424- PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO idjS. 



cloth of the saffron-kiln, and cover it with two or more safFron-papers, a piece 

 of woollen cloth, or thick baize, and a cushion of canvas or sackcloth filled with 

 barley-straw, on which lay the kiln-board. — Put into the kiln clean, thoroughly 

 kindled charcoal, oven coals, or the like, keeping it so hot that you can hardly 

 endure your fingers between the paper and the hair-cloth. — After an hour or 

 more turn in the edges of the cake with a knife, and loosen it from the paper. 

 If it stick fast wet the outside of the paper with a feather dipped in beer, and 

 then dry the papers. Turn the cake, that both sides may be of a colour. — 

 If it stick again to the paper, loosen it, and then dry it by a very gentle heat, 

 with the addition of 20 or 30 pound weight laid on the kiln-board. — ^The 

 safFron-cake being sufficiently dried, it is fit for use, and will last a good many 

 years, being wrapped up and kept close. 



The best saffron is that which consists of the thickest and shortest chives, 

 of a high red and shining colour, both without and within alike. — Saffron is 

 oftentimes burned, and in knots, spotted and mixed with the yellows that are 

 within the shells. — One acre yields at the last 12 pounds of good Saffron, one 

 year with another, and some years 20 pounds. — Sixteen quarters of saffron- 

 heads are sufficient to plant one acre. 



The kiln consists of an oaken-frame, lathed on every side, 12 inches square 

 in the bottom, 2 feet high, and 2 feet square at the top ; upon which is nailed 

 a hair-cloth, and strained hard by wedges driven into the sides; a square board 

 and a weight to press it down, weighing about a quarter of a hundred. — The in- 

 sides of the kiln covered all over with the strongest potter's clay, very well 

 wrought with a little sand, a little more than 2 inches thick. — ^The bottom 

 must be lined with clay 4 or 5 inches thick, which is the hearth to lay the fire 

 on : and level with which is to be made a little hole to put the fire in. The 

 outside may be plastered all over with lime and hair. 



Account of the Tin Mines in Cornwall. By Dr. Christopher Merret. 



N° 138, p. 949. 



The stones, from which tin is wrought, are sometimes found a foot or two 

 below the surface of the earth, but most usually between two walls or rocks, 

 and are commonly of an iron colour, of little or no affinity with the tin, and 

 lying in a vein or load between 4 and 18 inches broad. Sometimes there is a 

 rich and fat metal; sometimes hungry and starved; sometimes nothing but a 

 drossy substance, neither purely earth, nor stone, nor metal; but a little re- 

 sembling the rejected cinders of a smith's forge : and where this is found the 

 miners judge the metal to be ripe. 



