The natural history of Cornwall : The air, climate, waters, rivers, lakes, sea and tides; of the stones, semimetals, metals, tin, and the manner of mining; the constitution of the stannaries, iron, copper, silver, lead, and gold, found in Cornwall; vegetables, rare birds, fishes, shells, reptiles, and quadrupeds of the inhabitants, their manners, customs, plays or interludes, exercises, and festivals; the Cornish language, trade, tenures, and arts

Borlase, William. aut (NL-LeOCL)073139661 · 1758 · Historical

statement of responsibility: by William Borlase

Public-domain full text preserved in the Mountain Man Mining Library. Original source: archive.org.

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Hardwicke Knight

8Ibuotheca

CARCINOLOGICA L.B. Hotthuta

The

Natural History

O F

C O Rnwall.

The

Air, Climate, Waters, Rivers, Lakes, Sea and Tides $

Of the Stones, Semimetals, Metals, TIN, and the Manner of Mining ;

The CONSTITUTION of the STANNARIES;

Iron, Copper, Silver, Lead, and Gold, found in Cornwall.

Vegetables, Rare Birds, Filhes, Shells, Reptiles, and Quadrupeds :

Of the INHABITANTS,

Their Manners, Cuftoms, Plays or Interludes, Exercifes, and Feftivals the Cornish Language, Trade, Tenures, and Arts.

Hluftrated with a new Sheet Map of the County, and Twenty -Eight Folio Copper-Plates from Original Drawings taken on the Spot.

By WILLIAM B O R L A S E, A. M. F. R. S.

Reftor of Ludgvan, and Author of the ANTIQUITIES of CORNWALL.

" V Natale forum dulcedine captos

Oxford,

Printed for the AUTHOR; by W. Jackson :

Sold by W. Sandby, at the Ship in Fleet -Street London; and the Bookfellers of Oxford.

v - '

I H : : i i &k -

To The

NOBILITY and GENTRY

Of The

COUNTY of CORNWALL,

With great Refpe£t.

I T cannot be questioned, Gentlemen, but that Natural History is a moft extensive Science, taking in all animate and inanimate fubftances which Land, Air, or Water contain; explaining their relations, properties, and ufes ; and, in short, giving a recital and detail of the whole visible Creation.

Nor is it a science left entertaining than comprehensive ; for if the mind thirfts after variety, and a fresh fucceflion of objeds, where can fhe find for contemplation fo numerous and various a treasure ? If it is folicitous after curious workmanship, where fuchvfine mechamfm as m the Animal economy, from the Elephant to the Pifmire ? If ftudious of beauty, shape, and colouring, where fuch gracefulnefs as in Man, fuch tints, delicacy, and luftre, as in Flowers, Birds, Fifties, and Precious-Stones? If moved chiefly by the moft aftonifhmg scenes of grandeur, we need but look upon the Cliffs or Mountains, upon the Ocean or the Sky.

B j i the mere transient gratifications of a curious and inquifitive find would not give this study its deserved and allowed pre-eminence,

C ° uld not ' in an e fl ual de gree, inftrud as well as please ; if it n ° L COllC d and exalt, as well as amuse and engage the mind.

'Tis

[ iv ]

'T i s true, this large field, fo fertile in matter and fully flock'd for observation, with all its varieties is but a blank and dreary depart to the heedlefs and inattentive traveller. Bounteous Providence has laid her works before us ; (he has opened the spacious volume of Nature ; 'tis our part to read, compare, and understand.

Natural History is the handmaid to Providence, collects into a narrower face what is distributed through the Univerfe, arranging and difpofing the several Foflils, Vegetables, and Animals, fo as the mind may more readily examine and diftinguifh their beauties, investigate their causes, combinations, and effects, and rightly know how to apply them to the calls of private and public life.

It fills the aCtive and more social mind with ideas, and experimental deductions, profitable to the community, and productive of manufactures, additional employ and commerce. It enables the retired and ftudious mind to prosecute her contemplations, make discoveries and calculations, plan improvements, and aflift speculation ; but above all, raises the mind, in both circumstances, to the Author of all thefe things.

The principal ufe therefore of Natural Hiftory, is, that it leads us direCtly to Religion ; it fhews us every where the plain footsteps of design and intelligence, and points out to us all the attributes of God.

What arguments and words shall seldom compass, the fmalleft and left considerable of thefe works shall effeCt irrefiftibly ; the eyes of a' fly, the wing of an infeCt, the scale of a fifii, shall manifest a Deity to any person, who will pursue efleCts up to their causes, beyond contradiction, and above all doubt.

Look where we will, admiration feizes us; we perceive the strength and immenfity of fome works, as well as the inimitable kill of others ; and we revere the Power , as well as fee the Wifdom of their Great Author ; we observe the splendor and excellency of

other

[ v ]

other works, and we stand convinced of his Glory; we find the ufes, shapes, and properties in all things different, yet we find them all conspiring to promote universal, mutual good; we fee them all directed fo harmonioufly to one point for the good of the whole, that they muff needs proceed from one only, conffantly beneficent, and Gracious God. From thefe we deduce and argue the other attributes, and derive our own duties, till Natural Religion ends ; but whilst we are thus enlightening our undemanding, and admitting that profpeCt of the Deity which is displayed in his works, gratitude, awed and mixed with reverence, fupples the heart, and difpofes it moff effectually to embrace all the sublime and ineftimable truths of Revelation.

These are the undeniable and beneficial consequences of Natural History in general ; but of this noble Science, of this stately tree of Is-nowledge, the Natural History of a particular diftridt (fuch are as the following observations) is but a branch; it is confined and local, and muff tend chiefly to the description and improvement of one particular fpot.

The situation of this county (secluded in a manner from the reft of Britain) renders it, like all diffant objects, lefs diftindtly fee n and regarded by the polite, learned, and bufy world; yet whatever concerns its interest and reputation, it need not be urged, Gentlemen, may have fome claim to your attention, who have a natural connexion with, and relation to it.

I t matters lefs to strangers whether the arts in a diffant county flourish, are at a Hand, or decay; whether the several Natural Productions are well or ill managed, underffood or not; juflly effimated and difpofed of, or otherwise ; but thefe things are moff proper and intereffing difquifitions for the inhabitants.

To awake attention to the real and publick interest of the County, it was neceflary to ftiew the present state of Knowledge with regard to Arts and Metals, and in many particulars to hint at

a alterations

[ Vi ]

alterations and fuggeft improvements ; better expedients very likely may occur to others, but fome are requisite. In speaking of the Inhabitants, truth required that general failings should be confeflfed, as well as what deserves the character of martial spirit, ingenuity, taste, and industry recorded. For both thefe I make no apology ; neither to the publick for mentioning the latter with commendation, nor to you for reprehending the former ; concluding that it is more for the honour of our Country to express our difapprobation of every thing that is ill, than, by endeavouring to conceal and palliate, to incur the imputation of patronizing error, or difguiftng truth.

To pre-engage your favour, and befpeak your applause, was in no wife, Gentlemen, the intention of this address : I am persuaded luch an application would be as vain and impotent with regard to you, as it would appear frivolous to the reft of the world. The fate of the following work muft reft on its own utility, the diligence, difcernment, (if any) and integrity of the Author, or defervedly fall for want of thefe its only juft supports.

Accept however my moft ardent wishes (the publick will readily forgive this partiality) for my native County and you. May the fubjedt of thefe papers, Cornwall, (formerly reckoned among the Kingdoms of this Ifland, and at present ftill more regarded for

its Natural Produ&ions as they become more known) flourish

under the infpedtion of its owners.

May you, Gentlemen, adorn your ancient names and inheritances with every virtue, national, social, and domestic ; concur with harmony in promoting every rational, public-spirited improvement ; by the influence of your example give weight and countenance to religion and good manners ; by your authority refrain the vicious ; by your charity relieve the indigent, and generously employ the induftrious.

These are the wishes, hopes, and prayers of

The AUTHOR.

[ wi 3

SOME introductory Explanation of the Rife of the following Treatife, the Difficulties which interfered, the Affiftances to be acknowledged, the Method, Plan, and Connexion of the whole Work, and the undeniable Imperfections in the Execution of it, mull here be premifed, and submitted

To The

Candid Reader.

B EING follicited, about twenty years since, to make a collection of Cornilli foffils, for fome learned gentlemen abroad, whole names would entitle them to a much superior correspondence and finding the natural products of this County much commended ; being alfo frequently employed afterwards in the fame office, I became more and more fond of collecting, till my specimens tempted me more narrowly to infpeCt and describe them : Several incidents relatino- to Natural History, in the mean time occurred, and claimed a notice, which I could not deny them : My country was little known, and my desire to survey the several parts of it increased, as the deficiencies of what had been published before became more apparent, and not being wholly destitute of thofe who urged, me to this undertaking, I became engaged by degrees, and infenfibly ventured myself fo far in the following work, that I could proceed with more eafe, than I could retreat with propriety.

My situation however, was none of the moft favourable to fuch an. attempt ; my distance from books and thofe aflemblies of the learned who had turned their Studies into the fame chanel, was a discouraging, and in fome particulars, an infuperable disadvantage, but with regard to the natural productions, it enabled me to examine them all on the fpot, and though I had not always before me what the Literati had written on the fame fubjeCt, I could better understand what nature had done.

Mr. Ray and Mr. E. Lluyd (both moft defervedly eminent in Natural Know- Aids, ledge) came into Cornwall in quell; of what was remarkable, and Stayed here fome time. The former has diligently taken a lift of our Fifh and Plants ; and though Antiquity participated the attention of the latter, yet he made fome discoveries in each department, and thereby concurred to render them lefs difficult to thofe, who were to succeed him in the fame researches. Dr. Woodward's

Dr. Boerhave, Dr. J. Frederick Gronovius, Dr. Linnaeus, and the late Dr. Ifaack Lawfon, then at Leyden,

Method,

Language.

Method.

Method, and Catagogue of Foffils, afford many critical descriptions of a number of Specimens from Cornwall, and many useful theories deduced from them. Some scattered Memorandums on our Metals, and Mines, &c. are to be found in the TranfaCtions of the Royal Society, and the late Mr. Hutchinfon made fome juft observations on our Strata and Lodes. I have not made the left advantage of either without naming place and author.

Few Studies are more useful to mankind than Natural History, but it is a particular Science, and to read it with pleasure and improvement (as theie is a connexion betwixt Sciences as well as Arts) will require fome previous and preparatory knowledge of the learned Languages, and indeed of the filler Sciences.

For want of sufficient and adequate expreffions in the Englifh tongue Natural History muft needs borrow from the Greek and Latin. It muft alfo struggle to naturalize the technical terms of Geometiy , Geography and other Arts, in short, a Natural Hiftorian for the fake of properly particularizing fuch a variety of bodies as fall within his notice, muft have the liberty of taking words from every hand ; the fence would efeape in long fen fences and a multitude of words ; and the unavoidable circumlocutions of the Englilh tongue, if they did not destroy the meaning, would neceffarily abate the impreffion.

These technical words, however, are infected with reluctance, and in fuch places more especially as by their abftraCted fpeculations are calculated for the perufal of thofe who are moft converfant in thefe studies.

The Method which the principal divisions are thrown into is plain, fuch as the several parts of the Treatife fuggefted, not confined to any fyftem; nor the Subjects treated under the general heads, clafled and digested according to the method of any other Writer.

As the end of Method is perfpicuity, when it appeared to me that I was in poffeffion of that, I never thought it neceflary to search in books for the other. I follow no leader, but I have flighted no guidance, nor refused to accept of any clue to regulate my conduCt : there may be too much of Syftem, as well as too little j Subjects may be crammed fo clofe, that they will hide one another ; if they are arbitrarily driven together under a clafs lefs obvious, they will not fuit their companions, nor become their place, nor be easily found.

But without an orderly difpofition Natural History fares much worse, 'tis but a confused, undifciplined crowd of fubjeCts ; diftinCt, clear arrangement places them in their due light, without which, as the eye can fee no beauty, the mind can judge of no properties, competition, 01 relation. Though there muft be no {hackles, yet order, connexion, rank, and relation, muft be ftnCt y

observed, and therefore with other lovers of Natural History I here take a

pleasure

[ ]

pleasure in acknowledging my obligations to him ' who with a certain brevity and happiness, peculiar to himself, has been indefatigable in digefting the several products of Nature into the regularity and comprehenfivenefs of Syftems, although a few obfcurities, and perhaps improprieties may remain yet to be retouched.

As I tye myself down to no determined Plan, I confine myself to no man's Hypothefis, nor indulge myself often in fuch allies of the imagination. It mult be referred to the acute and patient reader, whether there is any Hypothefis here, but what appears to him upon cool and sufficient trial ( as it really does to the Author) either to be supported by a variety of facts, or the eafy plain result of the nature of things.

T o banish all Hypothefis, whilst lb many points of Natural History Hypothefis* remain difputable and undecided, would be to obftrudt one, (and no inconfiderable one) of the avenues to Knowledge. All cautious Hypothefes muft be pardoned for aiming at Truth, although they mifs the mark.

But an Hypothefis may be too bold, and when Authors pretend to account for every thing, they are not aware how indecently they intrude into the councils and peculiar province of their maker. There are many secrets in nature, which man had better let alone, and wifely own his ignorance. God has given us a a fagacity to discern, and faculties to ufe his works ; but in a grows only, and collective date ; he has given us no talents to track the first principles through their several migrations and meanders, to tranfmute, destroy, and recompofe the works of Nature ; he did not design that we should prefumptuoully revive, mimic, or make, but ufe, revere, and celebrate his works. Natural History therefore has its bounds, which if it exceeds, it gets wilfully into the dark, and consumes our time in endless and futile difquifitions ; Natural History has its bounds, molt apparent to thofe who know mod of it ; among the reft of its ufes therefore (upon proper intimacy) it will certainly teach us a due estimate of our own weak abilities, short-fighter fancies, and at the fame time the unlimited unfathomable depth and height of the Works of God.

Some pains, it will be easily allowed, have been taken to describe and engrave Engravings* fuch anuinbei of fubjedts, but pains of this kind, I agree, do not always merit fuccefs, neither aie they entitled to commendation, but when they they are aptly and judicioufly employed for the illustration of truth, and fettling fome new or doubtful part of useful knowledge.

. m ight be fome Satisfaction to pofterity (I think every one is agreed that

lt muft be fo to us) to fee the patrimonial habitations of their ancestors, I have

b Linnaeus Profefior at Upfal, in Sweden.

b

infected

[ x ]

infected the feats of fuch gentlemen as exprefled their desire to have them engraved j the fronts were all measured, and (which has not, I apprehend, been yet done in fuch collections) all printed by the fame Scale c (to be applied to the fronts only) except two, whole owners chose to have their houses lefs, that more of the adjoining country and their own plantations might be infected. For 'thefe plates I am obliged to the Proprietors.

In the other plates, the fubjeds engraved, are either of the natural fize, or by a scale annexed in the fame plate ; for want of which regulation, great obfcurity has attended the engravings of fome of the moil celebrated authors, whilfi: fifli and birds, cattle and foflils, are represented without due relation to the fize of one another. The Subjeds engraved are not always new, but the drawings were made from nature, and may be of service upon many occasions, where authors who have gone before, either could not themselves delineate, or had no opportunity of feeing the natural fubjeds, and were obliged to make drawings after relations, and the hasty Iketches of others.

Not always aiming at what is new, much lefs at what is marvellous, the Author contents himself with faithfully representing the natural bodies which came under his examination, as the beft method of adding his mite to Natural Knowledge, and of making fome advances, fure perhaps, though not many.

In the account of Foflils I may feem tedious and too minute to thofe who have no propensity to fuch studies, but let it be considered that they are the diftinguifhing produds of our County, and to thofe who are fenfible of what ufe it is to have thefe bodies critically charaderifed, I wilh I may not appear too short and unfatisfadory.

As our birds, and plants, and quadrupeds cannot be fuppofed to be very different from thofe of the other parts of England, and have mostly been described before, they take up lefs time of the Reader here.

A few pages of the book which follows d were published in the Philofophical Tranfadions of the Royal Society, but they were always intended as parts of this Work, detached , indeed and fent before, though not irrevocably given up by the author, and as difperfed fragments (unless I am mifinformed) I had a right to revive, and re-unite them.

c The Scale is only affixed to the first house, nilh crystals ; a thunder-form in the parish of viz. Plate iv. page 51. Gulval ; and the agitation of the Sea, on the first

d Treatife of the origin and properties of Cor- of November, 1755.

Besides

[ xi ]

Besides thefe repetitions of prior observations, there are doubtless many miltakes and faults, as well as errors of the prefs. I shall be willing to acknowledge the former, and from the animadverfions of the more knowing, expect the pleasure of becoming better informed. I print a lift of the latter, as far as a moft impartial revival could discover.

It could not be otherwise than that several particulars of the following work Local obferfhould relate only to Cornwall, and are of little importance to the generality of va£l0ns ' the world ; but thofe circumstances, which concern not the bulk of mankind, the Reader will be fo good as to confider, may claim the moft serious thoughts from the inhabitants of the County, and to their service only, he will be content that they should be confined.

In the descriptive part, I have been greatly obliged to the Survey of Cornwall, published in the year 1602, by Richard Carew, of Eaft Anthony, in Cdrnwall, Efq; who to the nobility of his decent, added all the qualifications of the gentleman, scholar, and christian : his sharp apprehension, and strong fence, left few topics unexamined, many, for the knowledge of his time,

well noticed.

It would have been ungenerous to his memory, as well as diftrefling and impoverifhing my Subjedt, to have neglected his work, tho' he is neither flaviftily copied, or ever made ufe of without acknowledgment. Mr. Scawen's MS relating to Cornwall I am alfo obliged to, especially with regard to the Cornifh Language.

The geography of Rivers, Harbours, and Creeks, I found extremely deficient ; I am therefore the more particular in tracing their courses and names, in which the Itinerary of Leland has affifted me.

I have added a Map, not to travel by, or with an intent to correct the Maps already published, (of which Martin's has been of moft ufe to me) this muft be done by better hands ; but purely for the service of thofe who will read the Antiquities and Natural Hiftory of Cornwall.

For several informations in the above mentioned particulars, I have been obliged to fome gentlemen now living, and for that reason, I have mentioned them only in thofe parts of the work, concerning which they were fo good as to communicate their Obfervations.

In the following work then, if the Reader shall mifs any entertainment which he might expect, he will perhaps meet with nothing partial, affuming, or offen-

five.

[ xii ]

live. The utility of our harbours is not magnified, nor their inconveniences concealed j if the good character which I give the inhabitants, exercise the patience of the uninterested reader, the proper contrail which Truth required will deserve his acknowledgment of impartiality. The revenues of the County's staple-commodities are calculated by the moft difeerning and converfant in thofe particulars, and therefore not exaggerated, nor the beauty of our natural productions too highly extolled. Some privileges which we have in preference to other counties, I do not challenge as our due, and the present state of Arts is fo far from being heightened, that it is thought to land in need of many improvements. Allowances will be made, I trust, for local deferiptions, but I desire no quarter for mifreprefentations. 'Tis the bufinefs of a Civil Hiftorian, faithfully to draw the characters of mankind, and the motives, origin, connection, and the good and evil tendencies of their aCtions ; 'tis alfo equally the duty of a Natural Hiftorian to be faithful in exhibiting the works of Nature, to point out the defects of Science, and the imperfections of Arts, to endeavour to rectify what is amifs, and promote the advancement of what is immature.

A List

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[ xvii ]

A

TABLE of CONTENTS.

C H A P. I Z'"'* Eneral description, boundaries, Ihape and extent of the county, harbours, products, hills, p. i, 2.

' yjj- Ancient division into hundreds, p. 3. Prefent, p. 4. — not easily reconciled— Latitude and longitude variously laid down, never with precision, p. 5.

II. Of the Air and Weather. Much rain, why, p. 6. Storms mischievous. The atmosphere and

vapours, what. Winds, their various direction, and different velocities enquired into, p. 8. Rarefactions and vacuities in the atmosphere the causes of thofe currents of air which we call winds— -and of the rife and fall of the mercury in the Barometer, p. 9.— between the Tropicks regular winds and why, 10. Bad effeas of fea-air to health, to plants, ibid. Winters mild, p. 1 1. Spring early but not Vigorous- Summers not hot, p. 12. Mineral vapours and lightning, ibid. Thunderflorm at Moelfra and I rythal, p. 13. Different currents, shapes and effeas of the lightning, p. 15. Thunderftorm at the river Tamar, p. 16. Air healthy, p. 17. Lagas-avel, a weather fign, ibid. Weather inconftant as to rain and wind, p. 18. but more fettled and lefs variable as to heat and cold than in other parts of Eng-

land, p. 19. as appears by the table of the variation of Farenheit's Thermometer, p. 20. — and why, ib.

III. Waters in general, and thofe of Cornwall in particular, p. 21. Fluidity of water not owing to fire,

p. 21. Particles not tranfmutable, final], not free from mixtures, great plenty of water very precious in

Cornwall, p. 22. Rife of vapoursowing to collision or heat, p. 23. Damps, p. 24. in Cornwall seldom fatal, ibid. Dews seldom noxious, and why, p. 25. Springs, their origin not owing to fubterraneous fire, ibid. Morton's opinion, p. 25 not sufficient to the effect — Springs owing to the waters of the atmosphere, p. 28. Rains and clouds neceffary, p. 30. Of wells of pure water — Madern-well, p. 31. Euny-well, ibid. Holy-well, p. 32. Colurian-well, p. 33 ' — it s properties and cures.

IV. Rivers and navigable creeks, p. 36. Tamar, Lynher, p. 38. Tide, or Tidi, p. 40. Seaton, ib.

Loo, or Eaft-Loo, ibid. ProfpoCt of Loo Bridge," ib. Duloo, or Weft Loo river, p. 41. fawy, ib. Fal, 42, and it's harbour. Hel, or Heyl river in Kerricr, p. 43. Lo or Low river in Kerrier, p 44. Heyl in Penwith, ibid. Ganal creek, p. 45. River Alan, al Lamel, ibid. Wade navigable rivers in A 1 may be made not beneficial, p. 47. Subject: to obftrudtions, p. 49.

V. Of the lakes and fea in Cornwall, p. 49. Dozmery-pool, p. 50. Swan-pool and Loo-pool, ibid.

Sea of Cornwall, p. 51. It's Advantages and Di fad vantages, p. 52. 1 he Agitation of the Sea on the

first of November, 1755, p. 53. An Earthquake July 15, 1757, in the Weft of Cornwall, p. 55. Keneggy-House, ibid.

VI. Of the earths, viz. foils, clays, and fteatites and their ufes, p. 59. Black foil, ibid. Shelfy, ibid. Loamy, 60. The cause of Fertility unknown, p. 61. The great variety of combinations and refinements which earth is fufceptible of, p. 62. Ochres, ibid. Clays, p. 63. Amalebre clay, ibid. Trewren clay, p. 64. St. Kevran, Lannant, Ludgvan, Lifkerd clays, p. 65. Steatites, or Soaprock, p. 66. Different forts of fteatites, p. 67. The ufes, p. 70.

VII. Offands, p. 71. Natural and factitious, p. 72. No uniformity of shape, p. 73 - found in very different situations, p. 74. mostly in the north chanel, ibid. Quickfands, whence, p. 75- Stony granules never concreted into maffes of stone, ibid. Sea-fand above fea-mark, whence, p. 76. Porhanvon-clifF, ibid. St. Agnes-beacon fand, ibid. The manner how the ocean might be conducted fo as to deluge the earth, p. 78. Origin of mountains, p. 79. They are the neceffary result of more 0 1 i being in one part than in another at the time of the first general induration, p. 80. eight ot mountains estimated, p. 81. Ufe of hands, p. 82. Blown, flirty, parry, chilly, and lora fan s, p. 83.

v aII. Ofhufbandry, it's ancient and present state, p. 84. Lime-manure, p. 85. Marie, ibid. Trelowarren, p. 86. Oreweed, ibid. Fifh-manure, p. 87. Ents-House, p. 88, Uarveft, roots, quantity of corn, necefiity of hufbandry, p. 90.

IX. Stones, quartz, p. 90. Nanswhydn-House, Cockle, Elvan, p. 91. Antiiony-House, 92. Killas of various forts, 93. Slat, a description of Den ybael-Quarry, 94. Tehidy-House, ib. Cornifh free-stone of parry basis, p. 95. Ditto of quartz, p. 9 Carclew, ibid. Polrudon- one, 'bid. IUogan-stone, p. 97. Mooit-stone in general, or granite, ibid. White granite, p. 98. ove-

coloured, p. 99. Godolphin-House, ib. Yellow, p. 100. Red, ibid. Black, p. 101. The marble in Cornwall, coarse and hard, ibid. Of the weight and dampnefs of stones, p. 102.

CHAP. X. Stones of ornament and curiosity, p. 104. White pebbles, ibid. Yellow, green, Sec. p. 105.

Flints, p. 106. Caufe of the shape of pebbles enquired into, ibid. Of nodulous porphyrites. p. log. Of italaXites, p. no. Alabafter, warmingftone, fwimmingftone, p. m. Talc and Albeftos, ibid. It's ufe among the ancients, p. 113. It's management and difule, p. 114. Small gems, p. 115, Coloured crystals, p. 116. Green capreous incruftation from Ludgvan, ibid.

XI. Of the general basis of stone ; fpar, crystal, and diamond, p. 117. Spar. p. ri8. Plain crystal, p. 1 19. Figur'd crystals, p. 120. (Plate xm.) numbered and engraved, p. 121, Sec. Size transparency, p. 122. Pendarves-House, PI. xiv. Weight, hardness, texture, p. 123. Figures, p. 124. Salts probably the cause of the figures, p. 126. Pointing of crystals in the mine, p. 127.

XII. Of femimetals, p. 128. Brifmuth, fpeltre, naptha, antimony, Manganefe, loadftone, molybdrena, cobalt, p. 130. Mundic, p. 131. It's combinations with copper and tin, p. 132. — with water, p. 133. — earth, and fire, p. 134. — it's weight, p. 135. — it's produce, ibid. Mundic concretions ftill forming, p. 136. Figured mundics, PI. xv. p. 137. described. Figured mundics, PI. xvi. p. 141. Reflexions on their regularity and art, p. 142.

XIII. Of fiffures, p. 142. Their properties, ibid. Origine, p. 144. Direction, p. 145. Magnitude, ibid. Pofitions, p. 146. Their ufe, ibid.

XIV. Of Lodes ; their properties, p. 147. The broil or top of the Lode, p. 148. Strata and Lodes explained, PI. xvir, p. 149. Shodes and their properties,, ib. The cause of them, juftly fuppofed the deluge, p. 150. The body of the Lode, p. 151. It's contents, p.152. Inclination and fraXure, ibid. Uniformity of Lodes in particular diftriXs, p.155. FraXured Lodes, p. 156. Their cause, p. 157. Several fubfidences of the Strata, and at what times, p. 158, 159.

XV. Of Metals, p. 159. Tin, in what states found, p. 160. In floor, ibid. In fpot, p. i6r. In Ihode and ftream, ibid. A Angular ftream in Douran, p. 162. St. Auftel ftream works, ibid. &c. Tin found in fand and flime, p. 164. In what fence Tin or other metals grow, ibid. Ways of difeoveringTin, p. 165. By bare paths, by searching cliffs and caverns, by drifts, but more efpccially by fliodes, p. 166. Of bounds and liberty for searching, p.167. Of mining as now praXifed in Cornwall p.167. Plate xvm. explained, p. 168 and 869. Progrefs of the works, p. ibid. Hydraulic engines ufed in Cornwall, p. 170. Whim, ibid. Rag and chain, p. 171. Water-wheel and bobs, °ibid. Fire engine, it's power, p. 172. PI. xix. References to the plate explained, p. 174. It's profit to the publick, ibid. The manner of dividing the Tin-ore, p. 175. Of stamping and drefling of Tinore, the ancient manner little known, p. 176. The present method, p. 177. Of melting Tin, p. 1 81. Coining Tin, 182. The annual profit of Tin, p. 183. UfesofTin, 184. It's origin, ib. Connexions, p. 185. Of native Tin, ib. Tin-crystals, ibid. Their Ihape, p. 186. PI. xx. Tingrains, &c. engraved, ibid. Rich Tin-mines, p. 188. Ancient and present constitution of the ftannaries, p. 189 — 194.

XVI. Iron, p. 194. Its plenty and rife, p. 195 ; and shapes, p. 196.

XVII. Copper, p. 196. In what state found, p. 197. Ores forced by their colours and texture, yellow ib. Green, blue, grey, black ores, p. 198. Red and malleable ores, p. 199. Plate xxi. Figured coppers engraved and described, p. 200. Why malleable copper fo frequent, p. 201; and of fuch different colours, p. 202. Of railing, forting, and drefling the copper-ore, p. 203. Method of felling copper in Cornwall, p. 204. Rich mines ; their revenues yet improveable, p. 206.

XVIII. Of fever, lead, and quickfilver, p. 209. Of silver ; of lead, p. 209. Mines and forts of leadores, p. 210. Lodes of lead, p. 212. Little wrought in Cornwall, p. 212.

XIX. Of gold found in Cornwall, p. 213. Some anciently known, ib. More of late difeovered, p. 214. And the difeovery merits farther attention, p. 215. Whether mountains are neceffary to the produXion of metals, p. 216.

XX. Vegetables of land and fea, p. 217. Foreft trees, ib. Clowance house, p. 219, Plate xxn. Fruit trees, ib. Foflil trees, p. 220. Of three forts, ib. Sec. Confequences drawn from foflil trees in Mount's-bay, p. 223. Of shrubs, p. 224. Wild and belonging to the greenhouse, p. 226. The American aloe that flowered in the natural ground 1757 described, p. 226, Sec. Herbs, roots and flowers, p. 228. Particular plants of hill and' hedge, ib. Plate xxm. Trewithen Vafe, marfli, and aquatic plants, p. 230. Rock and cliff plants, p. 232. Sand and beach plants, p. 233. Submarine plants, famous, p. 234. Membranaceous, p. 235. Latifolious and anguftifolious, p. 236. Sponges, p. 237. Ufes of herbaceous submarine plants, ib. Ligneous, 238. Stony submarines, corallines, ib. Plate xxvi. Coral, corallines, and birds, p. 239. Coral in general, and the bodies composed of it, p. 250. Whether coals the fabric of animals, p. 241.

XXL Of birds, p. 242. Hawks, ib. Cornilh chough, p. 243. Different forts, ib. — 247. Mifcoloured birds, and eggs, p. 248.

Land

[ x!x ]

CH. XXII. Land and water-infedts in Cornwall, p. 248. Their ufe, p. 249. Food, ib. Inftindt, p. 250.

W ater-infects, their numbers, p. 251. Their lucid appearance in waters agitated, p. 251, &c. Sea zoophytes- — polypes, page 253, & c. Plate xxv. Sea-infedts, p. 254. Sea-nettles, or jelly-fifh, p. 256. Fixed and nayant, fix forts described and engraved, p. 257, &c. Star-filh, p. 259. Sorts described, ib. Cuttle-fifh and ink-filh, p. 260.

XXIII. Of Filh, p. 261. The Ihote, trouts, pele, salmon, where caught, p. 262. Lo trout described, p. 263. Sea filh, cetaceous ; the blower, grampus, (or granpefle) p. 263, Plate xxvi. Sea-fifh j porpefle, a mistake probably in Mr. Jago's icon, Plate xxvii. Large filh ; the dolphin, ib. Sharks, the fea-fox, and porbeagle, p. 265. Flat-filh, raies, triloft, fquatina, frog-filh, ib. Other flat filh, p. 266. Round-filh — fun-filh, p. 267. Why all its fins almoit in the hinder part, p. 268. Afelli, cod, and pollack, ib. Mackrel, p. 269. A non-defcript fuck-filh, p. 269. Dracunculus, p. 270. Bafle, mullet, gurnards, ib. Herring, pilchard, p. 271. Skipper and black-filh, ib. Profit of filhing to Cornwall, p. 272, &c. Whether filh hear, p. 273. Shell-filli, p. 274. Lobfter, shrimp, oyster, ib. Why fea-animals prey upon one another, p. 275. Shells, ib. Shells, and their engravings described, p. 276, &c. Foflil-shells, p. 278. Cornwall thought to have none, p. 279. Extraneous foffils variously distributed, ib. Two reasons why Cornwall might have none, because of the scarcity of fuch bodies on particular Ihores ; secondly, because waters were corrosive, p. 280, though not destitute of sufficient proofs of the floods reaching there, ib. Little fpar, little chalk or flints in Cornwall, yet there are fome extraneous follils, p. 281. Foflil horn, ib. A lump of fpar, including limpets, pedtuncles, &c. from Falmouth harbour, ib.

XXIV. Reptiles, p. 282. Cures for the bite of adders, p. 283. Snakes, ib. None of the serpent kind in the Scilly Iflands, ib. The flow-worm, p. 284. Seal, or fea-calf, ib. The imaginary mermaid, 285 ; for which appellation its manner of swimming, great docility, and cunning, may have given fome grounds, ib. Two turtles taken on the Cornilh coat, the icon of one, Plate xxvii. Fig. iv. Explained, ib.

XXV. Quadrupeds, p. 286. Sheep, ib. Black cattle, p. 287. Butter made of fealded milk, ib. A premature conception — monstrous birth, ib. Horfes, p. 288. Not large, but ferviceable, ib. Deer and parks, ib. Wild quadrupeds will grow tame and docile by degrees and gentle usage, p. 289. The connexion with and dependance of brutes on man, ib. &c. How adapted to the afliftance and comfort of man, p. 290, &c.

XXVI. Of the Inhabitants, p. 291. Their number, ib. Health, and instances of longevity, p. 292. Of strength of body, p. 293. A defective birth, ib- A torpid state of even years, p. 294. General customs — their gratulation of the spring, p. 295. Bonfires, plays, ib. What MS's remain of thefe interludes, ib. &c. Of the metre, scanning, and stanza of thefe poems, p. 296. Their drama ill conftrudted, p. 297. Places for acting were the Rounds, ib. Piran-round described, Plate xxix. Fig. in. and iv. Explained, p. 291. Such interludes not peculiar to Cornwall, p. 299. Of wrestling, ib. Hurling, p. 300. The name and exercise, ib. Parifti feats, p. 301. Their abuse and ufe, p. 302. Local customs — as bouflening, p. 302. The cocking-fool, p. 303. Proceflxon at Loftwythyel, ib. Manners of the inhabitants, p.304. Civil to strangers ; gentry apt in state-matters of reputation in war ; Charles the first's letter of thanks to the county of Cornwall, p. 305. Of the battle of Lanfdown; the infeription of the monument there, p. 306. Lower fort of inhabitants reckoned litigious, p. 307. Miners given to immoderate drinking, p. 308. Nor lefs the people of towns, ib. owing to corruption of elections, ib. Whence it is that Cornwall fends fuch a remarkable number of representatives to parliament, p. 309, &c. In what order and for what reasons fo many boroughs obtained the privilege of electing members of parliament, ib. 310, &c. Trade, p. 312. Tenures and revenues, ib. Of the Cornilh language, a dialect of the ancient Britilh ; its pronunciation, idiom, and proverbs, p. 314, Its gradual declenfion, page 315. From the reformation, ib. Its expiration in the present age, p. 316. Prefent state of arts, ib.

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Natural History

O F

Cornwall.

Chap. I.

7 'he General Defcription.

C O R N W A L L, the wefternmoft County of Britain, in its form resembling a Cornucopia, has the Briftol Chanel (a branch of St. George's) on the North, and on the South the Britilh Chanel ; which two parts of the Ocean meeting as it were in a point at the Weft, enclofe all but the Eaftern part of Cornwall, where it butts upon Devonftiire. In the parifti of Morwinftow, about four Miles from the North Chanel, is a tenement call'd Shorfton, on the outskirts of which is a large Common called Shorfton-moor, divided from Bradworthy Parifti in Devonftiire by a hedge for about forty land-yards to the Eaft, then by a hedge of about a quarter of a Mile long, from the Parifti of Hartland, Devon ; then it butts on the parifti of Wellcombe, Devon, from which it is divided alfo by a hedge of about a mile in length, and this hedge is therefore the limit of Shorfton Tenement, to the Eaft and North of the parifti of Morwinftow, and of the County of Cornwall, till you come to Gooftiam Mill, where a small brook call'd Marfland Water, that riles near Woolleigh Burrows takes place and divides Cornwall from Devon along to the North Sea. All the reft of Cornwall (with a few Exceptions to be taken notice of in their proper place) is divided from Devon by the river Tamar, which rides on the very ridge of Shorfton Moor, about half a mile Eaft of Woolleigh Burrows, and when it pafles out of the Tenement of Shorfton commences the general Boundary of Cornwall towards the Eaft, till it joins the Ocean near Plymouth after a course, nearly South, of about forty miles.

The two moft distant points of this County are the Eaftern angle of the parish of Morwinftow near the fource of the Tamar, to the Eaft, and the Promontory call'd the Land's-End, in the parifti

B

Natural History

of Senan to the Weft, from which extremities this county measures seventy-eight miles and a half in length, a in a line nearly South Weft and North Eaft.

In the widest part, viz. from the Northern point of Morwinftow to Ramhead, is forty -three Miles and a quarter, the line nearly South South Eaft : The land grows narrower as it goes to the Weft, and at about one third of it's length it is but eighteen Miles from Fauwy on the South fea to Padftow on the North. As we advance another third, 'tis thirteen miles from Pendinas Caftle on the South to Portreath on the North ; and from Mount's Bay on the South, to St. Ives Bay and the Briftol Channel on the North, the land is but five miles wide.

The land thrufting itself forward in fuch narrow dimensions, declines towards the fea on either fide, consequently the land is highest in or near the middle, where it is lefs cultivated than in the lower lands, as indeed lefs capable of cultivation : here, however, as our greatest Roads pafs, and mostly through large Commons, and on or near the moft mountainous parts, the rude prospect is apt to give travellers a more unfavourable opinion of the County in general than it deserves ; for this barrennefs is no more than the natural consequence of high situations in all countries, which being more exposed to the course of winds and rain than the plains and valleys, the foil is not suffer'd to reft here, but is perpetually wafh'd off into lower and more even situations, the Rocks and Karns are laid bare, and the heathy foil that remains betwixt them is fit for little but to yield common pasture, and turf for fuel.

