1 87 1.] Mining. 539 



part referable to the damage done by the heavy floods of 1870. The quantity 

 of gold purchased by bank managers and gold buyers on the fields last 

 year amounted to 718,727 ozs. from alluvial workings, and 585,576 ozs. from 

 quartz veins. The total number of miners employed in working gold on the 

 31st December, 1870, was 60,365, and the average earnings per man for the 

 year 1870 was ;£8i os. 6d. From the first date of the discovery of the gold 

 fields of Victoria up to the end of last year, the quantity of gold exported 

 amounted to not less than 39,399,328 ozs. 6 dwts. Reckoning this quantity at 

 £\ per oz., its value reaches 2" I 57'597»3 I 3- In addition to this, the quantity 

 used in the colony should be added, but it is of course impossible to estimate 

 this amount with anything approaching to accuracy. 



Nearly thirty years' residence in Cumberland has given Mr. T. Ainsworth an 

 opportunity of collecting " Facts developed by the Working of Haematite Ores in 

 the Ulverstone and Whitehaven Districts from 1844 to 1871." These obser- 

 vations were presented to the British Association at the recent meeting. The 

 author asserted that the haematite was not confined to the limestone, but 

 might be found in other kinds of rock, and even between two different strata. 

 He maintained that the distribution of the haematite bore some relation to the 

 coal fields, and that the direction of the ore-deposits was tolerably constant. 



At the same meeting a paper was read by Mr. J. Sinclair Holden on " The 

 Aluminous Iron Ores of County Antrim." These ores have of late years 

 acquired considerable economic importance, and are now extensively used for 

 admixture with the siliceous haematites in order to flux the silica and produce 

 an easy-flowing slag. Mr. Holden described the beds as intercalated among 

 the basaltic rocks, dipping generally to the south-west, and being traceable 

 along the coast for about seventy miles. A notice of these aluminous ores 

 was presented some little time back to the Geological Society of London, by 

 Mr. Ralph Tate and Dr. Holden. 



At the annual meeting of the Miners' Association of Cornwall and Devon t 

 Mr. Robert Blee read a paper on "The Comparative Health and Longevity of 

 Cornish Miners." It appears that the rate of mortality among children 

 of miners does not differ from that of other classes. Indeed, in the parishes of 

 Camborne and Gwennap, the proportion of deaths among the children 

 of miners was less than among other children, whilst in Redruth and Illogan 

 it was somewhat greater. It was found that between the ages of 10 and 30 

 years, 28 per cent of miners died, as against 18 per cent of men who were not 

 miners. Between 40 and 60 years of age, 36 per cent of miners died, and only 

 20 per cent of non-miners. 9-07 per cent of miners lived to the age of 70, 

 whilst 31-06 per cent of men following other occupations reached the same 

 age. Pulmonary disease was the common cause of death, and the means 

 recommended for preventing its ravages were efficient ventilation of the 

 mine, improved means of ascent, and protection from sudden changes of tem- 

 perature. 



The health of the Cornish miner also formed the subject of an address by 

 Dr. Barham to the British Medical Association at their recent meeting 

 at Plymouth. He contrasted the health of the miner in the West of England 

 with that of the miners in Northumberland, Durham, and Staffordshire. In 

 Cornwall deaths from consumption are immensely in excess of those in other 

 districts, whilst the proportion of accidents is much less. The prevalence of 

 consumption was referred to insufficiency of light and air, to exposure, and to 

 liability to inflammatory affections. 



A safety-lamp having for its especial object an increased power of illumina- 

 tion has been devised by Mr. R. Brown, of the Shotts Iron Company, 

 Glasgow. A simple plano-convex lens is set in the lower part of the 

 wire-gauze cage, and surrounded by a conical shell of tin plate, which serves 

 at once to reflect the light and prevent breakage of the lens. The lipht is also 

 increased by a reflector behind the flame. Further protection is afforded by 

 the use of segmental shields, one of which is fixed behind the reflector, 

 whilst two others are movable, and can be made to slide to a greater or less 

 extent round the lamp. 



VOL. VIII. (O.S.) — VOL. I. (N.S.) 4 A 



