the coal from coaking. The lead is run into pieces like cast-iron, called bars, each of which weighs one cwt. About 180 are made per week, and the labourers receive for smelting crop ore 10s. for tale 12s. and for sluggs or refuse 13s. Washing the ore costs from £2. 6s. to £4. 10s. per ton. The carriage to Dublin is 20d. per cwt. Lead ore was found also at the Scalp, in the neighbourhood of Dublin, and on the shore of Clontarf, near the same place; but the specimens obtained afforded so little hopes of success in the month of May, 1809, that, in all probability, every idea of working these mines has been abandoned. Lord Leitrim is engaged with a Mr. Walker, of Liverpool, in working lead mines in the county of Donegal; and Lord Donally has raised some lead ore at the silver mines in Tipperary, but it has not yet defrayed the expence of extracting it. The following mines seem to have been worked formerly; but I by no means give the list as complete: Mr. Parkes speaks of a rich mine in Antrim, but he neither names the place where it is, nor its owner. of it. If any such mine exists, I never heard Clonligg, between Newtownards, & Bangor) Do. Ardmore. Old John's Bar Earl Farnham. Mr. Newenham gives the following account of the increased export of lead since the union.** Iron is of more general utility to man than any of the other metals, and therefore Providence has dispersed it in greater abundance throughout every quarter of the globe. In this distribution Ireland has not been neglected. Ores, and other indications of iron, are very common in that country, and the whole northern part of it consists of rock, in which it seems to form a very considerable ingredient. We are told by Boate, in his Natural History, that, in 1652, iron works were established in many parts of the country; but iron ore, however rich or plentiful, can never be converted to any useful purpose, unless where there is a ready and cheap * Chemical Catechism, 3d edit. p. 361. Smith's Survey of Waterford, 2d edit. 1774, p. 302. + Sir Charles Coate's Survey of Armagh, p. 286. Rutty's Nat. Hist. of Dublin, 1772, p. 137. 1 Dubourdieu's Survey of Down, p. 12. Ibid. p. 13. ** View of Ireland, p. 50. Boate's "Ireland, Natural History," edit. 1652, p. 125. supply of fuel.* It is not of sufficient value, like copper or lead ore, to make it worth while to transport it to places where there is coal, in order to be smelted and manufactured into iron. Abundance of iron ore occurs in the county of Cork, and considerable iron works were carried on here at a former period, as we are told that about the year 1632 the Earl of Cork had, in his several forges or bloomeries in this county, 1000 tons of bar iron; besides 100 tons drawn out and fagotted into roods at a slitting mill erected by his lordship, and above 2000 tons of sow iron. It appears that iron was sold at that time for £18. per ton. We find also, that in 1629, Luke Brady, of Thomgreny in the county of Cork, Esq. Richard Blacknal of Macroom, and Henry Wright of Dloughtane in the county of Waterford, obtained a patent for making iron ordnance shot, and crossbow shot; and letters were directed to the lord-president to assist and aid them in purchasing, by composition, an iron mine from Sir Richard Everard, knt. in the territory of Clangibbon in this county, and from Sir William Fenton, in the same.+ On the lands of Tallaghan in Mayo, iron works were formerly erected by Sir Arthur Sheane, but were discontinued for the want of fuel, charred turf, which was tried, not having answered the purpose. At Mullinmore, on a branch of the Deel Water, which runs three miles under ground in its descent from the mountains, are the ruins of iron works, formerly carried on by a Mr. Rutledge, who gave them up when the woods were burnt out. Vast quantities of iron ore are found on the estate of the Marquis of Sligo in the barony of Murrisk.‡ Iron works were carried on by Mr. Rutledge, in the county of Sligo, till the woods in the neighbourhood were consumed, after which they were transferred to Foxford, where he had others.§ Iron ore is found at Arigna in the county of Roscommon, and an attempt was made to manufacture it into bars; but the undertakers, after sinking immense sums, have been obliged to abandon their design.** Manganese is found in various parts of Kilkenny, and is not uncommon on the banks of the Barrow.