Fossils, Marl. Soil, Bog Timber. Deer's Horns. perience as well as analyzation within the writer's own knowledge has proved.* With respect to fossils, there are none hitherto discovered, except such shells of the cockle, muscle, or periwinkle kind, as are usually found on breaking lime stones, incorporated with the mass, retaining no more of the original shell than the shape, the whole of the stones of which they make a part being homogeneous throughout. The whole of this and the neighbouring parishes abound with this sort of stone, there being hardly a stone of any other description to be found either on the surface or under it. Marl also is to be found in many places in great abundance, on and near the surface, yet no instance is known of its being made use of as a manure. The soil in the low grounds is mostly argillaceous, in many places containing clay fit for pottery and bricks, and very productive both in tillage and grazing. Moory bottoms on the verges of bogs are not without a mixture of calcareous gravel. In the bogs of the western part of the parish there is great plenty of timber, viz. deal, oak, and yew, to be found, but it lies so deep, being fifteen or twenty feet or more under the surface, that it is considered too expensive to be raised. Some pieces of deer's horns have been found in the bogs on the eastern side, and, as is usual in most bogs of Ireland, nuts, leaves, &c. but no other substance worthy of notice. • Dr. Rutty's Mineral Waters, page 70, and analyzed by A. S. M. D. anno 1813. III. Modern Buildings, &c. There are no modern public or private buildings in the country part of this parish. In the town there Town. have been built many new houses of late years, some in the old streets, and more in a situation which before was a receptacle for dung and other nuisances. These buildings have formed, at least on one side, a uniform street. The other parts of the town, on both sides of the river, are not built on any general plan, the proprietors of plots in the town, which are numerous, having let them to tenants who have erected buildings of various descriptions, each to suit his own private convenience, equally regardless of the regularity of the streets, proportional height of houses, or uniformity of fronts, and still less of public advantage. Here there is a large barrack, so close to the town Barracks, that it may be said to make a part of it, (furnishing accommodation for 2000 troops,) to which belong two magazines, an armoury calculated to hold 15,000 stand of arms, and very extensive military stores, forming a general depot from which to supply other garrisons of the kingdom. These are all within the precincts of the barrack, together with an ordnance yard, wherein are constantly employed the several artificers necessary for making all the iron and timber works of gun carriages, and other military engines; and within the same precincts are two hospitals in one building, in a separate yard, capable of containing forty patients each; another, in the same yard with these, capable of accommodating twenty four patients; and one ar Barracks. tillery hospital in the barrack yard, calculated to contain forty patients, all attended by staff and regi Old Bar- mental surgeons. There is also a barrack formed on rack. storm. the original castle of the town, which was built so long ago as the reign of King John, on a high rising ground, like to, though higher and wider than, a Danish fort, or moat, which seems to have been originally formed for that purpose. Before the magazines in the present barrack were built, the magazine of the garrison was in this castle. It was blown up, by lightning communicating with the powder, on the 27th of October, 1697, by which dreadful accident all the houses of the town, except a few poor cottages without the gates, were shattered and tumbled on and about the inhabitants, and by which, wonderful to relate, 7 of them only were killed and 36 wounded. The following is a copy of the account of that accident, recorded immediately after it occurred, the truth of which, though written in a miserable style, is attested by the sovereign of the day : Dreadful "A true narrative of the prodigious storm of wind and rain, thunder and lightning, that happened in Athlone between four and five o'clock on Wednesday morning, the 27th of October, 1697, as it was unanimously declared before the sovereign and governor of the said town, upon the examination of the officers and soldiers of the main guard, and guard of Dublin gate, and likewise by the sentinels that stood on the bastions and works during this horrid scene, together with the dreadful consequences that attended the blowing up of the stores. "A terrible blast of high wind suddenly shook and stripped the guard-house, by the terror of which storm. the guard fled to the door and windows, where, to Dreadful their great astonishment, they saw the air full of different shapes of fire, ready to fall upon their heads, great quantities of match that were blown up occasioning these different figures of fire, which, being followed by great thunder claps, made a great many of the helpless inhabitants, with reason, believe it was the day of judgment, and therefore for some time minded nothing but their prayers, without using any other means for the preservation of themselves or neighbours; in the mean time the lighted match. forcing the thatched houses, burned to the ground the greatest part of what the thunder and blast had left standing, yet little remained of the whole town but a few poor cottages without the gates. It is not to be omitted the wonderful deliverance of Mr. Dodwell, (store-keeper,) and Mr. Roe, (one of the bailiffs of the town,) who, being buried in the ruins at least six hours after this fatal accident, happened now at length to be dug out, with their wives dead in their arms. Mr. Dodwell is in a fair way of recovery, and Mr. Roe perfectly well. God's great care of the inhabitants was very wonderful in this disaster, there being but thirty-six wounded and seven killed in the whole town. There are above a hundred families that have been sufferers in that great misfortune, and by the most moderate computation their losses amount to five thousand pounds, which, considering they lately suffered by two sieges, must undoubtedly reduce them to great extremities, unless speedily relieved by the generous charity of well-disposed people. I do affirm, upon the strictest inquiry I could make, I find this to be a true account, and therefore desire that no other may be written. "GUSTAVUS HAMILTON." Dreadful storm. "First a dreadful shower of rain, as if a whole cloud had fallen in the street, which, being forced by a violent wind, made a prodigious noise as it fell; thirdly, after the rain, a dreadful and terrible clap of thunder; fourthly ensued a thick darkness, that continued for the space of half a quarter of an hour; fifthly broke out continued lightning without ceasing, so that heaven and earth seemed to be united by the flame, which was more terrible to the guards than all that happened before, and ended with three claps of thunder in a fiery cloud from the north, and running violently through the air, stopped just above the castle, and at the last of the three claps, in the twinkling of an eye, fell a wonderful great body of fire or lightning out of the said cloud (in figure round) directly upon the castle, and in a moment after the magazine took fire and blew up two hundred and sixty barrels of powder, one thousand charged hand-grenades, with eight hundred and ten skains of match which were piled over them, two hundred and twenty barrels of musquet and pistol balls, great quantities of pick-axes, spades, shovels, horse-shoes, and nails, all which blew up into the air, and covered the whole town and neighbouring fields, by the violence of which the town gates were all blown open; the poor inhabitants, who were generally asleep when this tragical scene began, awakened with the different surprising misfortunes that befel them, some finding themselves buried in the ruins of their own houses, others finding their houses in a flame above their heads, others blown from their beds into the streets, others having their brains knocked out with the fall of great stones, and breaking of hand grenades in their houses. These stupifying disasters |