66 
THE PRINCIPAL FLOOR. 
THE MINERAL COLLECTION. 
The Mineral Collection of this Museum is arranged in the 
series of 56 Wall Cases around the Principal Floor, and in the 
large Horseshoe Case occupying a prominent position in the 
central area. Apart from this general collection there will be 
found on the same floor a few mineral specimens, which have 
been isolated on account either of their size or of some special 
interest attaching to them. 
The so-called Non-metallic minerals occupy the central Horse- 
shoe Case, and are described at p. 101, while the Ores or Metal - 
lifer ous minerals are placed in the series of Wall Cases, and 
arranged in the following order : — 
British ores (west side) 
- Cases 
1 
to 
14 , p. 
66. 
British ores (east side) - 
“ 
43 
>} 
56 , ,, 
74. 
Foreign ores 
15 
» 
23 , „ 
77. 
Colonial minerals 
37 
42 , „ 
89. 
Mineral veins 
y> 
24 
36 , „ 
85. 
BRITISH ORES. Western Side. Wall Cases 1 to 14 . 
Copper. 
Case 1.— Although there is evidence that copper ores were- 
worked in Anglesey by the Romans, yet the copper mines of 
this country are not as a rule of ancient date. In the last 
century, several tin mines were abandoned when the miners 
came to the yellows ; that is, the yellow copper ore, and their 
saying was that the “ yellows cut out the tin.” 
The series of copper-producing minerals exhibited in this 
collection commences with the valuable Native , virgin, or 
malleable copper. In many of the Cornish mines this mineral 
is not unfrequently found in company with various copper ores ; 
the largest masses occurring in the serpentine of the Lizard 
district, of which a magnificent example will be seen in the Hall 
(No. 99, p. 43). The Irish and Scotch specimens on the top 
shelf of Case 1 show its occurrence in thin plates in the fissures 
of trap-rocks ; whilst many other examples in the sam e case 
exhibit the characters of the crystallised varieties. 
From native copper we pass to the sub-oxide known as 
Cuprite or red copper ore, a mineral containing nearly 90 per 
cent, of copper. It occurs often in octahedral or eight-sided 
crystals, of a fine ruby colour and high lustre, and occasionally 
assumes delicate capillary or hair-like forms, known to the 
miner as “ plush copper ore,” and to the mineralogist as 
Chalcotrichite ; whilst the less pure brick-red massive varieties of 
cuprite are often distinguished as tile ore. Melaconite or black 
oxide of copper is a dull blackish mineral substance, resulting 
from the decomposition of other copper ores. 
