37 



Dr. Eitchie for the past six or seven years. The percentage of 

 iron is small, and would not repay working if it were not for the 

 facilities of transist to Belfast which the rail affords. 



The clay is useful to mix with superior ores, the silicate of 

 alumina forming a valuable flux, as well as protecting the inner 

 casing of the blast furnace. 



There are two quarries at Ballypallady, which in section ex- 

 hibited some interesting lithological characters. The one on the 

 North bank shows a band of slaty lignite 18 inches thick, above 

 which are 12 feet of decomposing basalt, and below ochre, with 

 boulders passing into lithomarge to a depth of 25 or 30 feet. 

 On the South bank, further down the line, the same arrangement 

 occurs, with the important exception that above the lignite the 

 basalt is here replaced by ochre containing plant remains, and 

 topped with boulders of the drift period showing glacial markings. 



About twelve miles North-East of this, and at a height of 

 500 feet, a much richer iron ore is at present worked. This mine 

 is at Kilwaughter ; the Basalt overlies it for twenty or thirty 

 feet ; at the line of contact the ore is much better than further 

 down, as the seam approaches the underlying basalt, the thick- 

 ness of the seam being nine to twelve feet. The top ore consists 

 of a hematite clay, with imbedded kidney-shaped nodules of mag- 

 netic iron ore, with traces, on analysis, of titanic acid ; this 

 more or less is present in all the basaltic iron, and adds much to 

 its value, as it increases the facility of puddling, and lessens the 

 loss of the metal, while it improves the quality, and especially of 

 steel. 



This mine was first worked on the face by quarrying, but 

 now by mining, level drifts being run in fifty or sixty feet. The 

 ore is carted to Larne, from whence it is shipped to England. 

 Nearer Larne a similar deposit has lately been found at Antiville. 



Passing Northward along the coast several indications of iron 

 crop out, waiting exploration. At a height of 700 feet, in the 

 mountains above Carnlough, a very fine ore appears, being almost 

 entirely the nodular or pisiform hematite stone ; it should yield 

 about 50 per cent, of metallic iron. Nothing has been done in 

 the way of mining here. 



At Bay Hill, Glenariff, eight hundred feet high, an extensive 

 seam of the pisiform hematite ranges through the Basalt rocks ; 



