Gold and other Minerals 393 



has been done for some little time past. The only present 

 evidence of activity is the occasional appearance of a wagon 

 from the mouth of the drift, to add its load to the heap of 

 debris accumulated there, and the notice affixed to the gate 

 at the entrance to the tunnel informing the curious that 

 they must not enter. The direction of the drift is towards 

 the base of the Castell rock, and many veins of quartz are 

 intersected by it. From the refuse heap, pretty crystals 

 may sometimes be gathered, and there is abundance of 

 brassy-looking, sulphureous ore ; but the latter soon 

 tarnishes, and loses much of its original beauty on exposure 

 to the atmosphere. Bits of lead ore, or galena, are not 

 infrequent in the quartz, some of it containing a little 

 silver ; but most particularly interesting are the various 

 phases in the lava which the recently fractured rock dis- 

 closes, some of the specimens showing admirably its 

 crystalline texture, others demonstrating its metamorphic 

 action on the adjacent slate. 



Ring Ouzels breed round the base of the cliff, and on 

 one of the rafters in the gold mine sheds a Missel Thrush 

 had made her nest, rather an unusual site for such a bird to 

 choose ; but the keeper, who lives close by, informed me 

 that it was the second year of her occupation, to his know- 

 ledge. Up till within a few years ago, Ravens are said to 

 have nested on the highest part of the rock ; but the only 

 representatives of the predatory birds now resorting thither 

 are a pair of Kestrels. Of the latter the keeper had shot 

 the male, and nailed the body up to his " rail " a few days 

 previous to my first visit, in May. As a consequence, the 

 female deserted her eggs, and disappeared for a few days, 

 after which she returned with a new mate, and was allowed 

 to take off a brood from a nearly adjoining ledge. The 

 male killed was in immature plumage, as likewise was the 

 father of the brood that were allowed to fly, thus confirming 

 my previous observations that Kestrels, like all our other 

 breeding raptores, often nest in their first year, and before 

 they have assumed their mature dress. A close examina- 

 tion of the dead bird failed to discover that he had shed a 

 single feather of his first, or nest plumage, and so far as 



