The report which was drawn up at the time by an eye witness of these festivities, exhibits such an admirable specimen of the mock Heroic, that we feel assured that the tourist will thank us for having given insertion to it in the Appendix.
Pursuing the road along the cliff we pass Lelant church, and arrive at the river Hayle, which takes its rise near Crowan, and falls into Saint Ives Bay; although it arrives at the level of the sea three miles before it reaches the northern coast, and winds its way through an area of sand, nearly half a mile wide, and more than two miles long; this sand, at high water, is generally submerged, so that the traveller who wishes to cross is obliged to take a circuitous route over the bridge at Saint Erth; but upon the ebbing of the tide, it soon becomes fordable, and may be passed over even by foot passengers. It is a curious circumstance that at twelve o'clock at noon, and at midnight, it is always fordable; this apparent paradox is solved by knowing, that at Spring tides it is always low water at these hours, and that the Neap tides never rise sufficiently high to impede the passage.
The Port of Hayle is situated on the eastern side of the river, where a great trade is carried on with Wales for timber, coals,[77] iron, and limestone; and with Bristol, for earthen-ware, groceries, &c. It is also one of the principal places of export for the copper ore of the western mines. In the former edition of this work we described the processes by which the smelting and refining of Copper were conducted at this place, but as it was acknowledged to be much cheaper to carry the ore to the coal, than to bring the coal to the ore, the proprieters found themselves compelled to abandon the speculation. The buildings in the neighbourhood, however, still continue as memorials of the former existence of such works, having been constructed with square masses of the scoria,[78] which had been cast into moulds for such purposes, as it issued from the furnace. In the museum of the Geological Society at Penzance the stranger may see an interesting model of this Copper House, and of the furnaces employed in the reduction of the ore.
There are now at Hayle two very extensive Iron Founderies, in which are cast the largest engines which have been hitherto erected on mines. They are wrought partly by water, and partly by Steam Engines. Near the Copper House the traveller will not fail to notice the fine back-water dam, which was constructed about thirty years since, for the scouring out of the harbour. The effect has been a considerable reduction of the sand which forms its bottom, so that ships of much greater burden may now enter it. The plan and execution of this work, which was undertaken at the expense of the then existing Hayle Copper Company, reflect great credit on the late John Edwards, Esq., who first conceived its practicability and advantage, and under whose direction it was completed. A phenomenon occurred at these works some years ago which afforded a curious illustration of the secret and destroying agency of Galvanic electricity. The flood gates were found to undergo a very rapid decay, which was perfectly inexplicable, until the engineer ascertained that it depended entirely upon the contact of iron and copper bolts and braces, which had been introduced into the different parts of the frame work.
The country around Hayle is entirely desolated with sand, consisting of minutely comminuted marine shells, and which, with some few interruptions extends all along the coast, from Saint Ives to near Padstow, and in many places is drifted into hills of sixty feet in elevation. There can be but little doubt that this sand was originally brought from the sea side by hurricanes, but not even a popular tradition remains of the time or manner of this extensive devastation, which has reached, with some distinct intervals, nearly forty miles in length. Some allusion to this event has been supposed to have been discovered amongst the ancient records of the Arundel family, fixing the period about the twelfth century; but Mr. Boase observes, that the fact of the churches still remaining more or less ingulphed, the age of which does not much exceed three centuries, decisively refutes such a conjecture. On the other hand, it would appear that in the liber valorum of Henry the Eighth, the living of Gwythian was estimated far above its proportion to adjoining parishes. By the shifting of the sand by high winds, the tops of houses, and the ruins of ancient buildings, may be occasionally seen at this very day; and in some places a great number of human bones have been discovered, derived from the cemetries which have been formerly inundated.
The farther progress of the sand flood is at length arrested by extensive plantations of the Arundo Arenaria, or common sea rush.[79]
The most important geological circumstance connected with the history of this sand is, that on several parts of the coast, it is passing into the state of a solid compact rock! The fact was first investigated by Dr. Paris, who has published a memoir upon the subject in the first volume of the Transactions of the Geological Society of Cornwall; and as every scientific traveller must be desirous of exploring so interesting a phenomenon we have extracted, from the paper above mentioned, such notices as may be useful in assisting his researches.