102 J. McC. Meadoivs — On the Leinster Coal-field. 



to the nortli of the Eushes School-hovise — a prominent feature at 

 this part of the field — the structure of the district generally will 

 present itself. Advancing forwards from the Newtown basin, the 

 Hollypark Colliery is met, in which the underlying Jarrow seam has 

 been partially worked along its verge or outcrop, as already men- 

 tioned, although in the condition of a thin seam only ; and passing 

 from it, at a distance of less than one mile, the Eushes Colliery is 

 next met with, in which the Eushes seam of Coal, about eighteen 

 inches in thickness, was worked several years ago. 



This Eushes seam is the principal Coal-seam of the exterior of the 

 field. At Clogrennan Hill (Bilboa), upon the east, at Ballylehane or 

 Modubeagh, and Mullaghmore upon the north, and at Skehana and 

 Firoda upon the west and south, this seam has been partially worked, 

 and these workings may be taken as its principal landmarks. Around 

 the district it varies from fourteen inches to two feet in thickness, 

 and it may be called, upon an average, an eighteen or twenty-inch 

 seam. It is softer than the hard Coal of the interior, and the seam 

 sometimes consists in part of fine Coal or Culm, with thin bands of 

 clean Coal. It is quicker in kindling, but does not make so lasting 

 a fire as the hard Coal. The only mining works that have been of 

 late undertaken in the exterior of the field are those at Ballylehane 

 or Modubeagh, where a shaft is being sunk to reach a portion of this 

 seam at the north of the district. 



Although met with and partially worked at several points, it is 

 not meant to be conveyed that this Eushes seam is unbroken or 

 completely continuous in the exterior, from one point to another. 

 Owing to denudation, faults, and dislocations of strata, its continuity 

 may be frequently interrupted, and from the same causes it may be, 

 in some places, altogether wanting. 



Whatever its condition may be, it will, however, be found to 

 underlie and to extend under the seams of Coal that have been 

 already described in the interior of the field. 



To complete the examination of the seams of the exterior, it 

 remains to be mentioned that at a depth of about 60 yards below 

 the Eushes seam of Coal, another is found which has been called the 

 Eossmore Foot Coal, varying from ten to twelve inches in thick- 

 ness. If the line of section be continued from the outcrop of the 

 Eushes seam, the outgoing of this last-mentioned or Eossmore seam 

 may be observed. 



As at a few points Culm has been raised from this latter seam, 

 although in very inconsiderable quantity, it may be considered, 

 as far as present evidences extend, the lowest seam with any 

 pretensions to be classed as workable in the Leinster Coal-district. 

 The workings that have been made upon the Eushes seam and upon 

 the Eossmore Foot Coal mark in part the principal points of the 

 circumscribing line, within which the Coal-field proper is contained. 



Before a complete section of all the workable seams can be given, 

 that part of the field known as the Hill of Coolbane has to be 

 noticed. It forms, in the interior, the steep hill or ridge upon the 

 eastern side of the high road between Castlecomer and Crettyard, 

 and is a special feature of the Coal-field. 



