August, 1903. 20 X 



AN IRISH SPECIMEN OF DOPPLERITE. 



BY RICHARD J. MOSS, F.I.C, F.CS. 



About fifty years ago Herr Doppler, a German inspector of 

 mines, brought under notice a peculiar black jelly-like sub- 

 stance he had found in a peat bog, and subsequently 

 Haidinger, in his description of the substance, called it 

 Dopplerite, a name by which it has .since been known. 

 Through the kindness of Mr. R. I^loyd Praeger I have had an 

 opportunity of examining a specimen of the substance found 

 by Mr. R. Bell in Sluggan bog on E- M'Groggan's farm, near 

 Cookstown Junction, County Antrim. I am indebted to Mr. 

 R. Welch, Belfast, for a sufficient supply of the material for 

 chemical examination. This, I understand, he and Mr. Bell 

 secured at considerable personal inconvenience. The cuttings 

 in the bog were flooded, and they had to bale out the water, 

 as best they could, till the level was sufficiently reduced to 

 enable them to reach the Dopplerite stratum. The bog, which 

 was formerly much deeper, is now about 1 1 feet in depth. At 

 about seven feet from the surface occurs a black jelly-like 

 layer, about three inches in thickness, thinning out irregularly 

 into the adjoining peat. The jelly is of a velvety black colour, 

 almost of the consistence of india-rubber; it is elastic to 

 pressure, and breaks easily under tension, exhibiting a 

 conchoidal fracture. On drying it becomes very like jet in 

 colour, fracture, and bright glistening lustre. 



It seems that this is the first time Dopplerite has been 

 recognised as occurring in the United Kingdom, though it is 

 probable it has not unfrequently been seen. Mr. (afterwards 

 Sir Richard) Griffith, in the report of the Bog Commission 

 published in 1812, refers to a kind. of peat occurring in .some 

 parts of the Bog of Allen, and his description leaves little 

 doubt that the substance was, in part at lea.st, Dopplerite. 

 Some twenty years ago I remember seeing a jet-like substance 

 in a mass of dried peat, such as is used for fuel, and which I 

 have no doubt was Dopplerite. I am unable to trace this 

 specimen, which I know was Irish. Considering that about a 

 twelfth of the whole area of Ireland is covered with peat, it 



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