over the whole Island, are of a lighter nature ; they are fertile, not merely on account of their component parts, but also because they, for the most part, rest on a calcareous basis, and arc, in fact, mixed up with limestone rubble. One of the most striking features is the shallowness of the soil of Ireland, in many places the rocks appearing on the surface, or at no great depth, even in the most flat and fertile parts, as Limerick, Tipperary, and Meath. Such is the nature of the soil of Ireland, gene rally speaking, a fertile loam, with a rocky substratum.
The extent of this rich soil is not very considerable in the hilly part of Ireland ; though, even amidst the rocky and dreary mountains of Donegal, the soil of the vales is extremely fertile. Mr. Wakefield says, that the richest loam he ever saw turned up by the plough prevails throughout Meath ; and a similar soil, on a calcareous sub soil, is to be found throughout Roscommon, and in some parts of Galway, Clare, and other counties. In the coun ties of Limerick and Tipperary, there is another kind of rich land, consisting of a dark, friable, dry, sandy loam ; this also is on a calcareous subsoil. The soils just de scribed are, in general, very shallow ; but there is another kind of rich soil of great depth, and of rather a singular na ture ; we allude to the corecass, or caucas" land, on the banks of the Fergus and Shannon. This is evidently soil of a nature, quality, and formation, very similar to the carse land found in Scotland, on the banks of the Forth and Tay ; though perhaps not so strong and tenacious as the Scotch carse land. In both countries this kind of soil has been formed by deposition from the rivers, on the banks of which alone it is found. The substratum of the " caucas" land on the Fergus and Shannon is a blue silt, which differs in appearance and fertility from the upper soil, only, from the circumstance that the latter has been long expuseo to the atmosphere, and cultivated. The most remarkable di visions of soil in Ireland are formed by some of the rivers, especially the Barrow, Black water, and Kenmore ; to the west of the Barrow, limestone is found in abundance, whereas it does not exist throughout the counties of Wex ford and Wicklow. The Blackwater, in its course through the county of Cork, is the southern boundary of the lime stone soil ; and in its course through the county of Water ford, it is the northern boundary of the same soil ; but in both counties the limestone lies to the west of that river ; the same circumstance is observable in the Kenmore, the Bride, and the Lee.