THE AUTUMN EXCURSION. 243 



market, are eacli capable of holding 1,000 tons. The whole 

 of the work has been executed in little over two years. The 

 "dry" — a kiln in which the clay undergoes the final process 

 of drying and is made ready for the market — will turn out about 

 200 tons of clay in a week ; and the whole process, from the time 

 the first pick is put into the decomposed granite till the purified 

 clay reaches the market, occupies, as a minimum, about three 

 months. In that time, indeed, we may have cups and sau- 

 cers manufactured of this clay and returned to us from the 

 Potteries. Why cannot the manufacture be done at home, and 

 all this cost of transit and re-transit saved ? This is a question 

 which has been discussed before and never satisfactorily 

 answered ; surely it only requires capital and skill to succeed, and 

 both may be obtained. 



Another spin over the breezy moorland, through the little vil- 

 lage of Bugle, crossing branches of the Cornwall Minerals 

 Railway, soon brought the party to the heights overlooking St. 

 Austell, where Par Bay and the whole coast for many a mile lay 

 stretched out in panoramic loveliness, with the glancing sea 

 beyond. It was a splendid view, and one that could be lingered 

 over for hours. But there were other considerations than the 

 picturesque to be observed. We had left one of the newest clay 

 works in the county ; we were now to see what is in one sense the 

 oldest. Carclaze tin mine is one of the lions of the West. 

 Tradition says that it was worked by the Britons ; record carries 

 back its date at least 400 years. Whoever worked it did so with 

 a will. It is not a mine in the ordinary sense of the term ; but a 

 huge surface excavation, nearly 150 feet deep, over a mile in 

 circuit, and occupying nearly ten acres of ground. Formerly 

 it was worked wholly for tin. It has since yielded very large 

 quantities of china clay, and for china clay it is now chiefly 

 wrought by the proprietors, Messrs. Lovering and Sons, who 

 cordially and personally made the excursionists welcome. A 

 select few made their way to the bottom, and there learnt that all 

 the clay and debris are washed out of the bottom of the mine 

 through an adit level which opens at the side of the hill below, 

 on the " drying grounds " about a quarter of a mile away. This 

 saves all hatding. Gravitation does the work of pumps, so saving 

 the whole expense of raising the clay or debris to a higher level. 

 From 6,000 to 10,000 tons of clay are annually sent to market 



