his life to agricultural investigations, has pronounced sentence on this point, from which there is no appeal. He says, comparing England and Ireland, that natural fertility, acre for acre, over the two kingdoms, is certainly in favor of Ireland."[1]
"There is probably not a country in the world," says Newenham, "which, for its extent, is one-half so abundantly supplied with the most precious minerals and fossils as Ireland."[2]
It is not too sanguine to express the hope
- ↑ "Tour in Ireland." Edit. 1780.
- ↑ "There is not a county in Ireland which does not contain some valuable mineral or fossil; several of them, it is now ascertained, abound with treasures of this sort; and these, for the greater part, are most happily situated for the exportation
of their products, either in a rude or manufactured state."—Newenham.
Ireland contains the following thirty different sorts of minerals and fossils, the figures prefixed denoting the number of counties in which they have been discovered, viz.:
2. Amethysts.
1. Antimony.
15. Coal.
1. Cobalt.
17. Copper.
1. Chalcedony.
8. Crystals.
9. Clays of various sorts.
5. Fuller's-earth.
1. Gold.
2. Garnites.
7. Granite.
1. Gypsum.
19. Iron.
1. Jasper.
16. Lead.
2. Manganese.
19. Marble.
15. Ochres.
2. Pearls.
4. Pebbles.
2. Petrifactions.
1. Porphyry.
1. Silicious sand.
3. Silver.
6. Slate.
1. Soap-stone.
1. Spars.
2. Sulphur.
2. Talc."The gold mine at Croghan, in the county of Wicklow, began to attract attention about the year 1795. According to
