ON THE TRACK OF THE u OLD MEN." 
235 
been seamed and scored in all directions in the search for tin, 
whilst a little below the tumulus on Eylesbarrow are the ruins of 
a modern tin mine. According to Messrs. Lysons there were three 
tin mines at work on Dartmoor in 1820; viz., Yitifer, near Post 
Bridge ; White works, near Princetown ; and Ailsborough, in 
Shipstor. Mr. Burt, writing in 1826, adds that the latter had a 
smelting-house, where one hundred blocks of tin were coined for 
the Michaelmas quarter of 1824. 
This is the latest and the last of the Dartmoor blowing-houses. 
It is situated about three quarters of a mile south-west of the 
mine-house ruins, and consists of the remains of a building 
sixty-four feet long and twenty-four feet wide. The walls, which 
are still standing to a height of from fifteen to twenty feet, are 
well built with rubble masonry laid in mortar. Portions of the 
furnace, consisting of massive stones, one of which is slagged, are 
still to be seen. The flue also, leading from the furnace, can be 
easily traced to the ruins of a small stack. This smelting-house 
was in use sixty-five years since, and was probably erected in the 
first quarter of the present century. It is quite unlike any of 
the blowing-houses which have been already noticed in this or the 
previous paper on the same subject. 
The remains of streaming operations in the valley of the Erme, 
from Harford Bridge to the head of the river, are of an extensive 
character. In following the river upward, several ruins of 
rectangular huts are met with, but only one is of an undoubted 
blowing-house type. This is situated close to the junction of 
Hook Lake with the Erme, or nearly half a mile below Erme 
Pound. My attention was first drawn to it by Mr. Crossing. 
The ruin in question is twenty feet long by twelve feet wide, 
with a wall dividing it into two compartments. The building 
runs almost east and west, with an entrance four feet wide 
into the western compartment. The walls are built of rough 
stones dry laid. 
In the western compartment is a large stone which has been 
broken longitudinally, and more than half of it removed. The 
portion remaining is five feet long, two wide, and two deep. It 
contains one perfect and three imperfect cavities. One of the 
imperfect cavities is thirteen inches long, seven inches deep, and 
is evidently the remnant of a rectangular mould. There are also 
the remains of two small cavities, each about three inches long, 
vol. x. R 
