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



gineer to the Dublin Society, was published by that Society. This 

 Keport was accompanied by an engraved map and sections, and after 

 a lapse of more than sixty years since the survey was undertaken, 

 the work done and the results arrived at form an enduring testimony 

 to the abilities of Grifiith, and^ to an earnestness of purpose that 

 makes his labours upon that survey at such an early date a model 

 ©f work for others. The nfain features of the structure of the field 

 as described by Griffith have been followed in this paper, and the 

 writer believes that they recommend themselves, upon their own 

 evidences, to all who have had any practical mining knowledge of 

 the district. 



In the year 1859 the results of an examination of the Coal-field by 

 the Geological Survey of Ireland v/ere given to the public in the 

 Geological Map-sheets of that part of Ireland, with sheets of sections 

 and two descriptive pamphlets. The classification of the seams by 

 that Survey is not in harmony with the results arrived at by Griffith. 



For the general structure of the field, as given by him, and sum- 

 marized in this paper, there is substituted a theory that the external 

 workable seams do not underlie the seams of the interior, but that 

 they re-appear, and that the seam which was worked at the Eushes 

 and Clogrennan Hill formed in the interior of the field the three- 

 feet seam of Coal. There are difficulties in the way of an acqui- 

 escence in this theory, — and they are not lessened when it is found 

 that the Coals worked at the Geneva, Monteen, Eiesk, and Moyhora 

 Collieries are also classed by that Survey as belonging to the three- 

 feet seam. 



In contrast with the conclusions arrived at by the Geological Sur- 

 vey, it is only necessary to refer to a comparison of sections of 

 strata over the Eushes seam and the three-feet seam, to show that 

 such conclusions are open to re-consideration. 



At Tilly's Pit on Bally lehane, upon the Eushes seam, there is a 

 sectional thickness of strata in the shaft of mor^ than 90 yards, with 

 only one intermediate thin unworkable seam of Coal in that section 

 overlying the Eushes seam. 



In the side of the Hill of Coolbane, however, there are found over 

 the three-feet seam, in a sectional thickness of less than 70 yards of 

 strata, three distinct intermediate workable seams of Coal. 



These sections appear to be so deficient in elements of constructive 

 identification, it is thought unnecessary to refer to the differences 

 which are found in the strata themselves, or in the thicknesses and 

 qualities of the seams of Coal. 



In connexion with the structure of the field as presented in this 

 paper, reference may be made to the Slievardagh Collieries. 



From the Leinster district the underlying limestone and the 

 lower beds of the Coal-formation extend in a south-westerly direction 

 into the Co. of Tippei-ary, and the formation is found to preserve its 

 upper or Coal-bearing strata as it approaches the town of Killenaule. 

 In the hills to the north of that town are the Slievardagh Collieries, 

 and as the lower beds and the underlying limestone are continuous 

 from one district to the other, some approximate similarity in the 



