[106] The consumption of such articles in a great mine far exceeds any estimate which a person unacquainted with mining operations could possibly imagine. In Huel Vor, no less than Three thousand pounds of candles are consumed in a month, and about Three thousand five hundred pounds of Gunpowder.
[107] Before the invention of the Stamping Mill, the Tin was pulverised in a kind of mortar, called a Crazing Mill; one of which ancient machines is still in the possession of Mr. Williams of Scorrier House.
[108] This process might be more generally employed in Cornwall with much advantage. The green coloured water which so frequently issues from the adits, might be made to yield a considerable portion of Copper, if it were properly received in pits, and submitted to the action of Iron.
[109] Stream Tin, on account of its purity, is alone capable of furnishing the grain tin, employed principally by dyers.
[110] The principal Stream works are in the parishes of Lanlivery, Luxilian, St. Blazy, St. Austel, St. Mewan, St. Stephens, and St. Columb. The greatest Stream work in the county is at Carnon, about half-way between Truro and Penrhyn; but there is scarcely a valley in which the operation has not been conducted on a small scale.
[111] In the Ordnance Map of Cornwall, a spot marked "the Gold Mine" is noticed, near Liskeard. This name serves only to commemorate one of the many ruinous speculations into which the inhabitants of this County have repeatedly fallen, from a want of mineralogical knowledge. A mass of Pyrites having been discovered in this place, its brilliancy induced a belief that it was Gold, in consequence of which workings were immediately commenced, and the sanguine adventurers, urged forward no doubt by those who derived an interest from the undertaking, could not be convinced of their error, until the complete ruin of their fortunes obliged them to abandon every hope.
[112] This is the deepest Adit in the country; its mouth or extremity being nearly on a level with the water in one of the creeks of Falmouth Harbour, into which it empties itself. Taking into calculation its various windings, through the numerous mines which it relieves of water, it may be said to be not less than twenty-four miles in length.
[113] Menabilly is situated about four miles west of Fowey, on an eminence at a short distance from the sea.
[114] We have been told that this has been arranged by Mr. Aikin, according to the different modifications of its crystalline form, as they are described by Mr. William Phillips in his elaborate paper published in the 2nd Vol. of the Transactions of the London Geological Society.
[115] See an interesting account of this mineral in a notice entitled "Contributions towards a knowledge of the Geological History of Wood-Tin, by A. Majendie, Esq." in the first volume of the Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall.