Kinahan — On Irish Metal Mining. 271 



have been found on both horizons, which were remunerative to 

 the first adventurers, but more or less disastrous to their suc- 

 cessors who have attempted to follow what they supposed to be 

 " leads." Pockets of this class are indicated hy calcspar, associated 

 with dolomitic sand. In the limestones of the Bur re n type 

 numerous small veins of lead and zinc have been found, but none 

 of them of promise ; yet we learn from the records that, in the 

 time of James the First, there was a "silver-mine" in the Burren, 

 adjacent to O'Loughlin's Castle, now called Castletown, while 

 there are misty records of much more ancient mines. Fluor or 

 fluorspar was found in different mines, associated with the lead, 



In the Coal Measures, near the Shannon, below the horizon of the 

 lowest coal, some of the shale-beds are very rich in nodules of clay- 

 iron stone. The coals in this county are of very little account. 

 Near the Shannon, to the south, there are some thin beds, that 

 were worked in old times along the outcrops, but as they are traced 

 northward they thin, till eventually the horizons are only marked 

 by fire-clays, with stems of stigmaria. The iron-ore beds also 

 appear to become poorer as they are followed northward. In the 

 old times the latter were worked to the southward, in the vicinity 

 of the estuary of the Shannon. Some of this ore seems to have 

 been smelted in the vicinity of the mines, but much of it was 

 carried inland, or was sent up the Shannon by boats, to be mixed 

 with Ordovician and other ores at the furnaces on Loug-h Dersr 

 or elsewhere. This clay-iron stone is mentioned as worked in 

 1650, while it was smelted and wrought by a London Company 

 at furnaces and mills near the mines. 



Iron ore in the Ordovician rocks was extensively raised in 

 Grlendree, westward of Feakle, also at Ballymahon and Bealkelly, 

 near Tomgraney. East of Feable, at the hamlet now called 

 Furnace, are the remains of considerable works, apparently prin- 

 cipally for smelting purposes ; while the iron raised at the mines 

 near Tomgraney is said to have been sent by boat, to be smelted 

 and milled at the different furnaces and works between Mount 

 Shannon, Clonrush, and Woodford, west of Lough Derg, Co. 

 Gralway. According to the records, three classes of ore appear to 

 have been in use for mixing at the furnaces, and these, from 

 Grerrard Boate's descriptions, were evidently the bog-iron-ore, the 

 ore from the Ordovician rocks, and the clay-iron stone from the 



