40 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
u The fossils of the mountain limestone are both numerous and beautiful; indeed, 
so much so, as to defy even enumeration in a paper such as this is. They are, I 
believe, without exception, marine. 
“ It may have seemed strange to any observant person, that I should have made 
the assertion, that the mountain limestone extends over the entire of the north¬ 
west of the county of Kilkenny, when it is well known that extensive tracts of sand¬ 
stone and slate occur in that very district, while hills and eskers of sand, gravel, 
and clay, cover much of the remainder. These tertiary and later deposits do not, 
however, invalidate the well-established fact of the continuity of the first-mentioned 
rock over the region alluded to. 
“ Let us now briefly examine the character of these groups of sandstone and slaty 
hills, which here and there rear their rounded summits over the limestone plains 
—I allude to the coalfields of the county of Kilkenny. I have already briefly stated 
the generally received theory as to the formation of coal, and shall not take up your 
time by again going over the same ground. The same theory which accounts for 
the formation of the English coal deposits, is as fully applicable to ours ; there is 
the same recurrence of numerous beds of coal, separated by gritty and slaty strata, 
the same indications of a luxuriant tropical vegetation. The principal difference 
arises from this, that our coal is devoid of bituminous matter, and burns without 
a flame. This peculiarity may be accounted for, by supposing that, after its for¬ 
mation, it was charred by a subterranean heat, approaching, as it does, nearer to pure 
charcoal than any other known mineral coal. From this peculiarity, it has 
received the name of ant.hractite. The history and statistics of our Kilkenny col¬ 
lieries would be an interesting topic to enlarge on ; but as I am informed that it 
will be brought before you ere the session closes, by another member of the insti¬ 
tution, I will not here enter on it. 
“ The strata which contain this valuable deposit, form hills which, commencing 
in the barony of Gowran, and known as the J ohnswell mountains, sweep round by 
Ballyfoyle and Ballyragget, forming the north eastern boundary of the county, and 
extending backward into Carlow and the Queen’s County, embrace, within the 
limits of Kilkenny, the Castlecomer coal-field. Separated by the Nore from the 
Castlecomer coal-field, we find, rising on the western bank of that stream, a similar 
group of hills. At the point where the Dinan pours its tributary waters into the 
Nore, Mount Eagle rock rises its picturesque front, thence stretching backwards, 
the coal measures extend southwards, to within a mile of Kilkenny, at Richmond ; 
and then, trending westwards, stretches on to Ballykeef. From Mount Eagle, 
northwards, again, the coal measures, forming a line of picturesque bluffs, extend 
by Barnaglissane, Clashacrow, and Upper Court, to Kilcooly, the entire tract 
between the two boundary lines just now briefly indicated, belonging to the same 
formation. Within the bounds of the county of Kilkenny, but little coal hat. been 
discovered in this coal-field ; it extends, however, into Tipperary ; and at Slievar- 
dagh extensive pits of coal and culm are worked. 
“ From the similarity of character in the eastern and western Kilkenny coal¬ 
fields, Mr. Griffiths, a high authority in such matters, has supposed that they 
originally formed one unbroken mass; but that at some remote period in the world’s 
history they have been separated by diluvial action, and the gap scooped out which 
now forms the valley of the Nore. I may be allowed to state two facts, which 
strongly corroborate Mr. Griffith’s theory. Near Wellbrook, about a mile and 
a-half from Freshford, and on the old road to Kilkenny, there is a quarry where 
the limestone is worked within a hundred yards or so of the adjacent coal-measures. 
Here may be seen, overlying the limestone, not the undisturbed slaty strata of the 
adjacent hill, but the broken fragments of those strata , and not rolled and rounded, 
for the distance through which they were transported was too short to allow of that, 
but just as they were torn from their present beds , piled up like a mass of road metal, 
and forming the bearing or crown of the limestone quarry.” 
“ The wide range which geological science takes will, I trust, prove my excuse if 
in anything I have been obscure; and when, as was unavoidable, I have been 
compelled to omit much of importance; but if what has been said leads even one 
of my hearers to cultivate the noble science of geology, I shall be amply rewarded.” 