On the Northern Coaft the land is generally high, and the valleys short, narrow and quick of decent; the fea therefore, besides the two creeks of Bude and Gannel) finds a way only to make two havens, Padftow and Heyle, and thofe fit for but Small Craft, but the valleys being more extended and level on the fouth coat, the fea makes an open entrance into Hammoze, Fauwy and Falmouth Harbours for the largest ships, and by their several branches as well as at Loo and Helford, affords eafy carriage of all conveniencies, either by ships, boats, or barges.

Near the fea, and along the fides of navigable rivers, and in the plain grounds, this county is well cultivated, and in fome places well planted, but our plantations make the lefs figure because they are low, and our hills are naked.

It need not be here observed that Cornwall is famous for Tin and Copper Mines. The high lands in the Eaft, bordering

According to Martin's Map, done from an actual Survey.

upon

Of Cornwall.

o

upon Devon, b did formerly afford fome Tin, but now there is very little Tin eaft of St. Auftel c . From St. Auftel vvcffward to Kenwyn Gwenap, Stythien, Wendron, Breag, on the South, and to St. Agnes Redruth d , Illogan, Camborn, Gwinear, in a ffraight line through Lannant, Senor, and Morvah, to the parifti of St. Juft on the North, the Tin and Copper Grounds maintain a breadth of about even miles at a medium.

By the decent of the River Tamar, the lands of Morwinftow where this river rides, should be reckoned the highest hills in this County ; but the length of a river's course is no infallible criterion of the height of it s fource : Caradon Hill, near Lifkerd, may be reckoned amongst the highest grounds, being found c to be

u 1 a b° ve t ie eve fea. Routor and Brown willy muft

be ftill higher, the former being the first land discovered at fea by imps bearing lor England, if I am rightly informed.

By the Domefday Book (in the Church Library at Exeter) which in all probability was the copy of the Original Survey of the Weftern Counties, whence the great Domefday Book in the Exchequer was partly composed, the Hundreds are thus named : i Conarton containing 33 Hides f . 2. Tibefterna, cliffs Tibefta, now a Dutchy Manor, to which Granpont and moft of the parifti of Creed, and other dependencies belong, containing 61 Hides and a half. Winnenton, alias Winneton, alias forfttan Winnianton, formerly a considerable Manor of the Arundels of Lanhern, giving name to the parish now call'd Gunwallo s , containing 36 Hides and a half. 4. Stratton, in which there were 83 Elides and three Virgates of and . 5. Fauiton, confifting of 43 Hides and a half 6. Rialton,

confifting of 69 Hides and fix Farthings 1 of land. The 7th Hundred before the Conqueft was that of Pauton k , containing 44

down 1 & 16 P ai ' l ies Linkinhorn, on Hengften-

n I, Th ' s T name is written differently, St. Au- 5 "®' (Lehnd, vol. iii. pag. 20.) quail Holy Altar, as , f the parish had it's name from fome remarkable Altar thereof great refort ; asthepa-

A1* 1 ot ltari y in had that name from a famous Altar of St. Nunne. [ n vo ). vii . of the fame

Itinerary, pag. nr, 'tis call'd St. Auftols, with this marginal note [St. Auftol, erat Ilermital It is alfo call'd St. Auftol in the Bilhop's Regiftei at Exeter ; and it is imagined by a learned gentleman, (Rev. Dr. Milles, Chaunter of Exeter) that the proper way of writing this name is St. Auffil a corruption of St. Auxiiius an Irifti Bifhop. d Reciius Ryddruith.

r e ev - Mr. Haydon's portable Barom r . Conarton was an ancient Manor formerly be-

S" gm tf T t0 thc Crown of England, and in time of wen. UI. convey'd by letters patent (yet to be feen

1 a Fu , a S ' .'f Eis MS. of Cornwall) at Lanhern, together with the Baylywic of the Hundred of renwith, to Simon Pincerna (or Butler) Lord of

Lanhern, in lieu of the Lordfhip and Manor of St. James atWeftmmfter. In the name of Pincerna it continued till Edward III. when one of the Heireffes of that family, (i. e. of the Pincerna's) was married to Arundel of Trembleth, direct ancestor ot the laft oir John Arundel of Lanhern.

g Norden, pag. 46.

h Eight Virgae made a Hide; the Virga or Virgata of land was an uncertain and very different measure in different places, it sometimes confifted of 24 Acres, sometimes of 30, 40, and sometimes only of 20, 15, or even but 4 Acres. Spelman. Gloff in voce virgata.

1 A Farthing Land was like the other Meafures of our ancestors, various ; sometimes confifting of ten Acres, sometimes of 30. " Divifiones nuf-

" quam requae nec partium quantitas ufquam " certa." Spclm. Gloff. p. 320.

k Rialton and Pauton, though they loft the honour of giving name to Hundreds, retain'd even to Queen Elizabeth's time the privilege of fending Bayliffs to attend the publick services as the Hundreds did. Carew. p. 86.

Hides,

4 Natural History

Hides, in Carew, (p. 47.) faid to contain 120 Acres ; i. e. Cornifh Acres. This was the ancient divifton, probably made by Alfred the Great, who is faid first to have divided the Saxon Kingdom into Hundreds.

Cornwall is at present divided into nine Hundreds ; Eaft, Weft, Poudre, and Kerrier spread the South Coaft ; Stratton ', Lyfnewyth, Trig, Pidre, and Penwith the North. When this present Divifton was first introduced has not occurred to me, but it certainly existed before the Lincoln Taxation, A. D. 1288, the parochial Churches being therein rang'd according to the present Hundreds; I am apt to think therefore, that a new Divifton took place foon after the Norman Conqueft, the former Diviftons appearing by the Surveys of William the Firft, to be not sufficiently diftindt ; for about this time, fays Mr. Carew, m " the country was forced by a " more orderly manner into parishes, and every parifli committed " to a Ipiritual father perhaps there was then alfo, if we may guess by analogy, a more orderly divifton of the county into the present Hundreds ; the large ones were reduced and split, and the names of ancient Manors gave place to other names more expreflive of the fttuation, or at that time better entitled to give name to the diftridt.

It is not eafy to difcovcr the limits of the ancient Divifton, and to reconcile it to the present. Conarton (it may be alerted with great probability) included the present Hundred of Penwith ; for the Lord of the Manor of Conarton, has been Lord alfo of all the Hundred of Penwith from the time of Henry III. (fee note f in the preceding page) and there is but one Court Leet held for both the Honours, which implies fome more than ordinary union. Among the reft there is not the like connexion ; but what was anciently call'd Tibefta included, as I imagine, the Hundred of Poudre: Winnenton, Kerrrier: Stratton, formerly extenftve, makes at present the three finall Hundreds of Stratton, Lyfnewith, and Trig: Fauiton contained the Hundred of Eaft, as I fuppole, and the southern part of Weft Hundred : Rialton moft part of Pidre : and Pauton the reft of Pidre, and of the Hundred of Weft.

In the nine Hundreds are contained, according to Camden and Speed, (p. 21.) one hundred and ftxty one Parifh Churches ; according to others about one hundred and eighty ; but Martin in his Index Villaris, one hundred and ninety eight : fome reckoning the Chapels of Eale and their Appendixes, others only the Mother Churches.

1 In the Lincoln Vifitation the two Hundreds Tcrgrifhire. Trig signifies the Influx of the Sea, of Stratton and Lyfnewyth are joined together, and from the arm of the Sea at Padftow the diviand called Decanatus major Tergrifhire, as that fion of the bordering land had probably its name, now called Trig is termed Dacanatus minoris ra Survey of Cornwall, p. 82.

The

Of Cornwall. 5

The latest observations relating to the Latitude and Longitude of the principal head-lands of Cornwall, viz. the Lizherd point and tne Land s end, do not exactly agree.

The Lizherd is reckon'd by

Latitude. Longitude from London.

Dr. Halley 49 0 55 m 5 ° 3 o"

Martin 49 ° 45 m 5° 36"

Chart of Mount's Bay "49 0 33" 5° 26"

Renlhaw 0 - 49 0 47 36* 5 0 36

The Land s End is reckon'd by

Dr. Halley 30 0 3'" 6° y m

Martin 49° 56" 6 m

Chart of Mount's Bay 49 0 $g m o" 3 0 55"

Renlhaw" 50 0 0 m r6 m

Chap. Ii.

Of the Air , and Weather.

A S the Situation of Cornwall approaches fo near to that of an I and, it mult be subject to all the disadvantages as well as reap the benefits of an Ifiand-situation. No Air is absolutely pure, or free from exhalations ; Heat, whether it proceeds from the elemental fire of all bodies, or from the power of the Sun and Stars, perpetually railing into the Atmofphere Steams of Earth and ater; and in proportion as either of thofe Elements prevail, the

r J °li n Tn S 7 ' luitabl X rc ete w hh vapours ; consequently in

r - 1 an Sy t an< u pon the Sea-coat, where the area of Water is upenour to that of Land, the Air mull be moifter, (other circum-

. anCeS ein § e fi ua] ) an in great tracks of land, and the Weather in geneva moie ubjcct to rain q . And fo we find it indeed in Cornwall, where a dry Summer is a rare thing; and when other ai ts 0 . n S] anc blbcr l T drought, Cornwall has seldom reason to COm P ain : ls tlllc 110 ru i e with regard to Weather shall always

others Ub ' :A ' d by Di °n. Williams, furveyor,

L e Chart of the Chanel from the obfei T e 111 f actual Purvey, by Renlhaw

others, about the year 174.1.

F) SV n ° tK lart ' Lid to be corrected Dr. Halley and publilhcd in t 7 2i, the Liz! is in 49— 5 b. and the Land's end in 50—6

Longitude not noted. In the Dictionary of Arts, &c. published in 1 754, the Lizherd is plac'd in Lat. 49 — 50. Long. 5 0 — 47 111 . all Arguments that this chief point of England's Chanel has never been decifivcly laid down.

q For this reason the feafons in the Orcades are reckoned to be very rainy.

obtain

6 Natural History

obtain in any one place ; and in the year 1752, which we may reckon among fome of our moifteft Summers throughout England, more Rain fell at London than at Plymouth, according to an estimate made at both places; and in the Winter 1756, there were greater complaints of the exceflive Rains in Eflex and the parts about London, than in Cornwall ; however, in general it is otherwise : but our Rains in Cornwall are rather frequent than heavy and exceftive ; and we have very seldom a day fo thoroughly wet but that there is fome intermiffion, nor fo cloudy but that the Sun will find a time to fine ; the cause of which, I apprehend, is the hilly, narrow, ridge-like form of our County, over which the Winds make a quick, because they have a short paflage, and leave not the clouds to hang long in one place, as they do where the ground is more champaign, and full of various hollows and trees to intercept and detain them.

Another reason why we have in Cornwall more Rain than in other parts of England, is, because, for three parts in four of the year, the Wind blows from the intermediate points of the W eft and the South, which Wind coming over a large track of the Atlantic Ocean, and consequently fraught with much Wet, aifcharges it's Moifture as foon as the current of Air, which supported the clouds, is diminished and broke by the Clifts and Hills. It was an Obfervation, made by our Saviour r , that the Weftern Winds brought Rain in Judea ; and it could not be otherwise, because of their palling over lb large a trad! of the Mediterranean. The South Wind, coming from the Coaft of Africk, had the fame effect in the Adriatick ", and upon the Coaft of Italy and Greece

Madidis Notus evolat alis,

Terribilem picea tedfus caligine vultum ;

Barba gravis nimbis, cams fruit unda capillis,

Fronte fedent nebula?, rorant pennasque finufque.

The Eaftern Winds, blowing in from the Euxine Sea upon the city of Conftantinople, fill the Air with Mifts and Fogs. In all thefe instances the frequent Rains are the consequences of Winds pafiing over a large tradt of Water, and this may lead us to the reason why the Winds blow fo much from the South Weft in Cornwall. Certain it is, that Winds do generally blow from the Sea u , of which the cause may be, that every current of Air which is produced on the Ocean, meeting with no promontories or mountains to refrain them, have their full range towards the opposite {bores. Add to this, that the

r Luke xii. 54. " Dr. Shaw Trav. p. 218. observes, that at

Quo non arbiter Ad rise major. Hor. lib. i, Algiers the Winds blow generally from the Sea, Ode iii. from the Weft by the North to the Eaft.

1 Metam. lib. i. v. 262.

reflec-

Of Cornwall. 7

reflexion of the Sun-beams upon the land being far stronger, and making the Air warmer and lefs dense over the land, casteris paribus, than over the fea, the streams of Air, which are fet in motion by various causes on the surface of the fea, muft neceffarily tend towards the land. Now the greatest quantity of fea to which England, and more particularly the Weftern parts of it, is moft exposed, is the Atlantic Ocean, lying to the South Weft of it, between the con tinents of Africa, Europe, and America ; consequently from this quarter the Winds mu ft moft generally blow.

Being fo near the Sea as we are in moft parts of Cornwall, our sect, n Stormy blasts are more violent than in the inland parts of England, Storms became, though thofe lands which are more remote from the Sea are for the generality much higher than thole upon the Sea ftiore, yet the currents of Air, which we call Winds, are fo broken by the the hills in fome places, and absorb'd by valleys and woods in others, that they lole their strength, and gradually proceed into a more temperate motion, or even a Hat calm, before they reach the more inland fttuations , whereas, near the Sea, they come on with their full force, without being impeded or diflipated. Hence it is that the South Weft Winds, which blow fo long with us, not only bring rain, but alfo hard gales w ; every wind that rides advancing to the land without any obstacle over lo large a plane of water as the Atlantic ocean.

It may not be amifs here to fay something of the Atmofphere in sect. lit. general, and to hint at the causes from which thole currents of Air, The Caiife °f which we call Winds, may poftibly arise. The Atmofphere is a gifted! fu£ congeries of Air, fiery, terrene, and moist vapours ; the Air is the riid medium through which the light paftes, in which Fire is detained, . into which the vapours rife, and there float till they fall. e r s fildom at reft, being variously agitated, condensed, or rarefied, by the vapours and fire intermixed. The fire may be either equally diapers'd and stagnant in the Atmofphere, fo as to remain mvifible, or colle&ed in one place, and from various causes ufceptiole of inflammation, activity, and explosion. The vapours nfe fi 0111 Land and Sea, and are consequently of a mixed nature ; t e dry parts of as different a compofition as the Earths and Minerals, avid the moisture as differently impregnated as the Waters of the e a, Lakes, Rivers, and Fountains. Vapours float alio in particular ortrnents, and in quantities of different magnitude, according as eat operates, and promotes their separation and afeent into the

Creberque procellis Africus. VlRG.

Air.

8 Natural History

Air. In other words, vapours are either dense and heavy, or in a rarer state ; now spacious combinations, now smaller and more contraded ; differently fhap'd, their surfaces either doping or horizontal, concave at one time and convex at another. 1 hefe unevenneffes of the vapourous contents of the Atmofphere muff difpofe the faces of Air which lie betwixt and on every fide of them into equal irregularities ; sometimes into narrow guts and ilraits, sometimes into wider and more extended chanels ; now perhaps fome hundreds of leagues long, and sometimes not a mile ; here a tall column of Air depends, there it is compreffed into a spreading oblate difk, all called by the different files, shapes, and fubftance of the Clouds and Vapours, and making the Atmofphere somewhat like Earth which it invefts, full, if I may fo express my felt, ot fleeting mountains, hills, plains, valleys, traits, and expanfes. This is the general form of the Atmofphere ; and were it poflible for the human eye to comprehend this extensive propped, and to note the fuccefflve alterations made in the Air by repletion and vacuity, by heat and cold, we should be no more furprifed to fee fuch a multifarious fluid perpetually in motion, reflfted, protruded, condensed, expanded, retarded, or accelerated, in its different parts, than we are to observe the various eddies, torrents, swift streams, and {filler pools of a large river. For instance, in the latter cale, if we fee the current strong and swift, we attribute the velocity to the narrowing or fhelving chanel, or perhaps to the additional influx of extraordinary Rain or Snow ; but if we find it impetuous and irrefiftible, we conclude the banks have given way, and the Water, struggling to defend, ruflies to that place where there is left refiftance. As thefe are the causes of dire streams and their different velocities, the opposition of little islands and projecting banks in a river are the causes of delayed and crooked currents. In like manner, the faces between the floating vapours are fo many chanels through which the Air paffes, ever struggling to maintain an equilibrium, and tending to any face which is lefs replete in one part than in another. Wind is nothing more than Air in motion ; rarefactions and vacuities in the Atmofphere are the immediate caufcs or this motion, and are produced frequently, we may fay continually, by several different causes. The Sun, by concurrent circumstances in land, water, and vapour, lightens and difperfes the Air from one place, and at one time, more than at another. Inflammable exhalations and their explosions shall warm and thin the Air in particular places. A cloud or portion of Vapour full of eledrical matter, palling near a cloud or region of land more destitute of electrical matter, will filed streams oi fire upon the lefs electric body, and thereby excite violent motions.

Great

Of Cornwall. 9

Great falls of Rain and Dew {hall make way for the Air to expand, become rarer, and cause an indraught of that which is heavier. Condenfations of the Air in one place will sometimes produce rarity in another; a body of Vapours may intercept and obftruCt the communication of the several airy parts of the Atmofphere, and consequently prevent an equilibrium. Now, where-ever the Air is thrown into a Rate or rarefaction, there a vacuity is produced, and the adjacent Air flows as Water to the breach of a dam, and the flood is ci flier violent or not, as the face through which it pafies is shaped, aiung as the quantity of the fluid fet in motion, and as the extent Oi tne vacuity is, which is to be replenifhed. If the vacuity be pacious, the flow will be plentiful; (obftruCtions in the way being allowed for) if the chanel through which the influx runs be long, narrow, and funnel-like, the velocity will be great, and vice versa;

at r A a birge quantity of condensed Air chances at this time to press forward towards this large vacuity, the motion of the Air will impetuous, or what we call a Storm. If, on the other hand, the rarefactions in particular diftriCh be gentle, and there is room for defer Air to succeed without violence, the motion alfo is gentle ; and where no extraordinary rarefactions are produced, and the Vapoun are equally difperfed, a Calm ensues. If the Vapours affume t e nape or an oblate difk, overfpreading as a canopy a wide extent, the weight and continuity of the incumbent Air is in this diftrid for a time, and to a certain degree, fufpended, the Mercury finks

j.f >ar ? 11 jf ter ' and at the fame time the current of the Air above t is difk mall go one way, towards any vacuity which shall create a fresh tendency, and the under current of Air, influenced by another rarefaction, shall go on in a different, perhaps opposite direction, there being no communication betwixt the currents above and be-

0 w the difk of vapours, sufficient to determine them to one point.

1 Uls agam, by the fall or even the recess of a great body of vapours in

one place out of our fight, the air over our heads before condens'd, and keeping the Mercury high, extends itself into the vacuity; the wind blows as we fay, and the Mercury falls in a serene fky to our .ur prize. . y the riling of a like body of vapours, and accumulat-

ln P air ° our oiazon j the Mercury rides in a cloudy and even ramy. xv. nen the Wind is violent, the perpendicular preflure of ne an is much leffened by the velocity of the horizontal process (as n U ee tl5at runs Swiftly makes not fo deep an impreflion as when lowl y mo f d ) and the Mercury falls. When the air is fullest of vapours, the Mercury falls, the prefibre of the atmosphere depend-

ln T a ° nl y on die we igbt of the fluid, but on the agility, i' n r C t uC1l 7 or tbe column of air which is broken and intercepted sy wn a quantity of moisture floating between, condenfing and

D readv

SECT. IV. Bad effects of Sea Air.

io NATURAL HISTORY

ready to fall. Thefe and many other variations which might be mentioned, are the neceflary result of meteors, vapours, and air intermixed in separate portions, and acting with reciprocal, but generally very different powers; however, between the Tropics thefe varieties are over-rul'd, and fuperceded by the inceflant heat of the fun, which produces regular, or trade-winds : but to finish this excursion and return, I am not here to attempt a Theory of the regular and irregular Winds ; let it fufflee, that the causes of Winds in general, and their several velocities, may be very rationally attributed to the rile and fluctuation of vapours, the shape and flze which their combinations afliime in the firmament, and the different condenfations and rarefactions of the air.

The air of Cornwall mu Pc needs partake of the falls of the fea adjoining, in a great degree, and therefore corrodes iron in a very short time, and near the fea, more than in the inland parts ; the bars and frames of windows, and every thing elfe made of iron, presently giving way to the fait pray, let them be painted ever fo well. This faltnefs of the air is alfo very unfavourable to fcorbutic habits ; the fea-vapour not being fufHciently corrected by a proper quantity of effluvia from the land. It is alfo very prejudicial to shrubs and trees ; and near the fea whores, especially towards the Weft, whether mix'd with the North or South winds, will permit a tree to rife very little above it's flielter, which is very difeouraging to all new plantations. Indeed there is reason to think, that vapours in general, rais'd from the land and dropping in rains, are much more nourifhing to plants than thofe exhale d from the fea. For vapours from the land are charg d with the particles of the foil they rife from, and supply the plants and trees, wherever they fall, with a kindly juice, mix'd with fresh and new earth ; and this is the reason that the more water is diftill'd (that is, forc'd to deposit it's terrene faeces) the lefs it nourifhes plants : now vapours rais'd from the fea can be no other than train'd or diftill'd fait water, and therefore cannot be fo fit for vegetation, which is confirm'd alfo by this observation, that moft trees thrive better at a little distance from the fea, than near it's brink.

This Sea-air is pernicious to plants in proportion to their tender, or robust nature, and the force with which it is driven upon them ; for after a form we usually find the young shoots of plants fhrivell'd, according as they were more or lefs expos'd, and to the taft of a very pungent faltnefs : the fibres are first bruised by the violent guts of wind, and the fait air coming in quick fucceflion, infinuates itself into the wound, fcorches the fap veflels, and

vegetation

Of Cornwall. „

vegetation is at a Hand till the tone of the veffels is restored. nder shelters, and at a few miles distance from the fea, trees offer lefs ; but all, I think, in fome degree, as they ihew by tang from the fea winds ; fo that without great industry in rai ing re ters, and great attention to the care and repair of them

W en rais d we are not likely to fee our hills planted, nor hedgerows of tall trees make a figure in Cornwall, as they do in fome

the n fea S 'blasts USh &ther fUn ' because lefs ex P ofed to

Our winters in Cornwall are far milder than in any part of sect.v. Eng. and : Myrtles, of whatever kind, are in no want of green- So " iR loufo , and it now and then, through the severity of an extra- t , ar y COid feafon their upper (hoots are killed by the front, cut

f i r ° ' K:ar to t' e ground, and they will sprout plentifully in the succeeding spring, and make as good plants as they were before.

Ve have no (bowers of exceffive large hail in Cornwall, as they

V f In , tJe 111 ant P arts and fnow seldom lies more than three or four days, which is to be attributed partly to our fea-air, which yie.ds not nitre and otner fliarp falls, in sufficient quantity to In- 6 ° Ur , r01 s and congelations in the atmosphere extreme and f nd If in lefs de g ree . to our latitude, which is

more th nm r ,,° f al ' En S' an f How ever, when the winters are fee!s it in ni UfUa ' C0ld , m ° ther P a of the Ifland, Cornwall

ea 7 ao P a°t P r '°ft '° V " situation - the

at fd' nftm as began a mod violent cold, after two or tmee days of blufter.ng North Baft Winds : on the a 9 th of December it froze very hard, the next day it began to fnow, and the windows of m y little greenhouse being accidentally open, the range trees and Jeffinmnes were killed to the very roots by the

and theTnwl e , Xtremit y of the we ather lifted a full month,

bu? fuel W y m r u nC C , 0merS ° f the fields ful1 two months ;

the C ° rnWal1 - tHe

(trees In dm taie nheits Thermometer was not under forty de-

December the thirty lift, in WdXft

Pnew °:r? "Y "7% ®iU. our Spring for the fame reason fcws itfdf early m buds and bloffoms, but I think it's progtefs

th '° fY as . e ew e re fo r as there is a languid kind of Spring

hroughont the winter, (chiefly, indeed, in the funny southern lands)

n cCw S alL l n r Ca 7 0t 7 " to be fo in ° ther eou ies as other Zd L' 6 wmter ' s over and the Spring begins in

efforts and col ' niles 1 apprehend, it makes much stronger

' 3nd l quicker advances, than with us ; the repofe of The

winter,

Natural History

winter, in fuch counties, imparting to vegetation a vigorous Ipring, unknown to the equable feafons of Cornwall. In short, the feafons with us in Cornwall, are like the Neap-tides, they neither ebb nor flow with any great energy : the heat of the atmosphere neither retires fo far from us in winter, nor advances to that height in summer, as it does in the more inland counties : consequently, our summers, though we lie fo far to the fouth, are not hot; for there is always a fea breeze flowing towards the land, and the air of the fea is never fo hot, caeteris paribus, as the air of the land; because the strong reflection of the fun beams from the land almost doubles the heat; the fun beams are alfo detain'd in the vales and hollows, in the midland parts, (circumstances not common to the fea and fea, coats) which have the fame effeCt upon the air (though in a lefs degree) as concave mirrors, always heating, though not always burning : It is much hotter therefore in the midland parts of England, during the summer, than in Cornwall ; this may make their harvefts earlier, and their fruits generally of a higher relish than with us, (in equal circumstances, I mean, as to drought and moiflure, flerility and fatnefs) but the air is more temperate and lefs fultry with us, the fea air equally aflwaging the heats of summer, and moderating the winter colds.

Eft ubi plus tepeant Hyemes? ubi gratior aura Leniat et rabies Canis, et momenta Leonis ?

Hor. Epift. lib. i.

Meteors and there are fo many mines in Cornwall, and moft of them

Lightning. yield sulphur, vitriol, mundic, and goffan x , they cannot but affeCt the air with their fleas in proportion to the quantity yielded by the mine, and the facility with which their parts separate and ascend into the Atmofphere. Thefe mineral vapours ascend fo copioufly out of fome of our Lodes or veins of metal, and confift of fuch inflammable parts as to take fire, and appear in flame over the Lodes from which they rife, and it is a common opinion among Tinners, especially thofe of more than ordinary speculation, that where little flames of light are feen in the night time, there a prosperous Lode lies underneath, but indeed the lights which are feen in the night are much oftner agnes fatui ", and have nothing to inform us of, but that being defeated by the fun that rais'd them, their own weight confines them to their low situation, where they yield their electrical Are, and will always do fo, whenever proper motion and materials concur.

On

An iron, ochreous, tony clay.

7 Called by the Coraifn, Jack with the Lanthorn.

Of Cornwall. 13

On the 20th of December 1752, about eight in the morning, the fky was on a sudden overcast with dark-red angry clouds ; the wind very boifterous ; at intervals a blue fky, then large clouds with cold diowers : about a quarter before twelve neither rain nor wind, butfunfhine; force flying thin clouds were observed to join, and one of the mofl Flocking peals of Thunder ensued. The Lightning fell wnh greatefl violence upon a hill called Moelfra, in the pariFi of Madern, where it pierced banks like a dart, furrowed the ground as if it at hf. Cn a pk )U gh-share, cut off flat turves, burnt rocks, split them into Fiivers, fell on fonie particular spots of the rocks, and fplintered t lem as if mufket balls: it rooted up fome stones, and made its way clear under others, chewing the traces of its paflage on both Fdes. ? he ' v . a ? lc workings of the Lightning in this hill (than which there is no higher land betwixt the North and South Sea) were in length a out a furlong from EaF to Weft ; and there was a smoke feen in

V 1S 01 die kill} as several Mufkets had been discharged : at the Thunder, the Fieep difperfed and ran to and fro, as if pursued . - V a P ac oi Fogs. At Trythal, a village without tree or hill near it, about a mile and half South Weft of Moelfra, this clap of Thunder was fo violent that nothing was remembered equal to it ; but the effects of what followed in a few minutes were Fill more dreadful, an ,° r V n mod: deplorable kind. (t Thomas Olivey 2 , a farmer of good fubftance and repute, was returned from the Feld about a a , outer before noon, and had all his family round him in the kitcnen, except his daughter, who was in the hall. There was a brass

P , an ? vei t e re n t ie kitchen chimney nearly full of boiling water; the farmer was fitting by the Fre, his wife on a bench before it,

1Ur on lon , 23 years of age, was standing at the window; the farmer finding the Thunder and Lightning before-mentioned fo 1 ° back-door of his kitchen, facing the North, qui-

vered, ca led to his fon, and defined him not to stand fo near the ° W ' ea tie Lightning Fiould hurt his Eyes, upon which the y g man removed from the window backwards into the corner of ' m r n ; kf nd fat down as he thought, in a place of greater fecu-

A f e a PP rent ce koy laughing at him, was chid by his after, and, luckily for him, fent out of the room to take care of fomethmg without doors. Immediately the Lightning came from the W. N. W and falling upon the ftack of the kitchen chimney, hrch was about four foot square, and as much in height, of 11 , 0 e ' carne d k c Lar off from the house, and threw it into

therp ° W f te y 2 °, r eet d ant. In the chamber over the kitchen as a ittle closet boarded in, which Food juft under the top

Tran factions 0 f 1 tcfore the °y al Society by the author, and are published in the

E of

i 4 NATURAL HISTORY

of the chimney where the Lightning flrft fell ; all the boards were broken to pieces, the bedhead and the timbers of the roof shattered : of the chamber partition two planks were forced, a large prefs for holding cloths thrown down, and the fouth windows of the chamber floor (except one cafement) all broken and blown out. From the top of the chimney and the chamber floor it defended vertically into the kitchen below, where the family was. The farmer faw no Lightning, nor heard any Thunder, being truck fenfelefs with the flrft flash, and thrown into the middle of the kitchen, where he continued fenfelefs for a quarter of an hour. As foon as he came to himself, he asked, Who truck him ? but had not the ufe of his arms, and felt an aching pain shooting, as he described it, into his bones ; and a brand-iron, which hung in the chimney, being thrown down into the pan of water, had dallied the boiling water upon him to that degree, that his life was in extreme danger for more than a fortnight after. Mrs. Olivey was truck down upon the hearth ; both her shoes, though buckled on as usual, were truck off her feet, but her feet not hurt ; and being neither burnt nor fenfelefs, fhe was able to cry out for help, but could not move ; for fhe had no ufe of her under limbs for a day and half : the farmer's brother was at the end of a long table in the fame room, and was only flung against the wall about three feet distant, and not hurt. Mrs. Olivey 's After was near the back-door ; a part of this door was started and beaten in, fhe was truck fenfelefs, and thrown twelve feet off against a fettle, which flood contiguous to the fouth wall of the house. The farmer's fon had feated himself according to his father's directions, but unhappily in the very course of the fierceft Ligthning; his coat and waiftcoats (for he had two on) were torn into shreds, fo that it was difficult to diftinguifh where the pieces had formerly joined ; his shirt had a rent two feet lonpdown the back, and was Anged ; his left flioe torn from his foot ; and the little toe of that foot fo near cut off, that it hung but by a bit of fkin ; and he was quite dead : but though reduced to this lamentable condition, as to his exterior, he was not moved from his feat, nor his face at all changed. His dog was lying at his feet, dead likewise ; but not moved from his place.

The farmer's daughter received the shock in the hall, was truck fenfelefs, but revived foon ; felt a trembling all over, her feet tickling, partly benumbed, and stiff, as if sleeping ; but perceiving in the room a cloud of smoke, and hearing her mother cry, fhe made hafte into the kitchen, which fhe found full of smoke, stinking like brimftone. The Lightning had left a mark quite across the clavel of the kitchen chimney, about half an inch wide, in an undulating direction, broke through the partitions of the under floor, thrown

down

OF CORNWALL. l5

down the Selves, carried out ail the fouth windows, forced up the tair-ca e, blown out the north window, but feared the clock, which tood dole by it; and being somewhat spent when it reached the hall, earned out the windows, and moved not fome Delft barons which w-ere in the fouth window, forced the door of a beaufet at the end

0 t e ia an inch and hall inwards, and hook the eastern wall of the house throughout to the very foundation."

1 ThC j Ugh r might be fufficie nt here to relate the matters of fad in t e ox er o time, place, and degree, as they happened, yet one cannot help admiring the different currents, motions, shapes, and

e o ations o this Lightning. The clouds over Moelfra hill and t is u age o Trythal, a face of about a mile and half, were

? IT ! UC , m °y e C ar S ed inflammable vapours than the other clouds, that here they broke both the first and second time, with

prior violence, and the Thunder-claps were within a few minutes

0 one another, as being produced but by two portions of one and the lame congeries of fire.

The general tendency of this Lightning was as the direction of he wind at that time; that is, from the North Weft Eaftwardly; but where the principal explosions were (as at the hill and the house) many branches spread themselves off in all directions.

Nor were the shapes in which it operated lefs various than its mo ions, ometimes, as from its effects appeared, it was pointed

feet nr ft m 0n if b aces ed £ ed as a feythe ; now but one thin r 11 ream then two or three, and afterwards one again; now t fell as several separate balls of fire; but upon the house, where the principal explosion was, as a large gufh or torrent.

It was all fire, yet of different powers, according to the impregnation of its several portions : fubtil and penetrating as the eledfrical

nnh, r ti an f P ermeated the human frame ; feme parts of it effefl TT °° ]- never melted iron, which is the more common

wounded Tf ' Tn T the leather and cloths - fome cut and Darts of thi 1 r °I ne kl ed ' . without visible cut or ptmeture ; other

and flesh, oVdLTmlff ''Tn' "°? dl ckarb %

th 1 la Pi )ei n piace, and all in an instant ; and altho' irni S Were , ( . )mevvbat Ringed as well as torn, and the young effeA f u r0U r i 18 Waift Was alfo ched, from the general was rail f r S - f lg tn ! n ? at r tbe b i d an d village, I conclude, that it flammatory W1 lrrebftlbl y piercing, than diffolvent and in-

of Lightnina eneCl m Wm - ter month1 of December, but the ravages

01 Lightning are not limited to a feafon.

On

X 6 Natural History

On Tuefday, Auguft 2, 1757, between one and two of the clock, as James Tillie, Efq; of Pentillie castle, in Cornwall, with his neighbours and servants, were lying aground in a boat on a fandbank in the river Tamar, not half a mile from his own house, waitin'? the tide to throw a net for salmon, a sudden clap of Thunder broke over their heads. In a field adjoining the grass seemed on fire and the whole field in a flame, and a fire-ball was observed juft to pafs over the hedge at the top of a very steep wood which hangs over the Tamar. The fire-ball fell on the boat ; and pafling from the South-Weft in a dire& line from the larboard bow to the stern, Tames Widear, Mr. Tillie's servant, in the bow, had a violent blow on his right flioulder and head ; Mr. Samble, who fat next to him, was truck deaf for fome time ; Mr. Tillie fat next in the middle ol the boat, and plainly perceived the fire-ball, about five inches diameter, somewhat sharp, and pointed in the fore-part, to pats by him at about three feet diftancek he was violently truck on the back part of his head by the current of the air attending the ball ; his eyes were flirt, and he leaped from his feat about two or three feet high ; and on the return of his fences, opening his eyes, was furprized to find himself {landing ; for before the shock he was fitting on the oar. The right fide of his face continued very warm for two hours, and the corner of his hat was carried away, as it half of a small bullet had been fhot through it. Robert Atkins, a servant of Mr. Tillie, was near the stern, with his face to the South- Weft, but not in the direct line of the fire-ball : he was ftiuck fpeecklefs, thrown on his back upon the fishing-net, remained infenfible for two or three hours afterwards, his face was black, as if the priming of a gun had been blown by accident over it ; his left eye weak, and contracted for a fortnight after ; with a great numbnefs in all his limbs, until a brick circulation of the blood ensued, and then he had violent pains, which wore off slowly, leaving him weak and low, with complaints of frequent head-ach, but no visible mark of hurt. Mr. Pethen, a tenant of Mr. Tillie, was Handing three feet from Atkins, upon the feat of the stern, with his face to the South Weft, and had scarce done speaking when the fire-ball fell on . his left temple, and truck him dead into the river. He was immediately taken up by fome of Mr. Tillie's servants on the whore. His peruke on fire, and fmoaking in the stern of the boat, Mr. Lillie took up and extinguished : it had a hole burnt in it as large as a crown piece, and felt strongly of sulphur. His hat was blown into the water, rent three or four inches long, the lining only ript. His cloths were but little rent : on his hip theie was a black fear about three or four inches long, and difcoloured as if filled with

Letter from James Tillie, Efq; to the author.

eakrag-;

Of Cornwall. I?

gunpowder : his neck and left bread: were foon after his death changed to a claret colour ; but where the fire-ball fell, it left no wound more visible than the puncture of a pin, neither did it difcolour his temple ; but the third day the lower part of his face altered a little, and the other parts of his body became difcoloured more and more, till his burial. All his cloths felt like gunpowder newly discharged.

hei e were three perlbns standing on the adjoining fand ; one was violently truck on the head, the second had his eye finger, and the fire-ball fell between the legs of the third into the fand, from whence he only perceived a sudden warmth. The day had been Ovvry, neither hot nor cold ; and the fun Ihone, though faintly, about ten minutes before the explosion. No one had his face turn'd towards the South-Weft but Mr. Pethen and R. Atkins.

f u- xf in f' meutloned *-he ex ceftes to which the air of this County is sect.vii. ubjecr, I cannot but observe, that, notwithstanding this, the air is Air health 7- veiy healthy. Though we have frequent rains, the air is by no means rendered thereby lefs fit for respiration : it is not charged With the fluggifh exhalations of bogs, marches, or ftagnating pools ' among thick woods ; nor do there many flat calms happen and when they do, they seldom continue for the face of a day ; for either tie fea breezes interpofe, or the numerous promontories", by opponng and collecting every current of air, promote a constant tlow of wind one way or other round their extremities, fo as that mu s seldom reft long. Neither can the faltnefs of the air, nor the mineral exhalations, be faid to make the air fickly, as many instances of Jong he (as will appear in the following sheets) being to be. found here as in any part of England, fo happily do thefe feeling extremes con-eft and qualify one another, and by a mixture, of which we

know not the limits and proportion, retftify and keep the air in a wnoJiome temperature.

ll dftantlmen and fishermen here have many signs of the sect.viii.

as thofe '

1 „ W en ai1 ' llave 5 by experience, learned in all places ;

but one appeared new and Angular to me. Saturday, Auguft 15,

/52, the wind at VI eft North Weft, the fky cloudy, the Mercury moving upwards in the Barometer, about fix in the evening, there appeared in the North-Eaft the fruftum of a large rainbow; all the as tfi US w f re ve T live] y and diftindl, and it was three times as wide was ,?-j rCn °Lf n ordinar y complete Rainbow, but no higher than it me. They call it here in Cornwall a weather dog ; but in

k 5q

Britilh name ofKernoWh 316 0 1 " t0 ve lands) to this County, whence the more modern

Jvernou, (figmfying horns, or head- names of Cornwall, Cornubia, Cornugallia, Sec.

