100 J. McC. Meadows — On the Leinster Coal-field. 



the three-feet seam has been for several years past also exhausted in 

 these two basins. 



The total quantity of Coal obtained from this seam of Coal may 

 be estimated at about 14,000,000 tons. 



That source of supply having been exhausted, inquiry will next 

 be directed to the other resources of the field. 



About the year 1810, and subsequently, the existence of a seam of 

 Coal below the three-feet seam was ascertained by borings made 

 tinder the direction of the late David Aher, C.E., then manager of 

 the mines of the Lordship of Castlecomer, in portions of the Coal- 

 field that lay between the principal basin of the three-feet seam on 

 the east and the Clough Colliery on the west, in ground into which 

 the three-feet seam did not extend. Upon the site of one of these 

 borings, on the lands of Cloneen, a shaft was sunk about the year 

 1829, under the direction of the late Matthias Dunn, and was called 

 Jarrow, after the Jarrow Colliery in the North of England. 



In this shaft, at a distance of about sixty yards from the surface, 

 a seam of anthracite Coal was found, in appearance and structure 

 widely different from the three-feet seam. When in its best con- 

 dition, it has a thickness of about four feet, and it is called the 

 Jarrow or four-feet seam. Of this thickness of four feet, however, 

 usually more than one-half consists of inferior Coal, the- remainder 

 being clean hard Coal of excellent quality. 



It is irregularly massive in shape, sharp at the edges in fracture, 

 and somewhat uneven or granular on the surface. Slow to kindle, 

 but once fully ignited, it gives out much heat, and lasts for a con- 

 siderable time, sometimes for hours together, without requiring 

 attention or renewal. 



While the three-feet seam of Coal could be had, the working of 

 the Jarrow seam was not carried on with vigour ; but of late years 

 considerable quantities of this Coal have been raised, and this seam 

 is now reputed to be the most important and valuable in the district. 



About the year 1861 the further working of the first or No. 1 

 Jarrow Pit was discontinued, and a second shaft called the No. 2 

 Pit, about seventy yards in depth, was sunk more to the dip of the 

 seam. Subsequently the original shaft was re-opened, and Coal is 

 now raised from both. 



In addition to these workings, the sinking of a third or No. 3 

 Jarrow shaft upon the same seam is at present in progress. 



From the workings that have been made, this Jarrow seam is 

 found to be variable in its thickness. In its bed it lies in easy 

 undulations of the strata, and in the interior of the field it has its 

 greatest development of four feet in thickness, principally in the 

 deepest portions of these undulations. 



When, however, it rolls over or rises towards the surface with the 

 gradual ascent of the strata, it has been found generally to decrease 

 in thickness, and sometimes to thin out to one-half or less than that 

 in thickness. 



From borings that have been, from time to time, made upon the 

 royalties of the Lordship of Castlecomer, in addition to the work- 



