36 



known as Ballintoy Coal — already described — induced several 

 persons throughout the County Antrim and Down to search in 

 their own localities for Coal. The true geological character of the 

 Ballintoy bed was not properly understood; it was confounded 

 with real Coal ; and every shaley black seam that cropped out 

 anywhere was supposed to indicate the existence of Coal beds 

 below. Not having proper geological knowledge to guide them, the 

 enterprising explorers naturally selected for their operations those 

 places where the Lignite was exposed on the rock surfaces or along 

 the river banks. 



One of these exposures occurred at Killymurris, about half-way 

 between Ballymena and Ballintoy, and about two miles west of 

 Glarryford Station, on the Northern Counties Railway. Here a 

 pit was opened about fifty years ago, and since then mining 

 operations have been carried on with more or less activity. The 

 works were never conducted on a large scale. The appliances 

 hitherto employed were of the rudest description. The yield was, 

 therefore, uncertain and small, and not sufficient to create or main- 

 tain a steady trade. A sufficient quantity, however, has been 

 extracted to test the quality of the fuel, which has been found to 

 burn well, and make a cheerful fire — sufficient to satisfy the ordinary 

 requirements of a domestic establishment. As a fuel it burns 

 quickly, and yields a clean white ash. It emits a strong smell like 

 turf, but more pungent. The objection to the smell ol the Lignite 

 fire could not be more than the objection once entertained towards 

 the Coal. When Coal was first introduced and used for domestic 

 fires, ladies and others were very strongly prejudiced against it, 

 refusing to visit or attend parties where it was burnt, because they 

 believed the fumes were injurious to their complexions. As at 

 Ballintoy and elsewhere, the Lignite at Killymurris occurs between 

 two beds of trap rock, and is about thirty feet below the surface. 

 Lignite was also formerly worked near Portrush. 



It is remarkable, too, that so far south as is Shane's Castle Park, 

 a Lignite or carbonaceous bed occurs below the semi-columnar 

 basalt, near the rockery. The bed is rather earthy, but lumps of 

 Lignite may be had embedded through it ; here masses of carbona- 



