Wrigh i- — Palaeozoic Floor of North-East Ireland. 03 1 



this. We have a certain area of the Mesozoic cover preserved in the north- 

 east of 1 1 eland. It owes its preservation to the outpouring on its surface in 

 Eocene times of many hundred feet of highly resistant lava-Hows. Beneath it 

 we may expect to find the Palasozoic floor in a state of preservation compar- 

 able with corresponding parts of Great Britain. We have now to consider 

 whether there is any reason to suppose that coal-basins may occur on this 

 portion of the floor, and if so, to try and devise means of locating them. 



Previous writers on the coal-fields of Ireland have not, of course, refrained 

 entirely from speculating on the possibility of the extension of the exposed 

 coal-field of Tyrone beneath this area of Mesozoic rocks. Kelly in 1857 1 

 and 18&8, 2 Hardman in 1877, 3 Kinahan in 1878/ Professor Cole in 1902, 5 

 Hull in 1905, 6 Alexander M' Henry in an unpublished report in 1906, and 

 finally Professor Cole and Mr. Lyburn in 1913, 7 all discuss the question. 

 The most general opinion seems to have been that the concealed area has no 

 great extent, and is not likely to reach the shores of the lake. Kelly, Kinahan, 

 and M "Henry are notable exceptions. The latter expresses his belief that 

 Coal Measures will be found stretching from Coal Island beneath the Lough 

 in the direction of Belfast, but gives uo reasons for this belief. Kinahan 

 believed they extended under the west side of the Lough, and occurred again 

 to the north-east of the town of Antrim. Into his arguments I do not propose 

 to enter here. They are not supported by facts. Kelly, on the contrary, as 

 will appear from the passages quoted on pp. 633 and 634, fully realized the 

 bearing oil the problem of two important points ; namely, that the Lowland 

 Valley of Scotland, which contains the coal-basins of that country, is continued 

 into Ireland, and that the synclinal basin of Lough Neagh, which is situated 

 within it, very probably marks the site of a further extensive coal-basin. 

 The present paper is merely an elaboration and extension of Kelly's 

 argument. 



1 John Kelly : On the Subdivision of the Carboniferous Formation in Ireland. 

 Journ. Geol. Soe. Dublin, vol. vii, p. 247, 1857. 



2 John Kelly : On the Geology of the County of Antrim, with parts of the adjacent 

 Counties. Proc. Royal Irish Acad., vol x, p. 234, 1868. 



3 E. T. Hardman : Geology of the Tyrone Coalfield and surrounding Districts. Mem . 

 Sheet 35 Geol. Survey of Ireland, p. 65, 1877. 



4 G. H. Kinahan : Geology of Ireland. London, 1878, p. 128. 



5 Ireland Industrial and Agricultural. Article I. Grenville A. J. Cole : The Topo- 

 graphy and Geology of Ireland, 1902, p. 18. 



Edward Hull : The Coalfields of Great Britain. London, 1905, p. 253. 



7 The Coal Resources of the World. Geol. Congress, 1913. The estimate of the 

 concealed area of the Tyrone coalfield published in this work was intentionally con- 

 servative. 



5 G 2 



