The supply of herrings, pilchards, mackerel, and salmon, was
plentiful, and would have been still more plentiful had not the
beach been, in the finest part of the year, covered by multitudes of
seals, which preyed on the fish of the bay. Yet the seal was not an
unwelcome visitor: his fur was valuable; and his oil supplied light
through the long nights of winter. An attempt was made with great
success to set up ironworks. It was not yet the practice to employ
coal for the purpose of smelting; and the manufacturers of Kent and
Sussex had much difficulty in procuring timber at a reasonable
price. The neighbourhood of Kenmare was then richly wooded; and
Petty found it a gainful speculation to send ore thither." He
looked also for profit from the variegated marbles of adjacent
islands. Distant two days' journey over the mountains from the
nearest English, Petty's English settlement of Kenmare withstood all
surrounding dangers, and in 1688, a year after its founder's death,
defended itself successfully against a fierce and general attack.

Sir William Petty died at London, on the 16th of December, 1687, and
was buried in his native town of Romsey. He had added to his great
wealth by marriage, and was the founder of the family in which
another Sir William Petty became Earl of Shelburne and first Marquis
of Lansdowne. The son of that first Marquis was Henry third Marquis
of Lansdowne, who took a conspicuous part in our political history
during the present century.

Sir William Petty's survey of the land in Ireland, called the Down
Survey, because its details were set down in maps, remains the legal
record of the title on which half the land in Ireland is held. The
original maps are preserved in the Public Record Office at Dublin,
and many of Petty's MSS. are in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.