53G 



MR. J. S. MENTEATH ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE 

 SNOWDON RANGE OF MOUNTAINS*. 



THE patriotic exertions of Mr, Menteath, in endeavouring to intro- 

 duce the plan of teaching the principles and practice of gardening into 

 the parish schools of Scotland, must be well known to most of our 

 readers ; and though the paper before us is not immediately connected 

 with the diffusion of information among the humbler ranks of society, 

 we find more than one allusion to the interesting subject which has 

 attracted so much of his attention. In the following note, for example, 

 with reference to slate quarry men in Carnarvonshire. 



" We cannot here refrain from observing, that these quarrymen, though civil 

 and industrious, do not possess the same information and intelligence that the 

 miners of Leadhills and of Wanlockhead, in Scotland, have. While the latter 

 have extensive libraries to instruct them, the slate quarrymen and miners of 

 North Wales are entirely without these valuable sources of mental improve- 

 ment. It may be remarked, that the miners of Leadhills have a library of 

 1200 volumes , and those of Wanlockhead, another of 700 volumes. All which 

 books are more thoroughly read, and more anxiously sought after by the 

 industrious miner, than the numerous and splendid collections in flaany of the 

 libraries in the low country ; hence these people are comparatively well 

 informed." 



The whole paper teems with interesting facts expressed in plain 

 unaffected language, as our readers may see from the following account 

 of " Carnarvon slate " to which the note already quoted has been 

 appended. 



" One of the finest and most extensive slate-quarries of this range is that of 

 Dolawen, belonging to Mr. D. Pennant, on the south bank of the river Ogwen, 

 about six miles from Bangor. 



" The quarry is situate on the face of a lofty hill. The vein ranges from 

 south-west to north-east, as do all the slate veins of this district ; and its dip 

 is nearly vertical to the horizon. It is included in a hard blackish greywacke 

 sort of rock. The breadth of the quarry, now working, and which has been 

 opened considerably nlore than forty years, is no less than 300 yards, and about 

 100 in depth. In colour it is blue, reddish, and green ; but these varieties 

 occur generally in separate veins, though occasionally passing into each other. 

 The blue, which predominates, is excelled in hardness and durability by no 



* Memoir on the Geology of the Snovvdori Range of Mountains, as con- 

 nected with its Scenery, Soil, and Productions. By J. S. Stuart Menteath, 

 Esq. Wern. Trans. Communicated by the Author, - 



