Cornwall, Devon, and West Somerset. 35 



Large quantities of sand are obtained upon the Dunbar in 

 Padstow harbour, employing constantly about eighty men in 

 several barges. The amount of sand taken from this harbour 

 was estimated in 1836 at about 100,000 tons per annum,* a large 

 proportion of which was transported into the interior from Wade 

 Bridge by the Bodmin railway, and its branch, up the Camel, 

 to Wineford. Notwithstanding the constant addition of sand 

 thrown by the sea upon the Dunbar, this large demand appears 

 to cause its decrease ; and we were assured by competent persons 

 that it had lost from 6 to 8 feet in height within the last half 

 century. Independently of the sand conveyed inland by means 

 of the river, large quantities of sand are also taken away, by 

 means of carts, horses, and donkeys, from the sand-hills opposite 

 Padstow. 



Sand for agricultural purposes is also obtained in numerous 

 bays and creeks on the north coast of Cornwall from Trevose 

 Head to the Land's End, and is esteemed in proportion to the 

 shelly matter it contains. Of the few places whence sand is car- 

 ried on the south of Cornwall, that from Falmouth harbour, com- 

 posed of little else than corals, shells, and their fragments, is most 

 esteemed. If we consider that Padstow harbour furnishes one- 

 fourth of the sand employed for agricultural purposes in Cornwall 

 and Devon, and estimate the ton as containing about 14 cubic feet, 

 we should have 5,600,000 cubic feet of sand, chiefly composed of 

 comminuted sea-shells, annually conveyed from the coast, and 

 spread over the land in the interior as mineral manure. If we 

 take the produce of Padstow harbour as only a fifth, then we 

 should have 7,000,000 cubic feet thus distributed. 



As may be readily conceived, numerous local causes tend to 

 diminish or increase the value of the sands along the coast ; gene- 

 rally speaking, the harder the coast and the less the detritus that 

 can be worn from it, the greater the proportion of the commi- 

 nuted shells in a given portion of sand. The easier also the 

 streams or rivers flowing towards the shelly sands can deposit the 

 sandy detritus they may bring down in floods before they reach 

 the shelly banks, the finer the sand. We have found the sands, 

 considered worth removal for agricultural purposes, to vary from 

 40 to 70 per cent, in their calcareous contents. Dr. Paris states 

 that the samples of sand usually employed, and which he exa- 

 mined, contained from 60 to 64 per cent, of carbonate of lime. 

 Probably this may be taken as a fair average proportion. The 



* According to Mr. Worgan, the quantity of sand taken from Padstow 

 harbour, in 1811, was 54,000 cartloads. Probably the facility afforded by 

 the Wade Bridge and Bodmin railway may have considerably increased the 

 consumption of this mineral manure, independently of the general improve- 

 ment in the agriculture of the country, within twenty-five years. 



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