360 [Proc.B. N. F. C, 



the bottom of which and the lowest water mark in summer, 

 there is a space of about ninety feet, which space in winter is 

 sometimes covered with water. Upon digging a pit in this 

 place (of which there are several made), the upper stratum of 

 matter is red clay, three feet deep ; the second stratum is stiff 

 blue clay, four feet deep ; the third stratum is a black wood 

 lying in flakes, four feet deep ; the next stratum is clay, &c." 

 Speaking of the stratum of black wood, he says — " It has no 

 intermixture of the neighbouring strata with it, nor has it any 

 void spaces, as should be found amongst timber thrown in a 

 heap, unless some incumbent weight should so press the mass as 

 to reduce the round form of the trees to a flat, and thereby so 

 exactly fit them together that they may appear one solid uniform 

 mass, or so press the small boughs with the leaves into the inter- 

 stices as to give the appearance of one homogene mass. In many 

 places of this mass, the leaves of trees seem principally to be 

 pressed together, so as to form matter of the visible appearance 

 of what the workers in leather call jump, being thin parings so 

 united by pressure as to become sufficiently firm for heels of 

 shoes. Such a kind of appearance this stratum of wood has ; 

 it is one uniform mass capable of being cut any way with a 

 spade, tho' more easily with the grain." 



I have been unable to identify this place named Ahaness on 

 any map, and it is not known to the residents now, but the 

 locality is so precisely described that there can be no uncertainty 

 about it. 



In 1837, Dr. Scouler, of Dublin, was commissioned to examine 

 these deposits of clay and lignite, and did so most systematically, 

 engaging men to bore and otherwise excavate for examples. 

 The results of this survey is given in the journal of The 

 Geological Society of Ireland, and the beds were, in his opinion, 

 stated to be of Tertiary age,* and he further adds that " to 

 Barton therefore is due the merit of being first to ascertain the 

 relation of the Silicified Wood to the Lignites." 



Griffith wrote fully on these clays and lignites, and pointed 



• Dublin Geological Journal, vol. i., part 3. 



