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“Basket of eggs” topography*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2017

G. L. Davies
G. L. Davies*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Trinity College, Dublin, Eire
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Information

Type
Correspondence
Information
Journal of Glaciology , Volume 6 , Issue 45 , 1966, pp. 466
Copyright
Copyright © International Glaciological Society 1966

Sir,

Charles Smith (1715?–62) was the author of surveys of various Irish counties, and in his book entitled The ancient and present state of the County of Down, first published in Dublin in 1744, he described (p. 36) the famed drumlin topography of County Down in the following terms:

“The whole County is remarkable for a Number of small Hills, which are compared with wooden Bowls inverted, or Eggs set in Salt; and from thence it is said to have taken the Name of Down, which signifies a hilly Situation”.

Smith was thus perhaps the earliest writer to draw an analogy between a drumlin swarm and the appearance of eggs laid out in a container.

Footnotes

*

The drumlin topography of County Down has also been referred to as “sack of potatoes” topography by other writers. —Ed.

* The drumlin topography of County Down has also been referred to as “sack of potatoes” topography by other writers. —Ed.