++ It occurs also at Kilcredane Point, near Carigaholt Castle, the estate of Lord Conyngham; on the edge of a bog near Innistymon; and in other parts. In the mountains of Glanmore, in Mayo, four miles nearly south of West * Several of the Russian smelting works in Siberia have been abandoned for the want of fuel, all the timber in the neighbourhood having been consumed. See Storch's Hist. Stat. Gemälde des Russischen Reichs, vol. ii. p. 448 and 621. Smith's Civil and Nat. Hist. of Cork, vol. ii. p. 390, 391. M'Parlan's Survey of Sligo, p. 10. ** May 13th. Mr. Weaver informs me, that the colliery and iron works at Arigna have experienced the fate which I foresaw, and are now given up, after an immense fortune has been sunk in attempting to render them productive. tt Tighe's Survey of Kilkenny, p. 88. Dutton's Survey of Clare, p. 19. * port, there are extensive beds of this substance, and it is to be met with in several of the other counties. By the preceding imperfect and irregular sketch, it that Ireland possesses appears fossil and mineral substances of various kinds, many of which, among a people animated by a more active spirit of enterprise, might be employed, not only to promote industry, and to produce opulence to the individuals, but to add to the revenue and resources of the empire. Though the attempts made to work some of its mines have hitherto failed, it is probable that great riches are still concealed beneath its soil, if proper search were made for them by persons of competent skill and perseverance. The bad success as yet experienced is ascribed chiefly to two causes, the jealousy of the English miners, who are unwilling to work mines in Ireland, and the want of capital to supply the necessary expence ; but neither of these causes appears to me to be well founded, and the owners of mines in Ireland must therefore be inexcusable if they neglect to pursue means for turning them to advantage. One good effect of the union has been, that they are now freed from the duty which used to be levied on unwrought ore in Great Britain; and if they have not fuel to smelt it on the spot, it may now go to Swansea as free as if it came from the mines in Cornwall. The idea of any impediment arising from the jealousy of English miners, is too ridiculous to require observation; and with regard to capital, the settlement of Mr. Mills, Mr. Weaver, and the English company, in the county of Wicklow, is a sufficient proof that English capital in some cases will be transferred to Ireland, whenever circumstances are such as to hold out a reasonable hope of success. Mr. Weaver has already formed a new company, and taken a lease from the see of Dublin, of its royalties in the county of Wicklow; and I have no doubt that, under the direction of a man so well qualified by skill and activity for metallurgic operations, the bowels of the earth will be rendered productive, if such an effect can be produced by the united efforts of ingenuity and industry. In regard to the noble metals, the gold mine, though placed under the direction of two of the most scientific and practical men in Europe, has not answered the sanguine expectations which, without due examination, were formed of it, and which in exploring it induced government to expend a considerable sum. The hope ex cited in regard to silver, seems to rest on no better foundation. All the ore of that mines at Killarney produced a rich ore, and, when I visited them, M'Parlan's Survey of Mayo, p. 20. + Mr. Newenham speaks of a silver mine worked formerly at Edenderry in the King's County, but given up about 40 years ago. View of Ireland, p. 46. VOL. I. T were beginning to repay the proprietors; but as the vein seemed to dip under the lake, great apprehensions were entertained that the works would be soon inundated, and I now find that this has actually been the case. The Wicklow copper mines at Ballymurtagh, have absorbed, without much benefit, a capital of at least £200,000. This extraordinary expenditure has been ascribed to mismanagement, and such indeed may have been the case; but I know that in May, 1809, the Cronebane Mines did not produce an ore of sufficient richness, according to the then price of copper, to defray the expence of raising and shipping it to England. Not a workman was employed at that time; the proprietors were waiting for a rise of prices: and since that period the works have been entirely neglected. The appearances of lead in Ireland are, I believe, much more promising. The mine near Enniscorthy I did not examine; but the specimens of ore which I obtained seem to be of an excellent quality, and rich in metallic particles. The Glendallogh mine in Wicklow amply repays the proprietors; but the mine at the Scalp, belonging to a Dublin company, and lately begun, has not as yet held forth much hope of success. The ore falls under that description termed by the miners "proud;" that is to say, it is found near the surface, which