243 



of an escape from this dreary dungeon. In the mean time the people 

 without in the drift level were alarmed for their safety, fresh hands 

 were employed, a passage was at last made for the workmen, and the 

 two unfortunate adventurers extricated after a whole night's imprison- 

 ment." 



" On examining this subterranean wonder, it was found to be a com- 

 plete gallery, which had been driven forward many hundred yards to 

 the bed of coal ; that it branched off into various chambers when the 

 miners had pushed on their different works ; that pillars were left at 

 proper intervals to support the roof; in short was found to be an ex- 

 tensive mine, wrought by a set of people at least as expert in the 

 business as the present generation. Some remains of the tools, and 

 even the baskets used in the works, were discovered, but in such a state 

 that on being touched they immediately fell to powder." 



The antiquity of this work is pretty evident from hence, that there 

 does not remain the most remote tradition of it in the country ; but it 

 is still more strongly demonstrable from a natural process which has 

 taken place since its formation, for stalactite pillars had been formed 

 reaching from the roof of the cavern to the floor, and the sides and sup- 

 ports were found covered with sparry incrustations, which the present 

 workmen do not observe to be deposited in any definite portion of 

 time. 



"The people of this place attributed these works to the Danes; but 

 a very slight consideration of the matter must satisfy any one that this 

 opinion is ill-founded. The Danes were never peaceable possessors of 

 Ireland, but always engaged in bloody wars with the natives, in which 

 they were alternately victors and vanquished." 



"Upon the whole, during the dreary interval of a thousand years 

 from the eighth to the eighteenth century, it is in vain to look for the 

 laboured works of industry and peace, in a kingdom where war was 

 the only trade, and where all property turned on the edge of the sword." 



This one four-foot bed of coal is supposed to be worked out now 

 along the coast. No works have been carried on for years, and it 

 would not perhaps be worth the trouble of entering into much detail in 

 describing it, were it not that the peculiarity of structure, occasioned 

 by the whin dykes, gives it a geological interest worth considering. Such 

 an amount of rock in any colliery is rarely laid open to view. 



The following Table shows the names of the several collieries, begin- 

 ning at Bath Lodge, and proceeding eastward. 



The first column shows the number of the colliery ; the second is 

 the name ; the third is the average height of the outcrop of 

 the coal above sea level; the fourth column shows how much 

 the outcrop is thrown up or down from what it is in the adjacent 

 colliery, or block, to the west of it. It is thought advisable to 

 mark this at the west side of every colliery, so that in proceeding 

 eastward the reference may be more easy ; the fifth is the dip of 



