Kinahan — On Irish Metal Mining. 275 



the Metalliferous beds at the junction of the Yellow Sandstone and 

 the Devonian rocks, and whenever they passed out of the Metallife- 

 rous beds, either horizontally or in depth, they became valueless. 

 Here the strata occurred advantageously, being in a half bowl, 

 across which the lodes (counter lodes) ran both E. and W. and N. 

 and S. Some of the continuations of the lodes at the surface are 

 massive, but, unfortunately for the Mines, once they pass the 

 limits they lose their copper. These lodes at the first produced 

 large returns ; but after .1860 they began to fall away, and now 

 appear to be nearly valueless. 1 



Elsewhere, in the south of the Co. Cork, there are a few 

 ■counter lodes ; but'most of the copper and other lodes run more or 

 less with the strike of the rocks, only cutting across the beds in 

 depth. On this account they are not so productive ; nor are they 

 so continuous in depth ; because, when going down, if they have to 

 pass through one of the massive grits, they split up into strings, 

 and nearly invariably die out. It has been suggested that if these 

 massive grits were sunk through the lodes would again be found : 

 this, however, seems improbable, because, in some of the cliff sec- 

 tions, it can be seen that such split-up veins do not again mass into 

 one. Some of the so-called lodes are regular beds of killas, highly 

 impregnated with grey copper ore. In different places rich pockets 

 have been found close to the surface, while in depth the lode lost 

 its minerals. As pointed out by Jukes, the copper is very widely 

 disseminated in the rocks, and " it will be obvious thata large 

 quantity of poor ore, easily accessible, may be more productive 

 than rich ore, or even the metal itself, which is disseminated in 

 small quantities, or in situations requiring great trouble and 

 expense for its extraction." In this portion of Cork the lodes are 

 very deceptive, and it " is a district where, perhaps more than 

 others, requires great caution, as well as skill and prudence to 

 mine with profit, and is a most delusive district to the speculator, 

 from its containing so many of these specimens of rich ore, many 

 of which have not indicated the existence of much more ore than 

 was actually seen in the specimens." 



In the Metallic shales of the Yellow Sandstone the prevailing 



1 On account of the Igneous rocks in the vicinity (Cod's Read, &c.) it is possible 

 if tried in depth, Tin might he found. 



U2 