F the

natural history

the Cornifh tongue, Lagas-auel ; that is, the weather's eye ; and pronounce it a certain fign of hard rain. Notwithftanding this, the Mercury fell only two tenths of an inch, and on Saturday night there was no rain. Sunday morning was dry, but not clear ; and about eleven it began to rain gently, about one, poft merid. a flood of rain came on, and continued all Sunday night, and till ten the next morning.

sect. ix. The conjunctions and oppofitions of the Sun and Moon would Inconftant, as have a regular effeCt upon the Atmofphere of the Earth, and con- t0 w!nd and frequently influence the wind and rain in a regular manner at periodical distances of time, if the Atmofphere was always in one fixed equal temperature. This we lee plainly demonstrated in a thicker medium, by the regular influence of the Sun and moon upon the Ocean, where the tides rife and fall as the Moon is perpendicular or oblique, in its meridian or decline, and vary generally, though not exaCtly, according as the Sun and Moon aCt in concert or opposition j but the Atmofphere is a much more mixed and complicated body, as well as much ealier disturb'd, than the waters ; and in proportion as the several airy, aqueous, famine, or fulphureous exhalations prevail at any time, and in any place, the alterations which would otherwise regularly follow the pofltions of the Sun, Moon, and Earth, are fufpended and controlled, and oftentimes totally prevented, and the quite contrary efleCt produced, by the more powerful, though fluctuating and uncertain, combinations of the parts of the Atmofphere.

The weather is therefore inconftant every-where, but in fome places more fo than in others. In hot countries it is more inconftant, and the alterations more violent, czeteris paribus, than in cold. In the Torrid Zone there are more tornadoes and hurricanes than in the Temperate Zone ; more inconftancy of weather again in the temperate than within and near the Polar Circle, where by reason that the Air is more condensed, and the Atmofphere suffers lefs alteration from the Sun's influence and the variety of vapours that attend it, the weather is much more uniform, clear, and equable, than in warmer climates. In Cornwall it may be reckoned in general as unsettled and various, as to wind and rain, as any-where in Britain, fuch sudden transitions there are from wet to dry, and from calm to tempest. One of the greatest variations which I have observed in the Mercury of the Barometer, was April 3, 1753 ; when, from Tuefday nine o' clock in the evening, to Wednefday ten o'clock in the morning, the Mercury fell parts of an inch, the Mercury resting at 28 o , which is the lovveft I have ever yet noted. It then blew a form, with fome flowers of hail and rain ;

and

OF CORNWALL. Ig

and the vacuity of the Atmofphere, which occafioned this great lubfidence of the Mercury, drawing after it a guft of air, the Mercury began to rife at one o' clock, poft merid. and by ten at night

was ri en paits of an inch. During all this month the created:

variation at London in one day was but paits of an inch. A more inrprihng variation dill happened onWednefday, February 18,

,'7 5 , b: morning very dark, Wind at North Eaft, it flowed

, ' and tne wind blew a hurricane all the forenoon; my Diago-

Norrb ar ° m M er „ C T tmU ! d , at 28 -' 8 4 : next morning, the Wind at North cold Hail, and then Sunlhine, the Mercury was risen to

i ; a T 7 extraordina ry rife for fo flrort a time. At Lilkerd a out o miles to t le Eaftward of my houle, from Wednelday e ruary i 175 , 12 at noon, to Thurfday 19 at noon, (viz.

m 2+ hours the qmckfdver rofe one inch i*. By this violent

and hidden alteration in the Mercury it appears that the Atmofphere iele times mud have been greatly agitated, and proceeded over

' Car " m vaft wares ; fow, deep, and hollow, when the Mercury ' U , lofty and mountainous afterwards, which occafioned as sudden a me. This defultory date of the Atmofphere will alfo account for and confirm the common observation, that when the Mercury n es or alls quick it is a certain fign of a short continuance of fair foul weather : the fluids over our head are agitated in like manner

f inner °r ."f!' b " t as bein S a thinner medium, much

r ': fier 7 efs force; and when the column of air over X P ! 1S foddenly and greatly encreafed, that height mud be

thA? f °f r ed r d fP reffion of the next succeeding portion of

hollo® 1 ' f fUre ' y " 311 elevated wave of the l! leaves a

hollow to come after it : but when the Mercury rides or falls gradually, or continues flationary, then the Atmofphere being of a pmm funace, httle agitated, the column of air is nearly the fame, and the weather is likely to continue for fome time.

yet as to'heft' 1 an" raffT' " t0 7' nd and ra "' is fo inc onftant, SECT !C . in the E-'fte r 1S muc more c °nftant and fettled than

" T r i, v P t? of . En S Iand - Six several days in Tuly,

'j "" S , ercuna ' Thermometer altered only one degree;

leeds fi mn A. yS; thrCe de S reeS fern d ays; four degre

variation* V, /h ° nC da ; and 011 bve da y s tbere was no

one' Ho but the Thermometer at London on two days altered

four rf? r6e ' t C ees 011 tw0 days ; three degrees on fix days ; degrees on four days; five degrees on three days; fix degLl

e At London if T , , .

on

Natural History

on four days ; even degrees on five days ; eight degrees on three days ; nine degrees on one day ; and one day it varied twelve degrees; viz/ on the 2 2d of July : whereas on the fame day it varied with me at Ludgvan but four degrees.

From the following table it will appear how much greater the variation of the Thermometer was at London than in Cornwall in the Summer, Autumn, and spring months, 1756 and 1757.

Variation of Farenheit's Mercurial Thermometer.

July 1756.

In Cornwall. In London.

Degrees. Days. Degrees. Days.

October

In Cornwall.

In London.

Degrees,

Days.

Degrees.

Days.

r 3

'4

2 ( g

) 1

'O

3 J

Qj

4 J

M

No variation 4

7 '

MARC In Cornwall.

Degrees.

No variation

Higher in the ) Morning than f at Night J

H 1757.

In London.

Degrees.

I "

r

"7 6

S

a

a

&

0

b

Days.

The several degrees multiplied by the days will Ihew the difference. The reason of this greater variation of the Thermometer at London than in Cornwall is, chiefly, that the reflection of the funbeams from a trad of land which has no large portion of the fea near it, makes it hotter at noon, and consequently the quickfilver rides higher than in Cornwall and in small islands, where there being a greater quantity of fea than of land, they want this additional heat and the quickfilver rides but a small matter; on the other hand the ceafing of this refledion in the inland-parts by the coming on of night, makes the Mercury fink in proportion ; whereas in Cornwall, as the noon is not hot, the night varies not fo much from the day, especially if the day be cloudy, when I find the Mercury at eight or nine o'clock p. m. almofl: as high as at noon, and the general difference at a medium, but one degree. The greatest difference in the height of the Mercury in Cornwall therefore, is between eight at night and four or five in the morning.

It may not be amifs here to observe how different the weather is now and then in climates not very distant : In the year 1751 we had a very rainy summer throughout England, scarce two days palling without frequent flowers, and the Mercury in the Barometer very unsettled ; in three days Ipace varying generally parts of an inch. At the fame time, in Italy prevailed an extraordinary drought ; the accounts from Parma, dated July 17, running thus, " Publick prayers are ftill continued in all our

d According to the account publiflied at London of Mr. Ayfcough's obfervaticns.

churches,

, Of Cornwall. 21

churches, in order to implore the Almighty to fend down fome flowers of rain to refresh the fruits of the earth, which are al-

hweOT? 1 X rTff ty the exceffive drought which has raged the we rh COnl ' drab ' e dme:" which fhews that as inconftant as wTd, a' " Wmds ma be ' ths Ataofphere may be overloaded tU ' e !I ? one P ace an d greatly destitute for fome months

m, 7 7 7 Pl r Ce " 0t VWy di&nt ' the Pl"<y of rain here, it seems, had made a scarcity in Italy, and there cannot be a re-

1 aucy in one climate without occafioning the reverse in another

one determined quantity of moisture is indeed allotted by the srreat

dirtnbutor of all things, who created his bleffings b/fcalend

feemsotm V 1 " them ° ut t0 us in P Ie nty OT scarcity, as it retentive a eitber t0 P r °fp er or corred us ; parfimonious and

o ano her h T T™a° " &ft fi S ht to de part, over-liberal whole h ' b rea y Juft ' graClous and invariably beneficent to the

Chap. Iii.

Of Waters m general , and thofe of Cornwall in particular.

W A JA* h ° W 7 er att f nuated difguifed, is Water Hill, sect. i. kind confluenrin 8 though of the moft moveable

down to he noft TT*™ ° f ftom tbe ocean

the folds as welTTfl j° glVe fp r n g and motion to sect. ii.

liquids whLl b ui ' s °f a d bodies, fo is Water to renew the Water

Kpt wo r e l PetUal ! y theil ' P' ace a " d without con- —

Water f S P therefore dlfner/ J 1° dealt . ftom ' meer dull, maintain the coherencTrf throughout the universe, in order to

the afeendency of Fire which - b ° dles %% waste and prevent

it, would parch and reduce 11 bod '° ° PP f " d

Particles nf W bodies to a calx, to ashes, or cinders.

This fia Ur e i nf lp j S er j cra by allowed to be round as to figure. fluidity 15 All eed ls not to be demonstrated, but is inferred from its fluidity m A ft T ng m the , figU - re ° f Watr y Proles to be round,

piracies , for take any mafs of round bodies,

Not the effect of fire

as fome philosophers have lately held.

G

bullets

22 natural history

(bullets for instance, pebbles, or the like) they will not cohere nor reft by one the other without force, but will now on every fide, till they meet with fuch refiftance from external bodies, or their internal gravitation as shall prevent farther motion.

The particles of Water are unalterable; for, palling into fo many bodies, and through fuch alternate extremes of heat and cold, if they had not constantly prefer'd their eflential properties, moisture, since the beginning of the world, muft have fenfibly diminished ; but feeing no fuch deficiency appears, and that fpnngs, rains, and rivers are as abundant now as they anciently were (as by the observations on the riding of the Nile for many ages, among odier reasons may appear) we are to conclude, that though Waters may be transplanted, they can neither be tranftnuted nor destroyed, and whereever removed, will make their appearance again when at liberty, in the fame liquid state as they were in before.

The particles of Water are exceedingly small, for they may be fo divided from each other, as that one square inch of common Water shall when rarefied, fill a face which will contain 14000 square inches f ; and it is computed that at left 13000 particles of Water may be held on the point of a needle E ; by which it appears, that what we call Water is an afiemblage of a great number of small transparent globules, which are composed again of an infinite number of smaller particles or atoms of this elemental y Lquor. The ufes and application of thefe general observations will foon occur.

Pure Water, without any mixture of earth, mineral, fait, 01 oil, we know not any in it's natural state, but it is in fome parts purer than in others, and beft, where it is found sufficient in quantity, and in greatest degree of purity.

With Water in general few counties are fupphed io well as Cornwall, and yet fewer are the places where Water is more precious ; the moft impure and infe&ed Waters being of great ufe for mills, engines, and cleaning the ores, and oftentimes rented at an exorbitant price. I have known twenty pounds a month given annually for one Water-course to drive an Engine-wheel, three years following ; nay I am allured that fifty pounds a month have been given for the fame purpose. Thefe Water-courses are usually not above the fize of an ordinary Mill-ftream.

sect. hi. qq ie parts of Water being fo small and moveable, are easily I—separated one from another; and when they are fo divided into small parcels as to become about 800 times lighter tnan common Water, they are at left as light as the air, and will, by every fuc-

f Muflchenb. pag. 738. £ Nieuwentyt's Exper. Muffchenbr. p. 4 5 -

ceffive

O n

Of Cornwall.

ceffive e g iee Reparation, rife in the air in proportion to their hghtnefs, the heavier air forcing the rarefied fluid to ascend into the Atmofphere till it finds a place where it reels in equilibrium amonobodies of equal lightnefs to itself. This separation or comminution

k ; ta ater kma RR parcels, may be performed

either by collision against harder and more compact bodies, or by

heat. I he first we often fee performed at the bottom of Cafcades, where the Water that falls but a few fathoms, {hall rife in a miff -from the bottom where it is broke ; and there are inflances of clouds

llj g k om tkc Aff °f Waters which may be feen five miles off h . Colliion will therefore excite vapours; but that which is more conffantly producing this effect in every part of the univeife, is Heat; whether from the Sun, which is always bufy this way, or from artificial ignition, or that generally invisible elemental fire which is distributed t rough a matter. It has been by many Naturalifts imagined, that Teat raises vapours by extending the air inclofed in the pores of Water, and forming gradually a thin film or bubble of Water of luch dimensions that it becomes greatly lighter than the fame {pace of common air and therefore rides above it : but this fuppohtion is not tenable ; for it is observed, that fleam will rife in the receiver of an air-pump, where, though there remains fome air, there is not enough to constitute fuch a process. It may here alfo be added, that earth and stones and metals may be raised into the Atmofphere, although their parts will not form bubbles as thofe of

a er wi . As this too generally allowed fuppofition is not to be Supported when Aridity examined, fo neither is it at all neceffaiy ior ns to conuder m this cafe any other than the divifibility of Water, and the mfinuating and difperfive qualities of fire ; both their e &' C( s - Fitej we fee, separates more or lefs the parts r -° le whether fluid or solid, and makes them rife in the air:

lAw'A is al1 that needs be fu PP° fed ; fire does no rates if t r an „ to ad otber bodies under its power : it fepa-

1 " ° U J 1 ™ a P ort 'ons, that the air is more ponderous than

tne fleam, and of consequence remains nearer to the earth by its lupenour gravitation. J

1 P ai [ S va P our are not all equally small, but small accord-

tC> m 1 1 ° eat ratifies them : they will rife in air,

when ranfied only 800 times; but they will rife quicker, (that is,

1 1 greater force) and higher, according to all the intermediate

decor> eS ° rare on ' from 800 to 1400. Vapour greatly heated r rnrn CS °. elaftlck tkat k w iRR move vaft weights ; nay, it appears experiment, that, when it is sufficiently rarified, it exceeds

Mufichenbr. page 740 a ara ' n North America, and that of the river Veiino in Italy,

the

SECT. IV. Damps.

24 Natural History

the force of gunpowder by the proportion at left or two to one. Rarefied vapour is of great ufe in Cornwall, and enables the miners to get rid of the Water of their deepest works by means of the fireengine (as will be more particularly fet forth in the sequel) ; an engine which atfts more forcibly and constantly than any other Hydraulic machine hitherto invented.

Water having been now considered in its moft minute Hate (that of rarefied vapour) it muft next be observed, that damps riding in our mines oftentimes fo affect the miner that he cannot woik, neither will candles burn. This generally happens when the workings are cot to any great diflance from the communication with the open air ; and the reason is this : Vapours are thrown up by the heat of that fire which all bodies more or lefs contain in themselves or receive from other bodies ; but in a deep mine they cannot rife much above the surface of the ground, because there is not air enough in the paffes of the mine to buoy them up, consequently they are too moist for respiration, because they want a sufficient mixture of air ; neither can they yield that inflammable nourishment to the candle which common air by its own elasticity, and its mixtures of oil, earth, and sulphur, at all times does afford ; fo that the flame is ftifled, being equally unable to throw ofi the parts which are burnt, and to promote a fresh fucceflion of oily parts requisite to feed the fire. Thefe fluggifh damps are greater or lefs obftrudtions to the workmen, according to the moisture or drought of the ground : they have nothing pernicious, generally speaking, in their own nature ; they reft near the bottom, and incommode merely for want of an atftive air to difpell and raise them higher. Sometimes indeed thefe damps are infeded with mundic, and are then very unwholfome, creating naufeatings in the stomach, and in a few weeks making the vifage fickly and wan ; but I never yet heard of any damps in our Cornifh mines fo venomous as to be immediately fatal ; the reason of which may be this, that moft of our mines yield a current of Water in the bottom ; this ftirs and carries off the damps, and prevents their ftagnating into a thickness which clogs and flops all vital motion. In order to admit the air, a pipe or funnel of framed timber, about nine inches square, is usually fixed, and reaches from the top to the bottom of the mine ; and when the damps are thick and stubborn, the air is aflifted in its defeent by a bellows applied to the pipe. But this is a very flow and insufficient remedy where; any dangerous damps are apprehended. Much more effectual it is, according to a modern author k , to throw from you as far as poflible

1 Muffchenbr, p. 429. Se£t. 873.

k Letter to Mr. Hoofon, author of the Miner's Dictionary.

into

Of Cornwall. 25

into the fufpeded or tainted pit, two quarts of fpiritus urinofus volatilis, which will occasion fo great a rarefaction as to overpower the poisonous vapours, and for a long time supply the want of air ; the miner taking care not to venture into the pit till twelve hours after the infusion. Dr. Plot's proposal 1 is more easily executed. He advises, that one peck of unflacked lime may be thrown into fuch fufpeCted place, w 7 hich flaking in the Water, and fuming out at the top, will fo effectually dispel all poisonous vapours in a little time, that there will be no further danger. Thefe may serve for temporary expedients, but the molt effectual, though expcnfive

remedy is by a fresh shaft , to open a communication betwixt the drift and the common air.

The Dews in Cornwall are not remarkably noxious to either herbs or animals, which I attribute to our having no long calms, nor lifting fogs. &

SECT. V. Dews.

r n s k e divided into simple and mineral. Simple Spring- sect, vi. Water may be considered either as superficial or fubterraneous. Springs and By the superficial, I mean thofe Springs which rife out of, or theirOrigine. iflue from, the lurface of the earth; by the fubterraneous, thofe w ic 1 have their chanels deeper, and their courses longer underground. That superficial Springs are the effeCts of rain and dews, cannot well be disputed, when we fee their encreafe and decrease, according as the feafon proves wet or otherwise ; but whence the fubterraneous, and thofe which feel no alteration from the feafons derive their origin, has employed the enquiries of the curious, and hitherto divided their sentiments. Some think them owing to fubterraneous heat; and no one labours more ftrenuoufly for this opinion, than the learned Morton, in his Natural Hiflory of Northampton! ir-, who has not only adopted what others have produced or t le ettei confirmation of this hypothesis, but has produced evera t ermometrical experiments of his own, in order to eftablifh it. He derives Springs (constant Springs more especially) from vapours thrown up by fubterraneous heat ", and thinks his observations mamfeftly fhew how the Water of fuch Springs is supplied.

is arguments are drawn from the heat people feel at their firfl entering the pit or well, which heat encreafes manifeftly as they - cend . " That wells in fand are hotter than any other of like

i , and that the next degree of heat in wells, is in thofe cut m o a roc k : That the paintings which seize the workmen, are

1 Oxf. page 63.

call a "shaft , t we de fend into mines we

n Northamptonfliire, page 206. 0 lb. 297.

H

owing

26 Natural History

owing merely to the greatness of the heat, and the thickness of the vapour in thofe wells, and not to a fulphureous or mineral halitus : That it is this thick vapour which extinguifhes lights ; and that the tepid flream is visible in frosty weather p : That it is from this underground heat that the Water of our Rock-Springs is never frozen : That we meet with the like warm watery vapour in Caves as well as in Wells To support this Hypothecs, he next produces ' his diary of the Thermometer fiifpended on different days for different Jpaces of time at different depths, and notes how much the Spirit in the Thermometer did rife by the warmth of his Well, above what it was in the open air before he let it down. But, with great fubmiffion, nothing certain can be concluded from thefe experiments in favour of the Hypothecs here efpoufed.

That it is warmer under-ground than it is above, especially in the colder months of the year, in which all Morton's experiments were made ; and that at a great depth there is a greater difference, other circumftanccs being equal, betwixt the air underneath and that above, than immediately or but a few feet under the surface, muff be agreed ; but the question will remain to be decided, What this difference is owing to ? The Atmofphere is a congeries of many bodies, air, sulphur, nitre, fait, earth, and fire, and capable of being chilled or heated by the different difperfion or combination of its own usual contents, as well as by the different influences of the celestial bodies. The air therefore is fubjeft to great alterations of heat and cold ; but where the air of the Atmofphere cannot reach, a more even temperature prevails, and the cold of the common air shall not affect the air of places with which it has not a free communication any more than the heat : this is evident in palling from the open air into a clofe room ; and in a mine or well, where the air is lefs agitated by the wind, and not fo mixed with the exhalations which occafioned cold and front as the air above, it is impoflible but it mufl be warmer for the generality, than it is upon the surface of the earth ; and this is all that Morton's experiments prove. The ingenious and accurate Dr. Hales having placed fix Thermometers, one above ground, and the reft " with their balls immersed in the earth, from two to 24 inches, at different depths, when the front of the winter 1724 was fo intense as to freeze the surface of the stagnant Water near an inch thick, found that the Spirit in the Thermometer, which was exposed to the open air, was fallen four degrees below the freezing point; the Spirit of that whole ball was two inches under-ground, was four degrees above the freez - ing point; the third, fourth, and fifth Thermometers, were pro*

p Northamptonfhire, pag. 298. r lb. page 300.

Ibid. pag. 298. From December 9, to March 10.

portionably

Of Cornwall. 27

portionably rais'd, as they were deeper, to the fifth Thermometer, which, being two feet under-ground, the Spirit was ten degrees above the freezing point." Veget. Stat. p. 348. Now what are we to afcribe thefe different degrees of warmth unto ? To fubterraneous fires, operating fo uniformly within two feet of the surface? No, certainly ; but to the coldnefs of the air above, and to the mere equal temperature of the earth beneath, into which the cold of the air pierces lefs and lefs, in proportion to its diffance from the surface, till at laft the variations of the air have no effect at all. The truth is, fire is distributed in every part of our globe ; and in the bowels of the earth, it is not fubjeft to the checks and refifiance of cold, fo much as it is near the surface ; hence arises a fenfible difference ; and it is warmer where this fire has liberty to than where it is controlled and repelled by fresh and cold air. But this fuperiour heat below cannot be a cause of sufficient power to produce the effect now in question ; I mean, the Origin of Springs : this universal fire, whilst it remains difperfed in that harmless equilibrium to which Providence has graciously destined it, is weak and feeble, and its power to evaporate Water, even under-ground, muff be too small and inconfiderable to give rife to all constant Springs. If there were fuch a fubterraneous central fire as fome learned men' have fancy'd, conffantly exerting itself, and a&ing with a force gradually greater as it is nearer to the centre of the earth, this would be a cause Sufficient, and equal to the effect ; but that there is any fuch fire does by no means appear ; neither is it conceivable that any fuch fire san flibfiff without preying upon, and perpetually corrfuming, the vitals cf the earth. If there was any fuch fire, the deeper we defend in mines the hotter we should feel it, the heat mcreafing by equal degrees the nearer we approach the fuppofed region of fire % but no fuch regular increase was found by the fedulous experiment: of Morton. In the second experiment u , Feb. 1 6, at 9, a. m. the 1 nermometer Handing low, viz. at five degrees below hard frcH in the open air, when fufpended for the face of one hour in a Well, at the depth of 25 feet, it rofe 14 degrees. Feb. 27, 9 a ni. Handing at two degrees below bard froH in the air, when fufpended at the depth of forty feet, it rofe ten degrees in lefs than half an hour; and Feb. 24, 1703, (See the ninth Experiment) Handing at half a degree below hard froH, it rofe fifteen degiees in a quarter of an hour, when fufpended at forty feet ; and w hen at hard froH, December 13, 1704, it rofe fifteen degrees in a quarter of an hour, when fufpended at twenty-three feet two inches (Experiment XII.) : hence it appears, that when the spirit

page 120.

1 Woodward Nat. Hilt.

" lb. p. 300.

was

28 Natural History

was low, and the common air was very cold, the spirit rofe much at several depths in the well; but when the Spirit of the Thermometer food higher in the common air, the alteration was lefs : for Feb. 25, 1702, (Experiment III.) when the Thermometer food two degrees below juft freezing, it rofe but five degrees, when fufpended at twenty-one feet, for half an hour; and March 10, 1702, (Experiment 8.) the Thermometer standing at two degrees below juft freezing, it rofe but even degrees though fufpended at fifty feet for an hour; by which it is only plain, that the colder the Atinofphere, the greater is the difference between that and the more even temperature of the air below in the well, and the Thermometer rides higher, but not in any given proportion to the depth ; fo that what is here advanc'd cannot confirm the hypothesis now in question. That vapour, or moist fleam, rides from all waters, and is indeed difperfed more or lefs in all places, not only in places open to the Atmolphere, but in the clofeft rooms and the deepest cells of the earth, is certainly true: Water will easily fly off" in evaporation, sometimes imperceptibly, oftentimes, and in cold weather more especially, visible, as being condensed into larger globules by the ambient cold ; and where there are fubterraneous heats occalioned by the fermentation of Pyrites, Sulphur, Salt, and fuch mineral promoters of warmth, there this evaporation is copious and extraordinary, but ftill not equal to the effect, to the plenteous ffreams, and even immediate rivers which proceed at once from the bowels of the earth in fome places ; neither is there reason to fuppofe fuch fubterraneous heats every where and at all times, nothing being more uncertain and unequal, than the distribution of fuch igniting mineral mixtures. Tis reasonable then to conclude, that the fubterraneous heats which either result from the fermentations of mineral mixtures, or from the equal distribution of fire through all matter,, are not sufficient where they are, nor constantly enough found in any place, to supply perennial springs. The groundlefs fancy of a central fire, and that mountains are alembicks in which the vapours are collected and distilled down their fides, is too chimerical to need confutation. Again, That perennial springs

do owe their riie to rains and dews is disputed, and thought unlikely, because they do not feem to be at all affe&ed by the excess or deficiency of either, let us confider therefore the nature of fluids and the texture of the earth together, and fee whether perennial springs may not principally be owing to the waters of the Atmofphere although neither increas'd by heavy rains, nor fenfibly diminished by great droughts.

ft he eai th muff not be looked upon as an absolute dry ma fs exhibiting here and there its wonders in pouring forth a fprin g

or

Of Cornwall. 29

or fountain where there was no water before ; the earth is porous in all its parts, full of chinks and duds in moft places, and opens into wide fubterraneous caverns in others: Water is perpetually falling and infmuating itself by its own gravitation and fluidity into the hollows it meets with, or raised from lower into higher positions attracted by falls or hands, or transpired in vapour, fo that fink as deep as we will, we find water either at reft in natural cavities, or circulating from higher into lower chanels, sometimes in large currents, oltner in fftiall threads and rills, but in fome shape or other eveiy where coating through the veins of rock or clay, till it meets with fuch reiiftance from the strata that it is forc'd out through the foil into the open air. This is the general state of the earth, and to continue this moisture (without which the earth muft foon become a diy faplefs cruft) rrefh supplies are perpetually defending rom rains and dews, and leaking into the earth from lakes, morales, rivers, and brooks ; where the paflages are free and opn, the defeent is quick, and the increase of springs eaftly to be perceived, but where the chink and clefts of the rocky strata are clofe, or a large horizontal, impenetrable rock interpofes, or where the fallen moisture is forced by any other obstacle to take a large round before it can Supply any constant spring, there present hidden rain can have no visible effect. If the duds which colled and convey thefe waters to their apertures are long, serpentine, and many, the spring fhews no want of moisture in times of drought, because of the many duds which serve it, nor any increase a tei heavy rains, because the chanels of its nourishment are long, winding, and require time to reach the fountain head. Aain, if perennial springs derive their water (as may often be the cafe) from large caverns which alfo have their supplies from rain, by duds of a determined number and certain dimenftons, which are neither contiaded nor dilated, then will the ftream be one certain equable quantity let the feafon be ever fo wet and rainy. If the feafon be ex reme ) ry thefe caverns are capable of supplying the perennial pi mgs to wife they give rife, till frefti supplies from rain, or dew, or o b arrive which muft generally be the cafe before the caverns are ex au ie . From this short view of the internal ftrudure of t e eart , it appears that there is nothing furpriftngin springs being perennial, they aie nothing more than a colledion of little rills of Water , ( as r Vcrs aie a colledion of brooks) which tending nearly one way aie united at laft, and break out into open air, and though ey owe not their immediate rife to the waters of the Atmofphere, as e temporary occaftonal springs do, yet proceed from duds and re ervoirs ed by the moisture of the adjacent strata, which moisture primal i y proceeds from fnow, hail, dews, and rain, though more

I slowly

SECT. VII. Rain and Clouds necefiary.

3 o NATURAL HISTORY

{lowly communicated, and didributed by greater quantities into fome drata than into others.

Here I cannot but observe a great midake in Tome ingenious writers of Natural Hidory, who very undefervedly look upon rain, as a punishment infii&ed upon mankind for the fins of the antediluvian world, imagining that there was no fuch thing before the flood, even nothing but serene {kies, and plentiful dews. But it may be asked, Was there any fun, any ocean, rivers, herb, plant, or tree ? If there were, there muff have been rain, nay violent rain. Could dews supply that moifiure which the fun exhaled ? "What would become of Egypt where there is little or no rain, if it were not for something more than dew ; if it were not lor the river Nile? and whence comes the increase of their Nile, to which they owe the plenty of their grounds, but from the periodical Rains of Ethiopia? and what is the misery of that otherwise fertile and delightful country, but their want of Rain ? Is not all vegetation at a stand, even in an Englifh climate, after a long drought, notwithstanding the summer dews are then mod: frequent ? Flow much greater dill is the heat and drought betwixt the tropics ? and how much more neceffary the Rain in fuch hot countries ? Dews are vapours exhaled by the Sun in its decline, and therefore rife but a little way into the Atmofphere, before the cold of the night arrests, condenfes, and precipitates them : and what are thefe dews to all the vapours which the Sun in its drength mud raise ? What became of the day-vapours exhaled by the Sun ; what hundred them from coalefcing into drops, and thofe drops from falling, when they were become too heavy for the medium they fwam in ? and what hundred the Antediluvian feas and rivers from becoming dry but the returns of Rain ? In short, if the Antediluvian world was without Rain, it was without the chief balance for the heat of the Sun, and that kindly moidure which the winds were chiefly deflgned to waft from place to place, and didribute by drops in fuch gentle parcels as might relieve and rcfrefh both plants and animals ; nay, not only gentle but violent Rains are as neceffary to the orderly course of natural things as violent winds ; they both tend to prevent dagnations in the Atmofphere and the Ocean, to dilperfe poisonous exhalations, and to didribute moidure and air where there was none before, or at lead where there was much want.

Another error which thele refined Naturalids were obliged to hold in consequence of the former, is, that the Antediluvian skies were without clouds, by which equally groundlefs lancy they dripped the poor Atmofphere and reduced it to a naked blank, forgetting nature in her gayefl dress, nor considering that the riched dreams of light,

and

Of Cornwall. 3I

and the finest tints which the eye can fee, or the pencil imitate, are borrowed from clouds.

By pure Water, I mean that which is moll Ample, taftelefs, clear, sect.viii. and inodorous. Or this kind we have great quantities in all parts ° f Wcl!s of of Cornwall, but feme Springs are more noted than others. pl ' reWi ' ttr -

ie .oil round Madcrn Well, in the parish of Madern, is black , Maddern P°ggy> and fight, but tne ftratum through which the Sprint. rides We,L is a grey moorftone gravel, called, by the Cornifh, Grouan. ° Here people who labour under pains, aches, and ftiffnefs of limbs, come an warn, and many cures are laid to have been performed 1 ' although the Water can only aft by its cold and limpid nature' oralmuch as it has no perceivable mineral impregnation. Hither alio upon much lefs justifiable errands come the uneasy, impatient, an uperititious, and by dropping pins or pebbles into the Water, and by (baking tile ground round the Spring, fo as to raise bubbles

I0 , m the botton at a certain time of the year, Moon, and day, endeavour to fettle fuch doubts and enquiries as will not lei the idle and anxious reft. Here therefore they come, and instead of allaying, defervedly feed their uneafinefs; the fuppofed refponfes serving equally to increase the gloom of the melancholy, the fufpicions of the jealous, and the paflion of the ena-

nne Ur Th r f ° f U this ' tis 3 client

was' F ™ ntam and many others among the Grecians,

was fuppofed o be of a prophetic nature By dipping a fair mirror into a Wei , the Pagans of Greece received, as they fuppofed, feme notice of ensuing ficknefs or health, from the various figure! pourtrayed upon the surface. In Laconia they call into a pool " kesof bread-corn; if they funk, good was pot! dmes ri ; taey , fomethin g dreadful was to enfue Some-

cluiion ft hr T 'r 1,66 , loneS lnt0 the Water and fonned their conons from the several turns they made in finking

do-i- remarkable , ' e 1 and as a Wlt nefs of its having

St F, hms ft es ' a c ha , S a cha P el aJ j° inin g to it. dedicated to b Jr V t . ' . 7 as °l which ' confining of much carved Hone, fcpeak it co have been formerly of no little note. The Water has

for-sT? 3 - 1011 ° '.' mg humours, as well as healing wounds and

neil-i ' . C . n ° p eic - iv'able evidence of any mineral impregnation; neither nced it to produce the effects attributed to it, for cettab

wounHQ la f tllC co ne s Water will work furprizing cures;

1 - ores 5 aches, difordered eyes, and the like, are often cured

eI 3 - y lb. 296.

Vol. 1. P 1 ctt - Gr - AntI gu. page 288. lb. 350.

11 Commonly called Chapel-Euny.

by

32 Natural History

by that quality only ; the cold by bracing up the nerves and muscles, and strengthening the glands, promotes secretion and circulation, the two great ministers of health. In the northern kingdoms they are fo fenfible that all extraordinary defluxions of humours are owing to too great a relaxation of the parts, that they keep carefully the water of fnow gathered in March, and apply it as a general remedy for moft difeafes : but the common people (of this as well as other countries) will not be contented to attribute the benefit they receive to ordinary means ; there muft be something marvellous in all their cures. I happened luckily to be at this Well upon the laffc day of the year on which (according to the vulgar opinion) it exerts its principal and moft falutary powers : two women were here who came from a neighbouring parifli, and were bufily employed in bathing a child : they both aflured me, that people who had a mind to receive any benefit from St. Euny's Well, muft come and wafh upon the three first Wednefdays in May. But to leave folly to its own delusion, it is certainly very gracious in Providence to distribute a remedy for fo many disorders in a quality fo universally found as cold is in every unmixed Well-water.

Holy Well. Another Well of this plain kind, and of no little refort, is that called Holywell, about a mile and half to the North Weft of St. Cuthbert's Church, in a small fandy bay where there are several caves wrought into the cliff by the northern lea. In one of thele caves, at the north-eastern point of the bay, at the foot of a high cliff is this Well. The entrance is low, but by the help of fome steps cut into the rock, you afeend about fifteen feet perpendicular, where the water which diftils from every part of the roof, is collected into a little bacon, from whence proceeds a small rill about the bignefs of a reed. As the Water percolates through the interftices of clay and stone, it brings down with it fome of the finer parts of both, which form into teams and ridges correspondent to the fiffures through which they proceed ; fome short mammillary ftalactites hang from the roof ; the floor of the rock, on which you tread, is covered with the fame fubftance, and as the rock is fhelving, the incruftations are fo many wavy procefles covering the unevennefs of the rock. I mention thefe particulars the rather because fuch productions of the alabaftcr kind are extreamly scarce in Cornwall, and I have yet feen none worth notice but here. The water is much commended in fluxes, and disorder'd bowels. Upon trying this water, I found that with green tea it altered not it's colour ; with milk it curdled not; fo that it has neither feel nor alum in it's compofition. I evaporated it to one half, no pellicle appeared, nor any cryftallized (hoots on it's cooling; fo that it has no acid falls ; but it deposited a final! sediment of the

fame

Of Cornwall. 33

fame colour and fubftance with the calcarious incruftations of the well. I therefore in the next place pulveriz'd fome of the incruftations brought from the well : Upon burning them over the fire they did not melt ; had no particular taste or fell : Upon throwing fome of the powder into the fire, concluding that if there were any sulphur in it the flame would have turn'd blue, it had no visible fled: : I put a red-hot iron to it, but it fent forth neither smoke nor scent. Upon the whole, this water appeared simple and unimpregnated ; nothing but the earth which forms the calcarious coverings of the roof and floor of the cave appearing in it.

But when I fay there is no feel, no alum, no acid falls or sulphur,

I would not be thought peremptorily to alert, that there is nothing of that kind ; I mean only, that there is not any one of thefe visibly predominant ; for Nature mixes and qualifies her ingredients inimitably and inimitably. We may pofiitively affirm, that fuch and fuch ingredients are to be found unquestionably in Waters ; but others may be alfo there in a quantity to us indifcoverable ; and therefore we cannot absolutely affirm, that in any Water there is no fuch fait, feel, sulphur, or the like.

In Cornwall there is a great number of thofe Waters, which, SECT IX from their principal ingredient, are called Chalybeate. The ftrongeft Of Mineral Water of this kind, and moft remarkable for its cures, which I have Waters ' heard of, or had the opportunity of examining, is that which rides in the tenement of Colurian in the Parifh of Ludgvan. The bed through which this Water flows, is a loose pebbly ground, mixed with a gravelly clay, full of the ochrous iron mineral, from which the taste and fell of the Water proceeds. Upon trying it several times with galls, it turned a deep reddish purple ; with green tea, a lighter purple; with oak leaves, a blue-black of a purple caft. Upon pouring two thimbles full of spirit of vitriol into half a pint, it made but a small effervefcence. I let the Water with the galls only stand for fome time, and it retained its purple and transparency ; whereas, if it had turned black and turbid, as fome Waters do b , that would have been a difadvantageous symptom. Upon dropping gently a large thimble full of syrup of violets, about three fourths of an inch of the Mineral Water, towards the top of the glass, kept its usual colour ; the middle part turned to a pale greenish yellow, which reached to within half an inch of the bottom ; and the remainder was of a light purple : but upon stirring it, after it had flood half an hour, the whole became a deep green. Upon dropping a thim-

e of tartar, it fell immediately to the bottom of the

b Shaw on Mineral and Iflington Waters, page 227.

