THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



[THIRD SERIES.] 



DECEMBER 1840. 



LX. On the Minerals found in the Neighbourhood of Glasgow. 

 % Thomas Thomson, M.D., F.R.S. $c 9 Regius Professor 

 of Chemistry in the University of Glasgow*. 



"DERHAPS there is no part of Great Britain, not even ex- 

 -*- cepting Cornwall, or the mining counties of the north of 

 England, so rich in mineral species as the neighbourhood of 

 Glasgow, if we include under that appellation Lead Hills 

 and Wanlock Head, and the ranges of mountains on both 

 sides of the Clyde, constituting the Kilpatrick hills, and the 

 ranges of hills behind Greenock and Port Glasgow, extending 

 as far as Kilmacolm. 



The mines at Lead Hills began to be wrought during the 

 reign of James IV., under the name of gold-mines, and it is 

 said by Boethius that he extracted from them a considerable 

 treasure. The jaspers, rubies and diamonds which Boethius 

 describes in glowing terms, were doubtless the different species 

 of lead ore which still exist in these mines, namely, the sul- 

 phate, carbonate and phosphate of lead, remarkable at once 

 for the beauty of their colours, their figure and their lustre. 



In the time of James V. Lead Hills was a lead mine, as it 

 is at present ; and it is particularly described by Agricola in 

 his celebrated work, De re metallica. Now Agricola died 'in 

 the year 1555. 



Becher, who first attempted to establish a theory in che- 

 mistry, visited the Lead Hills mines in the year 1682, and ever 

 since that period they have been wrought to a considerable 

 extent. 



The principal ore at Lead Hills is galena or sulphuret of 



* Read at the British Association at Glasgow, and now communicated 

 by the Author. 



Phil. Mag, S, 3. Vol. 17. No, 112. Dec. 1840. 2 D 



