418 GOLD, SILVER, AND COPPER. 



In Scotland l gold lias been found in no inconsiderable quantity 

 among the hills of Dumfriesshire, where gold-mining employed hun- 

 dreds of men in the reign of James Y. of Scotland, and yielded a 

 large amount of metal And among the metamorphic rocks of Suther- 

 land gold occurs, and has been from time to time successfully worked 

 by washing the superficial gravels. 



In Ireland. In county Wicklow gold is well known to occur ; 

 and at one time, in 1795-96, the Balin Valley brook, a tributary of 

 the Ovoca, yielded about ^14,000 worth of gold. All the mines were 

 shallow placer mines less than 50 feet deep. 



Silver. A considerable vein of silver was found at Hilderston in 

 Linlithgow ; and in 1715 a valuable silver vein was worked in the 

 Ochills, between Middlehill and Woodhill. 



There is now no silver mine in Britain, but a large amount of silver 

 is obtained from lead mines. Some of these occur in the Llandeilo 

 rocks, and some in the Carboniferous limestone. The highest yield of 

 silver is from the great Laxey mine, in the Isle of Man. Other im- 

 portant silver lead mines occur in Cornwall, Devonshire, Cardigan, 

 Montgomery, Shropshire, Westmoreland, Yorkshire, Durham, and 

 Northumberland. 



Copper. 



British Copper Mines. The greater number of copper mines are 

 in Cornwall. The copper mostly occurs in lodes, which run within 

 twenty-five degrees of due east and west. Other lodes run from north- 

 east to south-west, and from north-west to south-east. The productive 

 strip of country stretches along the course of the granite masses, form- 

 ing a belt about fifteen miles wide, between Dartmoor and the Scilly 

 Isles. On the south-east of the granite of St. Austell are the Fowey 

 copper mines, and round Redruth and Penrhyn there is abundance of 

 copper ore. Many mines contain copper ore in the upper part and tin 

 ores below. The copper ores traverse both the granite and overlying 

 slates. The prevailing ores of Cornwall are the bi-sulphide and sul- 

 phide of copper, together with some amount of red oxide, carbonates, 

 and silicates. Arsenical pyrites abound in the Tavistock district of 

 Devonshire. In Cheshire, at Alderly Edge, copper occurs" in the 

 Lower Keuper Sandstone as blue and green carbonates. A simi- 

 lar deposit, also exhausted, occurs at Gardistori, near West Felton in 

 Shropshire. 



1 Native gold attracted attention in Scotland at an early period. In 1153 

 David I. granted to the Abbey of Dunfermline a tythe of all the gold he should 

 obtain from Fife and Forthrif. The Scotch Parliament in 1424 granted the crown 

 all the gold mines in Scotland. Those of Crawford Moor were discovered in the 

 reign of James IV. ; and in the reign of James V. much of the gold coinage was 

 minted from native gold. For a long period the mines were worked by Germans 

 and Dutchmen. About 1578 gold was found abundantly in Henderland Moor 

 in Ettrick Forest, and from time to time a little has been met with down to 

 recent years. 2 



a "Early Records relating to Mining in Scotland," by R. W. Cochrane- Patrick 

 of Woodside, 1878. 



