Bronze Furnace discovered near St Michael's Mount. 61 



art of mining, the Jews probably purchased the ores from them, and 

 established a depot and market near the recently discovered smelt- 

 ing-works. Now, it is remarkable that the town on whose borders 

 these works were erected, is considered the most ancient in the 

 county ;* and what is still more remarkable, each of its two names 

 is a record of the fact of its having been a market of the Jews. The 

 names are Market-jew and Marazion. In the latter, Mara is a con- 

 traction of Margha " market," and Sion is the Hebrew for " mount." 

 Assuming, therefore, that it was originally inhabited by the Jewish 

 tin-merchants, it was natural for them to call it Marghasion (the 

 name on the Town Seal) or the " Mount-market," from its proximity 

 to, and dependence on, the Mount ; whilst the native miners, think- 

 ing more of the Jews, to whom they were carrying their ores, would 

 call it Market- jew. 



Penzance, 6th October 1849. 



Abstract of a Memoir on the Metalliferous (Gold) Deposits of 

 Brazil. By William Jory Henwocd, F.R.S., F.G.S., 

 &c., &c., &;c.t Communicated by the Author. 



The gold-bearing strata consist of granite talcose and clay slates, 

 and a granular rock of quartz and talc, locally called Itacolumite,J 

 in which the latter is sometimes replaced by oxide of iron. These 

 are followed by the Jacotingaf^ the principal auriferous rock, which 

 is for the most part composed of specular iron-ore and oixde of man- 

 ganese, but sometimes contains talc, mica, and quartz also. A rock 

 very closely resembling that beneath the Jacotinga^ but generally 

 rather less quartzose, succeeds : and this is overlaid in many places 

 by calcareous strata. No organic remains have yet been found in 

 any of these formations. The gold is either disseminated through 

 the rock, and in the short unconnected strings and masses in and 

 forming integral parts of the strata — in much the same manner as 

 tin ore occurs at Carclaze, and in the small veins at Balleswidden, 

 Beam, St Agnes, and Drake Walls ; or disposed in veins or vein- 

 like masses as it is at Candonga, Morro Velho, Gongo Soco, Cocaes, 



adds that the Jews, as well as Phoenicians, were very ancient traders in Phoeni- 

 cian ships." Buller's Account of St Just, p. 5. 



* Davies Gilbert's Cornwall, vol. ii., p. 215. 



t Read before the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, 27th September 



X From the mountain Itacolumy near Ouro Preto, which is composed of it. 

 § Prom its resemblance in colour to the plumage of a well-known Brazilian 

 game-bird, so-called. 