K

glass,

34 Natural History

glass, which held about half a pint, but precipitated no sediment, nor turned the Water milky, thick, or chalky ; if there was any alteration, the colour feemcd more inclinable to a bright ochre, but scarce difcernable ; an experiment much in favour of this Water c . Upon fufpending a piece of polished lilver for about an hour in the inclofed Well, the lilver turned not blackifh ; by which it appears, that little or no sulphur exhales from this Water. In the morning, before the Water is stirred, there is a film or Ikin on the surface oi a rainbow colour, Ihooting to and fro j bv which may it be presumed, that there is a sulphur or naphtha mixed with this Water, which rides and settles on the top when the Water is left quiet for any time ? In a calm but not very warm morning, on the yth of Auguft, 1734, O. S. before fix o'clock, I found the Water, both in the inclofed Well and without, where it ran exposed to the air, al 1110ft blood-warm, and the common Water, which runs about nine feet from the Chalybeate, as cold as fnow. I stayed lome time, and found the difference ftill continue, by which it is to be concluded, that the Chalybeate Spring derives aYenfible heat from the bed of iron, vitriol, and pyrites, which it paffes thro' e . Having carried the Water a mile or two, it loft that warmth ; whence we may infer, that fuch acidulse as this cannot be fo kindly to the stomach and intestines at a distance, as when drank on the fpot. Being exposed to the open air for twenty-four hours, it buffers no alteration from galls ; and the feel being defeated by the volatile spirit, and the common menftruum imbibing the moisture of the adjacent air, becomes weaker, and a ftringy yellow sediment m y be observed making its way to the bottom of the glass. It is a ftnooth Water, mixes well with milk, and lathers easily with foap.

There are many living evidences, within the compass of my knowlege, of the great virtues of this Water. Two persons (of which I have sufficient proof), by drinking and waffling the part affeded, have been cured of the King's-evil ; and many others are laid to have been fo. It is very dieuretick, pafies forcibly by perfpiration, promotes evacuation, removes obftru&ions and dwellings of the abdomen, and restores loft appetite. Externally applied it cures fores and fcrophulous eruptions, and is a very good collyrium for the eyes.

Thefe virtues of Chalybeate Waters (uflial in fome degree, but seldom fo eminently as here) make them a remedy of great extent for the disorders of the human body, and this is doubtless the reason

c Shaw on Mineral and Illington Waters, page 159.

d See Plot's Staffbrdlhire, page 137, and Oxfordlhire, page 44, Se£t. Ivi.

e Mallow Chalyb. Water, in the county of

Cork, Ireland, railed Farenheit's Thermometer to

fifty-nine degrees, when the adjoining brook funk it to fifty. Briftol Hot Well, though not Chalybeate, raises the Thermometer to seventy-fix.

Hill, of Cork, vol. II. p. 277.

that

Of Cornwall. 35

that they, are mofi kindly distributed into every corner almost of the world. But it muft not be imagined that they can do no hurt : like all other medicines, they have their ill tendencies, when improperly applied, or ufed to excess ; and therefore the time of tiling them, the neceflary correctives in particular cafes, as well as the quantity and time of omitting them, are surely belt learned from a physician.

There are many other Wells of this kind in Cornwall f ; Iron, being more easily diffolved and imbibed by running Water than any other mineral, which is the rcafon that there are more Chalybeate, than Salt, Sulphurous, or Aluminous Springs ; but the description of more than one, as the effects of all are fo very like, would be needles, unless there was fome remarkable cure, and peculiar property ascribed, neither of which has in any of them as yet reached my notice.

Many Naturalifts have endeavoured to give us the analysis of thofe Waters: In all, the ingredients discovered are much the fame (falls only excepted ) ; and it is the different quantity of particular ingredients, and the proportion they bear to the Water, which is their vehicle, that makes them stronger or weaker. Our Spas in England are not fo fpirituous and pungent as the celebrated ones of Germany ; yet, in many cafes, they may be of great and extenfivc ule ; and, if I am well informed, the Spas of our own country may in moll cafes supply the place of the other, though more famous foreign waters.

As to famine, aluminous, hot, bitter, or fulphurous Waters, which deserve ftriCtly to be fo called, I have not been able to learn that there are any fuch in this County.

I have feen a letter from the late Mr. Vallack (an apothecary of character in the town of Plymouth, and among thofe of his bufinefs noted for his kill in chemistry), in which he affirms, that Carn- Kei Water, near Redruth, is impregnated with tin. His words are thefe, in a letter, dated January 5, 1741 - 2 : " I have not only read in Mr. Boyle's Hiftory of Mineral Waters, but have feen the Water at Keyrn-Key, near Redruth, which I found impregnated both with iron and tin. It is the only Water I ever read of, or met with fo mixed. This is very rare, but not improbable. I have had no opportunity of trying this Water myself, and therefore can neither confirm nor difprove what is faid ; but as tin is frequently found intimately connected with iron ore, I apprehend that the

Scarlet Well, near Bodman, was once much many colours like that of a Rainbow. (Carew,

frequented, and is faid to be much heavier than page 127.) At prefer t it is scarce known where

other Water, and will keep without alteration of this Well is to be found, cent or talle moft part of a year ; representing

Tamar.

36 Natural History

depoftt of this Water might give sufficient reason for the alfertion.

Petrifying Waters ; fuch, I mean, as will incruft bodies put into them with stone, I have not yet heard of any in Cornwall, except the Water at Holy Well, in Cuthbert, before-mentioned (pag. 32.) may be called fo. Our River, Lake, or Sea Water, have not any taste, colour, or property, more than common, but muft however be here treated of as to their rife, couples, extent, and ifiiie, harbours, and tides; their present ufefulnefs, and their capacity of being render'd ftill more useful.

Chap. Iv.

Of the Rivers cmd navigable Creeks in Cornwall.

I N the middle of this County, betwixt the North and South Sea, the land is mountainous, (as has been observed before, chap, i.) and the mountains make a kind of broken chain the whole length of Cornwall; the links of this chain are much more large and maflive, if I may fo fay, in the Eaft where the land is widest, but they contract and narrow themselves as they tend to the Weft ward, conforming their ftze, as well as shaping their course according to the land. On each fide this high ridge the land spreads into a plainer surface, rather more hilly on the North than on the South, but on both fides declining to the fea. This general difpofition of the land is far from being difadvantageous ; for the ridge of hills running nearly Eaft and Weft, by intercepting the rain, fogs, and dews, distributes them again in plentiful and frequent streams, on either lide watering the SeaCoaft, the Northern Coaft well, but the Southern much better ; an effect entirely owing to the rains being more frequent on the Southern fide of our hills, than thofe which come from the North. Upon the whole, it may safely be affected, that few spots of land of equal extent in England are fo well watered as Cornwall.

Tamar 8 is the Eafternmoft River in Cornwall ; it rides in Morwinftow, the rnoft Northern parish of this County, about three miles from the Sea Coaft: in June 1757 fo inconftderable at its fource, that it was with fome difficulty we found where it rides.

e " A great number of our larger Rivers begin with the word Tav and Tiv, or, as antiently written, T am or Tim. Hence Thame or Thames, Tav, Taiiy, &c. This Tam is in all probability the fame with the Greek Tamos in n olufxo 1 to in Greek being an old prepofttive." Lhuyd in Bax-

ters Gloflar. page 265. Mar, Mer, and Mor, fignificd antiently Water as well as Sea," ibid, page 266. Tamar therefore signifies the large River-water, and fliould be written Tamar, quail T au-mar.

which

Of Cornwall. 37

which was on the fummit of a moor, from whence the ground declining to the North, makes way for part of the water to run

the town of Biaetord, and the ground fhelving away on the other i a tue fame tune to the South, drains away the bogs of the fame Southward from the fame fountain, and forms the be-

ronfT m 1 amar ', which ' at the distance ° f ten miles, becomes con hderabie enough to give name to the small parish and village of

on to the , WhCre e f' n 8 a bnd S e of ft °ne, it continues

of whf m enters the P arifllofSt - Stephen's ', at the corner of Which panfh it receives a very plentiful ftream, called Werinmon

River About a mile and half farther down it receives the Atefey 1

f f 1" ( Jp C m rUnS "" der , the WaI !? of Lneefton), and becomes foon

Hce r A §£ a o COn , fiderable wide ™ d rapid ftream. fide till itT ir n " rl y Sou th. receiving the brooks from each cei ' I h2S i" id . Gralftun bridge-, a mile below which, it reft" J 1 ' Cowley River, and foon after a more plentiful ftream l.om Altarnun, Lewamc and Lezant parishes, called the Inny, and the place where it joins the Tamar, called luny-foot -. The Tamar

cXd comm ;VH f 1 'n f in StokelynXnd 117 ' Budge, but b y Leland - Hawtebrig ; thu

Calftok hen S£ " f r C . a bnd S e ° n 'his River is in the parish of 1 a' % s Leland , by Sir Perfe Edgcumbe '. The tide

a moft reached this bridge in the time of Henry VIII but it was

Star S. than M ° rICham ' ab0Ut below, "to

i - , S b 1 come. Five miles farther down, the Tamar receives the I avy on the Eaft, and, having made a Creek into the parishes of Botsfleming and Landulph on the Weft, becomes a fpa-

sZk' ai tr r ' I 2 "' Waflll , ng thC f ° 0t ° f the antient borough P of River rh hm . n ™ P ' j 01ned b y the L y nber Creek and Hamoze t:iil'Vr° 1 )° I ' C forward iorms the noble harbour of Creeks one r if , 7 7' amerwortl i ; where making two large

Stonehoufe Creek V ?' :ber Millbr0 °k. at the- Weft, and

nearly South) rJ r v ;l tcr . a c °urfe of about forty miles,

Edncumbe for its w ft ? aiieS mt ° t ie Sea having Mount " L eftern and die lands of Stonehoufe and St. Ni-

h The Tamara of Ptolemy, as is fupnofed Camden's laft edition, page 2 c. ' '

k % Lancefton.

Sub, "u A Broke renning in the botom in thp

UhAfe lf, K k b "" in S" f stone ' built . as

So in i Si f y f he Abb 7 of Tavyflock.

n A li-h* u n fc lb ' for Greyftone. nine arches' 5??®* of stone confiding of mw £ , 3 f long, twelve

n the walls, and twenty-even high

from the water, in summer.

T he fame River gives name alfo to a wood in the Manor of Lawhitton, called Inny-ham Wood. 3

p Vol. II. page 78.

1 Ibid.

It is sometimes called Newbridge, fornetimes Caulftoke Bridge. See Leland, vol. III. pane 20. s Leland, ib. & y "

Saxon name Ham-ozc j that is, the wet oozy habitation, circuit, or inclofure.

" Camden, page 26.

cholas

3 8 Natural History

cholas Ifiand, in Plymouth Sound, for the eastern boundary. This River, by the appointment of King Athelftan, the Saxon, (A. D. 938.) was to be the general boundary of the Cornifh Britans ; but when the Normans came in, and the Kingdom became subdivided into Lordfhips and Manors, (thofe little Kingdoms within a Kingdom) Barons, jealous of the extent, rights, and honours of their Manors, procured their lands on the borders, to be appropriated to the county in which their domains and chief places of residence were fixed Hence it happens that this Saxon law of Athelftan in four instances has given way to the succeeding regulations of the Normans, and though the River is reckoned in Cornwall 31 , yet Devonshire intrudes for even miles in length and three in breadth at Werington, and claims the two parishes there of Werington and North Pedherwyn, as it does alfo the mansion, domain, and park of Mount Edgcumbe, at the Tamar s mouth. This laft incroachment upon the general boundary was owing probably to the powerful mtereft of the Valtorts (a noble family of large revenues in Cornwall, but usually resident in Devon) antiently proprietors of the place now called Mount Edgcumbe ; and, as I imagine, the former was owing to the like interest and application of the Abby of Tavyftock in Devon, which had the property of Werington, and (as Leland fays, vol. III. page 1 1 5.) " had fair landes thereabout." But though thefe places were, by the interpofition of their Lords, fubjedted to the civil authority of Devon, yet care was taken to preserve the rights or the Clergy inviolate : they are taxed as belonging to the Hundreds of Cornwall in the Lincoln taxation, made in the 1 6th of Edward I. A.D. 1288, and they ftill continue fubjed to the jurifdidtion of the Archdeacon of Cornwall. On the other hand, Cornwall alfo exceeds its antient limits near North Tamarton, having a small flip of land of about two miles square on the eastern bank, but why, I am not informed : again, over against Saltafh, it claims a small portion of land not a mile square, owing, as I imagine, to the application of the Lords of Saltafh, and the Caftle of Trematon adjoining.

River Lyn- The next considerable River is the Lynher, called fo from the

her - Lake it makes before it joins the Tamar at Hamoze It rides on the hills of Altarnun parish, about eight miles Weft of Lancefton, coats down to the South South Eaft through the parishes of Northhill, Linkinhorn, and South-hill ; and palling about a mile from the

w There are fome instances of this kind in other counties, and indeed in foreign countries, particularly in Germany, where all the pofleffions of the Houfe of Auftria are accounted in that circle, let them lie within what other circle forever. Plot, Oxfordfhire, chap vi. feet, lxxxv.

x " The jurifdiftion of the Water doth wholly appertain to the Dutchy of Cornwall, and may

therefore be claimed as a part of that County." Carew, page 99. which is confirmed alfo by the profits of the paflage at Saltafchc, the tax on all boats and barges that pertain to the harbour yearly, and the anchorage and foliage of all ftraunger {hips; all belonging to the borough of Saltafche in Cornwall." Norden, page 98.

y See Leland Itin. vol. V. p. 79.

borough

Of Cornwall. 39

borough of Calinton, divides the park at Newton-ferrers, formerly the Seat of the late Sir John Coryton, Bart, and by Pillaton and Lanrake comes to Natter (alias Noddetor) Bridge z where it is navigable, and, by the help of the Sea, begins Lynher Creek : hence continuing its course four miles farther, between the parifties of Cheviock and St. Stephens, it then turns to the Eaft, and, agreeably to its name Lynher making a fair haven betwixt Eaft Anthony and St. Stephen s, joins the Tamar, after a course of about twenty-four miles. In the summer this ftream is small, but in the 'winter rapid, overflowing, and dangerous, of which alternate extremes Mr. Carew (page hi.) in quaint, but not unharmonious train, thus exprefles himself according to the manner of his time*.

When fun the earth left ftiadow flares,

And highest falls in heaven his feat,

Then Lyner's peebly bones he bares,

Who like a lamb doth lowly bleat,

And faintly Aiding, every rock Plucks from his foamy fleece a lock.

Before a River, now a Rill,

Before a fence, now scarce a bound, - Children him o'erleap at will,

Small beats his deepest bottom found,

The heavens with brass enarch his head,

And earth of iron makes his bed.

But when the milder-hooded fkie His face in mourning weeds doth wrap,

For absence of his clearest die,

And drops tears in his center's lap,

Lyner gynnes lion-like to rare,

And fcorns old bankes ftiould bound him more.

Then, second Sea, he rolled, and bears Rocks in his womb, riches on his backe,

Do wne- borne bridges, up-torne wears,

Witnefle and wayne his force, their wracke

an ! f' eland ' yol. ni. page 28, calls it Natter

it NoddIrBndg?' 6 29 ' CareW ' PagC 54 ' CalL

t, the T ornubritifh Signifying a Lake, i g ot unusual to denominate Rivers from th<

extraordinary spread of water they make in fome particular place : thus we have in this County three Rivers called Lo, from their making a lake at their mouth: her fignif: long; Lynher, lpngus lacus.

Reign of Elizabeth.

Into

4 °

Natural History

Into men's houses fierce he breaks,

And on each flop his rage he wreakes.

Shepheard adiews his fwymming flock,

The hinde his whelmed harvest hope,

The ftrongeft vampire fears his fhocke,

Plaines scarce can serve to give him cope,

Nor hills a barre, wherefo he flray'th Enfue lofs, terror, ruine, death.

River Tide, The Lynher Creek, about four miles below Natter bridge, joins St. German's Creek, made by the River Tidi, which has its rife on the South fide of Caradon Hill, near Lifkerd, where there is a place called Tidicomb, another Tidewell ; and after dividing Quethiok parish from Minheneth, it enters the parish of St. German near Molinic, and about two miles lower becomes navigable at a place called Tidiford, (or the first ford on the Tidi) about two miles lower, it washes the fides of the antient borough and formerly Epifcopal See of St. German, whence the Creek below is called St. German's Creek ; and joining the Lynher, they both together proceed into the Tamar.

SeatonRiver. Seaton is the next River : it rides in St. Clare, about four miles to the North-Eaft of Lifkerd ; and palling within a mile of that borough to a place thence called Lanfeaton, goes through Minheneth parish, and dividing St. German's on the Eafl from Morval, and St. Martin's on the Weftern bank, falls into the Sea at Seaton, after a course of about twelve miles. The antient town, which probably gave name to this water, muft have lain at its mouth, or opening into the Sea ; but there are no remains to be feen : the town therefore has probably been swallowed up by the encroachments of the Sea, which in this place have been very considerable, if we may regard the tradition of the neighbourhood.

Loo, or Eaft Loo, or Eafl Loo b ,has its rife alfo in the highlands of St. Clare ;

Loo River. an( j p a ff in g un der Lifkerd park, divides Keyne parish from Lifkerd, then Morval from Dulo ; and becoming navigable at Sand-place, empties itself, about three miles after, between two little boroughs, which have their names, Eafl Loo and Weft Loo, from the River, as the River has its name from the large Pool, which it makes every full tide, between the two towns. Its whole course is about ten miles. Here is a flone bridge of fifteen arches', one hundred and forty-one yards long, and fix feet three inches wide betwixt the

b Alfo Loow and Loowe, Leland, vol. VII. page 113. and Low, ib. page 1 14. and vol. III. page 26. Wallice Lhiich, Cornu-brit, Luh. Ir.

Lough. Scot. Loch. Anglice, Lake, Pond, or Pool.

c Including two square openings made for the more commcdioufly palling boats laden with wood.

walls.

Of Cornwall.

walls. Here is a Hone bridge of 1 5 arches c : below this bridge is the Creek, which, thro' a narrow gut, admits the tide, and with it small barks.

One mile below Sand-place, the Loo is joined by another ftream Duio, or from the Weft, called Duio: that is, the Black Loo, or Water ft Lo ° The diftrift through which it mostly runs, is called Duio, or Duloo pari Hi, as ft is reasonable to conjecture, from fome apparent darkness in colour fufticient to diftinguifti it from the adjoining ftream of Eaft Loo, whole whole course is at a medium not tw r o miles distant.

This water rides in the parifti of St. Pinok, and coating nearly South, becomes navigable at Trelaun wear, abotit two miles from the Sea ; a mile after it joins the Eaft Loo, and they both pafs the stone bridge above-mentioned into Loo Creek; its whole course being about even miles.

Fawy e rides in Fawy moor f , at a place called Fawy Well, in the Fawy River, parifti of Altarnun, not far from Brownwilly, one of the highest mountains in Cornwall 5 . The higher part of this River is alio called Draines, and the first bridge upon it is by Leland h called Draines Bridge ; after which pafting three other bridges ', and having taken into its ftream the Rivulets of St. Neot's, Warlegan, and Cardinham parishes, it comes to Refprin, alias Laprin 15 Bridge, whence, in about three miles, it reaches the borough of Loftwythyel, where it paftes a fair stone bridge of nine arches, of which the water at present only ufeth three. In former ages the fea ebbed and flowed above this town and Camden fays brought up veftcls of good burthen : at present loaden barges scarce come within a mile of it.

In three miles more the Fawy, having taken Pellyn Brook from the Weft, receives the water of Leryn River and Creek from the Eaft, and becomes thence a deep and wide Flaven : in two miles more it reaches the town and borough of Fawy on the western bank ; and a little below, being joined by Polruan creek and brook from the Eaft, opens into the Sea, after a run of twenty- fix miles, betwixt two old towers (built in the reign of Edward I V m .) from which there formerly stretched a chain for the defence of the harbour. This is thought the Jargeft body of fresh water, except the Tamar, in all this county.

c Including two square openings made for the more commodioufly palling boats laden with wood.

d Waters oftentimes take their names from fome remarkable colour, either of the water itself, or the fand or banks which they paris by ; of which we may fee several instances from Lhuyd, in Baxters Gloflary, page 266.

' In Lincoln Taxat. Faue ; in Leland, vol. ITI. page 22, Sic. Fawey, recti us F.iwy or Fauy, a fau ea, Si wy aqua ; that is, the water of the deep ditch, vault, or den.

In a very wagtnore in the fide of a hill."

Leland, vol. III. page 24.

s On the banks of this River are three tenements, called Fauton in maps, but in the records Fawy ton, or the Town on the Fawy. See records of Knights Fees, taken from the third of Henry IV . Carew, page 42.

h Vol. IT. page 24.

Clobha, Lergen, and Newbridge. Leland, ibid.

k Leland, ibid.

1 Leland, vol. III. page 23.

m Ibid, page 22.

The

42 Natural History

River Fai. The next navigable ftream is the Fal ", which rides at a place

called Fenton Val, (that is, the fource of Fal) about two miles Weft of Roche Hills, and running about eight miles to the South, may be called a plentiful ftream at the borough of Granpont, where it paffes under a stone bridge that gave the prefer t name to this borough, but has nothing elfe remarkable. About a mile below this bridge the River was formerly navigable, at lead; for boats ; but is now deprived of that great a i vantage ; in three miles farther, it reaches the borough and bridge of Tregeny. To this place in the lad: century the design of making the River Fal navigable by fluices up to Granpont was nearly completed by one Colonel Trevanion ; but this attempt, fo much for the benefit of the adjacent country, had no consequence but what should be mentioned with concern ; I mean, that of exhausting the private pure of this public- Ipinted Gentleman. A mile below Tregeny Bridge the waters begin to spread, and aflifted by the tide, and many little brooks on either hand, forms a Creek, about three miles long, called Lamoran ° Creek. Here, having washed the Southern fide of the lands and park of Tregothnan, feat of the Right Honourable Lord Vifcount Falmouth, it is joined by Truro Creek, a noble body of water to which the Rivers of Kenwyn and St. Allen give the first rife, and meeting at the borough of Truro, make with the tide a navigable chanel for ships of ioo ton burthen to come up to the town Kaye. From Truro, after making a small Creek to the Wed:, in two miles it joins St. Clement's Creek, which is navigable for barges, three miles to the Eaft, as far as 1 reftlien Bridge. T ruro Creek and St. Clement s at their meeting make Morpas p Rode, and proceeding about a mile farther, meet the Fal at the mouth of Lamoran Creek, whence they all together, under the name of Fal, in two miles more reach the principal branch of Falmouth Harbour, called Carrep- Rode ; hither flows from the Weftward Tretheag River, and wTth fome other Brooks from the North form Reftronget Creek Melor, or Milor Cieek is next , {mail, but sheltered r : then comes the great Creek, or rather Harbour, called King's-Rode, which has Flufliing to the Eaft, and the populous town of Falmouth to the Weft, and is navigable two miles up to the borough and port of Penryn, whither ships of ioo ton and somewhat more may come up. A little below this laft-mentioned town, on each fide of the Creek, there was a jutty head, and, to guard the gap between,

" 1 ° Leland, Vol. iii. page 17, Fala, unde Coit Fala ; that is, F ala-wood; the antient name of Granpont, more antiently Hill called Vol andCenio.

The Church of St. Moran, fays Leland, vol. III. page 17, or, as is more probable, from Moraun, or Morhaun ; that is, the River Haven,

fcil : where the River and Sea meet.

p Tllat is the paffage over the Sea ; in Leland, called Maples Rode.

9 Leland, vol. III. page 16. r Wherein the greatest fliipp that failed may ryde faufe. Norden s Survey of Cornwall, p. 47.

there

Of Cornwall. 43

there was a chain in the time of Leland 3 ; but fuch unwieldy defences are become in a manner needles, since the improvements of naval architecture have fo much advanced the Royal Navy. The Creeks on the Eaftern bank of this harbour are the little Creek of St. Juft, and the irregularly wandering one of St. Maudits; and all thefe branches being united in Carreg Rode, as the Item and trunk,

(four miles long, above a mile wide, and fourteen fathom deep) the Fal runs into the Sea betwixt Pendinas Caftle on the Weftern bank, and St. Maudit's and Anthony Point on the Eaft : the opening here into the Ocean is near a mile wide, deep chanel, but near the middle a large rock t, moft dangerous when the water is moft deep ; for then it is hid. To remedy in fome measure this danger, the heirs of Killigrew, Lords of Pendinas Caftle, (which guards this entrance) are obliged to keep a tall pole fixed on the highest part of the rock. Notwithftanding this inconveniency, the harbour of Falmouth muft be reckoned among the moft secure and capacious harbours belonging to the crown of Great Britain. Leland" calls it "a very notable and famous, and in a manner the principal haven of all Britain.

Camden equals it to Brundufium, in Italy ; and Carew, Camden, and Speed, agree, that a hundred fail of flips may anchor in it, and no one fee the other's top w . Hamoze Harbour, at the mouth of Tamar, is reckoned to be better fet off with profpedts of feats, towns, and gently declining whores, and has a greater face of deep water for the Royal Navy ; but Falmouth has a bolder whore, is better secured with hills and winding creeks for trading veflels, and its situation more convenient for getting clear of the chanel : in short, yielding only to Milford Haven on the coat of Wales, it is generally reckoned the fccond harbour of Great Britain.

This River is called Hel, and the first ford over it Helford x . Hel or Heyi The head of it lies upon the hills of Wendron parish, near Penhal Kerri ' Guy (i. e. water coming from the head of the hill) whence it runs, in about three miles, to a village called Guyk y , whither, by help of the tide, barks come up. A mile farther down the Hel is joined by Maugan Creek on the South, and three miles farther by Keftel or Helford Creek, where there is a palling boat, and at its mouth, three miles farther, by Gillan Creek. On the North it has first

5 Vol. III. page 15.

' Called by Leland, vol. VII. page nr. Caregroyne ; that is, " Infula, vel rupesVirulorum marinorum Anglice, Seals ; or perhaps from Careg, rock, and grun or W alice grwnn, a ridge of land between two furrows (Richard's Dictionary) ; for fuch indeed this is t but it muft be owned, that it is usual with sailors to call rocks after the names of animals ; as the W olf Rock, the Cow and Calf, the Shark, &c. from fome imaginary resemblance.

Vo,. V. page hi.

w Carew, 150. Camden, 16. Speed, lib. i.

chap. xi. page 21.

Hail and Heil by Leland, vol. III. page 12. and Heyle, Heyl, andHayl, ibid. vol. VII. page no. This seems to be a common name for a River. On the North Sea we have one in the Hundred of Penwith ; on the Alan we have a Church called Eglolhel ; that is, the Church on the river Hel ; and the Alan, near its fource, is called Cam-hel, unde Camelford.

y That is, Guyik, the Watery Village, or Village on the Guy.

Polpenrith,

44 Natural History

Polpenrith, alias Polpere, and Polwevorel Creeks, running up towards Conftantine Church ; and a mile farther down, Chielow, alias Calmanfake Creek (Leland III. 13).* This haven, within a mile of it's mouth, is secure enough for ships of 200 ton; and at it's pafiage into the fea, is about a mile wide. to, or Low This River rides in the highest Northern part of Wendron parish, Kerrier. 111 w h ence in about five miles, it reaches the borough of Helfton ; a about a mile below which it forms a Lake, called the Lo Pool ; the River giving rife to the Lake, and the Lake, as the mofl remarkable part of the Water, giving name to the River b .

Heyi River, Four brooks give rife to this River c ; and uniting at Relubbas in Penwith. f rorn a Weftern Courfe, turn to the North, and in three miles reach St. Erth, alias St. Ercy Bridge, of three stone Arches, and a raised Cauley well walled on each fide, reaching cross the valley. The Bridge has been built somewhat more than 400 years* 1 , before which time there was a ferry here, and ships of great burden came up to it. The valley, above bridge, has been much raised by the hands and earth, washed down from the hills and mines ; and the haven below has suffered the fame misfortune, from the hands of the Northern fea ; fo that lighters only come within a bow-fhot of the bridge ; and that with the tide of flood, which at spring tides flows near a mile above the bridge. Here the land of Cornwall, is at it's narrowed: dimension ; fo that from the full fea mark of Heyl on the North Sea, to the full Sea-mark at Marazion in Mount's Bay on the South Sea, the distance is but three miles. From St. Erth the Heyl bears directly North, spreading an area of fand, of half a mile wide at a medium, and two miles long, but navigable only in the chanel of the River, which admits frnall ships a mile inwards from the fea under the village of Lannant. Near it's mouth the Heyl is joined by a brook from the Eaft, which, under the Parochial Church of Philac, makes a branch of this haven for ships of 100 tons. The Sea has not only almofl: filled this frnall harbour with land, but forms a bar alio at it's mouth, over which ships of 80 and 100 ton only can come in at the height of a spring tide ; and the bed of the whole is lo railed, that it admits the tide in it only fix hours in twelve ; fo that whereas, in harbours open to the lea, the tide flows fix hours, and ebbs fix hours : here 'tis

Kilmanach, the Monks Cell ; Chielow, or Killow that is, the cell or houle on the water or lake.

1 Bv Leland called Hailfton, vol. iii. page 12. by mi (lake for Hellas, or Hel-laf-ton ; that is, the town on the Green River ; waters often taking this part of their name from their eolour ; as Cam-las, the Green Cam ; in Merionythlhire, Caernarvonfhire, and Brecknockfhire, Dukas ; in Brecknocklhire, Morlas aqua cawulea ; Lhuyd

in Baxter, 274. Yr avon las the Green River in Glamorganfhire, ibid page 266.

b In Speed, and Camden's maps, and Norden, page 22, this river is called Cober, a mistake (as I apprehend) for Lober ; (that is, the bar of the Lo) a fandy pebbly bank, thrown up by the fea at the mouth of this river, and serving as 3 dam to form the Lake.

c Leland, Vol. iii. page 10.. d Leland, ibid.

otherwise ;

Of Cornwall.

otherwise ; the tide has flowed three hours before it can enter Heyl, and it ebbs three hours in the open Sea after the tide has quite difappeared in Heyl : 'tis therefore but a half-tide haven : yet, notwithstanding this, 'tis a place of conflderable trade for iron, Briftol wares, but more especially Welfh coal, for which at present there is fuch a demand for fire-engines, melting-houses, and the homeconfumption of a populous neighbourhood, that usually there are above five hundred, oftentimes a thousand horses, which come to carry off coals, for fome purpose or other, fix days in the week.

The fire-engines, which take off the greatefl: quantity of coal from this harbour, are ftill increasing in number, and the trade here muft proportionably advance.

Ganal Creek c runs up into the land from the North or Severn Ganal Sea, as it is sometimes called, about two miles, where it meets the alias River, which rides in the parifli of Newlan, near Trerice, the pa- " ternal feat of Lord Arundel of Trerice. This water was more conflderable formerly, but, like our other little havens on the North Sea, has buffered much from the plenty of Sea-fand, with which the North Channel fo much abounds, that every form from the Weft and North throws it in more or lefs upon the creeks and havens, and in many places upon the hills. At the mouth of the Ganal stands a little village, called Carantoc, from the Saint to whom the parifli Church is dedicated. Tradition lays, that it was antiently a large town, and very probably it was fo, the religious house here being the residence of a Dean and nine Prebends. Sloops of thirty tons only can frequent this Creek.

We proceed next to the greatefl River on the North of Cornwall, River Alan, at present commonly called the Camel (that is, the crooked River), from the many turnings in its course, especially from the sharp angle it makes near Bodman, where, from a South South Weft course of twelve miles or more, it bears for the Sea North North Weft.

as ca fi e d in Leland s time* Dunmere; that is, the Water ate fils ; and the bridge over it, near Bodman, is ftill called unmere Biidge. It was alfo " called Cablan in fome histories s but this is only a contraction of Cabm Alan, that is, the crooked , an ' ( not Gambian, as in Camden h ,) the b being inserted before tern by the Cornifti idiom 1 ; for Alan is indeed the proper name

T i 1S ver r es a out: two miles North of the borough of Camelford, w ere its banks are famous for two conflderable battles; the first

in voce). Here it is Kanal or Ganal, the k being often changed into g.

N

in

4 6 Natural History

in which King Arthur received his mortal wound : thus recorded

by the Poet k :

Naturam Cambela fonts

Mutatam ftupet efle fui, tranfcendit in undas Sanguineus torrens rips, et duct in aequor Corpora caeforum ; plures natare videres,

Et peter auxilium quos undis vita reliquit."

The other, a bloody battle, fought betwixt the Cornifh, and the Weft Saxons of Devonfhire, in the year 824 ', in which many thousands fell on each ftde, and the victory remained uncertain. Hence, after a run of about 1 2 miles, it becomes navigable for fand barges at Parbrok ; and at Eglofhel m , receives a plentiful addition to it's ftream, from the River Laine A mile farther down, this River reaches the greatest bridge in this county, called Wade-- bridge : about the year 1460 there was a ferry here whilst the tide was in, and a very dangerous ford when the tide was retired, which moved the then Vicar of Eglofhel, one Mr. Lovebon, with great industry and public spirit, to undertake this bridge ; a great and useful, but tedious work. Beftdes the expence, fo difproportioned to his circumstances, in the course of the work, there arose fuch difficulties, as might have baffled a more mechanical age than that in which he lived : the ground, for the foundation of fome of the piers, proved fo fwampy, that after repeated efforts another way, they were forced at laft to build on wool-packs ; however, it should never be forgotten, that by his follicitations, and the liberal contributions of others, but chiefly by his own perseverance, and the bleffings of providence, he lived to accomplish the bridge as it now stands, with seventeen fair and uniform arches, reaching quite cross the valley, to the great safety of travellers, and the credit of his country. Hither come up small barks of 40 and 60 ton, and supply the country with coal from Wales, with flat, which rides about ten miles off, lime, timber, and groceries from Briftol. A mile farther down the Alan makes two small Creeks on the Eaft, in return for a brook or two which it receives; then keeping to the North-Weft, and supplying two Creeks on the Weftern bank which run up into St. Illy, and little Petrock pariflies, in a mile more it reaches the antient town of Petrockftow, alias Padftow, where there is a pier, and fome

k In Camden, page 23. and the Elaine, (Hinnulus) in Radnorshire, and

1 See Saxon chronicle. Montgomery Ihife, &c. probably this River Lain,

m That is, the Church on the River. had the name of Elaine from the fwiftnefs of

" Some Rivers among the Britifh, fays Lhuyd it's course. in Baxter's gloflary, page 273, take their names 0 Leland, Vol. II. page 82. from animals ; as the Caru (Cervus) in Shropfhire,

trade

Of Cornwall. 47

trade from Ireland, Wales, and the Briftol channel. Here at Padflow the Alan is near a mile wide, and there is a ferry-boat to cross. At the mouth of this harbour, about two miles below the town, the Sea, as in all our harbours on the North channel, has against itself, and thrown a bar of fand cross the haven, which prevents ships of more than 200 tons from coming in at all, and makes it hazardous even lor the smaller ships to come in, but when the tides are high and the weather fair.

Farther up on the Northern fide of Cornwall, there is no confiderble or navigable River j but we find the Creeks of Portific, and Botreaux Caftle, and Bude Haven, which name, the laft Creek, had it not been formerly a more considerable retreat for shipping than it is now, could never have deserved ; but indeed, what seems antiently to have been the haven, is now all morals and meadow ground, reaching from the Barton of Whalcfborougn nearly to the town ol Stratton, about two miles long, and little lefs wide. In the middle of this morals runs the River, which, with the tide, makes the prefer t Creek, and opens into the Sea by a narrow pafiage.

Before I take my leave of the navigable Rivers of Cornwall, I cannot help observing, that there is scarce any one of them fo destitute of water, or fo diftrefied by untoward levels, but that their navigation may be either extended or improved : but fome improvements are more desirable as they will be more advantageous to the countiy, ana more easily effected than others : their neglect is therefoie the more affe&ing. Lancefton is a populous town, and in the neighbourhood many families of rank and fortune, and in general the country round is well peopled and cultivated ; yet all the coal for firing, fir-timber for building, all foreign produ&s, all goods from London, Exeter, and Plymouth, all fea-fand for manure, they are forced to fend for ten miles at leaf!:, and have them all from or ham or Bofcaftle, which is ftill further, by land-carriage, through ways in general egregioufly bad ; difficulties which necefiarily occasion ltde trade, and fcanty employment for the poor. Now the Tamai paffes within a mile and half of this town (a little above Polftun Bridge) where it is a noble ftream of water, a wide chanel, and receives the Aterey River coming from the walls of Lancefton : hence the Tamar fets to the South, fo directly, that it is but little more by water than by land. Surely fb rich and populous a neighbourhood as this, might be well requited for the charge of making, or at left for exerting all their interest to make this

lv f r nay igable at the public expence for the ffiort face of ten or twelve miles.

