2 
BRITISH ORES. 
5th. A series of the more important * non-metaliic minerals (Horse-> 
shoe case). 
Although Great Britain far exceeds any other country in the amount 
and value of its mineral productions, there was no comprehensive 
institution before the establishment of the Museum of Economic 
Geology, in which were placed the raw materials forming the basis of 
so many important branches of manufacture. All the chief productive 
localities are now represented, and the completeness of the collections 
is due not less to the liberality of private donors than to purchases 
made from time to time, and the opportunities afforded by the progress 
of the Geological Survey through the mining districts. 
The whole of the floor of the principal room is devoted to the mine¬ 
rals, and to their application in the arts. In front of each of the bays 
containing the British ores is placed a table exhibiting samples to 
illustrate the metallurgical processes by which the ores placed opposite 
to them are treated for the extraction of their metals. Beyond these 
again, in the upright Cases, are examples of the metals as employed in 
the arts, either alone, or in alloys. Thus, in front of Cases 2, 3, 4, 
containing the ores of copper, will be found a table of specimens of 
the various products of the smelting furnaces ; and in the large Cases 
adjacent are ranged examples of castings in pure copper, and in its 
alloys with tin, zinc, &c., selected in each instance for some point of 
metallurgical interest. vSimilarly, the southern or Jennyn Street end 
of the room, is occupied by suites of specimens illustrating the arts of 
pottery and glass-making, from the raw materials and the earliest 
examples of the manufacture, to those which exhibit the condition of 
the trade at the present day. And it will be seen that, in like manner 
to the above, the various processes of these arts, whether in the selec¬ 
tion of the materials, the colouring, glazing, or the firing, involve 
scientific principles which closely link them with the other and more 
obvious subjects of exhibition in the Museum. 
OBES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
The metallic minerals of the British Islands occupy three bays or 
recesses in'each side of the principal floor, and are grouped according 
to the metal which in each substance is the principal object of research. 
The specimens are of two kinds, viz., those which represent the charac¬ 
teristic occurrence of the commercially useful ores in particular districts 
or mines, and those which exhibit in a remarkable degree the physical 
characters of form and color so useful in the identification of mineral 
species. To these are added, in subordinate number, examples of those 
kinds which, although containing a large per-centage of a particular 
metal, have, either from their rarity, or from their combination with 
other substances, not hitherto found an application in the arts. 
Ores of Coffer. 
The principal copper-producing districts are Cornwall, Devonshire 
(West of Dartmoor), Cumberland, Anglesey, and the counties of 
* The terms metallic and non-metallic are here used as they are understood in ordi¬ 
nary language ; thus, the minerals containing alumina are classed under the latter 
head, although that earth contains as its base the light metal aluminium. 
