XIX. — On the Smelting of Tin Ores in Cornwall and Devonshire. 
By JOHN TAYLOR, Esq. 
TREASURER OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
[Read June 4, 1819.] 
As I am not aware that the treatment of tin ores, or the mode 
of smelting them, has been recently described, and as the practice is 
confined to a certain district, it may be acceptable to the Society 
to have some account of the processes now used in Cornwall and 
Devon. 
Tin ores are found in two kinds of deposits ; first in veins 
accompanied by various other minerals, and secondly in alluvial 
matter in detached fragments. 
It is usual in Cornwall not to apply the word ore to the oxide of 
tin, but to distinguish it, when in that state, by the term Black Tin , 
in contradistinction to white tin, which appellation is applied to 
it when smelted and in the metallic state. 
The two kinds of tin ore above mentioned are therefore 
generally known by the names of Mine Tin and Stream Tin ; and 
as they are for the most part smelted separately, and by different 
means, and as the metal produced from them is different as to its 
purity, it may be essential to point out the causes from which this 
diversity seems to arise. 
