Kinahan — Slates and Clays (Bricks, 8fc). 71 



to be almost ludicrous. Again, even in quarries where a better 

 state of things exists, and the slates are extracted from a moderate 

 depth, where also some regard is paid to their trimming, the work- 

 ings will often be found choked with the debris which has been 

 allowed to accumulate from no provision having been made for its 

 removal. Of course there are quarries where the arrangements 

 are nearly perfect ; but in general the Irish slate quarries have 

 been worked in a more or less primitive fashion. 



The rocks of Ireland offer a promising field for a great exten- 

 sion of the existing slate trade, as will appear hereafter. There 

 is no apparent reason why the project should not be carried to a 

 successful issue, if it were energetically and properly taken in hand 

 and followed out, it being but a question of time and money to 

 produce as good an article as the Welsh slate, which has, in a 

 great measure, excluded the home article for many years past. 



It should, however, be borne in mind that the principal obstacle 

 to the development of the Irish slate trade has been the small 

 capitals with which most of the enterprises were started, the capital 

 in many cases not being more than sufficient to clear the off-baring 

 from the quarries ; so that long before the proper depth was 

 reached the capital was exhausted, while inferior slates from the 

 weathered portions of the rock were put on the market in the 

 anxiety to earn a dividend, thereby giving the slate a bad reputa- 

 tion, and ruining the undertaking. The oft-repeated failures of 

 the Irish slate quarries are therefore in general to be attributed to 

 the lack of the two essentials — time and money — but, as already 

 mentioned, there is every reason to hope that a fair expenditure of 

 these necessaries would result in the production of a good article, 

 always in demand, and thereby bring back to this country the 

 advantage of a nourishing remunerative trade. 



Irish Clays have been, from pre-historic times, applied to 

 various uses by the inhabitants of the country, though almost 

 entirely to the making of articles of pottery, until more recent 

 periods. In the kitchen-middens, so abundant in the sandhills on 

 the coast of Co. Antrim, are found numerous specimens of rudely- 

 baked and ornamented pottery, associated with flint and bone imple- 

 ments, and probably formed from the Lias clay of the vicinity. 

 These, from various indications, would appear to have been used 

 for cooking purposes. The funeral urns, which have been so often 



SCIEN. PROC. R.D.S. — VOL. VI., PT. II. G 



