19962]. | 
which breaks dire€tly below: there is 
now no danger in the passage ; but before 
the wall, on the side next the precipice, 
was built, it was a very formidable 
undestaking, and several instances are 
recorded of fatal accidents and _hair- 
breadth escapes. When we arrived at 
Aber, the tide being full, we were 
obliged to wait some hours for its sub- 
siding, and then a walk of three miles 
over the sands, and a ferry over the re- 
mainder of the channel, brought us -to 
Beaumaris, the capital of Anglesey. 
The town of Beaumaris is defended by 
a large strong castle which is well worth 
seeing, though not to be compared to 
that at Conway. Lord Bulkeley has 
also a large house close by; but neither 
that, or the pleasure-grounds, or the 
rest of the town, merit any notice. 
Accordingly, we set out early on the next 
morning, 
July 3, for Amwich, a town built 
chiefly for the convenience of the miners 
employed in the copper-works of Paris- 
mountain, which is within two miles of 
the place. Amwich is distant from Beau- 
maris, about twenty miles, and there 
being no intermediate town or village, 
we were under the necessity of walkin 
that distance before breakfast. This long 
stage was rendered still more fatiguing by 
the bad road, and the extreme uninte- 
restingness of the prospect. Anglesey is 
called the Garden of Wales, but we saw 
nothing in it which entitled it to the 
appellation; the ground is not naturally 
fertile, and bears but few marks of hu- 
man industry; its hills are not elevated 
enough to form vales between them, 
but are merely crests of rock starting 
above the surface of the oil, of uncouth 
shapes, and not enlivened by any 
Vegetation, except the various tribes of 
mosses and lichens. Trees there are, 
comparatively, none; so that the sea and — 
the Caernarvonshire mountains are the 
only objeéts at all beautiful in the views 
of Anglesey. The road to Amwlch, lay 
‘a good deal along the coast, and the tide 
being down, we crossed the Red-wharf 
sands, which extend, at low water, 
about three miles in breadth. After 
breakfast, we got an intelligent miner to 
conduct us, and proceeded to the copper 
mountain. The chief peculiarity in these 
copper mines is,. that the ore, instead of 
Tunning in veins or forming strata, com- 
poses the whole mass of the rock; in 
consequence, the mines are, properly 
speaking, quarries, there being no sub- 
terraneous passages, except a very few 
where the superior richness of the ore 
MontuLty Mac. No, II. 
Pedeftrian Tour in North Wales. 
105 
has induced the workmen to follow it 
in preference to the rest. The genera] 
quality of the ore is but poor, and the 
manner of working it is this: the ore 
being ‘dug out, is broken into small 
lumps, and carefully separated from the 
quartz,.pyrites, and other heterogenous 
substances; it is then washed, reduced 
to coarse powder, and further purified; 
after this, it is brought to the kilns, 
and roasted for near six weeks, and when 
this is performed, it is brought to the 
forge, and in four hours melted into 
pigs: the copper is still very coarse, 
but the further purification of it, by 
successive fusions, is peformed at other 
places, such as Liverpool, Swansea, &c. 
But what is dug up ina solid form, is 
by no means the most valuable sort of 
copper. Water from springs, and the 
rain, is found in great abundance in the 
mine; this dissolves all the native cop- 
peras that it meets with, and, in conse- 
quence, becomes strongly impregnated 
with mineral particles; this liquor is 
pumped up and poured into shallow 
cisterns of clay, into which are thrown 
large quantities of old iron; the acid of 
the copperas then seizés on the iron, and 
the copper, which it held in solution, 
falls to the bottom in the appearance of a 
rust-coloured sediment; this precipitate 
is raked out, washed, and dried, and 
after passing through the usual process, 
forms the purest copper. Nor is this 
the whole of the profit, for the acid of 
the copperas, in its union with the iron, 
reduces it to calx;and from this large 
quantities of red and yellow ochre are 
manufactured on the spot. The copper 
ore is likewise the basis of a large sul- 
phur work; for in the operation of 
roasting, vast quantities of fine sulphur 
are sublimed in the necks of the kilns, 
which being taken out and purified, are 
afterwards cast into rolls, packed in 
barrels, and exported. The number of 
miners and melters is about 13003 the 
usual pay 17d. per day; though, as they 
are paid according to the quantity of 
ore which they colleét, an industrious 
man will éarn 2s. and even 2s. 6d. The 
usual hours of work are from five in the 
morning to two in the afternoon, though 
it is entirely optional whether they choose 
to employ themselves a greater or shorter 
time.—It being Saturday, and market- 
day, the town was crowed with mjners 
and country people; and I do not re- 
collect to have ever observed more gaiety 
with less disorder. At one house was 2 
dance, ¢0 which all who passed by were 
invited, till the room was incapable of 
P containing 
