one from the other, viz. at Coal island and Dungannon; with the latter I am totally unacquainted: it is I believe, by far the most extensive of the two: whether they may be considered as connected and thus constituting but one single formation, I do not pretend to say.
The coal formation of Coal island is in an open part of the country, though with a gently waved surface. The whole extent of the coal district or Pound, as it is called, does not exceed as I was informed, four hundred yards square.
The works in this district appear to have been prosecuted formerly with more activity than at the present period, some of the pits being now abandoned; several however still remain, but they seem to be conducted with little of capital or of spirit. The steam engine has not yet been introduced; the power of horses only is employed to raise both coals and water, which last is unfortunately very abundant. In one pit called the Mary Anne, which I visited, 150 barrels were computed to be drawn out every day. None of the pits (so far as I was informed) exceed 75 yards in depth: the quantity of coals raised daily in the Mary Ann pit amounted to thirteen tons, though no more than thirty colliers were employed. The coals are said not to cake, they are applicable to all domestic purposes, and are I believe mostly consumed by the inhabitants of the adjacent part of the country, notwithstanding a bounty allowed by government to send them either to Newry, Belfast, or Dublin.
Several seams of coal occur, the main bed is nearly six feet in thickness; its general direction is north-west and south-east: the dip of the strata is here towards south-west. At Dungannon, as I was informed, this direction becomes reversed.
