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whole it struck me as a remarkably well regulated establishment. The ores are 

 good, and yield from 35 to 55 per cent. ; they also use here, for admixture, some 

 of the imported British ores. The mine and coal alternate, and are brought up 

 through shafts from 90 to 200 yards deep. All the machinery for pumping water 

 and elevating the fossils is very well arranged, especially the manner in which the 

 power is transferred from the engine-house to distant shafts. iVIr. Wood has very 

 kindly furnished me with a number of railway patterns, (cut from the rails,) of 

 the most approved forms, which I intend for the " National Institution." I have 

 also procured from this locality several specimens of shale, with beautifully distinct 

 impressions of ferns, &c. I will here also observe that I have made an extensive 

 collection of ores, shales, forge and refining cinders, and refined iron, from the nu- 

 merous works I have visited in Wales ; also of copper ores, scorias, and specimens 

 of the metal in its various stages of manufacture. 



In general terms, it may be said, in reference to the use of coals in their natura 

 state, that when they contain no deleterious substances, they may be employed for 

 ^he reduction of ores, in well-constructed furnaces, with the cold blast, when the 

 bitumen does not exceed 20 per cent. ; and with the hot blast when it is net be- 

 yond 35 per cent. The only difficulty with the pure coal is in its agglutinating 

 properties, which prevent a free circulation of a draft of air and flame ; but this 

 very quality is a recommendation for the forge when a hollow fire is required. 



In making railway iron it is admissible by common law, (and, indeed, it does 

 not materially injure the metal,) to use from 15 to 20 per cent, of refinery of 

 forged cinders, unless expressly prohibited by contract. When that is the case, it 

 IS called mine No. 3, and contains no cinders whatever. The advantage of this is 

 that it resists oxidation rather longer than the cinding iron, but is not in the first 

 instance much stronger or in appearance any better. 



Pont-y-Pool contains about 1 1,000 inhabitants and was the heart of late Chartist 

 movement, under Frost, on the good town of Newport. It was here that the pre- 

 sent system of rolling and slitting iron, and the process of tinning iron was first 

 introduced by Hanbury Leigh, Esq., now Lord Lieutenant of the county of Mon- 

 mouth, and an extensive proprietor of landed and mining estates. 



I have to-day learned from official statements, that in what is called the Swansea 

 district of Glamorganshire, South Wales, there are raised annually 4,000,000 

 tons of coal, of which, 2,000,000 are consumed for iron works, 300,000 foi 

 copper, 200,000 for other purposes, and the remainder are shipped to other parts. 

 These facts may serve to convey some idea of what may be expected to be done, 

 in a few years, in our own most highly favored mineral districts, the parallel of 

 which I have not yet seen abroad. 



1 have not been able to obtain an.analysis of the Welsh anthracite, but the fol- 

 lowing of the Swansea bituminous coal may be relied on as authentic, viz : Car- 

 bon, 73.5; Bitumen, 23.1 ; Earth, 3.4. 



As the Swansea coal is considered as belonging to the very best of British coals, 

 it may not bo uninteresting nor inappropriate to insert the following analysis by 

 Mr. Mushet of the American Cumberland coal. So many analyses have been 



I 



