WATSON — THE HEMATITE DEPOSITS OF GLAMORGANSHIRE. 249 



ore ^'in sight," from which we can calculate the yield for a definite 

 period, with almost grave certainty, without taking into consideration 

 those chances and contingencies which render mines — under the 

 best of circumstances — pm^ excellence speculations. 



A face of vein upwards of two hundred yards in length has been 

 more or less laid open by Mr. Vaughan's excavation, and the average 

 width of the raising floor " is about thirty-five yards. A reference 

 to the woodcut (PI. X.) will afford the best idea of the dimensions 

 and other* details connected with the works. To obtain a weekly yield 

 of 1,500 tons is said to be a matter of easy performance. 



The mines at Cornel Park are situate about a mile and a half north 

 of the Llantrissant Station on the South Wales Railway ; and so far 

 as regards the character of the limestone-strata, as seen in quarries and 

 sections by and near to the roadside, but few indications are to be 

 found of the vast deposits of mineral which exist in the vicinage. The 

 stranger, accustomed to the position of mines, will probably look for 

 operations at the foot of some hill, but the hills which are seen in the 

 distance in travelling towards these works, are those of the coal-grits, 

 and we unexpectedly advance upon the mines in a slightly undulating 

 plane. The accompanying lignograph (PI. X.), from a rough sketch I 

 made on the spot, gives a representation of Mr. Yaughan's mine. On 

 the left hand in the cut we have a section of the rocks on the dip of 

 the beds, which amounts, on an average, to twenty-three inches in the 

 yard. On the " face " we have an end section of the same beds, 

 showing the thickness of the hsematite-vein, the overlying conglome- 

 rate, and the great thickness — upwards of fifteen feet — and bedded 

 character of the "drift." The magnesian conglomerate, from the 

 sub-angular character of some of the fragments of limestone and 

 sandstone of which it is principally composed, might perhaps be more 

 properly called a breccia. The cementing paste is not of uniform 

 composition, but is as often wholly calcareous as it is magnesian, and 

 near the hsematite it is usually highly charged with peroxide of iron. 

 The " conglomerate " itself does not appear to include any fragments of 

 solid ore. The nature of the cementing matter confers, especially at 

 a distance, a more homogeneous appearance to the rock, and a rude 

 description of bedding is always to be observed; the stratified character 

 being further maintained by a series of horizontal "joints," along the 



