of the Mines of Cornwall and Devon. 325 



ing, and by calculating the market price of the metal and the smelt- 

 ing charges they govern their affairs. 



The meeting is attended by the agents and adventurers of the 

 mines as well as by the agents of the copper companies, and one of the 

 former usually presides. The offers for each parcel of ore are made 

 by, the buyers' agents handing to the chairman a note or ticket con- 

 taining a fixed price per ton, he opens and reads out the whole, 

 when the highest offer is at once declared the purchaser. 



The ores remain on the mine for a given time, when an agent of 

 the copper company attends to weigh them, and they are afterwards 

 conveyed to the coast for shipping to Wales. 



Copper ores do not bear a price exactly proportioned to the 

 quantity of metal they contain, some ores being more intractable in 

 the fire than others or yielding copper of an inferior quality. 



From repeated experiment the smelting companies know the effect 

 that the mixture of particular ores has in the furnace upon each 

 other, depending on the nature of the mineralizing substance or the 

 kind of matrix which enters into the mass. On this account they 

 regulate their offers by the quality of the stock they have on hand, 

 or they manage so as to purchase ores from mines which may best 

 suit to mix with others which they have previously bought. Thus 

 it is well known that the produce of some mines does not bring the 

 price that its proportion of metal would entitle it to, while that of 

 others, more esteemed by the smelters, always bears a higher relative 

 value. 



It remains to say a few words on the subject of mines considered 

 as property, particularly as shares in these undertakings are now fre- 

 quently bought and sold at a distance from the districts in which, 

 they are situate, and as their value is not often appreciated according 

 to correct data. 



