5°6 
Cornish China Clay, 
[October, 
desired. The Cornwall Minerals Railway, running from 
Par to Newquay, passes through the important clay dis- 
trict of St. Austell, and connects the English and Bristol 
Channels and the Cornwall Railway, stretching the whole 
length of the county, has many small branches for con- 
veying mineral and other commodities. It is noticeable 
that the clay sent to the English Potteries is taken from 
Cornwall wholly by water, that for Staffordshire being 
shipped to Runcorn, and that for Worcestershire to Glou- 
cester, from which places the material is carried by canal ; 
and this custom of transporting the clay by shipping pro- 
bably arose from the strong preference shown by Wedgwood 
for water-carriage for porcelain rather than carriage by land, 
and his remarkable efforts in furthering the cause of canal 
navigation in the neighbourhood of the Potteries. The quan- 
tities transported through Runcorn in 1876 were 50,222 tons 
of china clay and 10,633 tons china stone ; those through 
Gloucester were 2456 tons china clay and stone. The fol- 
lowing are the amounts* of clay and stone sent from Corn- 
wall in 1876, the places mentioned being the only ports of 
shipment. Owing to various causes, to which we shall pre- 
sently refer, the total quantity is said to be less by many 
hundreds of tons than the average exports for previous years. 
From Par 35,000 tons of clay and stone were shipped coast- 
wise and 15,000 tons to foreign countries; from Fowey, 
61,070 tons coastwise and 14,760 tons foreign ; from 
Charlestown, 34,016 tons coastwise and foreign ; from 
Pentewan (clay only), 4727 tons coastwise and 8786 tons 
foreign ; from Falmouth, coastwise 15,043 tons and 3395 tons 
foreign, clay and stone ; Newquay, total 7,200 tons coast- 
wise and foreign ; from Wadebridge, total 2727 tons ; from 
Plymouth, Sutton Harbour, 2345 tons coastwise and none 
foreign ; and from Plymouth Great Western Dock 28,093 
tons ; total, 232,160 tons of china clay and stone exported 
from the various works in 1876. The prices of the clay and 
stone vary according to the purity of the article and, of 
* Kindly supplied by the respective harbour-masters ; but owing to the 
different methods of keeping accounts at the various harbours it is impossible 
to distinguish in each case the amounts of china clay from china stone, or the 
quantities sent coastwise from those exported to foreign countries. The clay 
shipped from the Plymouth Great Western Dock comes wholly from the 
neighbourhood of Dartmoor ; that from Sutton Harbour, Plymouth, comes 
partly from Dartmoor and partly from Cornwall. It must also be understood 
that the figures here given do not represent the quantities actually raised in 
1876. Many tons probably of the quantities given were kept over from 1875. 
Some interesting particulars about Cornish china clay and stone may be 
obtained from the “ Mineral Statistics,” published by Prof. Hunt, of the 
Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, W. 
