C 93 ] 



VI. 



GN AN IKISH SPECIMEN OF DOPPLEKITE. 

 By KICHAED J. MOSS, F.I.C., F.C.S. 



[Read May 18 ; Received for Publication May 26 ; Published July 18, 1903.] 



In November, 1902, I received from Mr. R. Lloyd Praeger a 

 specimen of a substance found in a peat bog in the County of 

 Antrim; subsequently Mr. E.Welch, of Belfast, sent me a larger 

 specimen from the same locality. On examination it proves to be 

 dopplerite, and, so far as I can ascertain, this interesting substance 

 has not previously been described as occurring in the United 

 Kingdom. About twenty years ago I saw a specimen, which I 

 suspect was dopplerite, occurring as a jet-like mass in dry peat, 

 such as is used for fuel ; at the time I was unaware of its nature. 

 The specimen cannot now be traced ; I only know that it was 

 regarded as illustrating the transition of peat into coal, and that it 

 was found in a bog in Ireland. The peat bogs and marshes of Ireland 

 occupy an area of 1,553,000 acres, or about a thirteenth of the entire 

 area of the country, and it seems strange that a substance not un- 

 frequently found in the peat formations of Germany and Switzer- 

 land should have escaped notice, or at any rate have escaped 

 recognition, in the great peat formations of Ireland. Mr. Bell 

 deserves credit for recognising the substance he found as something 

 out of the common, and worth inquiring about. 



Early in the last century an elaborate report on the peat bogs 

 of Ireland was issued by a Commission appointed by Government. 

 These reports, which are mainly of an engineering character, and 

 are accompanied by numerous large-scale maps of the various 

 bogs surveyed, contain occasional scraps of information of scientific 

 interest. In one of the reports, 1 Mr. (afterwards Sir Richard) 



1 The second Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the nature and 

 extent of the Bogs in Ireland, and the practicability of draining and cultivating them. 

 Printed by order of the House of Commons, April 1st, 1811, p. 48. 



SCIENT. PROC. R.D.S., VOL. X. 



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