iitplentent in ih (fi wlogkal IKapsttte. 



On Deep Mining, and the Mineeal-beaeing Strata of the 

 South-west of Ireland.' 



By Samuel Hyde, Esq. 



DEEP mining has long been a problem in the southern part of 

 Ireland, and it is the object of this paper to endeavour to 

 show that up to the present time few attempts have been made 

 upon a large scale, or according to any well developed and 

 determined scheme to prosecute the research for minerals at depths 

 equalling those in Cornwall and Devon. Why this region, and 

 group of rocks should have remained so long unexplored, possessing 

 as it does such proof of valuable metalliferous veins, can only be 

 accounted for through the want of confidence and fixed determi- 

 nation to prosecute to great yet practicable depths, those indications 

 normally exhibited at the surface. 



The south of Ireland, from Dungarvan and Youghal Harbours, on 

 the east, to Cork, Dunmanway, and on to Dursey Head, west of 

 Bantry Bay, on the west, is so important an area, in an economical 

 point of view, that it deserves the attention of all who are interested 

 in the wealth and prosperity of the southern parts of the Counties 

 of Cork and Kerry, and of Ireland generally. 



The country between Cork Harbour and Dunmanus Bay is almost 

 entirely composed of the group of rocks termed Upper Devonian, 

 and Carboniferous slate, and more or less these rocks occupy 

 patches of country on to the Kenmare river on the west. The 

 so-called Carboniferous slate divides into a north and south 

 range ; the northern spur stretches into and occupies the north and 

 south sides of Dunmanus Bay, its southern branch terminating at 

 Inishbeg, near Skibbereen, forming the east headland of Eoaring- 

 water Bay. The point of bifurcation is at Carraghalicky lake. Thus 

 the whole of the promontory from this point to Crook Haven and 

 Mizen head is composed of the deeper seated Devonian slates, etc. 

 Eocks equivalent in time, or of the same age and character as the 



1 Eead before the Geological Society of London, February 23rd, 1870. 



VOL. VII. NO. LXXI. 16 



