136 Electro-magnetic properties in the mines of Cornwall. 



If this projected improvement should prove successful, it would af- 

 ford an additional and most important market for the coal of the an- 

 thracite mines, which perhaps, from its great abundance, and the in- 

 creasing facilities of conveyance, may soon sink too low in price to 

 €nable the proprietors to prosecute their mining operations with fair 

 advantage ; nor is this all ; it would afford also a new market for 

 spirit, the cheaper kinds of which would then be used for fuel ; they 

 would be appropriated to the furnace instead of the firemen, and 

 thus the great cause of temperance would be promoted by dimin- 

 ishing the temptation to drink, and an adequate substitute would be 

 afforded for the consumption. Should there be found to be any ad- 

 vantage in mingling steam with the vapor of the inflammable fluids, it 

 could be easily introduced by a very simple and obvious contrivance. 



This proposed improvement appears therefore to be a fair and rea- 

 sonable subject of experiment for the proprietors of steam-boats ; 

 and we are the more persuaded that it will be tried, as many of these 

 gentlemen do not regard exclusively the profits of their capital, but 

 yiew, with a benevolent and patriotic feeling, the great cause of 

 public improvement and of national prosperity.* 

 Yale College, March 16, 1831. 



Art. XVII. — On the electro-magnetic properties of metalliferous 

 veins in the mines of Cornwall; by Robert Were Fox of 

 Falmouth. — Communicated by Prof. J. Griscom. 



Having received from my friend R. W. Fox of Falmouth, a copy 

 of his interesting paper on the electro-magnetic properties of metal- 

 liferous veins, read before the Royal Society on the 10th of June, 

 1830, I have no doubt that the following abstract of it will be highly 

 acceptable to the readers of the American Journal. The subject is 

 new, and the author in his letter accompanying the paper, intimates 

 the wish that analogous investigations might be prosecuted in this 

 country. He expresses a desire in particular, to receive information 

 relative to the prevalent horizontal direction and underlie of some of 

 the principal metallic veins in the United States — the nature of their 

 vein stones, and whether they accord with the rocks traversed ; also, 

 whether the metallic veins are intersected and shifted by other veins 

 of quartz, clay, or other substances, as in Cornwall. In addition to 



* We observe with pleasure, that coal (we suppose the bituminous of Nova Sco- 

 tia) has been recently introduced into the Rhode Island steam boats, with much 

 economy of room, money and trouble, 



