Mr. Weaver on the Geological Relations of the South of Ireland. 29 



traversed merely diluvial matter, among which was found only the same indurated oxide of iron. 

 This mineral therefore was probably the object sought with a view to the manufacture of iron, at 

 a time when the superabundant forests of the country were made applicable to that purpose*. 



In Clontua, adjacent to the limestone, five shafts had been sunk in the slate upon an E. and W. 

 line, apparently 9 or 10 fathoms deep. New workings, conducted to the depth of 13 fathoms, 

 discovered in the slate only a few strings of quartz with lenticular nodules of calcareous spar, 

 containing grey and yellow copper ores in filaments or minutely disseminated, which on being 

 pursued disappeared altogether. 



(44.) The Muckruss mine consists of two works, an eastern and a western, conducted appa- 

 rently (as indicated in the annexed plan and section), in the same bed of slate, included in the 

 limestone adjacent to Turk Lake (§. 24.), and from one to three feet wide. 



Plan and Section of Muckruss Mine. 



iurfc iMKe 

 Scale, — Twenty fathoms to one inch. 



11 



1 Eastern 



Both the eastern and western works were undertaken about the middle of the last century. In 

 the latter rich yellow and grey sulphurets of copper prevailed, while in the former the ores con- 

 sisted chiefly of copper pyrites accompanied by much iron pyrites. In the western work was found 

 also a layer of arsenical cobalt ore from half an inch to two inches wide, and more or less inter- 

 mingled with the copper ores. The cupriferous bed of slate is represented as interwoven with 

 layers and laminae of limestone, and layers and veins of calcareous spar, in which the copper ores 

 were contained in layers, strings, and disseminated ; but the ends of the workings having become 

 narrower and less productive, the mine was abandoned t- 



The eastern work was resumed in 1785, and again in 1801, but not continued. The bottoms 

 were then stated to be 22 fathoms deep. The western was resumed in the year 1795, and again 

 reopened in 1818, when on the examination of an able Cornish miner it was reported to be poor 

 and unpromising. The bottoms are said to be 28 to 30 fathoms deep from the surface. 



* The former excavations may have been made by the English colony planted at Killowen m 

 the year 1670 by Sir William Petty, as it is stated that these people were employed in iron works 

 and a fishery. — See Smith's History of Kerry, p. 317. 



t According to Smith's History of Kerry, p. 125, the Muckruss mines yielded in one year, after 

 the works commenced, 375 tons of copper ore, which produced 26f per cent, of copper. 