Another improvement pointed out by nature is, the uniting the awy, on the South Coaft, with the Alan on the North. Thefe

two

4 8 Natural History

two considerable rivers come fo near each other in the middle of the County, that they almoB cut it in twain. From LoBwythyel (where the tide from the South now reaches) to Parbrok, whither the tide comes up from the North, the defiance is eight miles ; but from Refprin Bridge, near Lanhydroc Park, to Dunmere Bridge, about a mile from the town of Bodman, (at both which places the Breams are considerable) the defiance is but four miles ; and in this intermediate face, many lefler Breams occur, which might come in aid, to promote the union of the North and South CoaBs. The advantages of fuch an union, are too obvious to be particularized, and the difliculties too few to discourage the undertaking, whenever a public spirit, for rendering rivers navigable, ffiall arise in this nation. It is indeed to be wiflied, that as the eyes of all begin to fee the advantage of good roads for trade and travellers, fo they may in time awake, and perceive the greater, at leaB equal advantage of improving the water-carriage of this nation. MoB of our creeks are capable of being made navigable higher up into the country, than they are at present ; and indeed were fo formerly : and though this might feem needles here in Cornwall, where the lea is fo near us on either hand, yet I think this is a Brong argument for, inBead of being againB the improvement of our watercarriage ; it being evidently of lb much the lefs difficulty, as the {pace is short, and of fo much the greater advantage than making Rivers navigable in an inland country, as the produ&s of the Sea, and the Sea-coaB commerce, muB exceed the products of any one inland county. But farther : As nature has denied other manures, fuch as lime, chalk, marie, or rather art has not yet discovered them in any anfwerable goodness and plenty, Sea-fand and oreweed may be reckoned our principal and moB prolffick manures ; and fo many of our farmers are forced to carry fand fix, eight, or ten miles, and sometimes more, that in the Philofophical Tranfactions, April 1675, in a letter to Dr. Daniel Cox, I find the carriage is eflimated at 32,000k a year : if therefore we were to receive no other benefit than the having in this one article of Sea-fand, which surely might be reckoned one half of the present carriage, it could not be unworthy the publick notice of this County. But many other and Bill greater conveniencies are obvious, fuch as bringing up timber and other materials for building, and tin-works, carrying, recarrying, and exporting metals, communicating necefiaries from London and Brifiol, introducing the products of foreign countries, easier conveyance of coal, and wood (with which the fides of our navigable Rivers are remarkably well furnished) for firing. Thefe apparent advantages of improving our navigable Rivers moved fome worthy patriots of the lafl century to make an eBay on one particular

Of Cornwall. 49

ticular River that they might the better estimate the expence, and apply more fuccefsfully for the aftiftance of Parliament. Accordingly they finished one lock, with its leat twelve feet wide, which raised the water eight feet, at the charge of fifty pounds. This was looked upon as lo great an encouragement, that a bill was brought into Parliament to make all the Rivers in Cornwall, whieh were capable of fuch improvement, navigable : the bill paffed the Houfe of Commons with great approbation : it was afterwards introduced into the Houle of Lords with words to this effect ; That it was a noble design, and might give a pattern for all England to follow ; but it went no farther, it being then but four days to the end of the feffion ; and the civil wars of Charles I. foon after ensuing, put an end to this beneficial attempt, and deferred the glory of accomplishing it, till the like spirit is happy enough to affociate with more power.

It is hinted before, that our Rivers and Creeks were formerly navigable much higher up than they are now : the truth is, the beds of the Rivers are raised several feet perpendicular by the earth, fand, and gravel from the hills : this is natural in all places, in proportion to the quantity of rain, the declivity of the grounds, and the largenefs of Rivers ; but with us in Cornwall much promoted by digging and streaming for, stamping and dreffing our metals, all performed at the water fide, and the refuse all washed into the Rivers, thence into our harbours. This is a growing evil, complained of by Leland, and Carew, (page 27) but ftill unredrefted ; and as there are many more mines now than formerly, the beds of our Rivers will rife proportionably quicker than in former times, and make it ftill more difficult to continue the navigation even upon its present footing. There was an a£t of Parliament, made in the 23d of Henry VIII. " that none should labour in tin- works near the Devon and Cornifh havens" (Carew, page 27) ; and though this atft is obsolete, it might poftlbly be upon proper application, and be made more effe&ual to answer the falutary purposes intended.

Chap. V.

Of the Lakes and Sea of Cornwall.

A S one general ridge of hills runs through the middle of sect.i this County, and the Sea is fo near on either hand, the rivers, which rife in the higher grounds, have but a short paftage to the ocean ; and meeting with no confiderablc impediments, few only a nd small Lakes are formed.

' Suppofed to be the Lynher.

Letter to the author from J. Frehawk, Efq;

Four

O

SECT. II. Dozmery Pool.

SECT. III. Swan Pool.

SECT. IV. Lo Pool.

5 o NATURAL HISTORY

Four miles North of the church of St. Neot's, about fourteen miles from Loo, on the South Sea, and as many from the head lands of St. Gennys, on the North Sea, the waters of the hills adjoining gather into a bacon, and make a small Lake of about a mile in compass, called Dozmery Pool r : Leland fays, it was

reckoned fourteen or fifteen fathom deep ; but Mr. Carew, page 1 1 2 (better informed by experience) fays, that upon trial, no place in it was found deeper than nine feet, and no fifh but Eels.

Betwixt the parish of Budoc, in the Hundred of Kerrier, and that of Falmouth, a small Creek, not half a mile long, nor a quarter wide, is fever'd from the fea by a bar of fand and fhingle. This is now called the Swan Pool; (from the Swans kept here fome years since by the Killigrews, Lords of the foil) but in Leland's time 3 , Levine Prifklo, alias Levine Pool. The Eels of this water are reckoned extremely good.

The moft considerable Lake we have in Cornwall is the Lo Pool, betwixt the parish of Sithney on the Weft, and thofe of Elelfton, and Maugan on the Eaft. The Lake is about two miles long, and a furlong wide, formed by a bar of pebbles, fand, and fhingle, forced up against the mouth of this Creek by the South Weft winds ; the valley here betwixt high lands on each fide giving vent to, and thereby increasing the force and velocity of the winds from this quarter. This bar dams up the water which comes down principally from the Lo River, till it comes to a stone bridge, ( from an hospital of the Templars dedicated to St. John) called St. John's Bridge, but is fed alfo in fome measure, by a few brooks below u . Scarce a mile below the bridge, the Lake begins to overfpread the whole valley ; and in half a mile more, gaining in depth from three to ten feet, makes a little creek into Penros : from this creek the pool deepens, and from ten becomes twenty-two and twenty-fix feet deep, till it is within a furlong and half of the bar, when it rides gradually from twenty-fix to ten feet at its brim, being a mile and quarter long, and a furlong wide at a medium. Not being able to proceed farther to the South, the water winds away to the Eaft, and fills Carminow Creek, half a mile long, and half a furlong wide, at a medium. Thefe are the dimensions of the Lo-pool in summer, the superfluous water draining through the bar into the Sea ; but in the winter the whole valley is oftentimes spread with

r That is, the meeting or coming together of page no, fays, the Lake water, Doz-mer-iiy. u From Penventon and Penrofe on the Weft,

Vol. III. page 15. and Nanflow, Negybma, and Carminow, on the

1 Not the South Eaft, as Leland, Vol. III. Eaftern banks.

water

Of Cornwall. 5

water from the town of Helfton to the brink of the Sea ; and when the town mills at St. John's Bridge have their wheels flopped by this swelling of the Lake, the Mayor of Helfton applies himself to the Lord of Penros, and on presenting him with a few halfpence in a leather pure, has a right to cut through the bar, that the redundant waters of the Lake may pafs away, and the mills be no longer impeded. u If this bar might be always kept open, it would be a goodly haven up to Helfton The cliffs round this Lake are moderately high, and betwixt them there is a very diftind echo : but the fame circumstances which please and amuse in a calm, frighten in a tempest ; and when the South and South Weft winds from Mount's Bay get in betwixt the steep fades of the Lake, their roaring is heard at a great distance, and thought to preface stormy weather. This Lake is remarkable for an excellent and peculiar trout, which will be taken notice of in its place.

Thefe are all the Lakes we have in Cornwall ; but it is much to be feared, that we shall have more in time, at the two Northern ports ;

I mean, Heyl and Padftow : there are landy bars already crofting their mouths, upon which at neap tides the water is very shallow ; and if a few violent repeated forms should at any time raise thofe hands above full Sea-mark, (no improbable fuppofttion where fand is in fuch plenty) throwing in fhingle and stones withal, Heyl and Padftow (to the irreparable detriment of Cornwall) will become what the Lo is now.

The Sea-coat Ipreads itself along the South and North parts of sect.v. Cornwall to fuch a degree, that if we estimate the curvatures of the £heSea of South and North coat, and make alfo a juft allowance for the much fewer curvatures of the boundary towards Devonftffre, we shall find, that four parts in five of the out-line of Cornwall are exposed to the Sea.

This marine situation has its advantages ; it fills our bays and harbours, makes a number of fishing Creeks, brings its native produds, fand, ore-weed, and fifth, (as well as foreign merchandize) home to our doors in a multitude of places, exports our tin and fifti with great convenience, its vapours generate and feed our brooks, and often the air ; its cliffs fo near on either hand facilitate the drains of mines ; they alfo open the treasures of metals, useful earths, and minerals, to the inquifitive eye : in short, the Sea, being on every fide of us, procures plenty, and promotes trade and employment in many shapes utterly unknown to the more inland counties.

Some circumstances however of this our natural situation have their

disadvantages :

w Says Leland, vol.III. page 12.

5 2 Natural History

disadvantages : our coat is not only extended greatly in proportion to the area of land, but it has many promontories jutting out on each flde, which neceffarily make deep bays, and unhappily augment the diftreflfes of sailors in stormy weather : another inconvenience of our Sea-situation is, that the land shooting out sharp like a wedge into the Atlantic Ocean, ships oftentimes mistake one channel for another, or are drawn alive from their true course by the inequality of the tides. Farther : The irregularity of the tides riling from the prominence of the head-lands, is alfo increased, at the extremity of Cornwall, by the Scilly Illes, which narrow the channel (whether the tide fets to the North, or the South) ; and consequently, increasing the velocity of the current, promote a more than ordinary indraught into both channels. The tide of flood at the Land s End riles on the top of a common Ipring eighteen feet, and from that to twenty-four, according to wind and weather ; infomuch, that in stormy weather, from the South-Weft, it has risen to the height of thirty feet ; but at the common neap tides only thirteen feet usually, and at a very dead neap it has not risen above ten feet. During the flood, the tide at the Land's End fets inward from the South near nine hours ; its run is eight hours in moft places betwixt Scilly and the Land's End ; but the ebb continues only betwixt three and four hours. This is a very dangerous Angularity, if not known, and properly regarded ; but the greatest difficulty of all, which our maritime Atuation lies under, is this ; that an accurate survey of our whores, and a precise determination of our latitude and longitude, has never yet been taken, not fo much as of the Lizherd, the flrft land usually made by Ihips homeward bound, and the Southernmoft point of England, from which moft ships outward-bound to the Southward begin their reckoning : here a falfe ftep is made at flrft getting out, and unless rectified by repeated observations, it may be of fatal consequence. To have the longitude and latitude afcertained at the extremity of the island where ships begin and end their reckonings, is certainly a matter of the greatest moment to commerce, and ffiould be performed by a variety of the beft instruments, at lublequent times, and by more than one Ikillul hand. This has never yet been done, (fee before, chap, i.) nor will be probably, but by the interpofltion of the government, whole attention and nomination of proper persons, and proviflon of a sufficient apparatus of astronomical instruments, (an expence seldom within the reach of a private pure) this matter,

I Ipeak it with fubmiffion, seems to me exceedingly to deserve.

Another circumstance claims the attention of our countrymen ; our harbours are generally at the mouths of rivers, and not very distant from the hills where they rife, and of course not fo long or

deep

Of Cornwall. 53

deep as where the rivers and creeks run farther up into the land : they are therefore more apt to be choked with lands and rubbish than in other situations. Too much care therefore cannot be taken that Tips discharge not their ballast in improper places, fo as to obftrud the navigable channel, a grievance of which many intelligent traders are apprehensive, as it may affe& our Sea-coats in time, when a remedy may not easily be found out. The highest tide, in equal circumstances, is about two days and a half clear after the new and full moon. The tide is later than at London Bridge one hour and fifty-five minutes. The variation of the needle at the Land's End has for fome years been reckoned above eighteen degrees Wefterly ; but in the month of October, 1757, at Carelew Houfe, on one of the branches of Falmouth Harbour, it was, by a needle of ten inches and half long, found to be nineteen degrees twelve minutes Wefterly. Dr. Halley x , in the year 1700, found it to be no more than even degrees and a half Wefterly ; but whether the increase has been regular and gradual, for want of a continued series of observations, I cannot determine.

Such is the common ordinary state of our Sea in Cornwall, as to tides, creeks, harbours, and charts ; but indeed the tides are greatly accelerated or retarded, not only by the projection of fo many head-lands, the depths of bays and creeks, and the indraught of the North and South Channels, but by different winds, and yet the moft extraordinary phenomenon which has ever appeared on thefe coats, as far as I can learn, proceeded from neither of thefe causes. On the ift of November, 1755, about two o'clock in the afternoon, the Barometer being at the highest I have noted it for three years paft, Farenheit's Mercurial Thermometer at 54, the fane pointing to the North-Eaft in a flat calm, the Sea, about half an hour after ebb, was observed, at the pier of St. Michael's Mount, to rile suddenly, and then to retire. This attracted the attention of the spectators, and to their great amazement, ten minutes after, the Sea rofe near fix feet, coming in from the South-Eaft extremely rapid ; it then ebbed away with the fame rapidity to the Weftward for about ten minutes, till it was near ,fix feet lower than before ; it then returned again, and fell again in the fame face of time, and continued the agitation, alternately riding and falling, each retreat and advance nearly of the face of ten minutes, till five hours and a half after it began. During this agitation the Seyn-boats, riding at the head of the pier, were whirled fome one way, fome another ; and the fishermen endeavouring to bring fome boats into the pier, they were hurried in and out of the mouth of the pier, as the

Letter to the author frorn Mr. Charles Heydon, Math, instrument-maker, October 3, 1754.

P Sea

/

54 Natural History

Sea advanced and retired, with an impetuofity not to be refitted ; and yet no life, or boat, or fhip was loft. The ftrft and second fluxes and refluxes were not fo violent as the third and fourth, at which time the Sea was as rapid as that of a mill-ftream defending to an under-fhot wheel, and the rebounds of the Sea continued in their full fury for two hours ; they then grew fainter gradually, and the whole commotion ceased about low-water. In Penzance pier, three miles Weft of the Mount, the tide rofe eight feet, and in Newlyn pier, one mile farther Weft, ten feet high, the water coming from the South-Eaft, being as it were accumulated by the Weftern head-lands, which form Gwavas Lake near the laft-mentioned pier ; but no material damage was done at either place. The fame agitation, though somewhat later in the day, was observed in the Northern Channel at the pier of St. Ives, where the highest water rofe betwixt eight and nine feet, and in Heyl Harbour adjoining, one rife was even feet, the reft little more than two y . All this while there was not the left trembling or motion of the earth perceived in any parts near us ; but on the fame day, about ten o'clock in the morning, the moft dreadful Earthquake ever known happened on the Weftern coats of Portugal and Spain. The city of Lifbon was destroyed, 30,000 persons, fome fay more, loft their lives, St. Ubes, Sevil, Cadiz, St. Lucar, Oporto, Faro, were greatly damaged, and many lives loft. Ships ftxty leagues distant from Lifbon, to the Weft, felt the shock in the fame degree as if they had truck upon rocks. The Tagus rofe from ten and twenty to thirty feet perpendicular, ebbing and flowing several times, but every time decreasing ; and between the agitations of the Sea, and the violent fliaking of the earth, the defolations of that country are not to be exprefled, and have never yet been exactly estimated.

What connexion with or relation to thefe violent convulflons on the Continent our little, and (thanks to Providence) momentary agitations of the Sea on the coats of Britain had, 'tis difficult to fay ; but their happening both on the fame day, and within a few hours of one another, the many repeated fluctuations in the river Tagus as here in Cornwall, by alternate wells and linking, the shocks felt on the fame day far to the Weft by several ships ; all thefe circumstances feem to declare very conftftently, that what we felt was either the fainter part of that deplorable shock at Lifbon, or the laft expiring efforts of fome similar fubterraneous struggles farther to the Weft and South- Weft under the Atlantic Ocean. Indeed,

y At Swanfea, in Wales, where their tide is later than with us, and the land farther to the North, the agitation, by the accounts published from thence, was fome hours later, by which it

is more than probable that the momentum of this unusual agitation had its first rife far to the South of us.

it

'

Of Cornwall. 55

it can farce be imagined, that a flock, To far off as the coat of Spain, could be fo immense as to propagate fo violent a motion of the water quite home to tne whores of Britain in lefs than five hours- I mould rather dunk that the fame cause, diffufed in difterent portions through the intestines of the earth, produced several fubfequent lare.actions of the imprisoned vapours; that thefe rarefied tumid vapours affefled the Seas and land above them in proportion to their own power, the dimensions of the caverns they had to extend themselves in, and the fupenour or fainter refiftance of the incumbent preffure. But though at this time no motion of the earth was per-

ceived, nor any noise in the air, yet Cornwall can give a recent lmtance or both.

On Friday the of July, 1757, a violent (hock of an Earthquake was felt m the Weftern parts of Cornwall.

Tne Thermometer had been higher than usual, and the weather hot or calm, or both, for eight days before ; wind Eaft and North-

qu l4t V n tbe mornin the wind drifting to the

South-Weft, the weather ealm and hazy, there was a ftrower the

afternoon hazy and fair, wind North-Weft ; the Barometer moderately high, but the Mercury remarkably variable.

9 11 I 5 t hj in the morning, the wind was fresh at North- Weit, the atmosphere hazy, being on the hands z , half a mile Eaft of Penzance, at ten a. m. near low-water, I perceived, on the surface of the hands, a very unusual inequality ; for whereas there are seldom any unevennefles there, but what are made by the rippling

°£ r u W f e r' , f °' hands ' for abwe a hundred yards square, all full of little tuberc.es (each as large as a moderate mole-hill),

and in the middle a black speck on the top, as if something had

ihued there ; between thefe convexities, were hollow barons of an

equal diameter ; from one of thefe hollows, there ifthed a strong

ruih of water, about the bignefs of a man's wrist, never observed there either before or since.

About a quarter after fix, p. m. the iky du/ky, the wind being at Weft North Weft fell quite calm; about half paft fix, being then in the summer-house at Keneggy, the fat of the Honourable J. Harris, Efq; near Penzance, with fome company, we were fudenly alarmed with a rumbling noise, as if a coach or waggon had pafied near us over an uneven pavement ; but the noise was as loud in the beginning and at the end, as in the middle, which neither the found of thunder or of carriages ever is : the fafh cafements jaime , one gentleman thought his chair moved under him, and the

with Ten oAwel dde ' S T are ™ VCr , ed tide is out afford an area of three miles long, and

et of water j but when the about a furlong wide, of i'moofh, firm hands.

gardener,

5 6 Natural History

gardener, then in the dwelling-house, (about a hundred yards distant from us) felt the stone pavement of the room he was in, move

In what place the shock began, and whether progrefiive or mftantaneous in the several places where it was felt, is uncertain, 01 want of accurately determining the precise point of time in distant

Pk The £hock was not equally loud or violent. Its extent was from the illes of Scilly Eaftward as far as Lifkerd, and towards the North as far as Camelford ; through which diftrid I shall trace it according to the bed informations I could procure.

% the island of St. Mary, Scilly, the shock was violent : on the whores of Cornwall, opposite to Scilly, (in the parish of Scnan, near the Land's End) the noise was heard like that of a spinning- wheel on a chamber-floor : below flairs, there was a cry that the house was {halting ; and the brass pans and pewter rattled one against another in several houses in the fame pariflr. In the adjoining panto of St. Tuft, two young men, being then swimming, felt a strong and very unusual agitation of the Sea. In the town or Penzance, in one house the chamber bell rung, in another the pewter plates, placed edgeways on a shelf, shifted, and Aid to one end of the shelf ; and it was every-where perceived more or lefs, according as

peoples attention was engaged.

At Trevailer, the Seat of William Veale, Efq; about two miles from Penzance, the noise was heard, and thought at first to be thunder : the windows hook, and the walls of the parlour, where Mr. Veale fat, visibly moved. The jarring of the windows continued near half a minute, but the motion of the walls not quite fo long; and feme masons being at work on a contiguous new building the upright poles of the fcaffolds hook fo violently, that, for fear of falling, they laid hold on the walls, which, to their ftill greater furprize, they found agitated in the fame manner ; and a person present, who was at London at the time of the two shocks, in the year 1751, thought this shock to referable the second, both in degree and duration

At Marazion, the next market town Eaft of Penzance, the hou es of several persons hook to that degree, that people ran out into the street, left the houses should fall upon them. In the borough or St. Ives, on the North Sea, fix miles North of Penzance, the lock was fo violent, that a gentleman, who had been at Lifbon during several shocks, faid, that this exceeded all he had met with, except that on the ift of November, 17 5 5 ia tal to that city.

a Letter from William V ealc, Efq;

At

Of Cornwall. 57

At Tehidy, the feat of Francis Baffet, Efq; the rooms hook, and the grounds, without doors, were observed to move. The shock was felt fenfibly at Redruth, St. Columb, Bodman, &c. along to Camelrord, which is about ninety miles from the idles of Scilly. From Marazion, Eaftward, it was felt at several places, in like manner, as tar as Loftwythyel : but at Lifkerd, about ten miles Eaft ofLoftwy-

bu , C fahltl7 P received and that by a few persons : it was still lefs fenfible at Loo and Plymouth, " scarcely sufficient to " excite curiosity or fear b ."

The times of its duration were various. At Keneggy, we thought t e noise could not have lifted above fix seconds ; at Trevailer, not two miles distant to the Weft, it was thought to have lifted near half a minute ; in the parish of Gwynier, half a minute ; at Ludgvan three miles Eaft of Penzance, the noise was rather longer than hdf a minute ; but the shaking felt in the garden, and oblrved in the houses, short and momentary. In Germo great-work, even miles Eaft of Penzance, it lifted only a few seconds ; but in the iiles of Scilly, it was computed at forty seconds.

So was this Earthquake felt in towns, houses, and grounds adjacent; but ftill more particularly alarming in our mines, where there

is lefs refuge, and consequently a greater dread, from the tremors of the earth.

In Carnorth Adit, in the parish of St. Juft, the shock was fenfibly

felt eighteen fathom deep ; in the mine, called Bofcadzhil-downs, more than thirty fathom.

At Huel-ridi mine, in the parish of Lannant, people faw the earth move under them, first quick, then in a flower wavy tremor ; and the stage boards of the little winds or shafts, twenty fathom deep, were perceived to move.

In Herland mine, commonly called the Manor, in the parish of of Gwynier, the noise was heard fifty-five and fifty fathom deep, as if a ftuddle had broke, and the deads d were fet a running : It was nothing like the noise of thunder.

In Chace-water mine, the fame noise was heard, at left seventy fathom under the surface. J

At Huel-rith mine, near Godolphin, the noise was seemingly underneath. I felt (fays the director of the mine) the earth move under me, with a prodigious fvvift, and apparently horizontal tremor ; its continuance was but for a few seconds of time, not like t under, but rather a dull, rumbling, even found, like deads runmng under ground. In the Smith's fhop the window-leaves hook, and the flaring of the house cracked ; the Whim-house hook fo

b Letter from J. Trehawk, Efq; c A timber-support of the deads".

d The loose rubbish and broken stones of the mine.

' terribly;

S 8 Natural History

terribly, that a man there at work ran out of it, concluding it to be falling. Several persons then in the mine, working fifty fathom deep, thought they found the earth about them to move, and heard an uncommon noise: fome heard the noise, and fek no tremor ; others, working in a mine adjoining, called Kuel-Breag, were fo frightened, that they called to their companions above to be drawn up from the bottoms : their moorhoufe was shaken, and the padlock of their candle-chest was heard to (hike against the staples.— To fhew that this noise proceeded from below, and not from any concuffion in the atmosphere above, this very intelligent captain of the mine c observes from his own experience, that thunder was never known to affed the air at fifty fathoms deep, even in a single draft pierced into the hardest done ; much lefs could it continue the found through fuch workings as there are in this mine, impeded in all parts with deads, great quantities of timber, various noises, fuch as the rattling of chains, fridion of wheels and ropes, and dadnng of waters ; all which mud contribute to break the vibrations of the air as they defend : and I entirely agree with this gentleman's conclusion, that thunder, or any other noise from above in the atmosphere, could not be heard at half the depth of this mine. This therefore could be no other than a real tremor of the earth, attended with a noise owing to a current of air and vapour proceeding upwards from the earth.

I do not hear of any person in thofe parts who was fo fortunate as to be near any pool or lake, and had recolle&ion enough to attend to the motion of the waters ; but it may be taken for granted, that, during the tremors of the earth, the duids mud be more affeded than the folds ; nay the waters will apparently be agitated when there is no motion of the earth perceptible, as was the cafe of our ponds and lake- waters in mod parts of Britain, on the id of November 1755 f : whence this comes is difficult to fay ; whether the earth's boom undergoes at fuch times a kind of respiration, and alternately emits and withdraws a vapour through its more porous parts sufficient to agitate the waters, yet not diffident to ffiake the earth ; or whether the earth, during the agitation of the waters, does rock and vacillate, though not fo as to be fendble to man, is what I final! leave to future enquiry.

Earthquakes are very rare in Cornwall ; this was but of ffiort duration, and did no harm any- where, as far as I can learn; and it is to be hoped not the footer forgotten for that reason, but rather remembered with all the impreffions of gratitude suitable to an incident fo alarming and dangerous, and yet fo fearing and inoffenfive.

f Philofophical Tranfaciions, 1756.

Chap.

Mr. John N ancarrow.

O F

Cornwall.

Chap. Vi.

Of the Earths , viz. the Soils , Clays , and Steatites of Cornwall.

T HE vegetable Soils may be diftinguifhed into three forts, the sect i black and gritty, the fnelfy fatty Soil, and the stiff reddish Soil, approaching more to the nature of Clay.

The high eft grounds are covered with the black Soil, and on the sect n tops and fides of hills, it is fo lax and cold, and its falls fo difperfed by the rain and fnow, that where it is dry at bottom it bears nothing but four giafs, mofs, and heath, which is cut up in thin turfs for firing, or at beft, flirt, dwarf, commonly called Cornifh Furze; where me rains have not liberty to run off, bogs (though in Cornwall none dangerous or extensive) and marches are formed : here the Soil is lefs gravelly and deeper, but to be rang'd among the black Soils, and of little other ufe than that it yields a thick brick turf, full of the matted roots of edge-grass, the juncur, and other marfli-plants, which, when thoroughly dryed, make a strong fuel. On the banks of the river Heyl, in the parish of St. Erth, there is a strong clofe-grained turf, which I have feen cut into glebes, ten inches square, and fix deep : they were ranged in the ftde of a moorhoufe 8 as regularly, and almost as clofe, as if they had been squared stones, and made, instead of a hedge, a moft neat wall, if I may fay fo, the corners of the ends, doors, and windows, were fo well turned. This turf has a stiff? white, compact clay under the fine, which gives it its confiftence. In crofts, farther down from the hills, this black Soil serves as wintering for horned cattle, bears good potatoes, rye, and pills, the avena nuda of Ray ; in fields, barley and oats, and serves as pasture for dairy and sheep, especially rearing young bullocks ; but fel- Qom turns to any account when fown with wheat. It is more or lefs charged with gravel, and therefore called by the Cornifh grouan (or gravelly), the earthy parts exceeding light, fo that, in a dry summer, the fun quickly exhales its moisture; and, in a wet ftimmer or winter, the tilled grounds of this fort have much of the vegetable Soil washed away from the grain.

A great part of the Cornifti Soil, especially about the middle of SECT. III. the County, is of a fhelfy, fatty earth. This is reckoned to bear Shelf y Soil - bettei corn, especially wheat ; as alfo a stronger ipine of grass than

A hutt, belonging to a mine, for the shelter of the workmen, and keeping their implements.

the

6o NATURAL HISTORY

the black grouait. Several parts of the County have their vegetable Soil of this mould, but more especially thofe lands which run from Padftow on each fide the Alan on the North Sea, to Fawy on the South, and thence to St. German's, from which diftrid the greatest part of this County's com does proceed. The greatest enemy to this porous foil is drought ; for loose as it is, and perpetually difmiffing part of its moisture through its fhelfy foundation, it will yield the reft to the fun-beams above, after a long intermiflion of rain, by which means both the grass and com suffer ; but droughts of any continuance are fo rare in Cornwall, that the hufbandmen in thofe parts have seldom any reason to complain.

sect. iv. The reddish, Loamy Soil is of closer texture, consequently retains

The Loamy, the moisture of rain, the falls it receives from the higher grounds, the petrified parts of plants and animals, and the bounty of manures, much longer than the Soils above-mentioned : it is not indeed fo foon heated and animated (if I may fo fay) by the fun; but as the spring and warm weather advance, it retains the influence of of the day, notwithstanding the interpofttion of the night, in fome degree, till the day comes on again, and ripens crops much sooner than the blacker and loofer Soil. This Soil is moft common on level grounds and gentle declivities.

: Thefe three forts of Soil are not always equally and specifically

diftind from each other, but in different places are fo mixed, that the black partakes more or lefs of the red, the red of the black, and the flat of either, or both ; neither are they found always in separate peculiar tracts, but oftentimes fo interlaced, that one, viz. the higher part of a tenement or barton, fliall be of one Soil, and the lower and more champagne of a quite different. The attentive hufbandman will eaftly diftinguifh them, and the discreet and induftrious will appropriate to each of them its proper culture. To the black and fatty Soils, stiff, earthy, and calcarious manure, fuch as may warm, strengthen, and consolidate ; but to the red and Loamy, every kind of manure that may loosen, quicken, and open it. Their management therefore muft be different, and the product and fertility, c ceteris paribus, will be in proportion to the depth of the foil, and as the bottom on which that Soil rests contributes to remedy and countered the natural defers of the Soil above : if the loose foil has a clofe clay bottom, this latter will retain the necefiary moisture ; and if the defer and more compad Soils have a fhelfy, open bottom, this will further its fertility by draining off the superfluous moisture below. As to the reft, circumstances will vary without end, and beyond rule ; and where theory cannot reach, experience will decide.

Dr.

Of Cornwall.

Dr. Plot h is fond of attributing the fertility of earth to the warm fleas arising from metals and minerals below ; but the fterility ( may be great, where metals and minerals abound, of which no place 1 perhaps affords more frequent instances than Cornwall ; for here the coarfeft grounds abound moft in metals, and on the other hand, there is the greatest plenty of corn, grass, plants and trees, where no metals or minerals have ever appeared.

To align any one general cause of the fertility of the earth, would be to build upon too narrow a bottom ; one of the greatest prodigies oi nature is, that earth fliould aftiime fo many shapes, and nourifh, and constitute fuch a variety of bodies : we know by experience, that many materials muft concur, and that fome are more prolific than others, but by what process, earth is transformed into nourishment, we cannot fo much as guess. Earth is the general food and amen oi all bodies, yet of itself we know it can do nothing ; it muft be connected by a cement, or it cannot form stone ; it muft be softened and attenuated by moisture and warmth, or it cannot enter into the alimentary veftels of plants and animals. By experiment indeed, it appears, that the consumption of that Earth, in which trees are planted, is not great, nor at all proportionable to the perfpiration and increaftng bulk of thofe trees ; yet muft not Earth be denied its due share in vegetation ; the parts of Earth which constitute the folds of any plants are extremely fine, and all the water we pour, or rain that falls on plants, is well flocked with thofe fine, earthy parts, now the common mafs in which we plant trees, is for the moft part Gravel, Clay, and Sand, which promote vegetation, but are too grows to enter into, and become the constituent parts of plants, and therefore cannot much decrease in weight or bulk : water muft therefore be considered as the vehicle of more solid nourishment, and the parent of the fluids : the earths, falls, and oils, are the great instruments of the increase of folds. To trace fertility a little farther : When the earth is softened and diluted, heat rarefies and evaporates the mixture; the falls contained and diflolved, are always active, and promote motion ; the elasticity of the air quickens and continues it ; the oils fupple the paflages, of which fome, are noted to fecrete, arrest, and deposit the nutritious particles as they pals ; fome adapted ( by the fame secret hand which conducts every part oi the operation) to throw off the redundant moisture by perfpiration : the more earthy mixture compotes the haid and solid parts, and the genial, little atmosphere of every plant gives spirit, colour, odour, and taste. Herbs and fruit, being thus led and maturated, make the earth they contain better pre-

h Oxfordshire, page 57, 58, &c. Dr. Hales's Vegetable Statics.

62 Natural History

pared to pafs into the (till more curious and highly organized parts of animals. It is eafy to fee that this is rather a detail of the several materials and well-known instruments conducing to fertility, than the cause ; fertility is owing to the concert, fitness, and agreement of all thefe (with perhaps fome volatile, a&ive principle, of which we know nothing at all); but whence that agreement does result, how the materials ferment, replace, connect, and invigorate one another, how the veflels chute and refuse (if I may fay fo) in order to produce the fertility defined, is known only to the infinitely wife Difpofer of all things, ever attentive to the nurture and support of what he has created.

But to whatever cause the fertility of Earth is to be afiigned, Earth, it muff be owned, is a moll fruitful, universal element; animals, plants, metals, and stones, arise out of it, and return to it again ; there, as it were, to receive a new existence, and form new combinations ; the ruins and diffolution of one fort affording Hill more and more apt materials for the more plentiful production of others : in stones and metals, we admire the continuity, hardness, and luftre of Earth ; in plants, the foftnefs, variety, colours, and odour; in animals, the flesh, the bone, and yet an infinite number of different fluids, in which this fupple element can take place ; but the greatest wonder is, that Earth is capable of being fubtilized to fuch an exquisite degree, as by uniting and communicating with Ipirit to perform all animal functions given in charge to it by the foul. This is the highest and utmost refinement which, in this state of being, Earth is capable of ; but that it may be ftill farther refined, in order to be qualified for a future, incorruptible, and more glorious state, is one of the great truths which we owe to Revelation.

sect. vn. In our mines, we often find the Ochrous Earths of metals, the

Chlk d ru % Ochre of iron, which we, in Cornwall, call Gojjan , the green

brown' an and blue Ochres of copper, the pale yellow Ochre of lead k , the Earth. brown yellow of tin, and the red Ochre of Bifmuth ; thele Earths we call the feeders of the metals they belong to, and where they are found, the metals are generally, and very juftly reckoned not to be far off'. Chalk is scarcely yet discovered any where in Cornwall, but I have fuch a sample by me (though of a coarse gritt), brought from the parish of St. Clare, as may convince us that more may be found than is imagined upon a diligent search ; a lump of smooth Earth, brought me from the parish of Illogan, of a chocolate colour, was

k I have fome lumps of this from Gwynier downs, which, in its natural state, mixes well with oil, and makes a (hade betwixt the common light and brown Ochre ; neither fo bright as the former, nor fo ruddy and warm as the latter ;

but more upon the pink. This therefore might probably be introduced into painting with advantage, as it is solid, and will not fly off (as the painters fay) as the brown pink, being a transparent colour, will.

fpeckled

Of Cornwall. 6 „

SeSls'n v thrOUgh ° Ut With a t dgbt ? eIW ° chre and a little cneanous Clay : m water it would not diffolve, nor remain fuf-

1 ° ded , but ,'° r a iew minutes; when wetted, fluck fall to and coloured the fingers : I then ground it on a Hone with faff water and it made as good warm bejlo for drawing as that made

ii'~t h !)™ e a fine foot y colour to paper.

After this I ground it with Iinfeed oil, and upon laying it thick

on the canvas, I found it mixed well with white, not at ah cracking

or .lying off, and that it made a colour equal, and even fuperiour to

burnt-umber, which, though a neceffary colour in painting, is very

raw, harsh, and corrosive, and requires much Ikill to often and

correa its afpenties; and I am apt to think, that this natural

Larth may with great fuccefs be fubftituted in its room ; when call

into the fne, this earth made no more crackling than might be

expected from the air mclofed in a porous body: fprinklcd on a

red-hot iron, it emitted no ill fell : keeping it in die fire till it

was red-hot it was not affefled by the magnet, either then or

, vit 7 e ' r but fcen ' lng to hare acquired a little rednefs, I wetted it noth water yet found 1 it ft.ll to retain its tejlo and brown-umber colour. With aqua fortis it made not the left effervefcence I never faw but one lump of it : it is certainly a valuable earth for painting in oil, as well as in water-colours.

"There are strata of clay for making bricks in fo many Diaces that there , hardly a parish, seldom a large tenement SioC ,' S "' though more generally found in the low and level lands than in the '

huly, and not fo often near the Hatty Soil as the loamy. Of white clays m Cornwall we have great quantities, and fome very useful.

I he following are the moll remarkable which have reached my notice : A white clay there is found in the parish of St. Agnes, which has been ufed for making tobacco-pipes; but either not proving fo good, or not fo easily procured, (as it mull come from thence by land-carnage) it is at present difufed ; and in the Weftern

iZTCt'L'SrS ' T

In the tenement of Amalebreh, in the parish of Tewidnek', twenty feet under the surface, there is a Jlratum of white clay. Immerfed m fair water, it imbibed the water fo greedily, that K " f a h,m "8 effervefcence, diffolved easily into a paste, and the r 'kim ec me ; after llirring, the land mixed with the clay

Th 1 ] 5 Vin § irce e ighths of the glebe fufpended in the water, arger lands or gravels were transparent, about the bignefs of a

1 That is, belonging to St. Ewine.

pepper-

6 4 Natural History

pepper-corn, and plainly a congeries of smaller crystals cemented together into a lump : their angles were somewhat blunted, but the smaller gravels or hands were quite angular ; mixed with dm gravel, was a good deal of leafy talc, which, in the microscope, appeared as fo many lammce of crystal. The three eighths fufpended in the water, and left to fettle, deposited an exceeding white clay ; it whitens the fingers, flicks to the tongue, is extremely smooth to the touch, taftlefs, a little gritty between the teeth, owing to the smaller grains of talc, which never defeated the Clay during the depuration. Being of fo fair a colour, I ground fome of it with nut oil, but it loft its whiteness, and became fat, and of a dove colour : with linfeed oil it grew much more yellow, fo that it will not, as a colour, be fit for painters ; with aqua fortis it makes not the left effervefcence, but revolves into a paste ; put into a fierce fire, and kept there four hours and forty minutes, it neither vitrified nor altered its colour, and acquired no more hardness than is neceffary for paftils for drawing. As this Clay separates fo easily from its fand, has much talc, (and therefore will not vitrify) and the purest colour, it may poftibly, both without as well as with its fand, upon different occasions, be a very useful ingredient for making porcelain ; at present, in its natural state, it serves only to make bricks for melting-houses, enduring the moft intense fire of the furnace better than any other within equal reach of the workmen. By its diffolving fo readily in water, it may be a kind of marie, and useful as a manure.

sect. ix. There is a Jlratum of clay not very different from the foregoing

Trewren m the tenement of Trewren, in the parish of Madern : it lefifts the

" !a - ' fire well, and is ufed by the melters for the fame puipofe as that

above, but is not near fo white, smooth, and foft j by burning a small quantity of it, it appears more tenacious, and fitter for stone and potters ware, being reduced into a very hard dome by my study fire. There are many other whitifh Clays m in Cornwall of much the fame nature as thole already mentioned. I have only to remark, that in the heart of the bed of clay found at Amelebreh, there are fome scattered tony glebes of red earth, like the Rubrica of Pliny, and the Miltos of the Greeks. I immersed this ruddle in water, but it would not diffolve : upon grinding it, the tony part was hard and gravelly, but being well ground down with clarified linfeed oil, it made a very good red, and mixed kindly with white, making a good flesh colour, and though laid on thick on the canvas, would not start, nor alter its colour ; fo that a better

m As at Tregonin Hill in Breag, at Treaffo in Ludgvan, in the parish of St. Enodor, and near the town of Loflwythyel, &c.

red

Of Cornwall. 65

red, for all the purposes of red Ochre, cannot well be expected to come from the ground. It may feem somewhat strange that glebes of Earth, of fo red a colour, should be found Icattered in a body of clay fo white and pure ; but nature, as well under ground as above, is ftill various ; and the more we prosecute our researches, the more subjects we may expect to meet with which will excite our admiration, and convince us of our ignorance. One thing however may be observed, that thefe red and white clays are very different in nature as well as colour ; one, viz. the red, mixing well with oil, and not with water ; the other, as greedily imbibing water, and not enduring oil. If thefe fo different fubftances therefore are now found in their original beds, as is moft likely, the red muff have been repelled on all fides by the white, and compa&ed together by the attraction of its own similar parts.