is always considered a sign highly unfavourable. The mine on the Clontarf shore was drowned every tide, and the progress of working it depended on the improbable success of damming out the water. Lord Leitrim's mine in Donegal I did not see, but I received a very favourable account of it from gentlemen residing in the neighbourhood. Iron is found almost every where; but the advantage of working it depends upon fuel, an article which Ireland does not possess of a quality proper for that purpose. The scarcity of timber, also, will be a great impediment here to mining; for it is well known, that works of this kind cannot be carried to any great extent without an immense quantity of that article; ten thousand pounds worth of it being often necessary for a single coal mine. The only mines I ever visited which do not require timber, independently of casing the shaft, are the salt-mines of Cheshire, but the salt is found there in a situation very different from what minerals are in general. Marble, slate, granite, and other stones, fit for building, of every kind, may be obtained in Ireland, and at a very moderate expence; yet a great portion of its inhabitants reside in filthy cabins; though from the facility with which better materials could be procured, they might exchange them for others much more convenient and salubrious: but in countries where ignorance and oppression go hand in hand; where the people, through inveterate habit have become indifferent to every thing that has the appearance of improvement, and where no stimulus is applied to make them emerge from their degraded state, the advantages presented to them by nature will either be overlooked or neglected. Ireland possesses also abundance of clays fit for making bricks, and for the use of the potter, but no manufactories of earthenware worthy of notice have yet been established in any part of the country. Dr. Rutty remarks, that pots made of Irish clay are inferior to the English, and do not stand the naked fire nearly so well; but this defect seems to arise rather from the badness of the workmanship, than from any inferiority of the material, and he has no doubt that Irish pots might be made as good as the English, if greater encouragement were given to them, which he considers the more necessary on account of the dearness of coals and of lead, articles essential for glazing. The same gentleman states, that the bricks made at Dublin are far from being equal to the English, which are redder, more compact, and more durable; but he observes, that the former are wrought up too hastily, and not suffered to lie long enough to grow close before they are used. He adds, that the brick clays in England, and particularly those of Kent, Surrey, and Middlesex, are always exposed nine months to the air after they are dug up, in order that they may be freed from the vitriolic salts with which they abound. If these salts be not expelled before the clay is baked, they prevent its setting well in the kiln, and communicate to the bricks a quality which renders them apt to moulder and decay. Want of attention to this precaution, he considers as one cause of the badness of the Irish bricks, and their mixture with calcareous earth another.* Without admitting to its full extent every thing that has been said by some writers in regard to the mineralogical riches of Ireland, it may be safely allowed that it possesses an abundance of mineral and fossil bodies, sufficient to encourage hope, and to excite a greater spirit of enterprise than has hitherto been manifested. A mineralogical survey of the island, therefore, well executed, and accompanied with remarks on the best means of converting the different objects of it to advantage, besides affording much satisfaction to men of science, would, no doubt, be attended with great benefit to the country. Countries abounding with mines, contain in general a great many springs impregnated with metallic or other particles, which communicate to them various qualities, and this is the case with Ireland. Mineral springs are found in almost every county; they are chiefly chalybeate, and afford a strong proof that iron exists in great plenty. Dr. Rutty has written a learned and elaborate treatise on their medicinal properties, to which I must refer those who are desirous of information on that head. Mr. Dubourdieu, in the Survey of Down, has given an excellent account of the mineral waters in that county. Those chiefly visited by invalids, are Lucan near Dublin; Swadlinbar in the county of Cavan; Johnstown near Urlingford, in the county of Kilkenny; and Mallow, in the county of Cork. Rutty's Nat. Hist. of Dublin, p. 26. |