DU NOYER — lilTUMfNOUS COAL OF THE AltlGNA DISTRICT. 85 



west to east, commencing at the limestone to the west of Kilronan 

 Mount, and ending on the western side of Slievennerin Mount, which 

 rises to the east of Lough Allen, a distance of twelve miles. 



From this it will be very apparent that a little more denudation, 

 and the coal-beds which cap the mountains would have been re- 

 moved. 



In the year 1788, a speculation, under the name of the Arigna 

 Company, was set on foot to smelt the iron ores of the district around 

 Lough Allen, and operations were commenced by erecting extensive 

 smelting furnaces on the south bank of the Arigna river, within a 

 mile and a half of Lough Allen and three and a half miles from Drum- 

 shambo. The coals were procured from the pits at Aghabehy and 

 Rover, and a tramway of nearly three miles in length was constructed 

 to facilitate their transit to the works, from the former and more dis- 

 tant colliery. 



In the year 1818, Sir R. Griffith compiled a mining and geological 

 report on the Connaught coal-fields, in which a rather too favourable 

 opinion was expressed as to the thickness, extent, and quality of the 

 coals; this he however subsequently modified. 



In 1830, Mr. Twiss made a report on the Arigna ironstones, for 

 the directors of the Arigna Company, in which he speaks in the 

 highest terms as to the quality of the ore, the amount of which he 

 regards as inexhaustible. After a trial, extending over a period of 

 about thirty-five years, the Arigna Company failed, and this serious 

 mishap to a most legitimate mining undertaking forms a prominent 

 feature in the history of Irish stock-jobbing speculations. 



In 1838, the Railway Commissioners' Report on the Connaught 

 Coal-fields appeared, and it is therein stated that the total area occu- 

 pied by coal covers 20,000 acres, representing a bulk of 20,000,000 

 of tons. At present the coals raised from the old pits in the Arigna 

 district are only sufficient to supply the mere local market, and have 

 been estimated by Sir R. Kane, in his ' Industrial Resources of 

 Ireland,' to be about 3000 tons annually. With regard to the Kil- 

 ronan and Altagowlan coal-fields, so/ar as I can judge, I see little 

 prospect of their being properly developed, chiefly from the apparent 

 exacting spirit evinced by the owners of the royalties, based upon an 

 exaggerated notion as to the extent and bulk of the coals, and i<rno- 



DO ' O 



ranee as to the difficulty of procuring them. 



The total extent of the coal-beds in this district and that which 

 lies to the west of it, stretching into the Bralieve range of moun- 



