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



ments of slate interspersed, resemble some kinds of greyvvacke ; and the purer quartzose varieties 

 approach, in places, to the character of granular and splintery quartz rock. The gritstones generally 

 form hard compact rocks of fine grain, quartz with more or less mica being the principal consti- 

 tuents, and the cementing matter forming the least proportion. 



(63.) The coal of Munster, as of Leinster, is wholly anthracitous. In the field under consider- 

 ation, it is found in beds either of pure anthracite, possessing a strong lustre and a conchoidal frac- 

 ture, and is easily frangible ; or in thin slaty, tender, and flaky layers, generally associated with 

 black carbonaceous shale. A portion of a bed of the latter, is sometimes so strongly charged 

 with carbon, as to burn limestone very well; though in the fracture, the grain of the shale appears 

 wholly dull and earthy ; e. g. at Tullig culm pits, situated to the north of Abbey-feale. But in no 

 part of the tract, have I seen coal so firm and solid, as that which occurs in the Leinster districts, 

 where it is raised in blocks, hard and tenacious. In South Munster it is generally fragile, and 

 hence brought to the surface in the form of small coal, bearing the common name of culm. The 

 coal is also usually much contaminated with iron pyrites, though beds do occur, comparatively free 

 from that substance, being then denominated sweet coal. 



(64.) With the exception of the small district on the south-west of Kanturk, 

 the beds of coal met with throughout the tract are unimportant, their average 

 thickness varying from less than one foot to between one and two feet, in- 

 cluding the black shale with which the coal is partially interlaminated, and 

 which in some places constitutes the greater portion. Coal thus interlaminated 

 with shale, has been met with in the hills north of Killarney and Tralee, but in 

 no case was it found worthy of pursuit. The grey shale which there accom- 

 panies the coalj contains in some places small, isolated, elliptical nodules of clay 

 ironstone. 



Culm is raised from analogous beds at Jjoughiil, nine miles north-east of 

 Tarbert, on the left bank of the Shannon, and also three or four miles to the 

 north of Abbeyfeale. At Tullig the slaty culm seam, is fifteen to twenty-four 

 inches thick, the floor being black shale, and the roof gritstone, all dipping; 

 about 30° to the south-west. In Barna or Sugar Hill, which is situated 

 nearer to the north-eastern escarpment of the coal country, is a bed of good 

 flaky anthracite, from nine to twelve inches thick. In a more central portion 

 of the tract, Mr. Griffith, in the year 1833 or 1834, discovered a bed of culm, 

 in forming the new line of road from Newmarket to Castle Island, through 

 the Crown lands of Pobble O'Keefe. A culm bed is said to have been found 

 likewise toward the south-western escarpment, about three miles to the north 

 of Castle Island. Slight indications of culm have been noticed also in other 

 portions of the tract; as in the tongue of coal rocks which extend from the 

 west and north of Mallow toward Doneraile ; but the trials were not pro- 

 ductive. 



(65.) The district which claims our chief attention, extends between seven 

 and eight miles in an eastern and western direction, with an extreme breadth 



