198 PBOSPECTING IN CORNWAIjL. 



see how far it would turn out to be a vein of value. He might 

 be imbued with certain American ideas, rather in advance of the 

 period, but it struck him that they, as Oornishmen, had allowed 

 themselves, in a measure, to sleep and to get very rusty, and to 

 neglect a great part of their county, which, he thought, still 

 offered a field for investigation. It distressed him very much, as 

 a Cornishman. to hear of the depression which existed in 

 Cornwall at this time. But he thought that the depression, if 

 he might be allowed the expression, was due more particularly 

 to the slow and indifferent habits of the Cornish miner himself-. 

 He said that, without the slightest hesitation. All they wanted 

 to-day were modern ideas, and a modern system of working 

 introduced into the mines, to make them successful and profit- 

 able. Only on the previous day he went to the bottom of 

 Dolcoath, a depth of 440 fathoms, and there saw what he had 

 never seen before, although acquainted with Dolcoath from 

 infancy — viz. : an enormous vein of rich tin, literally showing 

 ore, forty odd feet wide, which contained quite a considerable 

 quantity of tin. Thus they had an enormous lode, but they did 

 not seem to have any means of getting it out, or any capacity 

 for treating it when they did get it out. He had been accus- 

 tomed within the last few years to deal with mines in America 

 that were handled on a large scale. In the Butte district of 

 Montana, they had the celebrated Amatonga mines turning out 

 one hundred and twenty tons of copper every day from a lode 

 no wider than that of Dolcoath, representing a tonnage of not 

 less than two thousand a day. It behoved them to try to intro- 

 duce a little spirit into their Cornish engineers, and get them to 

 adopt some of the modern ideas and the modern systems of 

 working, which they saw in other countries carried out so 

 successfully. He spoke this in good faith ; he had the greatest 

 possible sympathy with Cornish mines and miners, but believed 

 that the dear old county had been neglected in a very great 

 measure. It had occurred to him whether they had not the 

 coaditions which should warrant attempting to prospect for gold 

 in Cornwall ; it had never been hunted for in Cornwall. They 

 had, iu their collection, a magnificent nugget from the Carnon 

 streams, and a series of small nuggets from other streams ; but 

 he did not think anybody had made any special study, or cared 



