XX 



the condition of neighbouring rivers,* is shown by the increase of 

 sahnon t in them. 



Mr. Foster of Lanwithen, one of our members, has been, and 

 still is, zealously cooperating with Her Majesty's Commissioners ; 

 and, I believe, he has been eminently successful in arresting much 

 of the sand and mud which had long been finding their way into 

 the Fowey ; no less to the injury of the navigation, than to the 

 prejudice of the salmon, which, we know, appear in condition 

 there at a period diiferent from that at which they reach maturity 

 in most other places. 



In Sweden, at the beginning of this century,^ and in the 

 Himalaya some fifteen years ago,|| the labourers obtained light 

 (and sometimes were almost sufi'ocated) when at their work, by 

 smoky flames from burning splinters of resinous pine. In Brazil, 

 oil, expressed from nuts of the Palma Christi, is commonly used 

 by the miners. § 



An experiment, made at Balleswidden, near Penzance, during 

 several months of 1856-7, attracted at the time much less atten- 

 tion than might have been expected, and is now almost forgotten. 

 Coal-gas was made at the surface, and conveyed down one of the 

 shafts to a depth of more than one hundred and twenty fathoms, 

 through a two -inch wrought-iron pipe ; from which branches, 

 varying from three-quarters of an inch to one inch in diameter, 

 were laid — in some cases for at least one hundred and seventy 

 fathoms — along the several (levels) galleries ; and similar tubes 

 extended, occasionally as much as ten fathoms above the levels, 

 to the various (hacks or pitches) parts in progress. Flexible pipes, 



* " At Wheal Crelake we find that, if the inflow of the water be rather 

 slow, the first, second, and third pits cleanse it pretty effectually. The pits 

 nearest to the Dressing -floors require to be emptied about once in six weeks 

 . . . .The whole set of six pits, with launders at each side for regulating the 

 ingress of the water, cost rather less than Twenty five Pounds." — Josiah 

 Paull, Esq., Chief Mineral Surveyor to His Grace the Duke of Bedford, MS. 



f " At the Devon Great Consols several acres of catch pits for the cleans- 

 ing of mineral waters, have been made and are in daily use. The water 

 which falls into the Tamar from these mines may be considered harmless to 

 fish. Since the close of the last [1869] fishing season, salmon have ascended 

 the Tamar in greater numbers than for twentj' years before." — Ibid. 



Between fifty and sixty years ago I saw a salmon killed in the Dock at 

 Perran Wharf, on Eestronguet-creek. 



I Clarke, Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, X, p. 187. 



II Traill, Asiatic Researches, XVI, p. 138. 



§ Burton, Explorations in the Highlands of the Brazil, I, p. 250. 



