DU NOTEE — BITUMFJiJOUS COAL OF THE ARIGNA DISTEICT. 85 
west^to east, commencing at the limestone to the west of Kilronan 
Mount, and ending on the western side of Slieveanerin Mount, whicli 
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 xVllen, 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 tlie works, from the former and more dis- 
tant colliery. 
Li the year 1818, Sir E. 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 cn 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 whicli he 
regards as inexhaustible. After a trial, extending over a period of 
about thirty-five years, the Arigna Company fiiiled, 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 far 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 igno- 
rance 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- 