In the parish cf St. Kevran there is a yellow clay, which, for sect. x. catting silver, brass, or lead, is reckoned to exceed every thing of Q a evan its kind in thefe parts.

In the parish of Lannant there is a yellow clay much coveted for sect.xl building furnaces : 'tis carried off to Briftol and Wales, and other Lannant places, in fuch quantities every year, that Humphry Mackworth Cla> ' Praed, Eiq; owner of the Soil, makes above 100 pounds per annum of this clay, communibrn annis ; and from January 1757, to Midfummer following, received for it 150 pounds. Bricks made of this clay melt and vitrify in the Ere, running into one foiid body ; but afterwards never ftir till quite calcined, enduring the mod; intense fire beyond any bricks ufed for like purposes.

There is a yellow fandy clay in the Vorlas, near the Long Bridge, sect.xii. in the parish of Ludgvan, good for bricks and plaifter ; and in fome Ludgvan parts of the fame pit, a fine blue clay, which, being well mixed with Cla> ' white, (fuch as the Amalebreh before- mentioned) makes an excellent lute for affaying. This blue clay vitrifies presently, but the white will scarce vitrify at all ; neither of thefe clays is therefore proper for luting the crucible separately taken, but mixed they corredl one another, and there is no better compofition for the allay furnace.

Near the borough of Lilkerd there is found in great plenty a sect. xiij. yellow fatty clay of a fine earth; it feels and cuts smooth, and with a Lifkerd Clay, good polish, and the colour was as fine to the eye as the Naples yellow v ; but, upon trial, it would not mix with oil ; it grew fat and greasy ; it is therefore a ffeatites. It is good for grass ; for a

S gentleman

A light beautiful yellow earth, much esteemed in painting.

SECT. XIV. Steatites.

66 Natural History

gentleman having made a walk, and laid this clay as a cement, found the grass to grow moft plentifully : it might prove perhaps, upon farther trial, a marie, as proper for corn as grass ; but the ufefulnefs of marie is little known in Cornwall.

There is a white fteatites*, in the parish of Guenap, of a more indurated Earth than the former : but the moft curious of all our clays in Cornwall, is the fleatites near the Lizherd, generally called the Soap-rock. As the situation of this curious fofiii, and its pofttion in the Earth, has been wholly mistaken °, I shall be the more particular as to the place and other circumstances. The first place where it appears, is at Kynans Cove, one mile and half North- Weft of the Lizherd : here is very little of the fteatites, and fo far are the cliffs from being composed of it, that it was with difficulty we found any ; but 'tis rare to find a place where a Naturalift would have been more delighted, if he had found none. The way down from the hill is extremely rough and narrow, there being but a path of few inches tread, made by the horses which carry fand ; from this path you enter a moft lonely cove, the fand of which is of a mixed colour, partly light-blue, partly glittering. Thefe hands are difperfed in many turning and winding paflages among rocks and vaft maffes of cliff - , which the fea has unfooted and separated from the high-lands adjoining. The fandy walks lead to many grotts, which are polished too often by the tides to afford any cavernous plants ; but at the foot of the rocks, many barons or baths of crystal water are formed in the hands by the eddy of the waves. There is sprinkled in fome places a ffnooth un&uous incruftation, much like bees-wax to the eye and touch, of which the crevices in the rocks (generally no wider than the twentieth of an inch) are full. This incruftation does not appear to be any exfudation through the pores of the rock, but rather washed out of the crevices, and returned by the waves, till it flicks faft, and forms a kind of enamel upon the fides of the rocks. On the Eaftern fide of this cove, the rocks in general are more gritty and crumbling, and between them fome few and small veins of the white and red marbled clay, one fort of that which we call Soap- rock. But the purest and greatest plenty of the fteatites is about a mile farther to the North, where defending into a narrow valley, about 200 paces from the top of the hill, we found, on our left-hand, a ft raw-coloured, foft, greasy clay, mixed with brown-red, laid bare by the tumbling-down of the green fod which covered it. This course of clay was about a yard thick, easily cut

Steatites is a clay called fo from its refer- ward's Cat. vol. I. page 6 . " The cliff of the blance to tallow ; in Greek, teko. " Lizard-point is almost wholly composed of it,

0 " A considerable part of the cliff, near the cc and the adjacent little islands abound with it." Lizard-point, confifts of this earth." Wood- Hill's Hift. of Follils, page 22.

by

Of Cornwall. 67

by a knife, and compreffed by the hand ; as we walked a few yards farther down, the left hand cliff became a perpendicular solid face of black hard done, at the foot of which was a channel or vein about eight feet over, of the deatites, of different colours, milkwhite, draw coloured, and veined with green, ruddy, and purple.

There are alfo in this wide course, several dony fubdances, of no affinity to the deatites : as we came farther down, and nearer to the level of the fea, we observed the vein of deatites, contracted into a course fourteen inches wide, but of more uniform confidence, the solid rock making a smooth wall for it on either fide : there is a small vein or two more in the fide of this cliff, and the several forts of deatites, contained in all the veins, which I have examined here, and at the forementioned cove are as follow :

N°. I. The pure white, is a clofe-grain'd gloffy clay, diffolves foon sect.xv. in water, is tadelefs, dicks a little to the tongue, deposits a yel- Different lowidi pulpy settlement at the bottom, above which a cloud of the £2°' Stea fined parts continues fufpended ; mixed with oil, it becomes greasy; tis alfo too fat to make a body of colour for painting in water, and makes no effervefcence with aqua fortis. It is very abforbent, and takes spots out of filk, without injuring the colour, and is poffibly the fame, which Biffiop Pontoppidan calls the u white Talc-done,

" of fuch a whiteness, that it is ufed in Norway for powder, as it tc may be pulverized into an impalpable finenefs." This is carefully feieCted from the other forts of clay, barrelled up, and almond wholly engroffed, by people employed under the managers of the porcelain manufactures.

N°. II. A white, dry, chalky earth, dicks wrongly to the tongue, tadelefs, diffolves easily in water into a pulp, with acids makes no effervefcence.

N°. III. fhe fame chalky earth equally mixed with a red earth ; its water ruddy, like red chalk ; its deposit more gritty than the foregoing : makes no effervefcence with acids.

N .IV. The next fort of this clay is very white, clouded here and there, but not veined, with purple. It diffolves in water with more difficulty than N°. I. and tinges the water with purple ; as to the red agreeing in all its properties with N°. I. This is probably the cimolia purpurafcens , or ad purpurijfum inclinans of Pliny, lib. xxxv. chap. xvii.

N°. V. A gloffy, pearl-coloured, hard clay, approaching nearly to the confidence of a white opaque fpar ; foon cleaves itself into granules when immersed in water, yet diffolves no farther ; but with water grinds foon into a defh-coloured milky pulp : 'tis much harder than foap and wax, faws free and greasy ; there is a more dony variety of

68 Natural History

this clay, and more fpeckled with purple, fo that you can scarce break it with a hammer ; and I find that the more there is of the purple in any sample, the more hard, and lefs ready to diffolve in water. But the mod: curious of this fort, which I have feen, was discovered here in 1755 ; it is of a texture fo clofe and fine, that after it is cut or scraped, it remains as smooth, and of as high a polish, as the beft porcelain does after it is burnt. It has an incruftation of green amianthos on the fide of the lode, which in my specimen was the twelfth part of an inch thick ; and is the moll beautiful fofiil of this kind I have feen. This may be the Galactites of the ancients, at leaf! it is much of the lame nature.

N°. VI. A fat mafs of fteatites, its coat or Ikin about half an inch thick, of a waxen texture, of a brown-yellow or deep amber colour, it's interior strong purple, interlaced with a paler, more cinereous purple, the whole veined with a whitifh fteatites, exactly as to the exterior, like the purple Plymouth marble ; it diftolves into a pulp sooner than the foregoing number.

N°. VII. In the lode (or vein), near the top of the cliff, I find a kind of green gritty chalk, which may be compreffed with the grasp of the hand, divides in water easily, and diftolves into a clammy pulp. In the more regular and contracted lode below, I find the green making a tony course of about an inch wide, its taste brackilh ; immersed in water, it divides into angular granules ; it is the moft solid and hardest of any yet mentioned, whence I conclude that the green fteatites, which is tender, gritty, and pulpy above, becomes more compact in the contracted vein below ; its parts attracting one another more forcibly where they have not room to spread into a loose incoherent state, consequently the narrower the mold, cleft, or vein, the more clofe, hard, and tony the included fubftance becomes ; and if this stone proves harder ftill underneath, as is not unlikely, it will thereby become the more valuable '.

N°. VIII. A deeper purple, and more tony fteatites, from the lame cliffs ; but whether from the principal lode, uncertain. It has fo much of the nature of stone, that it does not well, nor decompound in water, as the foregoing numbers. Being fo tony, I tried to get a good colour from it by grinding it in oil ; it was very difficult to bruise, but when ground fine was too greasy for painting.

N°. IX. A blackifh kind of fteatites, the vein about an inch thick, it's exterior smooth and glofiy, it's interior veined and spotted with N°. V, its texture clofe, corneous, and approaching in the main to a dark flint, and as hard as flint it was to grind, but it will not give fire with feel ; being ground down it became of a good

0 This fort approaches very near to the Moroch- N°. XH. Perhaps it is fotne of the green Ami-

tus of the ancients. Hill's Catalogue, page 22, anthos.

burnt

OF CORNWALL. 6 y

burnt umber colour, but, like the reft, too fat for painting. This is however much coveted, and barrelled up for London, the reasons concealed, but for the porcelain likely, or glass manufaflure, or both. In tne fame vein there is a small course of real fpar (very unusual in our Cornifh lodes) about three fourths of an inch thick,

N ° f ' This f P ar lies not m a solid lode, but in a lhattery teffellated irate, like fo many dies, loose and fide by fide ; it ferments immediately with aqua fortis ; is fubtranlparent, and breaks into quadrangular prifms, the bafe a Rhombus.

Thefc are all the forts of this foffil, which I have discovered near the Lizherd, and in Cornwall we call the produds of all thefe veins Soap-rock, and though the tender clays can with no propriety be called fo, yet indeed, the three laft forts may be as moperly termed fo as fteatites, they having no more of fuet in them 'than they have of foap. Both names are equally founded upon the

Of this foffil learned men have thought differently, and given us very different accounts, owing, as I ffiould think, to their not being Jufficiently furnished at one and the fame time with the various forts which theie cliffs afford. Dr. Grew, in his Mu feu m, R. S page

321, seems to have had before him only N°. VI. which has indeed all the colours, white, red, purple, and green, ( the purple predominant) is hard as fuet, and has ftriated fibres, like the Amianthos.

Dr. Woodward, in his Catalogue of Foffils, vol. I. page 6. has faintly defended. IV. VI. VIII. but it muft not be denied, that he first recommends, at leaf! as far as I have feen, this foffil earth for the porcelain manufacture p . Dr. Hill (Natural Hffiory of Foffils, page 22) has more fully noted the properties of the laft-mentioned numbers, but seems to have had none of the reft in his reach, as is evident by his giving the general name of Cimolia purpurafeens ; whereas several varieties have not the left purple tinCture. Another learned Naturalift thinks he can prove it to be the Parzetonium of Pliny, (lib. xxxm chap. 5) not the Cimolia, and indeed it is moft likely that the white and purest N°I. may be the Paratonium ; but I do not, I muft own, fee the ufe of difputing, what was the Cimolia, or any other earth, clay, or stone of the ancients, for it is well known, that one ingredient, or property either quite omitted, or not well charaCferifed, will throw us into an uncertainty whether i ings are the fame 01 not ; besides, the deferiptions of the ancients are not always fo well understood (if they were at first accurate) as to be eci ive -' an< n climates and ages fo distant, many things may appeal to be like, which are eflentially much otherwise. Such disputes

p Ibid.

T

therefore

7 0 Natural History

therefore, may be of consequence to modern fyftems, but to real natural knowledge, of very little importance j foi if fucii earths are not the fame with thofe described by the ancients, this will not discourage the modems from experiments upon all fpecious, likely earths ; and if they really are the fame, yet literary defections are fo easily mistaken, that no cautious physician, fkilful painter, dyer, polilher, or other artist, will apply thofe earths, clays, or stone, to the ufes aligned by the ancients, without making fuch particular and accurate trials of thofe fubftances as they may depend upon.

SECT. XVI. As to the ufes of this fteatites, that it is abforbent, and takes Ipots

Ufes of the from cloth and filk, has been already mentioned in the account of N°. I. and if the other harder forts of it were pulverifed and reduced to a paste, is doubtless true of all : but this is not owing to any foap in its compofition ; for as it has neither oil nor fait % it can be no foap : it is owing to the attraction of its parts, which will imbibe grease, oil, and unCtuous mixtures, in the lame manner as Fuller's earth, when it cleans fluffs and woollen cloth of the like impurities. It is very good for polishing.

Soap-earth is in great esteem in the bagnios of Barbary for cleaning and ffoftening the Ikin ; but whether found in veins, or in a more difperfed state, this learned gentleman ' has not mentioned.

Near Smyrna there is a fine whitifh foap-earth, which bubbles up, and boils out of the ground an inch or two thick above the surface. Of this earth, boiled with oil, they make, at Smyrna, foap in great quantities, annually employing 10,000 kintals of oil in that manufacture, and a thousand camels every day in carrying off this foapearth: but I would observe, that if our earth could answer the fame purpose (for, though it is not foap, it may prove a proper ingredient for making it) we have not oil in plenty sufficient for fuch a manufacture. The principal property of our foap-earth is, that it withftands the fire in a wonderful manner ; and though, when taken out of its bed, it appears in fo many different colours, yet the fcrapings of every kind (excepting the moft tony numbers, VII. VIII. IX.) "are white, gloffy, and transparent, and become whiter ftill in the fire ; it is owing to the different portions of talc and amianthos which it contains, that this earth prevents vitrification, and makes porcelain ware more tough and tenacious. But what are the particular effects of fire on this clay, and how the forts are to be mixed, can only be learnt from long and daily attendance at the fires ; and the makers of porcelain ware muft be much better Ikilled in this, than a few trials can poflibly make the beft affayer. I will

9 Letter from Dr. Gronovius of Leyden to the author, in 1737*

c Shaw, Trav. page 236.

only

Of Cornwall. ?1

only observe, that if thefe veins of the deatites were dug deeper, and searched more effectually, the dony forts might be found in larger maffes, and not fo fhattery as they are now, (and mod other stones indeed are near the surface) if fo, they would make very pretty vafes, &c. at a small expence: in particular, N°. V. would make a fine fubftance for small butts and heads ; and the green done, N . V II, might yield a kind of forpentine marble at a proper depth, it being in fome parts of the cliff exceeding hard, and not near of fo firm a confidence any where above, as it is fome fathoms lower down in the vein

That this, as well as other clays, is Freaked and variegated, is owing to the mixture and infinuation of differently coloured, moiftened and diffolved portions of earth. Hence the various colours of veined marble, colours infected, during the liquefcent date of marbles, by the concourfe of differently faded earths. Some are fond of attributing the different dreams in clays to fome mineral underneath, which fends up its dreams, and fo changes and impregnates the clay , but if thefe dreams do not exhibit any proof of a mineral impregnation, as I imagine they oftentimes do not, then thefe variegations cannot be owing to the cause affigned ; and indeed even where thefe dreams appear to be impregnated, I should rather chufc to attribute the alteration to the mineral or metallic particles brought downwards by rain or brook, than upwards by deam ; for though mineral dreams will rife into the air and water, and the vacuities or done, yet this accent cannot be copious enough to impregnate bodies of clay ten, twenty, and thirty fathom deep : the truth is, we cannot always fay what particular colours are primarily owing to ; but we find by experiment, that portions of different coloured earth, reduced to a thin pade, poured gently into one veffel at different times, will produce veins and eddies in clay ; and doubtless the fame process gave the dreams to clays and marbles.

Chap. Vii.

Of the Sands in Cornwall.

C ORNWALL, surrounded as it is on the South, Wed, and sect.i.

North, by the Sea, has perhaps a greater variety of fea-hands Sands, the than any County in Great Britain ; fo many fandy coves it has on o°rigine? d

Since my writing the above, I find the following paffage in Bilhop Pontoppidan's Natural Hiitory of Norway, Part i. " Of the dark-green tt s bkewife ufed for calling variety

°f foy es ' t have feen images, and other kinds of sculpture with as fine a polish, and in every

" refpedl as lightly, as if of marble or serpentine j " yet the latter would have taken up thrice the " labour and time, for the talc stone, especially of " a good kind is worked much easier than wood itself."

1 Dr. Plot, Oxfordfliire, page 58, he.

every

SECT. IT. Natural.

Sect. Iii.

Factitious

laud.

72 Natural History

every fide, and the hands generally diffe-ent from one another : but before we come to examine the hands in- Cornwall, their varieties, and the ufes they are put to there, home particulars relating to hand in general, it's origin, shape, and places where we find it, will deserve our enquiry.

By fand we mean a loose incoherent congeries of pebbles, of no certain uniform fize or figure ; transparent more or lefs, of various colours, usually turning red in common fire, and in flronofire reducible into glass.

I shall confider hands either as natural or factious. By natural hands I mean thofe, which have been in the fame, or nearly the fame state from the creation, diffufed through all parts of the earth. Sand viewed in a microscope is no more than a parcel of little Hones, doubtless therefore they mull have begun to exist, and been formed by the fame laws that Hones were formed by ; now Hones were formed at firfl into hard solid maffes, in proportion to the quantity of similar materials and proper cement, and as they were divided more or lefs by dilfimilar adjacent bodies ; where there was a great quantity or lapideous particles and few heterogeneous mixtures, there Hrata, rocks, and large Hones were formed ; but where the lapideous particles were more scattered and difunited by the intervention of other bodies, there finall rubble, Hones, gravel, gritty, and the fmalleH and mofi numerous of all Hones, fand, did coalefce into thofe minute glebes which we at present find them in. This probably was the process in every part of the earth ; fo that fand is one of the primceval bodies, concreted at the fame time with Hones upon the higheH mountains, as well as in the valleys, and at the bottom of the fea, as well as upon dry land. Without queflion, thefe minute portions of Hone, which we call fand, were at firH of as different textures, hardness and foftnels, as the refl of Hones, and from the fame cause ; but thofe of a foft and tender fubflance, became, in process of time, resolved into their earths, whilH thofe of a firmer Hrudure, fuch as fpar, flint, and cryflal, fubfifl to this very day, and are the present hands and gritty.

Befides this natural land, there is alio a factitious one, which owes its origin to the fretting of river or fea-water ; for water, always in motion, preys upon the Hones, and grinds them by degrees into that Hony powder which we call fand : hence it is that the fand of a particular Ihore, cove, or bay, has generally the lame colour, and in a microscope the lame HruCture as the rocks and Hones of the adjacent cliffs, and the Hrata under the fea, upon which the waves are perpetually working, and driving in to the whore what they dalh off

Of Cornwall. 73

from thofe strata. Hence the hands at Ch'andour creek, near Penzance, and thence to Marazion, are of a pale-blue colour, like the rocks at Ch'andour, and the fhingle on the ftrand ; and on the islands of Scilly, it is a bright-coloured shining hand, made for the moft part of the talc and crystals of that granite, commonly called Moorftone, which edges all thefe islands ; and the fame may be faid of moft other parts of Cornwall, where we have hands, reddish, yellow, bright and blue, according as stones of each particular hue prevail in the lands adjoining. This factitious fand is fo like the natural, that it is extremely difficult to diftinguilh them one from another ; and it is very likely, that they may have been fo mixed at the time of the Deluge, that the factitious is often taken for the natural at land, and the natural as erroneously reckoned among the factitious on the banks of rivers, and on the whores of the fea.

In hands there is no uniformity of shape : every fort conftfts of particular hands of various shapes; fome round, fome angular, home nodulous ; nay, what is more extraordinary, the fea-fand, which may be faid to be in perpetual motion, has, notwithstanding this, innumerable little angular points, as if it had never been in the fea at all ; and the hands about London, and in Northamptonfhire, Oxfordftiire, and the midland counties, have abundance of particles almost globular, which would make one believe, that they had buffered the agitation of the fea. Having compared a small kind of moorftone fand, found among the white clay of Amalebreh u , three miles from any fea, with the fea-fand of Scilly, I rather thought the land- fand more angular than that of the fea, and it felt rougher ; but the difference in the microscope was inconfiderable ; fo that the difference in shape, betwixt hands of the fame fize, is not decisive or charaCteriftic : the truth is, the smaller the fand, the more it escapes the trituration of the waters, and the purer and harder the crystal is of which the parts are composed, the lefs is the attrition, and vice vera. Upon viewing the larger fort of Amalebreh hands, I find them full of little angular proceffes forming gritty, which do not appear to have undergone any diminution ; but upon viewing the larger fea-hands, their extremities are all obtuse, plainly manifefting, that they have been rounded by the force of waters. As to the oval and globular hands, found at land, whatever cause it was that formed flints and pebbles into a round or nodulous figure (which, in the chapter of the formation of stones, we shall more properly enquire into) formed alfo the fame figure of thofe hands which we find at a great distance from the fea and rivers.

Sect.

Shap

Mentioned before, page 63.

u

But

Natural History

SECT. V. Place.

Sect. Vi.

Some quick, and why.

But the uncertainty arising from the shape of hands is Hill increased by the variety of places in which we find them, and the different manners in which they are difpofed in their several places. There is scarce any vegetable foil or clay but has its portion of fand, hardly a gravel-pit, though in ever fo inland a country, but has fand in it : many strata of stone have fome fand above them. Great part of the bottom of the fea is covered with fand ; the whore is fringed with it, especially where the brim of the fea is shallow, and the ftrand does not dip too fall : and fome countries, not only on the borders of the fea, but whole region s ? for fome hundreds of miles, have nothing but this dreary covering w , and are therefore called the Delarts. We find it alfo in couples and strata lometimes ; but what is moft furprizing of all, we find thofe hands, which undoubtedly came from the fea, in strata or layers on the tops of the highest hills. The question, well worthy of every Naturalift's enquiry, is. How hands came to be fo universally and yet fo irregularly difpofed ? I ftiall confine myself to the moft remarkable appearances of fand in this county. Sand, in our vegetable foil and clay, is common every where, and may be reckoned among natural lands. In Cornwall the natural fea-fand is found in much more plenty in the north chanel, than in the South : from the mouth of Heyl, in Penwith, along to Bude-haven, Cornwall has loft a great deal of arable ground on the Northern coat by means of the blown fea-fand, which is ftill increasing in the parishes of St. Ives Lannant, Philac, Gwythien, St. Agnes, Piran Sand, Carantoc, Cuthbert, Padftow, and the fand Ipreads every where but where the height of the cliff protects the lands from its invasion. On the South we have no lands over-run by the fand ; fo that either a greater quantity of it is lodged by nature in the north chanel than in the South, (one part of the bottom of the fea being as naturally liable to be more fandy as to be more rocky than another) or the river Severn brings down, with its muddy waters, a great quantity of earth and natural fand ; the earth is diflipated, or rests in flickered beds, the fand is driven by tide and wind upon the whores, and thence upon the land. In the South chanel there is no fuch quantity, or at left fuch a continual accretion of fand ; and therefore no fuch desolation.

Of Sands on the fea-whore, fome are always quick and dangerous, fome are only occasionally fo. Thofe lands which are always finking and unsafe to tread on, confift of a layer of fand spread on the tops

As ia Arabia, Lybia, See.

of

Of Cornwall. 75

of bogs x ; and where this covering is thin, the hands are dangerous in proportion to the depth of the bogs underneath. Where the hands are only quick at particular times, as at Heyl in Penwith, and on the brand betwixt Penzance and Marazion, and elsewhere, the alteration is owing to wind and fea : in calm weather, hands fettle, grow firm and compact ; but a violent stormy fea will ftir and shift the jlratum of fand, condenfe and accumulate it in fome places, and in others leave the jlratum fo rare and diluted, that it cannot bear the weight of man or horse, which muft therefore fink into thofe places whence the fand is dilperfed, till they come to that which has not yet been moved by the form.

In fome places, but particularly in the parish of Conflantine, sect, vil in Cornwall, may be observed a jlratum of gritty large-grained fand, m spread under the vegetable foil, on the top of the Jlrata of moorftone ; for that our moorftone lies in jlrata , notwithstanding any aftertions to the contrary, will be fufiiciently proved in the following pages. This fand is exactly of the fame colour and fubftance as the moorftone below it ; fo that, till it is furred from its natural position, to the eye it appears as moorftone. Some Naturalifts have fuppofed this fand to have been fretted off from the moorftone, on which it lies, by the waters of the universal Deluge ; but ( fuppofing the waters of the Deluge of sufficient force to have effected fuch a separation, which is far from being agreed upon) upon examination, thefe fandy particles in a microscope feem too sharp and angular to have undergone fuch a trituration : besides, they are not placed Ipecifically, as to weight and fize, with large rounded pebbles intermixed, as they would have been if they had been separated from the surface of stones, and afterwards deposited by the waters of the Deluge : I fliould therefore rather imagine thefe hands to have been natural, and fome of the primary concreted materials of which moorftone appears to have been formed, and that moorftone confifts only or the fame grit, cemented into stone by a crystal bats ; that the bats, which forms all stone, was more abundant below in the bowels of the earth, than near the surface (as appears by the generality of Mils being of a more compact confidence the deeper we dig) y ; that, from a deficiency of this cement or bats near the surface, as well as the interfering powers of air, heat, and cold, this fandy grit never was fixed into stone, but always remained in the present incoherent state.

But the situation of hands moft difficult to be accounted for, sect.viii. according to the theories at present moft favourably thought of, IS Sea-fand

1 above Sea-

x Thus the ftrand at Youghall, in the county turf-bog, covered with fand and pebbles. Hilt. mar!c - of Cork, Ireland, is no more than a common of Cork, page rog.

y See before, pag. 71.

that

7 6 Natural History

that where fand lies either in a jlratum on the highest hills, or in cliffs far above full-fea mark, with marine bodies, either mixed in and throughout, or deposited in a diftmct separate layer. Of both thefe phenomena I shall describe two remarkable instances, and then endeavour to investigate the cause.

In St Juft In a cree hj called Por'nanvon, in the parish of St. Juft, Penwith, near Cape Cornwall, in the Northern part of the cliff, ( Plate XIX. Fig. IV.) infected under the clay and rubble, are ranged horizontally many owes of large and small roundifti pebbles of the granite kind (from B. E. to C.) : the covering of this pebbly Jlratum is fifty feet deep from A to B on the North end, but only twenty from D to E on the South, confifting of a rough yellow clay, charged here and there with large and small stones, all with their angles on, but no solid Jlratum of rock above the pebbles. It is a very remarkable ftru&ure which this cliff presents us with, and highly deserves the attention of the curious in all its parts. Firft, the large pebbles, from one foot and a half diameter, to fix inches, which are infected now in the cliff, are of the fame fize and texture as thofe ftrewed on the ftrand below, which, being tolled to and fro by the force of the tide, owe their roundnefs moft probably to their circumvolutions. Secondly, I muft observe, that, upon examining the interftices of this pebbly Jlratum , I found many small black killas and fatty stones, all with their angles fmoothed off, and between them fand of different kinds at different levels. That fand which was undermoft, confifted of transparent granules, fpeckled with black, tailed fait, left a little colour of earth betwixt the fingers, but fo little that it scarce coloured the water in which I walked it : the fand, higher up in this Jlratum , was lefs pure, approaching to the colour of reddish clay ; but higher up, the fand was of a stronger yellow, equally fait, left fome fine clay on the fingers, and in the microscope had many opaque and angular little yellow maffes among its particles, as being more affe&ed with the clay and gravel which lay over it, than what was deeper. In short, the fand of thefe interftices, though now fifteen feet higher at a medium than full-fea mark, had all the evidence which could be expected, that it had come from the fea, and was afterwards covered' by a load of rubbish, from twenty to fifty feet deep.

in St. Agnes. Again : One of the highest hills adjoining to the fea whore, which

we have in Cornwall, is St. Agnes Beacon, on the fide of which mountain, computed at left 480 feet above the level of the fea, the Jlrata , upon digging, appear in the following order : The vegetable foil and common rubble under it, five feet deep ; a fine

fort

Of Cornwall. 77

fort of white and yellow clay, of the better fort of which tobacco pipes have formerly been made, fix feet ; under this, a layer of fand of the fame nature as that of the fea below, fix feet ; beneath which is a layer of rounded smooth stones, fuch as the beach of the fea affords. Under this, four feet deep of a white tony rubble and earth, and then the firm rock, in which tin lodes shape their course. In both thefe instances the fea fand is lodged far above the level of the present fea. In Por'nanvon cliff* it is at a medium 1 5 feet higher than full-fea mark : five and twenty Miles off*, on the

grounds of St. Agnes, near the Beacon, it is near 500 feet above the Sea. Other infiances of the fame unnatural situation of marine bodies, (which I here purposely omit) are to be found in other countries, as in Holland, Italy, and elsewhere, which have made all the chief Naturaliffs 2 agree, that at one time or other, fome of the higheff mountains, as well as champaign lands, have been parts of the bottom of the fea, though now fo much higher a . And indeed let us re-confider and turn thefe circumstances into every poffible light, and it muff at laff be confefled, that the bed of the fea has been undoubtedly moved upwards more in fome than in other places, (of which I take thefe two before-mentioned instances to be irrefragable proofs) and it may be added, not only in Cornwall, but throughout the universe. But how, and when this happened, how thefe hands became promoted to their present station, is not easily decided. That fifli of all forts, should raise themselves to the tops of mountains with the waters of the deluge is not fo wonderful ; that they should be entangled, fuffocated, and defeated there, as the waters retired, and precipitated by defending torrents into bodies £of diflolved earths and stones, is alfo eafy to conceive, but here the bottom of the fea has been raised, fixed, and become dry land. No earthquake could be the cause of this, for the convulfions of an earthquake would not leave the pebbles and hands fo horizontally placed, as in Por'nanvon cliff, nor the clays, hands, and fhingle, fo orderly and specifically ranged, and the solid rock fo firm and unfhaken underneath, as in St. Agnes hills. The cause of this elevation was therefore equal to the force of earthquakes, but gentle and equable, acting under certain laws and rcftricfions, in order to accompli/h fome great event ; an event requiring and worthy of fuch aftonifhing alterations. This great event could be no other than the universal deluge ; I do not produce thefe phenomena, the translation of hands, as diretft natural proofs of the deluge, (that rests sufficiently firm upon revelation, as well as the exuvics of marine animals every where difperfed on dry land,) but as plain intimations of the manner in which

z See Varenius's Geog. lib. i. prop. 7. and a Ray's Phyfico-theological Difcourfes, pa. 130, Rohalt ii. Vol. p. 159. Steno's Prodromus, &c. 148, 214, 215, &C. third edition.

X the

7 8 Natural History

the fea now proftrate at the foot of cliffs and mountains, was raised and enabled to overflow the highest hills and afterwards gradually laid down to reft; in it's usual bed. This is a part of natural hiftory too extensive to be thoroughly difcufled here, let it suffice to hint, what may one time or other, perhaps, be proved to the of the curious ; I advance it only as a conjecture at present, that it being determined to extirpatethe human race, except one family, by overflowing the earth with water, the fea was the appointed instrument of destruction ; that in order to raise the Sea to a sufficient height, the bottom, the bed, the chanels of the fea, were t-o be lifted up, and the wrinkles of the earth fmoothed ; that when the divine decree was accomplished, the fame, first, almighty cause, which conducted the waters to their neceflary height, withdrew that power which occafioned the elevation, and the chanels of the fea retreated again to

their wonted level: But this return was not uniform, exact,

and universal in all parts of the world, but general, and sufficient to all the purposes of animal and vegetable life; consequently, far the greatest part of the up-lifted bottom, returned to the place from whence it came ; part rented in it's moft elevated station, hence the lands, pebbles, and shells, on the highest hills ; part funk somewhat, tho' fome hundred yards short of it's former depreflion, as was the cafe at St. Agnes hill, and part funk till it came within a few feet of the common level of the fea, whence the pebbles, hands, and fhingle of Por'nanvon cliffs, and places which exhibit the like remarkable phasnomena, are found fo near full-fea mark.

This method of railing the fea waters, fo as to deluge the earth, will appear at first fight, I imagine, too operofe and unnatural to be chosen by an all- wife agent; it may be fo; but let us enlarge our conceptions, let it be considered, that the highest mountians are no greater prominencies from the surface of our globe, than the duft upon a globe of one foot diameter ; that the fea is no deeper than the furrows, nor the mountains higher above the earth, than the ridges in a feet of paper. Suppofing then thefe furrows to contain a fufticiency of water, and a determined revolution to make that water overwhelm the ridges of this paper for awhile ; would it not presently occur, and feem the eafieft and moft eligible method to raise thefe furrows fo as that the moisture contained might overflow fuch ridges, and afterwards, by letting them drop again, to restore both the ridges and furrows to their first intended fttuation ? The diligent enquirer (besides the feasibility of this method, and the egregious absurdities of an abyss, apertures , disruptions of the hell , and the like, which are the infuperable difficulties of all other schemes for Ripplying water sufficient to deluge the whole earth) will recollecft a great variety of phasnomena in the present ftru&ure of the earth,

which

Of Cornwall.

which will serve to elucidate and eftablifh this hypothecs.

So far for accounting for the different levels in which we find fea fand.

Since I have juft now mentioned thofe inequalities in the surface sect.iv. of the earth, called Mountains, and made little account of their Origin of height, it may not be amifs to fay something of their origin, height, Mountalns and the proportion that height bears to the diameter of the globe.

This digreftion may be perhaps the more excufable, because fome whimsical theorists have represented Mountains as of hideous height, deforming the earth, unfit to proceed from the hand of God, and only the wrecks and ruins of the antediluvian world. I shall not here detain the reader with the various opinions of the learned on this fubjedt, persuading myself, that the moft simple and brief account will beft fuit this work, and appear to the candid moft agreeable to the ordinary operations of nature.

Mountains may be divided (as hands have been before) into natural and factitious, or into primaeval, and thofe of a later date. The factitious are either the sudden effects of earthquakes, or the more gradual productions of volcanoes, which throw up fuch quantities of stone, earth, and ashes, as raise first heaps, then hills, then mountains : Thefe are not what I would treat of here : the question is, how fuch vaft bodies as the Alps, the Appennines, the Andes, and other lofty mountains were generated, and came to exceed fo much in height the adjacent lands.

Let it be granted, that the materials, or elements of which our The confll '

o 0 1 tuent parts

globe confifts, were, at first, in a mixed indistinct state; that the prin- of the globe ciples of solid and fluid bodies existed at the fame time, but dif- militate, perfed ; that the tony particles were intermixed with earth, both diffevered by water, that the fire and air alfo were included in the general mafs. This was the first state of our globe, the chaos of the more learned part of the heathen world, confirmed by the Mofaical Account of the creation and agreeable to the appearances of natural bodies, where we find earth inclofed in stone, one fort of stone in another, the strata divided by fiffures, fome lighter strata underneath, and fome heavier above; thefe were the little disorderly mifplacings which could not but enfue from a mafs including the unconnected parts of fuch a variety of bodies. When things were to be reduced v u 'J t d e J nd into order, the folds were preadapted by the divine power to form the foundation, or the ftiffhings (if I may fo fay) of the globe ; stones fixed themselves, by their own gravitation in the lowest parts of the

a Gen. i. where we find the earth gradually proceeding from a state of immaturity, to a state of

order, habitancy, and fertility, in the face of fix days and nights.

earth,

8o

Natural History

More hard and solid productions in one place than another.

