ae Account of ‘a Cobalt Mine in Cheshire. 
of Cheshire, there is nothing to obstruct 
the view from thence to the Irish sea: 
But this place is an object of more in- 
terest to the mineralogist than the pic- 
turesque tourist: in'the space of a few 
acres, he may be presented with ores of 
most of the metals found in England, but 
-placed in such situations, and presenting 
auch appearances, as are rarely to be seen 
elsewere. The hill is evidently of allu- 
vial formation, being composed chiefly 
of gravel, and. soft white and reddish 
sand-stone ; the white is intermixed with 
rounded quartz pebbles, the red with 
particles of mica. Insome parts the red 
and white sand-stone assume a nearly 
stratified appearance ; in others, the red 
stone intersects the white in very thin 
Seams, branching in various directions, 
In the white sand-stone are found various 
ores of lead, as small portions of compact 
_galena; and the same in a granular state 
antermixed with sand-stone. In other 
places, particles of blue and brown ore 
were collected in nedules of varnioussizes, 
and imbedded along with pebbles in the 
sand-rock, like currants in a pudding. 
The black ore or earth of lead, is here 
met with; and the carbonate or white 
ore; but intermixed, like the others, with 
sand-stone. These ores. do not lie in 
regular: veins, horizontally or verti- 
cally inclined; but are found in masses, 
or intersecting and mixing with the sand- 
stone and pebbles. In some few places 
there are appearances of a regular vein, 
in which there are seams of-cawk inter- 
spersed between the sand-rock and the 
ere; but these appearances are soon lost, 
and the vein is broken off and thrown 
into a state of confusion, The cawk* 
is also mixed with quartz pebbles. These 
oyes are found in considerable quantities, 
“and smelted at the place, but they are 
in general poor in quality. Cupper ore 
._ was formerly got here in large quautities, 
as appears by the scoriz or slagg which 
‘remains. ‘The works have been discon- 
tinued during nearly forty years. The 
copper was taken to Macclesfield ; and, 
‘with calamine from Derbyshire, made 
inio biass at that place. Last summer 
an attempt’ was made again ta get the 
ore, and a furnace erected for reducing 
it. I was there the day after the trial, 
which had not succeeded, owing to the 
poorness of the-ore, and want of skill 
* J regret that I did not examine this sub- 
stance more particularly ; I suspect it to con- 
tain baroselenite and cale spar, like the cawk 
of Derbyshire, 
in the persons employed. Icoald dise 
cern the presence of copper in small 
streaks in the product, by the assistance 
of a lens, and also on the irons employed 
to stir the ore when in fusion. The cop- 
per ores are found intermixed with those 
of lead, lying in the confused state I 
have described. Something hike a reyu- 
lar vein was opened last summer, its di- 
rection nearly vertical, its width about 
three feet, with a floor of cawk inter- 
posed between the ore and the rock on 
one side; the other was United with the 
sand-ruck. The ore, as it was called, 
was of a reddish-brown colour, extremely 
hard, with quartz pebbles imbedded, 
within it. Neither its specific gravity, 
nor appearance, gave indication of the 
presence of copper. On trial, I found 
it precipitated that metal upon iron frony 
a nitrous solution. It is more properly 
an iron-stone combined with copper py- 
rites, than an ore of copper: it contains 
very little of the latter metal. The most 
remarkable production of the place is 
cobalt ore, which was very recently dis- 
covered here, existing in the red sand- 
stone. It had long been unyoticed or 
employed in mending the roads, until a 
miner, who bad worked upon the Conti- 
nent, and seen the cobalt ores of Saxony, 
first discovered it in the estate of a gen- 
tleman 10 the neighbourhood. The at. 
tention of the tenants of the Alderley 
Mines was then directed to the subject, 
and the Cobalt mines were let for one 
thousand pounds per annum, to a com= 
pany near Pontefract, in Yorkshire. 
The proprietor of Alderley Edge is Sir 
I. T. Stanley, bart. whose grounds and 
seat are in its immediate vicinity. The 
ores of cobalt, so valuable to the manu. 
facturers of porcelain and paper, are very 
scarce in this island, They have been 
found in small quantities in Cornwall,_ 
chiefly of the kind called grey cobalt ore, 
which contains cobalt combmed with 
iron and arsenic. The ore at Alderley 
is the black cobalt ochre of mineralogists, 
It is in the farm of grains, of*a bluish- 
black colour, ‘The best specimens in. 
colour and appearance, resemble grains 
of gunpowder, disseminated in red sand= 
stone, or lying in thin seams between - 
the stone, which has a shistose or slaty 
fracture. It hes from eight to ten yards 
under the surface, and is got out in thin 
pieces, and separated afterwards as 
much as possible from the stone}; it is 
then packed in tubs, and sent near Pon. 
tefract, where it is manufactured into 
ppialt, Amidst the confusion of mineral 
substances 
oe 
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