26V Mr. Kingston's Account of the Iron-Mine 



ore. There remain no records in the neighbourhood, as to 

 when or for what purpose this excavation was made ; but the 

 probability is, that it was mistaken for tin, old stream-works 

 for obtaining which abound in the neighbourhood. Only a 

 small portion (if any) appears to have been carried off; as the 

 chief part was left in heaps, and strewed on the surface to the 

 extent of two or three acres immediately round, and which in 

 fact led to the discovery of the mine, and remained unaccounted 

 for some time after. 



The chief part of the ore is of a compact texture, but por- 

 tions of it, especially on approaching the surface, are coarsely 

 granular ; more or less perfectly formed crystals, loosely ag- 

 gregated, are also frequent. The per-centage of iron it con- 

 tains varies from 40 to 70 (the average probably of what has 

 hitherto been worked yielding in the large way about 50); some 

 of the richer specimens are actively magnetic; when pulve- 

 rized, the ore is brownish black, and passively magnetic. It 

 occurs also mixed with sulphur and with arsenic, in coarsely 

 granular masses. Spathose carbonate of iron and also iron- 

 pyrites are met with ; the latter, either in decomposing granular 

 concretions, radiated, in more or less perfect cubic crystals, 

 and in small spangles disseminated through the coarser gra- 

 nular ore. Copper-pyrites and arsenical pyrites also occur, 

 the former very sparingly. 



The other mineral specimens discovered in the faults and 

 cavities of the lode, and in the loose head immediately above 

 it, having excited considerable local attention, I shall (with 

 your permission) give as complete an enumeration of them as 

 I am able, though a minute and lengthy description would be 

 equally tedious and unnecessary ; as they are chiefly aqueous 

 depositions of siliceous and aluminous matter, coloured by the 

 oxides of iron and manganese, and do not essentially differ from 

 other formations of the same kind of frequent occurrence in other 

 mining districts ; for as to the statement, that precious gems, 

 &c. had been discovered there, that being now admitted to 

 have originated in a mistake, no further notice need be taken 

 of it. 



Quartz — Occurs in a granular form, in corroded amorphous 

 masses, in thin plates crossing each other at right angles (cel- 

 lular quartz), stalactitic and crystallized. The crystals are all 

 secondary, and mostly hexagonal prisms, terminated by an 

 hexagonal pyramid ; the faces generally unequal. In some 

 the pyramid is nearly triangular, the alternate angles being 

 deeply replaced by planes. In some the edges, either of the 

 prism, or pyramid, or both, are bevelled ; occasionally very 

 regular prisms, terminated by a pyramid at each end, are met 



with, 



