38 



it is laid bare upon the face of the out-crop for about seventy- 

 yards. The strike is East and West. The seam is from twenty 

 to thirty inches in thickness ; it is worked both by quarrying and 

 mining, the ore, as excavated, being shot down the cliff in a 

 wooden trough, and then carted to Bed Bay Quay for shipping. 

 The analysis of this hematite shows it to be a magnetic titanife- 

 rous iron ore, and would yield from 50 to 60 per cent, of the 

 metal. 



The bold, precipitous cliffs of the picturesque Glenariff, here- 

 tofore barren, are now becoming fertile sources of mineral wealth. 

 At Parkmore, Mr. Hassard has opened a seam of very superior 

 ore. 



Further on, about six miles from sea, and a thousand feet 

 above it, in Grlenravel, Mr. Fisher has been, with much enterprise, 

 working for the past year and a-half the most extensive of the 

 basaltic mines. The out crop is laid bare for more than a mile 

 East and West along the slopes of Slievanee mountain. Four 

 or five level drifts run in for nearly three hundred feet, rising 

 with the seam slightly Northwards, the basalt, for six or seven 

 hundred feet, resting above. The ore varies in thickness from 

 twelve to thirty inches, an iron clay of two or three feet under- 

 lying. This rich pisiform ore yields as much as 60 to 65 per 

 cent, of metallic iron. It is carted from the mine to Ked Bay 

 Quay. 



There can be little doubt that these mines and out -crops in- 

 dicate the existence of a layer of valuable iron ore ranging through 

 the heart of the basalt floor of our country, and extending over 

 a wide area. 



From Ballypallady, at a height of 300 feet, to Sleivanee, at 

 a height of 1,000, thei-e is not only a gradation of altitude, but 

 of mineralogical character ; the ochreous clays change in their 

 northward ascent into pisiform magnetic ores. 



This metamorphosis can be, I think, traced to its origin by 

 the comparative examination of the mines referred to. When 

 trap rock is long exposed to air and water, it crumbles into a 

 rotten friable mass, while mechanical and chemical forces segre- 

 gate and alter its constituents ; the protoxide of iron is changed 

 into the red peroxide, giving the ochre type to the bed, soluble 

 ingredients being washed away, This conversion may be ob- 



