310 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



that have lately taken place both here in New Zealand and in 

 Australia — as the rich gold-mining at Coolgardie and other 

 places in Australia and in the Thames district in New Zea- 

 land, and also the great number of the unemployed every- 

 where among us ; these two diverse matters considered 

 together with what has recently taken place in connection 

 with the mines at Home in Cornv?all, of which I intend more 

 particularly to speak in this ^Daper. (3.) My possessing some 

 interesting specimens of tin-, copper-, lead-, and iron-ores 

 from the Cornish mines, which I should like to show you 

 (these mementoes from Home have been in my possession 

 nearly sixty years, having been early sent to me by my uncle, 

 the father of the late Bishop Colenso, of Natal, who for many 

 years held the office of Mineral Agent in the Duchy of Corn- 

 wall). 



The County of Cornwall, as no doubt you all well know, 

 is both the southernmost and westernmost county of Eng- 

 land. It is of peculiar configuration in its outlines, long, 

 narrow, and irregular, being surrounded on all sides but one 

 by the ocean for more than seven-eighths of its total circum- 

 ference, save where it joins on its eastern end to the County 

 of Devonshire, which is also its broadest part. The western- 

 most headland or extremity is the Land's End, and the 

 southernmost point or cape is the Lizard — often the last por- 

 tion of Old England seen by the voyager or emigrant on his 

 leaving the old Mother-country for New Zealand. 



Geologically speaking, the country is very rocky, the 

 principal stone being granite. 



Cornwall has long been famous for its tin. "We find in 

 the earliest histories that the Phoenicians traded into Corn- 

 wall for tin before the invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar, 

 or, in other words, long before the Christian era. But I am 

 not, at present, going into the ancient history of Cornwall — 

 of its distinct people and language, or of its Druidical and 

 prehistoric remains ; valuable information on these subjects 

 may be obtained from books in our library. I shall confine 

 my remarks to the proper subject of this paper — viz., its 

 mines and staple industry of mining. 



Tin-ore is obtained by two principal processes, which are 

 widely different from each other ; the one is called " mining," 

 the other "streaming" ("tin-streaming"). The first, or 

 mining, is carried on by sinking deep shafts perpendicularly 

 in the earth, and by following in every direction the course or 

 veins of the metal tin, often horizontally and irregularly dis- 

 posed in the granite and other stones. This mode of mining 

 includes many modern and scientific operations, and can only 

 be carried out at an enormous outlay. The ore — that is, the 

 metal in the stone — when brought to the surface has to be 



