MINERALOGY. 277 



almost incessantly for so many centuries, at no earlier period have 

 such quantities of ore been obtained as of late years. At present, 

 and for a long time past, the copper ore transmitted from Coniston 

 averages three hundred tons per month, and the ore exposed is 

 sufficient to maintain this rate for many years to come. It occurs 

 almost entirely in the form of sulphuret, though considerable 

 quantities of different oxides, and traces of sulphate, carbonate or 

 malachite, phosphate, and even pure" malleable copper have been 

 found in various parts of the workings. The ore is deposited in 

 the green-slate and porphyry rock in " veins, lodes, and cross 

 courses," and is generally embedded in a matrix of quartz. The 

 extreme hardness of the rock and the vast extent aud depth 

 of the mines render the process of obtaining and dressing the ore 

 very laborious and costly ; and it is entirely due to able manage- 

 ment that the great prosperity of these copper mines has been 

 secured and maintained for so long a period by the present pro- 

 prietary. Deposits of Copper, smaller in extent, are scattered 

 nearly all over the second division of the slate-rock, and mining 

 operations in search of it have been instituted, and carried on for 

 longer or shorter periods, and with more or less success, in many 

 different localities, as Torver, Seathwaite, Ulpha, Eskdale, New- 

 lands, Caldbeck, Wythburn, Langdale, &c, but with the excep- 

 tion of those in Newlands and Langdale, it is probable that none 

 of these have been wrought of late, to any advantage. 



On account of its antiquity, precedence has been accorded to 

 Copper in this notice of the minerals of the Lake District ; but 

 that metal is far from standing first amongst our mineral pro- 

 ductions in point of quality exported, — in this respect it is far 

 exceeded by coal, slate, lead, iron, and, probably by lead. 



Coal. — From the Coal-field of West Cumberland there was 

 exported in 1857, coal to the amount of 673,000 tons, chiefly to 

 Ireland ; the home consumption exceeding 200,000 tons. Add- 

 ing to these figures 100,000 tons for the produce of the East 

 Cumberland Collieries, we have a total, in round numbers, of 

 1,000,000 tons, giving, at seven shillings per ton, £350,000 as the 

 annual value of the coal fields in our West Cumberland map. The 



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