8 Mineral Surveys of the British Counties. 
the foad. We paid visits’ to several of them. In one of 
them, containing,not more than four tents, we found only 
women, who were busy in distilling brandy from milk. 
The women confirmed what we had been before told con- 
cerning the materials used for distilling, and said that, hav- 
ing made butter, they were distillmg the butter-milk for 
brandy. We could not credit that brandy might be so 
obtained ; but to prove it, they tapped the still as upon a 
former occasion, offering us a tuft of camel’s hair soaked in 
brandy, that we might taste, and-be convinced. 
III, Proposed Mineral Surveys of the British Counties. 
Mr. Kirwan’s Opinions on this Sulject. 
; I; appears to have been the original intention of the Pre- 
sident and Members of the Board of Agriculture to ascer- 
tain, 
*¢ 1, The riches to be obtained from the surface of the 
national territory. 
2. The mineral or subterraneous treasures of which 
the country is possessed. : 
3. The wealth to be derived from its streams, rivers, 
canals, inland navigations, coasts, and fisheries ; and 
4, The means of promoting the improvement of the 
. _ people in regard to their health, industry and morals, 
founded ona statistical survey, or minute and care- 
ful inquiry into the actual state of every parochial 
district in the kingdom, and the circumstances of 
its inhabitants.” 
Conceiving, that under one or other of these heads, every 
point of real importance, that can tend to promote the ge- 
neral happiness of a great nation, will be included. 
The first point, viz. the cultivation of the surface, and 
the resources to be derived from it, appearing to have a prior 
claim on the attention of the Board, it has been particularly 
kept in view in the selection of their surveyors or reporters, 
and in the instructions given to these gentlemen, who have 
done themselves so much credit, and the country so much 
service, by the many able county reports which they have 
enabled the Board to present to the public; in which re- 
ports, the three latter subjects are only incidentally touched 
upon, although much valuable matter has been collected 
and published relating to them, on the two latter heads in 
particular. The second head, that of mineral surveys, ap- 
peared of such a distinct nature, and of so much importance, 
tovbe entered on, whew the agricultural nart of their surveys 
was 
