NATURAL HISTORY. 
in a zigzag curved manner, and to dip under it. 
The length however of the beds containing ore of a 
quality available for smelting, does not (at least to 
the depth at present excavated) exceed 150 yards. 
The surface along the whole line of the lode, as 
well as on each side of it, is apparently regular and 
undisturbed, and consists of a loose head of flat 
schistose stones and fragments, and the earthy 
mould arising from their decomposition, to the 
depth of 5 or 6 feet. In this head, at either end, 
along the line of the lode, bunches of manganese 
contaminated by iron occur. Near the central part 
of the lode an old sinking was discovered to the 
depth of 42 feet on one single bed of the cre. There 
reinain no records i 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) ap- 
pears 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 portions of it, especially on approaching the 
surface, are coarsely granular ; more or less per- 
fectly formed crystals, loosely aggregated, are also 
frequent. The per-centage of iron it contains va- 
ries from 40 to 70 (the average probably of what 
has hitherto been worked yieldivg in the large way 