Mountains and hills the necefl'ary refill t of more folds in one part than in another, at the time of first general induration.

earth, and their contractile powers prefied forth, and threw up into their proper elevations, the elements of air, water, and earth ; elements, as neceffary to the surface, as the tony flrata were to the inferior parts of the globe. Such was the general division, but it is not to be imagined that in works of fuch immenfity, a minute exadnefs could take place : No — there was more of tony matter in one place, more of earth in another ; in fome places stones became lefs porous, and contracted into a narrower face, in others more lax and diffufed ; fome waters, fome air, fome fire detained at first: in the interftices, and afterwards escaping, occafioned depreffions, and extensive caverns ; and the matter of fa£t confirms this theory, for the more we examine the ftrudture of our globe, and weigh the phenomena, and consequences of earthquakes and volcanoes, the more cavernous we find the earth, and of the more unequal density. In short, it was impoffible in the nature of things, that fuch a multifarious body as our globe should fettle and indurate with an absolute exactnefs, or that every part of it's surface should be accurately equidiftant from the center. It is eafy to observe, that fome countries abound more than others in rocks already formed, and others in waters lapidific, and ready to penetrate bodies immersed, and make their fubftance become tony b . Is it then any great wonder, that at the first induration, there should be more of thefe tony principles, and consequently tony productions, in one part of the globe than in another; in other words, that the hell of the earth should be more or lefs dense in fome particular places than in the reft: ? Now, wherever this greater quantity of tony principles was, and rocks fettled upon rocks, and flood firm, there the higher grounds, craggs, hills, and mountains became protuberant, and above the common surface. If this tony process was in a ridge-like form, then it produced a chain of mountains ; if conical, a sharp single mountain, or more in number according to the number of cones ; where a quantity of air, fire, or water was inclofed at the time of induration, in proportion to the caverns which fuch extraneous elements occupied, fo would be the fubfidencies betwixt the firmer and more ftable eminences. If thofe caverns were deep and great, precipices would be formed in the fides of mountains, and in cliffs ; if shallow and oblate, gentle declivities ; if thefe declivities were greatly extended, then they shoot forwards, and make chanels in the fea ; if damm'd up and circumfcribed, they make lakes and feas ; all thefe inequalities are the necefiary result

b Stones and rocks are no more than earth ce- and concrete into stone when they meet with a mented bylapideous particles, educed, fufpended proper nidus to reft in, and attracEt one another in, and collected by the common vehicle of water; with greater force, than the water divides them, thefe particles leave the fluid they are fufpended in,

of

Of Cornwall. 8 1

or the folds fettling and indurating in greater quantities in one place than in another; a disparity, not the effect of chance, nor the accidental concourfe of matter and motion, but preordained by God, as productive of more benefit to mankind, by the great ufefulnefs of mountains and valleys, than if matter had been difpofed in a more exact and equal manner.

What will add strength to this theory is, that we find the karn or foiid rock by no means level, or equi-distant from the the center, but of a wavy surface, riling and falling as the hills and vallies, intimating plainly, that as fome parts of the surface of the globe fettled done upon stone, and one rocky ftratum upon another, and thereby maintained their elevation and prominence, other parts confined oi a thinner fcratum, and there deprelfions were formed, the surface became lower, and nearer the center of the earth.

That this fettling of the earth into unavoidable inequalities, and thus generating mountains, may appear more natural and compreheniible to every intelligent reader, let us confider in the next place the height of mountains.

All things are great or small by comparison, and as the mount- sect. v. ains are but a part, and a very small part too of our globe, and Height of we are now enquiring how fuch prominences as we call mountains KimS should arise, the proper way of estimating their height, is bv com- in P ro P ortion paring them with the diameter and extent of our globe, whole meter of the surface they are thought to deform, and their height and fize carth ' reckoned utterly unaccountable.

Supping then (if we make ufe of round numbers, for which we will in the sequel make sufficient allowances) the diameter of the earth to be 8000 miles', the highest mountain will not exceed the common surface but one thoufandth part, if it were allowed to be eight miles in perpendicular height from the fea ; but the Andes of America, reckoned to be the highest in the world, are not judged to be near four miles perpendicular, consequently measured by the diameter of the earth, they are not a two thoufandth part higher than the lea. In an artificial globe therefore of one foot diameter, the height of the mountains is too small to be measured by scale and compass, nay it escapes the fight ; in a globe of eight feet diameter thofe uneveneffes which to the eye that fees fo small a part or the earth at a time are fo ftupendous, are demonftrably not fo great as the twentieth part of the decimal of one foot ; in other words in fo large a globe, as that of eight feet diameter, the highest mounttains are not prominent more than the thickness of half a crown Englifh money. Again, consider the proportion which this height

c Calculated to be no more than 7970.

Y

bears

82 Natural History

bears to the circumference of the globe, and it will Hill be more diminished, in proportion as the lurtace of round bodies, is larger than the diameter. Confider then, (if we may compare small things to great ) that if a potter were to make a globe of clay, and smooth it whilfl it was moist, with all imaginable care, then fet it aside to dry, is it poffible that the foft should become hard, that the hard should become equally compact, and the texture exactly uniform, without luch rifings and fallings, fuch eminencies and depreflions, as we may now fee on the globe ? Would there be no parts which would project part farther than the reft ? I conclude therefore, that the earth's indurating into a Superficies, uneven in the fame degree as our present globe, was the natural result of a mafs of heterogeneous matter, unequally difperfed, palling from a state of liquidity, into a state of folidity and hardness. To return,

sect. vi. Sand is of various ufe, and according as it is differently con-

Ufes Of lands, j mea n, fresh or fait, of a crystal or fpar bats, smooth,

or rough and angular, transparent or opaque, pure or mixed, it is chosen by artists for casting metals, making glass, cutting and polishing marble and free-stone, fixing of cement, and the like; but it is chiefly useful in Cornwall (according to the common opinion) in matters of hufbandry, and therefore collected at a great expence from the nearest fea-coat, although indeed it is, generally speaking, not the fand, but the mixtures we find with the fand, which fertilize the land upon which they are carried. For fand being only a congeries of pebbles, or little grains of stone, can do little more than keep the ground loose and brittle, and this will go but a little way towards giving the hufbandman a good crop ; it is to the mixture of fait, flime, shells and coral, that we owe fertility.

Sea-fand. Sea-fand has greatly the advantage of river-land in agriculture, and the falter the better, but all fand that is washed by the fea, is not equally proper for manure. In Mount's-bay, on the beach between Penzance and the Mount, we observe that when the North wind blows, and the water is smooth, we meet with a fine, light, opening fand, good for corn and grass; for the fea then moving gently, and equably, whilst the North wind blows from the Ihore, drives the lighted: fand foremost, into a truck, course, or chanel by itself, and gives leave to the more impure, and gravelly parts of thole lands, to fettle separately and farther back ; but when the wind blows from the South, and the fea is turbulent, it confounds find and gravel together, making a mixture utterly unfit for hufbandry. In other filiations the wind that blows off land muft for the lame reason, difpole the fea to leave behind it the beft fand.

Blown

Of Cornwall. 83

Blown fand, which has been long exposed to the air, is good for B!own fand - little, it's falls are fo wafted by wind and rain, and it's lime fo evaporated ; but take the like ftzed, coloured, and textured fand, washed by the fea every tide, or covered from the air, and the hufbandman is well rewarded both in corn and grass. The dime mixed Slimy fand. with hands, if earthy, and the product of petrified leaves, wood, and animal remains, will much enrich the foil, but if the offcafts of stamping mills, or the sediment of mines, their acrimonious

mineral juices are mortal enemies to vegetation. When fand is Sparry fand.

of a parry calcarious fubftance, and will ferment with acids (as the fand of Heyl and of fome other places will) then it adds as lime, and does of itfeli fertilize the ground in proportion to the lime which it contains. Better ftill is that fand which is plentifully mixed Shelly f an d. with shells and their fragments, for as shells are of the nature of lime, moulded and fixed into a hell by an uncduous cement, fuch fand, in proportion to the shells it contains, will give the heat of lime and the fatnefs of oil to the land it is laid upon. Of this fand they have fome in the islands of Scilly, which good hufbandmen find their account in preferring (though at a greater distance) to their other hands. In Cornwall, Whitfand-bay fand in Sennan parifli has fome fragments of shells, and sometimes entire finall shells among it, it rides and plays up and down in aqua forth , and makes a moderate effervefcence like fpar, but that which has the moft shells, as far as I am yet informed, is that of Porcurnow Cove, near the Land's-End, which plays brifkly, makes a considerable colluclation, diffolves in aqua fortis , and crackles much in the fire.

All thefe hands have more shells at fome times than other, according as the winds have been more or lefs favourable to the mixture.

But the beft of all our Cornifti hands, is that which is intimately CoK j fandi mixed with coral : In places where this excellent manure is found, it is taken up by a large bag of the ftrongeft canvas, to the mouth of which is fitted an iron hoop or frame for keeping it open, and finking it to the bottom of the fea, fo as it may receive the fand and coral as it is dredged along by the bargemen. A barge-load is usually deliver for ten shillings, or lefs if nearer the place of dredging, and where the land is good a barge-load will dress an acre of ground ; it is ufed more for corn than pasture grounds. The fertilizing quality of coral is owing to the fame cause as that of shells, for it is of the fame limy nature, and makes a strong effervefcence with acids, and, being more solid than shells, conveys a greater quantity of fermenting earth in equal face. Befides, it does not difiolve in the ground as foon as shells, but decaying more gradually continues longer to impart its warmth to the juices of the

Sand blown up from the fea-whore upon the lands adjoining.

earth.

84 Natural History

earth d . The calcarious particles of which this coral is composed, are difperfed all over the western whores of Cornwall, as is plain from the coralline mofs, incruftations, efchars, iprig, and bunchy coral difperfed on the rocks, hands, and ore-weed of Mount's-bay, Land's End, and the North chanel, but the principal place in Cornwall where this coral is found in fuch quantity as to be dredged for manure is in Falmouth Harbour, and the whores adjoining c .

Let me add that a great deal of this calcarious coral matter swims unfixed and liquid in the fea water, of which the teflaceous animals form their shells, and into which the shells of dead animals are again resolved, and supply materials for the dwellings of a fresh generation. Tis to this coral impregnation that we owe in a great measure the fertility occafioned by the air, and froth of the fea, or fea-water carried upon the land with land or oreweed. In small islands which are oftentimes washed all over by the Ipray of the lea during a form, it is observable, that if fome gentle rain immediately follows the form, fo as to wadi in the nutritious contents of the fea-water, before they are dried and difperfed by the fun and wind, their grass and other plants thrive furprizingly.

Chap. Viii.

Of Hufbandry in Cornwall ; its ancient and present State.

T H E art of Hufbandry was little pra&ifed in Cornwall two centuries ago ; ££ d heir grounds lay all in common, or only " divided by stitch-male, and their bread-corn very little j their u labour horses were fhod only before E , and the people devoting " themselves entirely to tin, their neighbours of Devonfhire and " Somerfetfhire, hired their pastures at a rent, and stored them " with the cattle they brought with them from their own homes, " and made their profit of the Cornifh, by cattle fed at their own " fi° or ; the fame persons alfo supplied them at their markets with " many hundred quarters of corn, and horse-loads of bread." Car. p. 19, &c. This was a very difad vantageous state of the commerce of this county, for the produces of the tin will always be fluctuating and precarious, but the necellity of flesh and corn is perpetual, and the returns from hufbandry properly managed, annual, regular, and constant j people therefore increasing, and the mines sometimes

d The several shapes in which this coral appears, I shall take farther notice of hereafter, amor" the marine productions.

Some coral is found on the coat of Ireland in Bantry-bay, and is counted the richest manure they have in thofe parts. Natural Hiitory of

Cork. Vol. II. page 380.

f Not palled the remembrance of fome yet living fays Mr. Carew, page 66, who published in 1602.

Ibidem, page 67.

failing,

Of Cornwall. 85

failing, the Cornifh felt the neceffity of applying themselves to hufbandry, " there being no trades, (fays the judicious Mr. Carew,

" pag. 21.) which fet fo many hands at work, at all times of the " year, as that one of tillage". Their improvements answered their expectations, and in the latter end of the reign of queen Elizabeth, the Cornifh found themselves in a capacity, not only to support themselves, but to export a great deal of corn to Spain, and other foreign parts. Cultivation has been advancing ever fence, and better fenced, and more profitable inclofures for the plough are no where to be feen, than the banks of our greatest rivers Tamar,

Alan, Fal and Fawy, and the fea-coat of our harbours can fhewt..

In the eastern parts of the county, they ufe lime made of a Lime coarse marble-stone, for manure, and feme of this lime rides in nure - Cornwall: On the Barton of Wolvedon, in Probus parish, there has been lime-stone found ; there is a lime quarry on the lands of Sir John Molefworth, Bart, of Pencarrow. Near Padftow, there is marble, but it has never answered the expence of burning for lime.

At New-Kaye, in the parish of lower St. Columb, they find a coarse marble on the whores, which they have burnt for lime, and it burns freely, but the stone has fo much of the crystalline matter in it, that in the lime there were found many small lumps of stone vitrefied, which greatly diminifiied the price. This is probably what Grew (Muf. R. S. pag. 316) calls the word fort of Cornifh marble ufed for lime. The beft lime-stone I have heard of raised in Cornwall, is in the parish of South Pedherwyn, which answers very well, and is much ufed thereabouts: This is near the confines of Devonfhire, from which, (namely from Plymouth and Lyfton quarries) the Eaftern parts have moft of the lime which serves for manure.

Of marie the ufe is little known, and lefs pradtifed in Corn- Marle . wall ; but marie we have in several places ; fo that we cannot fo juftly tax the land for being destitute of that useful manure, as blame the inhabitants, the greatest part of whom having fea-fand and ore-weed in plenty, do not heed what their own grounds might afford them to their great emolument ; others again have their attention fo much engrofled by tin and copper, that although they should turn up marie every day, and indeed often do fo, yet every thing gives place to the greedy quest of metals. It mull be allowed, that drifting abundantly with marie, as in feme counties they are obliged to do, to the amount of fifteen or eighteen hundred loads in an acre, is extremely expensive, and cannot in a few years anfiver the expence, but our Cornifh foil in general needs not fo thick a coating, one hundred load may be enough in an acre ; neither need we ufe any marie but what by experiment we find quickening

h Having compared the waste, and the cultivated I reckon the latter are to the former as 20 to 1 r. grounds of each hundred, as impartially as I could, Compleat Body of Hulbandiy.

and

Z

86 Natural History

and fertilizing, the first or fecod year at far theft : In place of that which will not turn to account till after fome years distance, we had better fubftitute the present, easily acquired manures of land, oreweed, straw, and animal faces unless in fuch places where the lord of the land chufes to form a new foil ; there a great depth of marie is neceffary, and the inheritance will justify the measure. Marie both tony and clayey, may eaftly be diftinguilhedfrom other foftils, by diffolving readily in water, and by the fait it contains crackling in the fire. Marie has been discovered and tried with fuccefs on the lands of Sir Richard Vyvyan, Bart, near Trelowarren. There is a yellow fandy marie, found in the fame field with a newly discovered quarry of stone, in the lands of Mr. Scawen, about half a mile from the borough of Michel, which being laid on the grass there, much improved the vegetation ; but the marie which answers beft as far as I have yet heard, is that discovered by a farmer of St. Allen parish, near Truro ; it is a tony grit, easily bruised between the fingers, ferments not with acids, foon permeated by water, but gives it no taste, is of a brown-ochre colour, and fo full of yellow micaceous talc, that the farmer having thereby found much fuccefs in his crops, called it his gold-duft. Some marie of the fame kind nearly, I have feen, found in the parish of Conftantine ; and fome I have from the parifti of Pheock, where it is laid by nature in great quantities, but negle&ed by the inhabitants. Some other forts of marie, of a differ clay, and whiter colour, I have received from the Rev. Mr. Buckland, Vicar of St. Allen, which he has ufed to good effect, in improving coarse grounds. Of lime and marie therefore, we make not much ufe, but if other manures were to fail, it is not unlikely but more marie and lime-stone might foon be discovered.

Sea manures. In Cornwall, our chief manures are from the fea, and the fea is very

Oreweed. bountiful in this refpedt ; not only fea-fand is ufed by every one who has it in his reach, but after forms we find the Alga marina, Fucus, Conferva, or oreweed scattered in great plenty on the whore, and tho' the Italians neglected it', yet it deserves a place among the beft manures which nature affords us. Some diligence and caution however, muff; be ufed, for being a submarine plant, the wind and fim will foon exhale all it's moisture. The sooner therefore it is taken from the whore, the better, and being spread on old or stiff earth, then covered with fand, it foon diflolves into a fait oily flime, which contributes much to fatten and meliorate the other manures, and this is the moft approved way of applying it. Some lay it naked, and

Alga littus inutili — — Proje&a vilior Alga.

Demifla tempus ab Euro Virg. Eclog.

Sternet. Hor. Od. lib. 3 . f See chap, preceding.

fresh

'M v ' " - rA j5

Of Cornwall. 87

fresh from the fea, upon their barley lands, in the end of March and beginning of April, and have a good crop of corn ; but the weeds grow fo plentifully and rank afterwards, that no wholfome grass for pasture, is to be expected for that year. It is reckoned to give a difagreeable moiflure to asparagus, potatoes, and other roots, and it is observed by Sir George Mackenfie, k that lands often uled to this manure, yield bad oats, and in a small quantity, the hulks thicker than ordinary, and more darnel among the corn, than in lands which have not fo much oreweed laid on them.

Other manures railing from putrefa&ion, burning the ftroil, and Fifh manure, the faces of animals are as common in this county as elsewhere, and differ not in their management ; but near hiking towns, the hufoandman in Cornwall has the advantage of purchasing, for a small matter, bruised, decayed pilchards, not fit for market, and alfo call fait, that is, bay-falt which has been ufed already for faking pilchards, and being adjudged by the officer of the customs no longer fit for that ufe, is fold to the hulbandman from four-pence to fix-pence a wincheller: Thefe offcalls of the pilchard cellars, confilling entirely of fait, oil, and putrefied filk, and easily carried, because little of it fuffices, may therefore be reckoned the cheapest, as well as richest manure any where to be procured. It will warm the coldest land, throws forth plenty of natural wholesome grass, as well as corn, and by the verdure it supports, demonstrates it's lafling enlivening virtue even fome years after it has been laid on. However, being extremely hot, experience loon convinces us, that it is bell when left to diffolve, temper, and digefl it's falls in heaps of earth and fand, before it be carried forth upon the arable ground.

The feeds we fow are wheat, barley, oats, and rye, besides Seeds> which, we have the Avena nuda of Ray, called in Cornwall pile, which grows in the poorest croft-land that has been tilled two or three feafons before with potatoes, and for the ufes of the poor answers all the purposes of oatmeal : It is a small yellow grain of the price of wheat (reckoned of the wheat kind) and for fattening calves, accounted fuperiour to any other nourishment. Rye is much lels tilled of late years, since barren lands have been fo improved as to bear barley ; but of barley we make double ufe, and therefore have a double demand for it, I mean for bread, as well as beer. In Mullion, and fome parishes near the Lizherd, they have fown barley, and in nine weeks commonly, oftentimes sooner, they have had it again in the fack, fit for market. This quick return is not owing to any one particular fort of barley , 1 but to the foil and situation, and a kindly warm foafon, the nights in the summer

k Philof. Tranf. No. 117, pag. 390. 1 As Dr. Plot seems to think. Oxfardfli. pag. 55.

time

88 Natural History

time on the fea-coats being seldom or ever cold The greatest crop of this grain which has reached my notice, is that of a field near Philac church, in which, as the Rev. Mr. Glover, Redtor of that parish, affured me, he had, in the year 1752, thirty bufhels of barley, each bufhel containing three winchefters, on one ftatuteacre of land.

As to wheat, fome of our lands are alfo very fruitful, the moft remarkable instance I know, is that of Thomas Roberts, Tanner, of the town of Penzance, who, in the year 1740, had twenty bufhels of wheat, (each bufhel three winchefters, or twenty-lour gallons) on one ftatutable acre of ground, adjoining to the town ; and he had not only plenty, but was equally fortunate in the price, for he fold each bufhel for one guinea, fo that deducting one guinea, which he paid for the tythe, he made nineteen pounds nineteen {hillings clear, of the grain produced by one acre of ground. In Cornwall it is the custom to bind into fheaves the barley and all other grain, as well as the wheat, and for their better security afterwards, we make all our corn into arrifh-mows, the fheaves being built up into a regular, solid cone, about twelve feet high, the beards all turned inwards, and the butt end of the fheaf only exposed to the weather ; the whole cone is finished by an inverted fheaf of reed, or corn, and tied to the upper rows : T his custom may be partly owing to the greater inconftancy and moisture of our weather in Cornwall than elsewhere, and to the ufe of coarfer grains in bread, (which therefore require the more security) but whatever the cause is, the consequence justifies the precaution, and the grain is thereby much better preferred: By this means indeed our fields, in time of harvest, make a very singular appearance in the eyes of strangers, as may be feen at F. f. in the profpetft of Enys, the feat of John Enys, Efq; PL. VII. which was drawn in the time of harvest ; but in inclement harvefts our corn mu ft be guarded from rain and wind better than by the manner of having the grain in the neighbouring counties". Our market- measure of thofe feeds is irregular, our common bufhel is reckoned to confift of three winchefters, or twenty four-gallons. In the larger farms we generally plough with two or more oxen, and two horses before them, which make but a flow progress, especially as our ploughs are dragged through the ground. It is the general custom, at the laft tillage of the ground, to fow twelve gallons of Ever-grass °, with ten pounds of clover p , or

ra For the fame reason, namely, the uninterrupted progress of vegetation by night as well as day, corn, in Lapland, ripens sooner than in France. Linnaeus Tranf. of the Acad. Sued. vol. i. pag. 22. Pontopid. pag. 101.

"Iam informed they have the fame custom in fome of the inland parts of Germany, where the

apprehension of rains need not be fo great as in Cornwall.

0 Gramen Loliaceum ; five Lolium Rubritm. Ray. 2d. Edit. pag. 249.

p Trifolium purpureum majus ; or fativum of Plot, Oxford, pag, 156.

the

HA'TcL

Of Cornwall. 8 9

the melilot trefoil ' in each acre. Thefe trefoils thicken the evergrafs, and both together considerably add to the pafcure, especially in poor lands and narrow limits, in the former of which the hufbandman cannot expeCt natural-grass under two or three years, and in the latter he cannot flay a year for the natural-grass to come without difir effing his cattle. Saintfoin, or everlafling-grass has of late been introduced, and in dry, coarse, shallow grounds, it is thought may promote pasture. Of late, the turnip hufbandry has begun to obtain, and several gentlemen have experienced the benefit of this useful root, in feeding ffieep and other cattle, and mellowing the land for corn. The potatoe is flill a more useful root, now every where cultivated, and in shallow, poor lands, feafonably tilled thrives beft ; grateful to the rich, the support of the poor, and mofl falutary to both. There are two forts ; the flat, or kidney potatoe, which may be planted early in the winter, and will be fit to draw about the midsummer following, and lafls in perfection till Chnftmas. The other which is a round potatoe, and ought to be planted in the spring months of April or May, will be fit to draw at Chnftmas, and will laft in perfection till the Autumn after. Of this latter fort (which grow very large in an airy, funny fpot ) I had one brought me in January 1756, which was thirteen inches and L in girt, and even inches long, and weighed when taken out of the ground, thirty-two ounces ; after it had been drawn fome days, I found it to weigh twenty-nine ounces and a half; I placed it in a funny corner, and found that it produced potatoes, great and finall, to the number of twenty-one.

Mr. Camden r tells us, that u all manner of grain, in his time, " was produced in fuch plenty in Cornwall, that it did not only supply the neceflary ufes of the inhabitants, but Spain alfo, " with vaft quantities of corn;" but we muft now make a different estimate. The inhabitants since Camden s time are more advanced in number than the tillage has encreafed in proportion, and though the low lands in Cornwall, especially along the Tamar and Alan may yield more corn than the inhabitants of thofe parts, and the lefs fruitful hundreds of Stratton and Lyfnewyth can difpenfe with, yet the hundreds of Poudre, Kerrier, and Penwith, and the western parts of Pydre (far the mofl populous tracts of our county ) do not yield corn near sufficient to supply the inhabitants. Upon the whole, if thofe parts entirely addicted to hufbandry, will yield a sufficiency of grain to make up, in a moderate year, what is wanting in the parts lefs cultivated, and more addicted to mining, this is full as

'i Trifolium agrarium Dodonaei. r Engl.„pag. fi.

A a much

Sect.

Quartz.

go NATURAL HISTORY

much as can be affected in this particular. In a plentiful year we may spare a little quantity for exportation, in a moderate year have enough for ourselves, in a year of scarcity not near a competency. As the ballance is fo even, it is the interest of the Cornifh by no means to flacken or reduce the present fate of hufbandry, by withdrawing too great a number of hands from it, for working their mines. Hufbandry, it muff be remembred, can employ and fubfift a people without mining, but mining can do neither without hufbandry. If mining, tempting as it is with the hopes of sudden and immense gain, exceeds much its present limits, agriculture muft decay ; it is beft therefore to encourage both, fo as that the former may promote the plenty of money, the latter of food and rayment, and both the happiness of that fpot where they meet aud reciprocally relieve, as they do at present the deficiencies of each other. It is a facetious, but no uninftructive story which Plutarch ( de V irtute Mulierum ) gives us on this occasion '. " Pythis a king, having

" difeovered rich mines in his kingdom, employed all his people " in digging them, whence tilling was wholly neglected, infomuch " that a great famine ensued. His queen, fenfible of the calamities t( of the country, invited the king her husband to dinner, as he came home hungry from overseeing his workmen in the mines : t£ She fo contrived it that the bread and meat were moft artificially " made of gold, and the king was much delighted with the con- " ceit, till at laft he called for real meat to satisfy his hunger. " Nay, faid the queen, if you employ all your fubje&s in your " mines, you muff expert to feed upon gold, for nothing elfe can " your kingdom afford you."

Chap. Ix.

Of the Stones in Cornwall.

I N Cornwall, where there are not only Quarries of flone as in other parts for building, but a great number of mines, a variety of stones muff: needs offer itself to our examination. They may be all ranged under the following general heads. Firft, clones of ufe. Secondly, stones of ornament and curiosity. And thirdly, clones of profit '.

Stones of ufe are either of inferior, or important and necefiary ufe. Among thefe of seemingly small importance, I muft reckon what

Thus englifhed in Fuller's Holy State, p. 107. ranged by the fyftematical writers, though we ' W e shall observe as we go along the claJJ'es , cannot entirely pursue their method, in a partiorders, genus, and /pecks of the chief stones, as cular natural hiftory of a county.

the

'

Of Cornwall. 91

the surface of the land in moft parts of Corwall, yields in great plenty, I mean an opaque whitifti debated crystal, commonly (but indeed erroneously) called white fpar ; thefe stones are extremely hard, and repair roads, and face our hedges ; being full of angles they make the beft pitch-work for paving courts, tables, and the like; the pavement not easily growing slippery, or breaking, where thefe stones are well laid u . This stone by the Germans is called Quartz, and because we want a name for it in Englifh, it will be fo called for the future. It is vitrefcent, strikes fire with feel, not soluble with aqua forth w , and is the general bafs of moft of our Cornifh stones.

In moft of our compound stones in Cornwall, there is more or sect.ii. lefs of a black tony matter which we call Cockle. Sometimes it is Cockle - intermixed as spots and veins, and sometimes it is the bafs. Broken tranfverfely it is of a dull earthy black, scarce fo bright as the duft of pitcoal ; it's texture confifts of fibres parallel, and glofiy, thefe fibres make either lamina, frice, or granules x . It fhews itself every where fibrous, and when it is in its purest state, and has neither metal, nor stone different from itself (as we often find it in the parish of St. Juft) it shoots into granules of irregular planes, inclinable to a prifmatick figure, not in the left flexible, but shining and resembling in shape, the granulated crystals of tin-ore, and when free of earthy impurities, ponderous and fo near to the specific weight of that metal, that nothing but trial by water or fire can diftinguifh the cockle from tin. It is nothing worth of itself, but 'tis either the bafs , or makes a considerable part of our moft useful, and remarkable stones. It weighs to water as 3— J is to 1 7 .

Another common stone with us in Cornwall is the Elvan 2 , ofsECTin, very clofe grit ; and fo extremely hard that it will not cleave, nor EW break to face or joint, and if tin-ore happens to be included in this stone (of which there are several instances in Senan parish and elsewhere) 'tis not worth the pains of getting at, unless it be in greater quantities than what we generally find in fuch hard stones ; if ufed in building it generally goes into the wall in the fame shape that

" Two parcels in calks have been lately fent from Truro to London at the desire of fome persons principally concerned in the porcelain manufacture, for which their colour and hardness feem to render them a necelfary ingredient, as well as for making of glass, and fufing of copper. Linnaeus, Syftem. Nat. page 15 3.

w Of the second genus of Linnaeus, Syft. Nat. page 153, it is the second species.

x Of both the former 1 have fome instances from Caftle Treryn in St. Levin.

r Dr. Woodward, Cat. Vol. ii. page 23, calls

it cc a black thready mineral, feeling to be a " fibrous talc." Hill, page 499, calls it " a fo- " liaceous, black, crystalline talc." Linnaeus seems to have the fame body in his view among his mica:, in the fourth species of his apyrites, genus 7, page 1 59- See alfo his second species of talc, pag. fequ.

z Quafi ab Hel-vaen, i. e. the stone generally found in brooks; unless it be a corruption of Anvon, which in Cornifh signifies a faith's anvil, and might fitly reprefent this very hard stone.

nature

92 Natural History

nature left it in ; it is not found in strata or quarries but in detached angular maffes, sometimes in large rocks, and is usually of a grey blueifh colour. If the nodules of this stone are found of a portable lize and a plane surface, fo as to need little polishing, they make stones for grinding the moil precious colours, far beyond any marble and equal to any porphyry.

There is another fort of Elvan, which confifts of a yellow clay cement, thick fet with opaque, white and yellow crystalline granules, and thefe thinly befprinkled with cinereous grains; both the grains and granules have smooth and plane fur laces : This flone rides in a quarry at Boreppa in Camborn, and elsewhere, is found in large nodules, immersed five feet deep and more in the Vorlas clay-pits in Ludgvan, and in fmoothed nodules on the beach betwixt Penzance and Marazion ; it is not near fo hard as the former.

sect. iv. More common ftill, of more various appearance and neceflary Killas. u f Cj i s t Be stone which we call Killas It is of the fchiftos kind, fome forts more friable, and fome more laminated than the reft ; there is scarce any field or common, where in fome shape or other we do not find thefe stones, but where there are any quarries of it, the top of the ftratum is covered with loose, thin stones, interfperfed with earth and clay, and a few feet below, lies the solid stone, the crevices of which are nearly perpendicular and horizontal ; thefe stones generally dip towards the Weft, and rife flat, of a very even thickness, for which reason I imagine they are called by the Tinners, Raze b ; they have a smooth face for building, and make a strong wall, but are apt to be feather-edged, which makes them lodge water, and throw damps into the walls. There are three forts of this stone, the yellow, the cinereous or blueifh, and the brown. The yellow is hard and lifting, if laid in nearly the fame figure as it rides, but breaks easily into fhivers, and across the grain, fo that it will not bear hammering ; it does not ferment with aqua fortis , nor give fire with feel, of a fandy grit and uniform texture, with a yellow ochreous clay in it's commifiiires, and weighs to water as is to one.

The blueifh killas is sometimes fo exceeding hard and stubborn, that in the mine they give five pounds a fathom c for breaking it ; at other times it is as eafy to break as pitcoal. Round the town of Marazion, and other places, (but better ftill in a large and ancient quarry at Helfton in Kerrier,) there rides a very tender killas, of the cinereous, and alfo of the yellow colour, both fprigged with fpecks of a darker hue, the texture of both the fame,

Dr. Woodward Cat. V. ii. pag. 6. fays we call 11 Woodward's Cat. vol. i. pag. 202. m. 9.

airy stone killas that splits with a grain. c Six feet long, fix high, and three wide.

viz.

Of Cornwall. 93

viz. a very small proportion of tony cement added to a fine fand and earth. This stone is consequently of a small grit, is very eafy to square, and makes very dry walls and dole joints, but seldom rides larger than from a foot high to two feet long, and is apt to scale off at the corners. Of this kind, but of a more compact, uniform, and finer grit, we find in fome places very good whetftones for edging knives and other tools : the rock, called Karn- Jenny, near Penzance pier, produces a course of thefe almost as fair and good as the hones of the fhop, and are ufed as fuch in that neighbourhood. A specimen of this kind weighs to water as 2 — to I,

Some of the cinereous killas confift of thin lamina laid in freight lines one over another in like manner as flat, to which it approaches very near, but never rides wide and thin enough to answer the ufes of it. Its maffes however are larger than thofe of the Helfton quarry, but more fpungy, fubjed to foft places, and more apt to decay and give way to the weather. Of this stone is built the

house at Nanfwhydn, Plate VIII. .

In many places the quarry-stone of the brown ferruginous killas rides large and hard, and with this they build in the Weftern parts of Cornwall, and in the Eaft at Camelford, Lancefton, and elsewhere ; but it is fubjed to the fame inconveniency of damps as the yellow before-mentioned. In fome places it rides in fuch large flakes, fo eafy for working, and they may be laid on their edge fo dole, that they prove excellent materials for building piers and moles into the fea ; the beft I have yet heard of, is that which rides on the parfonage grounds of Mawnan, from which a great deal is carried off yearly for building and repairing the Kayes at Falmouth,

St. Maws, and other trading towns in that harbour.

On the South coat, betwixt Lilkerd and the T&mar, there are sect.v. fome quarries of flat, which is brought down and flapped off at Slat. Tidiford and Morlham, and, by means of the Tamar, supplies the neighbourhood of Plymouth with covering for their houses, and is thence exported in pretty large quantities : there are alfo fome quarries of flat at Padftow on the North coat, whence, for many miles to the Eaft, the whole country is fubjed to a ftielfy flat. There is a better quarry ftill at Tindagel ; but the beft covering flat which we have in Cornwall, and indeed in all England, " perhaps the £neft in the world," is at Denyball, about two miles South, or DennybaH Tindagel, which will therefore require our more particular notice. quarry The whole quarry is about 300 yards long and 100 wide: the

deepest

Dr. Woodward, Cat. vol. II. page 5.

B b

94 Natural History

deepest part from the grass, is judged to be forty fathoms : the Jirata in the following order : the green fod, one foot ; a yellowbrown clay, two feet ; then the rock, dipping inwards into the hill towards the South- Weft, and preserving that inclination from top to bottom : at first the rock is in a lax fhattery state, with short and frequent fiffures, the lamina of unequal thickness, and not horizontal : thus the rock continues to the depth of ten or twelve fathom, all which is good for nothing, and entirely to be rid off ; then comes in a firmer brown stone, which becomes ftill browner in the air : this is fit for flatting houses, and the largest fize for flat pavement, never sweating as the cliff flat which is exposed to the fea-air. This is called the top-Jlone , and continues for ten fathom deep, the stone improving somewhat as you fink, but not at the beft till you come to twenty-four fathom deep from the grass ; then rides what they call the bottom-Jlone , of a grey blue colour, and fuch a clofe texture, that on the touch it will found clear, like a piece of metal c ; the males are first raised rough from the rock by v/edges driven by fledges of iron, and contain from five to ten, twelve, or fourteen feet, superficial square of stone : as foon as this mafs is freed by one man, another stone-cutter, with a strong wide chizel and mallet, is ready to cleave it to its proper thinnefs, which is usually about the eighth of an inch ; the fhivers irregular from two feet long, and one foot wide, downwards, to one foot square, and sometimes ( though seldom) dividing into fuch large flakes as to make tables and tomb-stones.

In this quarry several parties of men work on separate stages or floors, fome twelve fathom from the grass, fome twenty, others forty fathom deep, according to the portion of ground belonging to each party ; the small fhattery stone, not fit for covering houses, serves to whore up the rubbish, to divide the different allotments, and shape the narrow paths up and down the quarry ; all the flat is carried with no small danger from the plot where it rides, on men's backs, which are guarded from the weight by a kind of leatherapron, or rather cushion ; the carrier difpofes his charge of stones in rows fide by fide, till the area allotted to his partners is full, and then horses are ready to take them off, and carry them by tale to the person that buys them. The principal horizontal fiffures, which divide the Jirata , run from ten to fifteen feet afunder ; they are no more than chinks or joints, and contain no heterogeneous foftil. The stone of this quarry weighs to water as 2 — are to 1 , is not subject to rot or decay, to imbibe water, or split with falling, as the bottomftone of Tindagel, and other quarries ; but for its lightnefs, and enduring weather, is generally preferred to any flat in Great-Britain.

If

Schiftus fiflilis, durus, coerulefcens clangofus. Linn. Syft. Nat. page 158, N°. I.

Pl.X

OF CORNWALL, g 5

If this quarry was fituated nearer to a good harbour, much greater advantage might be made of it ; but all the stone exported, muft be carried by land to a little cove, called Portiffik, four miles ofl, on the North coat, where no ships of burthen can safely take in their loading ; and what is not exported, is difperfed in the neigh - bonrnood by an expensive land-carriage. In fome places f we have a very red flat in small fhivers, the only ufe of which, as far as I have learnt, is, that it serves the mason and carpenter to line and mark out their work.

In the next place let us take a view of thofe Hones which confift sect.vi. of a larger grit, and a more compounded nature, than what are gone om n ree_ before. And, firff, of the fiee-stone, or lapis arenaceus : This is of two fits; the free-stone confiding of fand and fpar, and that which conflfts of a fand and quartz. The purest free-stone (I mean, that nearest to the natures of Portland, Oxford, and Bath-stone) that I have feen railed in Cornwall, and indeed the only one that may be ftridly fo called, as far as I yet know, is found in the parishes of Carantoc and Lower St. Columb, in the latter of which parishes it makes a Jlratum, about twelve feet thick, at New-Kaye, where this done may be had in great quantities, and of almost any dimensions, nearly level with the surface of the ground, and contiguous to the fea. Its grit is of a small yellowish fand, cemented together by fpar. That which has been exposed to the air for any time is very ham, as we may fee in the old church and tower of Carantoc, which are built in great part of this stone : it wholly diffolves in aqua forth ; it weighs to water as 2 — £ to 1. It imbibes water plentifully, and retains it too ; and consequently would imbibe the moist cement, and make a compact clofe wall, dry as brick. If a quarry of this stone were properly opened, no gentleman in Cornwall needed to fend to Portland ; for, without question, this stone, thougn not altogether fo fine, would serve all the purposes of that j and it is somewhat furprifing, that fuch a treasure as this stone might prove with management, should lie bare to the eye, and fo convenient for water-carriage, and yet hitherto negle&ed. This is the only perfect free-stone which I have feen in Cornwall ; but in several places on the North coat, we find a stone of the fame ftrudure and materials, though incompleat, and in a state of immaturity, as I imagine, having never arrived to a hardness sufficient for ufe. Thefe imperfed stones which are spread here and there among the Gwythian and Piran hands, are the accidental formations of a thinly difperfed parry or corallin juice, blown up, together with the pray of the fea, in

1 In the parifli of Conftantine, and elsewhere.

quantity

9 6 Natural History

quantity sufficient to conned the fand together, but not enough to concrete into a firm hard body. Dr. Woodward's Cat. vol. II. p. 3, fays the inhabitants call it a kerned stone ; that is, a coagulated stone, but juft congealed ; and indeed it is no more than the blown fand incrufted into stone in fo many thin separate layers, one over another, as the fand was thrown in, mixed with the larry pray, at several fucceflive times, by the Northerly winds. Let no one wonder that the pray of the fea shall produce fuch an effect ; for that fpar is fufpended in all water is likely ; but, in particular waters, is evident from incruftations formed in the bottom of culinary vefiels, and in water-pipes, from petrified mofs, and many other phenomena ; and that fpar is alfo to be found in fea- water, muft certainly follow, from the fea being open to, and ready to receive, all that springs will convey into it. All coralloeid bodies and (hells are formed of fpar, modified and mixed fo as to comply with the occasions of marine plants and animals Laftly, (par is washed out of the cliffs and rocks exposed to the power of the fea ; nay, great degrees of heat will raise it in vapour, and what rides fo into the atmosphere, is doubtless again condensed and precipitated by wind, cold, and rain h . In several parts of Cornwall we have a lapis arenaceus or free-stone, confiding of fand and quartz. Near the borough of Michell there is a pretty stone, not long since discovered, of a cinereous ground, fpeckled with white gravel : it works very smooth, and keeps a neat edge. In Gwenap there is a whiter stone, and in Stithien one of the fame kind.

Polrudon stone (commonly called Pentowan) is likewise of the arenaceous kind. This stone lies in a lode about fifteen feet wide, not interfered by horizontal and perpendicular fiflures, as in firata of free-stone, but (helping, and in irregular males, aud of three different colours; the first and finest of a milk-white ground, thinly befprinkled with purple (pecks about the twenty-fourth part of an inch in diameter ; the second of a cinereous ground, with more, larger, but fainter purple fpecks ; the third of a yellow ochreous ground, fpeckled, but the purple lefs diftinff, with fome micaceous talc thinly interfperfed. Dr. Woodward's Cat. vol. II. page 4, had two specimens (b 2, b 3, ib.) from this quarry; one of an ironcolour, and indeed an irony-water, I observed here to dilcolour (omewhat of the fuperficies of the (tones ; but in the heart, I found them always of one of the three before-mentioned colours. Dr. Woodward, ibid, calls this a free-stone, and not improperly, if he meant only a lapis arenaceus ; but it is greatly different, both as to

1 See page before, 84.

h See Woodward's Cat. vol. I. pa. 116 — 1x3,

&c. " About CappeHham the corals difperfed

about the Ihores uniting with the fand, make a solid stone." Linnaeus Amsen. Academ. page

ground

Of Cornwall. 97

ground and charge , from the Portland, Oxford, and Bath-done ; lor all thefe are called free, not only lor their eafe in cutting, but for giving way to acids ; whereas our Polrudon done will cut indeed, but not near fo freely as the forcmentioned, and will not at all ferment with aqua forth : our Cornifh done is cemented by a cry dal or quartz bads, and therefore is radically didind from thofe dones of Portland, Oxford, and Bath, which are concreted by a fpar.

Ol Polrudon done is built the house of Anthony in this county,

Plate IX. page 92.

Of a dner closer grit dill is the free-done raised on Illogan downs, of which the eadern front of Tehidy house, Plate X. p. 94, is madly built. The ornaments of the portal and windows and cornice are of Portland, but the main body of the Comidi done, which is fo near the texture and colour of the Portland, that it requires a very near infpedion to diftinguifh one from the other. It unfortunately rides in fuch small maffes, that it will seldom square to one foot and a half in block ; and in this quarry there is fo little found of it, that there was scarce enough to dnifh the front below the cornice'.

From the arenaceous let us proceed to dones of a larger grit. sect. vii. In Cornwall the moor-done appears in greater plenty than any Moorftone, other : It is scattered over our hills from the Land's End through the or gran,te ' Hundreds of Penwith and Kerrier. In Pydre Hundred there is fome ; but the dat and killas begin there to prevail and reach from Paddow, along the North fea, to the extremity of the county. In all the higher parts of the southern hundreds the moordone keeps its ground ; and in general we may fay, that the higher tors in the county are usually spread with what we call moordone, from its being found mod commonly in uncultivated moody hills and vallies, for in both dtuations there is great plenty of it, but oftener indeed to be feen on hills, the fame rain and doods laying dones bare on the tops and ddes of mountains, which cover them as often in the vallies. It is a great midake in Naturalids, to imagine, that moordone does not lie in strata The done-cutters indeed do not open any quarries for moordone ', because that would be a needles labour, not because they cannot find moordone under the ground ; every cliff, crag, and precipice, and a great number of mines, may convince us, that this done lies in doors and layers, Jlratum upon ftratwn , interfered by horizontal and perpendicular fiflures; for

1 There is a very white done of this kind, of 1 So many large detached rocks of this kind of a fine, small, and uniform grit, which I have ob- stone appearing above ground, and the masons served about the midway between the borough of seldom working on any in the bowels of the earth,

Camelford and the church of St. Teath, which may have occafioned hasty memorandums, made may very well reward a further search. en pajjant , which thence crept into collections and

Hill's Follils, page 499. Woodward, &c. -catalogues, and thence from one book to another.

C c evidence

9 8 Natural History

evidence of which, we need go no farther than the rocky beach, and precipices at St. Michael's Mount. Moorftone, where there is no defeCt, does not cleave to faces, as flat and killas, but breaks irregularly, as marble ; yet can the masons cleave tall columnar maffes eight or ten feet long, and sometimes longer, out of a block of stone : they do not depend on a hole full of water to foak and often the stone, nor to separate it into a number of pieces at random m ; their way of cleaving it is this : Having pitched on a rock of proper fize, they line it out, and in the lines fink with a pointed instrument, called a pick, several holes, about three inches deep, as many wide, and four or five inches long. Having prepared thefe holes, they insert a large iron wedge, called a gad, in each hole, and line the wedges on each fide with a thin piece of iron plate ; two of the masons then (each furnished with a fledge) drive the wedges in an equable manner, and the stone will cleave the whole length defined.

That this stone is of the fame nature with the Oriental granite, is now no longer to be disputed ; by that name therefore, as better known, I shall henceforth diftinguifh it, and range the several forts I have met with in Cornwall according to the several colours of their grounds : for perfpicuity fake, let the reader observe, that in fuch compound stones as this, the prevailing matter or cement of any stone is called the groimd of that stone, and the spots, veins, or variegations fixed in that cement, I shall call the charge of that stone, as we might with equal propriety ( if it were not to multiply names) call the growid of any stone the field of that stone.

Five forts of this granite I have observed, the white, the dufky or dove-coloured, the yellow, the red, and the black.

White. In the parish of Conftantine, in the Hundred of Kerrier, there is great plenty of this stone ; the ground of several degrees of whiteness ; the whiteft of all, which is the beft, confifts (as to its ground) of milk-white opake, tabulated, gloffy grains of quartz, the grains rectangular, and usually columnar, from the fourth of an inch and lefs in diameter ; the charge confifts of brown and bright silvery of talc, about the tenth of an inch diameter ; the ground is fo white, that the brown talc has the appearance of black, when it is near and fronts the eye ; but at a little distance, the ground prevails fo much, that this stone, for many years after it is wrought, looks absolutely white : it is of a clofe grit, cuts well into moldings, in a moderate fire grows somewhat whiter and more brittle, but without mixture will not vitrify in a strong fire, gives fire with feel, ferments not with aqua forth : it has a very good effe& in

Hill's Foffils, page 499.

building,

OF CORNWALL. gg

building, is free in working, yet hard enough for every kind of honework in water as well as out, and much fuperiour to Portland for heps and water-works : it is alfo fent rough-hewn to Briftol in large dabs, which are there further polished for calling thin broad plates of copper. The pyramid in Arwinek grove at Falmouth, is solid, and built of this hone. It was erected by the late Martin Killigrevy of Arwinek, Efq; in the years 1737 and at the expence of 455 Pounds, fourteen feet wide at the bottom, and forty feet high, each fide correspondent in number and fize of hones to the front here exhibited, Plate XXIV. Fig. vii. the middle layed with roughlyfquared hones, and their interhices filled with liquid cement; fo that a more durable work can scarcely be imagined ; and great pity it is, ' that it was not placed as conspicuous as its folidity deserves. Gentlemen face the fronts of their houses with this hone to good effect, as may be feen at Carclew, the feat of William Lemon, Efq; Plate XI. page 96, and other places. Of two specimens weighed in the hydrohatic balance, one weighed to water as 2 - - £ to 1, the other weighed only as 2 - - ] Q to 1 n . There is a very good granite of the fame kind in Karn-mel-bal in St. Juh.

In the parish of Madern there is a very pretty moorhone, but rare; the ground milk-white, glofly quartz or coarse cryhal, the charge confuting of large black spots of cockle. Rochrock, in the parish of Roch, differs only from this, that the charge is small black fpecks, from the tenth of an inch and under, very numerous, thickly and equally difperfed, fo as to be of a mottled colour : this hone is in large males. The tendered and freeh kind of this hone, and neateh for moldings, is that of Tregonin, in the Parifh of Breag, of which is built the portico of Godolphin house, the feat of the Right Honourable the Earl of Godolphin, Plate XII. and the New Church at Helhon, the donation of the fame munificent Lord. The ground is of a white, opake grit, tender almoh as clay, interfperfed with granules of quartz, cinereous, transparent, laminated, small from the eighth of an inch and under. The hone is foft, and eafy for working, especially when firh raised, but afterwards hard and laying ; extreamly white when newly wrought, but apt to contract a mofiy green hue in time. It weighs to water as 2-- to 1. Of all the granite kind in Cornwall, this, if I have been rightly informed by a gentleman 0 who has tried many experiments this way, is moh proper for making porcelain.

In the parish of Ludgvan p there is a singular kind of granite ; Dove-

1 coloured.

n By which, as well as many other experiments, weight of any fort of {tone by experiments made it appears, that in parts of the very fame concrete upon any specimen.

{tone the ground and charge are mixed in different 0 Mr. Cookworthy of Plymouth,

proportions, and that there is no determining pre- ? Rcctius Ludvon.

cifely, but only in general and at a medium, the

the

Io 0 Natural History

th z ground dove-coloured transparent quartz, the grain from one-fifth of an inch diameter downwards : there is a crystalline, farinaceous, small fand, inclofed betwixt the grains, with a vaft quantity of Silvery talc interfperfed ; at the distance of two inches, generally more, is a Spot of black cockle, half inch or under in diameter ; when the {pots are larger, they are more distant. It is commonly called the Silver Stone ; and indeed is of great luftre in the microscope, every other granite placed by its fide looking flat and tame. It is much coveted for walling in afhler-work, being tough, keeping a good edge, and working eafy. One Specimen weighed to water as 2 - - to 1 1 the second, of a more yellow ground , weighed more, viz. as 2 — - jo to i. It imbibes water strongly, makes no effervefcence with acids, gives fire with feel j being calcined, the black {pots go off', even in a small fire ; the talc will perpetually keep its colour, though the other parts grow brown with age ; perhaps it might do very well for Silvering grounds for paper-hangings, and all the ules of talc.

Yellow gra- Of yellow granite there is a great quantity ; the ground brownyellow, Speckled throughout with black foliaceous talc of the fourth of an inch diameter and under ; the charge dark, cloudy, many grains of cockle from the fourth of an inch and under in diameter, intermixed with large, toothy, whitifh, opake prifms of quartz, from an inch and half long by an inch wide and under. The ground of this ffone being fo porous, and the charges fo frequent, large and hard, make it one of the moft fhattery granites we have, fit only for rough works, where neither Squares, {harp edges, nor moldings are required. It weighs to water as 2 - - to 1 : it imbibes water strongly, and difeharges it as suddenly ; fo that walls of it muff be very damp.

Much better is the yellow granite of Tregonin. Its ground is yellow, and being somewhat earthy, not more firm than the former ; but then the grains of its charge are but from the Sixth of an inch diameter downwards, and its black Specks of talc from the eighth of an inch diameter and under, Seeded fo thick, as to be seldom more than the eighth of an inch distant. This is a very beautiful stone, works as well as the white Tregonin before-mentioned, and is therefore reckoned among our heft granites ; although I muft observe, that the ground is fo very earthy and tender in both, that it can never bear a high polifti. It weighs to water nearly as the white of this place, viz. as 2 - - to 1 : imbibes moisture strongly, but evaporates it slowly, and is therefore much dryer for walling than the foregoing.

Red gramte. On the lands of Treaflo, in the parish of Ludgvan, there is a granite of a red ground , quartz laminated with oblong, lucid,

rhomboidal

ior

Of Cornwall.

rhomboidal scales, from the fourth of an inch diameter and under.

The charge confifts of duly cinereous granules, in fome places dark and fibrous as cockle, not only granulated, but veined ; the ground and charge equally hard. This Hone at Treaflo is exactly tne lame in ftrudure and colour as the red Egyptian granite, and lies in a vein about a bow-lhot from the house, eroding the publick road which leads to Caftelandinas, and may prove better at depth

than at the top, where I found it. It weighs to water as 2 77

to one. 140

Of a richer kind is the red granite first taken notice of by the difeerning Right Honourable Lord Edgcumbe, by whole diredions tables were firfc made of it, and very handsome finds for bulls and vafes. In the new hall, at Mount Edgcumbe, have been lately eroded two chimney-pieces principally of this kind of done ; and indeed to this noble Lord this belt of our Cornifii granites remarkable for its bold ruddy colouring and high and durable polish, is chiefly indebted for being refeued from obfeurity, and estimated at fo high a price as it is at present by the curious.

In the parifli of Ludgvan there is a granite of a black cockle Black granite ground , charged fo thick with white spots oi femitranfparent quartz, from an inch long by half inch wide and under ; that the charge almost rivals the ground in quantity, it is much harder than the dove-coloured granite of the fame parish, and weighs to water as

2 - - "5 to one.

A better stone of the black kind is found at Bofworlas, in the parifli of St. Juft ; the ground is of a blacker cockle than the foregoing, and is interfered in all diredions by toothy males of a warm flesh-coloured quartz, mostly in the parallelopiped shape ; sometimes curved, now and then in a zig-zag manner, and sometimes in the form of a cross ; in diameter, from half to one-fifth of an inch, by two inches long and under. The charge in depth confifts of two Jirata (sometimes three) of laming from the twentieth of an inch thick and under, with lucid surfaces parallel to one another, but lying at different angles with thole of the adjoining jiratum ; fo that when one is opposed to the light and fliines, the other, which butts at the end of it, does not. This is a moft curious and beautiful stone, extremely hard, may be had in large pieces, and will doubtless with labour attain to a high polish for tables and ornaments. It weighs to water as 2 - - to 1 .

ihe marble we have in Cormvall is not remarkable either for its sect.viii. beauty or ufe. In the parish of Carantoc, and at New Kaye, in 9 f the Cor_ Lower St. Columb, there is a coarse cinereous marble veined with mfh marble ' v mite fpar : it ferments strongly with aqua fortis , gives no fire w T ith

D d „ feel,

Natural History

Reel, weighs to water as 2 - - to 1. The specimen weighed in air fifteen penny-weights ten grains ; and after being immersed three minutes, and carefully wiped, it weighed fifteen penny-weights ten grains and half, by which it appears, tnat this marble admitted no water at all into its pores. It burns to a whiter colour, but makes no fign of fermenting afterwards, when sprinkled with common water? Much better is the marble about a mile north of Padftow, at a place called Pormiffen, where there are in the cliff great quantities of marble, the Jlvata one foot and halt thick at a medium, intermixed with fhelfy flat ; the marble is sometimes cut into chimneypieces and tables, makes flags for hearths, and small squares for inlerting between the angles of free-stone pavements ; the ground of it somewhat blacker than the foregoing, and the veins wider ; as to the ground , grit, texture, finer and closer ; the fermentations with acids the fame q : it takes a very high polish, but fo hard withal, that perhaps Italian marble is full as cheap Among the Cornifh marbles, according to Linnaeus's Syftem, (fee page 156) we mu ft reckon a fine gypfum or plaifter of Paris, discovered lately in the parish of St. Clare, near Lifkerd, equal to any thing of that kind round abroad.

sect ix It may not be here unfeafonable to add a remark or two

Oftheweight upon the weight and dampnefs of stones in general, and of the

of aS™ 6 foregoing in particular. As by weighing them in water we discovered their specific gravity nearly, with regard to one another and to the common standard- water ; fo by weighing them carefully wiped after their immersion, we may perceive what quantity of water has entered their pores, and in what time, which may lead us to fome useful observations ; and, among the reft, to estimate the dampnefs of each fort of stone in walls and pavements ; for according to the quantity of water imbibed in any given time, and its flownefs or readiness to remit and evaporate that moisture, fo will be the dampnefs of any wall built of that stone with like and equal cement. If it retains as well as imbibes, then it mu ft be saturated with water before it can occasion any damp ; and therefore the free-stone of Carantok, and any other of like nature r , imbibing freely, and retaining greedily, will fuck entirely into its body all the common moisture of the air and cement, and keep it there without imparting any perceivable quantity to the infide or the wall or room. If it imbibes water suddenly and as readily parts with it, as fome of our granites do, it will infallibly occasion damps within and without; it will difperfe it's dampnefs inwards, yielding it to the

Dr. Woodward takes notice of marble nodules alfo in the parish of Kilkhampton : it cuts into neat variegated with brown, red, and white, from the moldings, and bears carving : it will not ferment whores of the Land's End. Cat. Ax, b 7. with acids.

There is a blue-black stone of a marble tex- r Portland, Bath, and Oxford,

ture found on Gunhilly downs; I have noted it

attra&ion

Of Cornwall. I03

attraction of the greater heat within a room or wall, than there is on the outside of the wall. If it be fo hard that it will not admit of any water into it's pores, which is the cafe of fome marbles it will however occasion great damps, by condenfing the moisture of the air (which would otherwise gently difperfe and vanish) into water, to fuch a degree, that pavements, ornaments and pannels, ot fuch marble, shall sweat (as the usual phrase is) and even run with water. It being the usual and juft method to line walls with brick, to make the walls wholfome and dry, in order to discover Dy what means bricks obviate damps, I made the following experiments in July, 1755. I took two bits from off the fame brick, of the clofeft and mod uniform texture; N". ,. weighed in air, 31, grains ; after it had been immersed five minutes in water, it weighed (after being carefully wiped with a linen cloth) 368 grains, fo that

it imbibed, by an immersion of five minutes, 34 grains, which to it's whole is as one-fifth — 22 .

N'\ 2, weighed in air 326 grains, but after an immersion of five minutes, 392 grains, having imbibed 66 grains ; the fame brick having one of it s angles placed contiguous to fome drops of water, fucked up ill more; a third specimen of like confidence, which had not been immersed at all, on touching fome drops of water fucked

V m , out i immediately. By thefe experiments it is plain, that brick does not obviate damps by it's aversion to, or repulfion of water, because it imbibes water more rapacioufly than any stone.

I placed therefore both thefe pieces of brick fo charged with water, in a South dry window, July i S) 1755, at nine o'clock, a. m. ; by twelve at noon N a 1 had evaporated five grains, by half paft three, p. m. it had loft five grains more; at five it had rather gained than loft (the weather proving rainy) ; by three quarters after iix, p. m. it had loft only half a grain in three hours and a quarter, the weather continuing, cloudy, with fome rain ; at half hour after

11 u iV 6 ne rl m0min J u ty had loft more, four grains and a hall, and by nine, a. m. which completed the 24 hours, it had oit more, xour grains ; fo that in 24 hours this piece of brick had evaporated by natural heat, nineteen grains, which, to fifty-four, the quantity imbibed is somewhat more than one third.

N . 2 had been purposely for a moment or two, put contiguous to water- again, to try ir it would imbibe more moisture than it's immersion had supplied it with, and yet in 24 hours, this specimen evaporated only fifteen grains, viz. one quarter and two fixteenths or what it had imbibed.

So retentive is brick of that moisture which it admits; by which it appears that crick obviates damps, not by refifting or defending

See Carantoc marble above.

the

I04 Natural History

the moisture of weather, improper hones, and broken cement, out by first imbibing strongly, then arresting and detaining the damps, and draining the cement fo as that it cannot transmit its dampnefs through the walls : this brick will do till it is fatu rated with redundant moisture, and then it obviates damps no longer ; and it lodows, that the more our granites partake of the nature of bricks, the dryer they are for walling ; on the other hand, the more tney admit and condenfe, and the easier they quit and difperfe the moisture they receive, the greater damps they occasion, keeping the body of the cement, and every thing contiguous, in a continual unwhole-

fome state of moisture.

Chap. X.

Of Stones of Ornament and Curio fty , viz. Pebbles, Flints, Porphyry , Talc, Stala&ites , Afbeftos , and small Gems found in Cornwall.

T HERE are no gravel pits where pebbles and flints lie in heaps and strata at present discovered in Cornwall, which have reached my knowledge, but nature has made sufficient amends by beftrewing the beach of our bays and creeks with an infinite number of pebbles, flints, and nodules. Here therefore the curious Naturalift will find, spread as it were for his better oofervation, a large collodion, wherein, though there are many duplicates, yet is there a greater diversity of curious stones on a beach or a few furlongs, than are to be found in fome hundreds of miles, travelled over in the inland country. When the learned travel, they only take notice of, and colled what is rare to them, or not yet deferred ; whence it happens oftentimes, that thofe things which are reckoned among the moft entertaining produds of nature in other countries, lie on our own flores negleded, merely because they are well known to the Literati, and found in other places by the occasional visitors of this, and other particular counties.

I shall range the pebbles by the colour of their grounds as I have done before by the granites.

sect. i. N°. i. Of the white pebbles fbme are veined like marble, fbme clouded with a lively flesh-colour, fome variegated with purple and other spots, as well as veined, others charged with black pebbles, fome rough and gritty to the touch, others smooth, fome transparent as rock crystal. Of this laft fort 1 have feen a feal cut out or (what the lapidaries call) Pebble Cryftal, extreamly bright and clear: the pebble was found, as I am informed, on the top of Routor,

OF CORNWALL. io 5

the highest hill in Cornwall according to my estimate It is alfo found in our mines, but seldom ; the only one I have feen was taken out of a mine, called Huel-royal, in Camborn ; it was quite ovular, half uncovered and half fixed in a focket of angular and puculated crystal ; one inch and half long, and one inch and onefifth wide . but our white pebbles are mostly of an opake white quartz.

N°. 2. Of the yellow kind our pebbles are usually of a high polish and amber-like fubftance, differently clouded, veined, or Spotted, with other colours.

N°. 3 - Pebbles of a green ground are rare with us, none which I have met with transparent; in fome the willow-green is charged with pale-yellow crystalline granules, the charge prominent, Shewing that it is of a harder firmer confiffence than the ground.

N 4 Or the ruddy ground fome of a faint lake-colour have large irregular granules of opake white quartz funk in them, thereby approving themselves Softer than the ground.

Of the brown-red fome are of a high polish, fine texture, clouded with red interfered by a blackifh vein, plainly of the agate kind.

N . 5 Pebbles of the blue ground are very differently charged ; one of a blue killas is Seeded with innumerable little micaceous Spots, of fo faint a caft as Scarce distinguishable from the ground , the charge a thin Sprinkling of opake white quartz ; the stone is porous, and to the touch feels rough, as any granite pebble.

Another of blue killas is charged with pale, flesh-coloured, toothy grains, from an inch diameter and under, and differs only from the Bofworlas granites (beforementioned page, 10 1) in this, that its ground is blue instead of black.

Of a blue-black, fome are of a very high poliSh, and clofe texture.

N . 6 . Of the black ground, fome pebbles are So equal a mixture of Striated glofly cockle and white quartz, that were not the latter in diitinci granules from the fourth of an inch and under, it would be difficult to decide which is the ground and which the charge ; it is a pretty mottled Stone, but rough and fcabrous to the touch.

A black flattifh pebble, Smooth, but of no great polish ; its fibres parallel and longitudinal ; it has the properties of a true touch-Stone. It was brought me from the fea-whore in the parish of St. Kevran, and Seems to owe its pebbly figure to the attrition of the waters ; fo that it is not unlikely that there Should be thereabouts fome course of black marble of the nature of the lapis Lydius ,

' 1 ° Oxfordfliire they sometimes fold fuch pebbles wholly pellucid. Woodward's Cat. vol. I. page 32.

E e

about the bignefs of a walnut.

or

SECT. II. Flints.

Io6 natural history

or Chian marble of the ancients ; although any black hard marble

will indeed answer the purposes of a touch-stone.

N". 7. Tafpers are to be found among our pebbles, more e.peci ally of the black and yellow kind ; but of the green jasper I have yet feen none found in this county.

tr has been generally held by Naturalifts that we have no flints natfvein Cornwall, bit this is a mistake Betwixt the towns of Penzance and Marazicn there is a beach of pebbles two mile, and three Quarters long, among which many hundred flints may be picked'hp every day ; and left it should be uM thatthefe flints may poffibly be foreign, and brought m balla , J ' muft observe, that in the low-lands or the parish of Ludgvan, lea a mulket-lhot from the laid beach, in a place called the or as, there is a ftratum of clay about three feet under the gras : the clay is about four feet deep. In this clay, immersed from one to four fht deep, (sometimes deeper) flints are discovered m great numbers, their fize from the bignefs of a man's lift to that of a bean, then coat nearly of the colour of the clay, (as in chalk we find then ' teriour infeded with the chalk-bed in which they lie) and th inward part died with the fame colour more than half way ; the other part, near the middle, a common, corneous, brown flint. In the fame bed of clay, I find fea-pebbles of opake white quartz and fome fhingle; sufficient and evident veftiges of jniverfal deluxe I find alfo many final! blue killas stones, with all leir andes on ; an equal evidence, that as the advancing waters of the deluge introduced the productions of the fea, fo the departing waters of the fame catastrophe frequently deposited stones and fragments of stones from the hills : both ftiew, that th tflratum remains as it was left by the flood, and are consequently teftimomes that the flints found in it muft be native, and the growth of Cornwalh The flints of this bed of clay are brown within, but on the beach we have a remarkable variety, and one now before me of an opake white, is of as fine texture, and as high a polish, as any Carnenon

I have ever feen.

sect. hi. Pebbles found on the fea-whore are generally of the fame flattifli Shape and oval shape. This fliape is therefore attributed (and for the mo t- part not unjuftly) to the agitation of the fea, which, their cause ro ip n p. them to and fro, against the rocks and against one anodic , enquired into wears &i ff angkS) and neceffa rily re duces them to their globular

figure : but what exercises the attention of the curious, is, that pebbles are oftentimes lound in clay and gravel-pits many rrues from the fea, and yet of the fame orbicular fiiape as-thofe on hie

Of Cornwall. 107

fea-ftiore ; nay, fome of thefe inland pebbles are sometimes large from ten to twenty inches, and fome three and four feet diameter. The question therefore is, Whence this similarity of shape? Flow come the inland pebbles to be of that shape, which, in fuch numerous instances as the fea-whore and rivers afford us, is manifeftly owing only to the agitation of fea and river-waters. Dr. Woodward (who left few parts of Natural Hiftory unattempted, and many particulars very fuccefsfully explained) labours hard to prove, that the inland pebbles are indebted to the departing waters of the Deluge for their roundnefs ; and that thefe waters had the fame effect upon them as the fea upon thole of the whores : but it is very juftly replied to this opinion, that the departing waters o: the deluge had neither time nor sufficient force in general, nor violence of agitation enough in all situations to produce the effect in question ; the cause therefore aligned is not equal to the eftedt, and all the phenomena in pebbles produced by him u , may be rationally accounted for upon much lets difputable principles w . The truth is, this pebbly form is either natural or adventitious ; where the form is adventitious, it is owing either to the force of lea or river- waters ; on the fea and river-beach tbofe pebbles of the foster kinds, and thofe which appear to have been fragments of the adjoining rocks (cr nodules which never arrive to the flze of rocks) owe their roundnefs to the neighbouring waves ; at the fame time it muff be confefled, that many which are on the whore, as well as moft of the inland pebbles, are really found in their own original, and natural form in which they ftrft concreted. Natural pebbles may be safely diilinguifhed from fadlitious : first, by their having a coat or hell moftiy of an even thick nefs, but of a different colour from the inward fubftance of the stone : secondly, when the pebble has a nucleus in or near the center, round which the body of the pebble is formed in strata ; thirdly, when the fibres of the body spring like rays from a central point ; fourthly, thofe pebbles, which have nodulous bunches or excrefeer.cies of equal hardness to the reft of the body, may be looked upon as in the fame state and figure which nature lert them in ; fifthly, if a pebble ferments with acids, it is not a natural one ( HilL page 406); but whether this criterion be conclusive may be questioned ; for I cannot fee why stones of a parry bafe may not be formed into a pebbly figure by the fame

" Ibidem ut supra £sf

The stone which Dr. Woodward ( ibidem ut supra, page 47,) lays fo much ftrefs upon, may be explained without having recourse to the departing waters of the deluge. This stone conftfts of several small pebbles cemented together into one nodule. No more need be faid, than that the ground and the charge might be liquefeent at the

fame time ; and though by the attraction of hnular parts die little pebbles were kept together in separate males, and the cement, at the lame time that it surrounded them, repelled them to their own limits, yet being both fupple enough to conform to die force of external bodies, they became comprefled and rounded, and formed one nodule under one convex surface.

principle

I0 8 Natural History

principle which forms thofe of a crystal bafe, that principle being adventitious, not natural to either : however that be, it mull; not be imaged, that the reverse will hold good*; for we have many factitious pebbles (of Porphyry for instance, and others of crystalline bafe) which will not ferment. To thefe criterions fome authors add, that they break irregularly ; whereas faditious pebbles break to faces. How this natural figure therefore comes to correfpond fo perfectly with that which is factitious , muft be our next enquiry. A modern author observes, that one part of the pebbles is more compreffed than the other, which he therefore rightly terms their bafe, and argues very juftly, that the lumps of which they are formed, muft have been at one time or other in a state of foftnefs and liquidity ; that, floating in a fluid medium before they were hardened, they were rolled to and fro, if that medium was in violent motion, fo as to become round ; if that medium was in little motion, then they only became roundifti ; if at perfed reft, then ftill more flat. Thefe are ingenious conjectures, and the author ' deserves commendation ; but there muft have been several other concurring causes : To what is here fuggefted then, let us add the equal preffure of the fluid medium on all fides upon the stone-maffes during their liquefcent state ; for we know that water will form melted lead, properly mixed, into a globular figure : Again ; the mutual attraction of similar parts will form fluid bodies into a roundnefs, as we may fee by drops of dew and quickfilver. All thefe causes muft, I fliould think, be admitted ; nor are we to forget, that the innate force of the materials, the peculiar fait, sulphur, mineral, or metallic earth, of which the stone is composed, muft have been fupple, and complying with the other forces, and not have any tendency to angular or rectilinear figures, or pebbles could not have been rounded at the time of their concretion.

Thus much for the natural and factitious shape of pebbles, the latter being occafioned by the agitation of water, and the natural formed in water, partly by its fluctuations and equilateral preffure, and partly by the mutual attraction and content of the moleculcz , of which fuch stones are composed. As to the other properties of pebbles, whereby they differ from one another, I ftiall only hint, that if the component parts were smooth, fine, and small, the body formed of thefe will be of a clofe texture and glofly surface ; if we find the inward ftruCture uniform, it will intimate the unmixed nature of the materials ; if in layers of different earth and cement, we are to impute them to fucceflive applications of different fubftances, indurated at different but no very distant times

That all pebbles, which will not ferment, are y Hill's Hiftorv of Foffils of the Telaugium,

natural ones. page 555,

Dr. Woodward's Catalogue, vol. I. page 29.

if

Of Cornwall. 109

if they are interfered by teams of Lone different from the body, the reason poffibly may be this ; that as the body was con trading; itself in order to induration ( contraction or approximation of parts being a neceflary concomitant of induration), or after induration cleaved by force of fire or accident, a fiffure ensuing, that fiffure was filled with the adjoining matter, repelled by the fubfcance of the body, and formed of its own uniform parts by mutual attraction betwixt themselves and exclusion of others. If there are unevenneffes in the surface of pebbles (as was the cafe with many, which made Dr. Woodward recur to the agitation of the waters of the deluge) fome parts being more prominent than others, or if there are loose nucleus's incloled within the central cavity, as is the cale of the fEtites ", it need only be fuggefted, that thefe phasnomina may reasonably be attributed to the different contraCtile powers of the materials ol which thefe unevenneffes and central nucleus's conlift ; it being certain, that if the body of a stone contracts itself, in order to induration, into a closer fubftance than the feam, feptum, or granulated charge , that charge or feam will be more prominent than the body, and vice verfd ; and if the fubftance of the nucleus, during the time of induration, contracts itself after and more than the fubftance of the hell which invefts it, that nucleus will have a vacancy round it, and become loose in its cell, the nucleus being a concretion pofteriour to that of the hell, and breaking loose from the inner coat of the hell by the contractile powers of its own constituent parts. Laltly, of pebbles : Some are evidently formed since the deluge, for we find shells, coralloid bodies, and echinites in them ; whether thofe which carry no fuch evidences were formed before, at, or long since the deluge, it is impoluble to determine.

From pebbles, let us pafs to nodules of curious stones found in sect.iv. Cornwall. Having found fome pebbles of porphyry on the fea- Nodules, whore, upon farther search I discovered a stone of the fame kind in the parish of Philac, among the fand-hills : it is of a ruddypurple ground (not fo red as the Egyptian) charged with granules rectangular and oval, from the eighth of an inch diameter and under, nearly of the fame colour with the ground , but paler with glofly surfaces, interfperfed thinly with opake white granules of quartz of like fize and shape to the foregoing, mixed with fome black Ipecks of cockle of the fame fize. It weighs to water as 2 - - 7ft to 1

N°. ii. Part of a large nodule of like porphyry found in my

garden, had its granules larger, but no white interfperfed. One

z One of which, of a hard brown flint-like and brought me September 17, 1757-

stone, about an inch in diameter, was found in a This seems to be the pophyrites leucoftidttos

*757, near Penzance Kaye, among the fea-pebbles, of the ancients.

F f pebble

Ho Natural History

pebble of like kind is charged with yellow spots of a light-ochre colour, from the fifth of an inch diameter and under.

N°. iii. A very blue violet purple grGu?id y granules lighter coloured, thinly difperfed from the eighth of an inch and under in diameter, a beautiful stone from the beach in Mount's-Bay.

N°. iv. We have alfo the porphyrites with larger grains, and a green ground , which Hone though not of a purple colour, yet, being of like confidence and texture, mud be ranged alfo among the porphyrites.

N°. v. Dr. Woodward takes notice of u a done b finely varie- " gated with spots of red and white, with flakes of white talc in " it, found near Caldock, in Cornwall, called v/ith uc the Worm- " Seed Stone, because thick fet with small bodies not unlike the " Semen Santonici, or Worm-Seed, somewhat related (lays he) to " the porphyry kind."

I have yet found thefe porphyries only in nodules ; but fo many being to be feen, especially after a dorm, on the fea-fliore of Mounts Bay, particularly near Pons-an-dane river, in Gulval, it is not unlikely that there may be fome veins or fircita of them in the funk rocks under the fea, though I have, upon my searches among the rocks at low- water, not discovered any. The porphyry was thought formerly peculiar to Egypt, and much admired for its colour and hardness. The ancients had a method of working it with tools, but that method is as yet unknown to the moderns. It is a cloforgrained kind of granite, with its charge or Ipots more neatly placed, and more didin&ly finished.

sect.v. It has been generally held, that in Cornwall we have no dalac- Md ft afabdf S t es ' ut Ads ls a midake ; for fome small drop-dones or ftalacflites in CornwaJ). have been fent to the Royal Society from Pendinas cable, faid to have had a wrong scent ' ; and in the caves of a cliff, near the Holy-well, in the parish of St. Cuthbert, there are several dillatitious productions of a parry kind. Some are gritty, and their grit little harder than chalk ; others are more dony, and hang from the roof in fangs, like the anemone root, but sometimes in small tubular dalactites with green and sometimes red efilorefoencies. The fame parry juice forms large bunches of done on the fides of the caves, and as it drains through the fand, and blown fragments of shells, fixes both, forming itself into thin prominent wavy edges, with quadrangular cavities between, making a pretty kind of fretwork. On the floor of thefe caves the fame dony juice forms a more uniform mafs, spreading itself into a fluor of the alabader

Cat. vol. I. page 64, d. 36. c Grew's Muf. R. S. page 320.

kind

'ive

Of Corn W A Ll.

kind. The Jlrata .of this mcruftation are as many as the fucceffive indurations, easily diftinguilhed, the under-part of each Jiratumbano browner and more earthy, the upper-part more white and pure the more impure parts or the liquid fettling neared: the bottom The iampies I have from thefe caves, are from half inch to fix inches tmck, coating the protuberances, as well as the depreftions of the rocks they ran upon, usually at one thickness ; but where the rock upon whicn tms fluor fixes is concave, and the edges of that concavity upon a level, the alabafter is thicker, better clouded! and of a closer gram, and consequently fitter for polishing, and making -arger va.es. The upper-parts of the incrustation is covered over With a kind of purple powder, a fort of mineral efflorefcence 1 , calcaneus fermenting strongly with acids'; in the microscope it appears woody, and], kc the (hoots of damp vitriolic fubftances ; but that t e r aments which shoot from vitriol are white, and the threads of this ialt are transparent purple crofting each other in all direflions.

The learned Mr. Ray mentions the warming-stone digged in sect vi Cornwall, which being once well heated at the fire, reins itsw .,,4 warmth a great while. Dr. Riot (Oxfordihire, page 258) f ays this ' lo "- stone w.ll continue warm eight or ten hours', and gives relief in several pains, particularly in thofe of the internal hemorrhoids; and

5 rZrfr° n0m3Si ; Z °' COn - P a S e 2 43 . calls it, Lapis Schifios dufiJJ. jr foiidijfimus apud Cornubienfes Warming-stone. In York-

t ' , 7 h ?T e a stone of this property, confifting of dark-grey g offy tak with fo me white fpar interpofed betwixt the flakes of it, which Dr. Woodward (Cat vol. I. page 6 a, 0d. 7 f.) fays, the people lay in their beds m cold weather at their feet, because, when once heated, it retains the heat a great while s .

- J" a copper-mine, called Nancothan, near Redruth, they have Swi™™,. a stone which they call the Swimming-stone. It confifts of redili- ftotie ' near lammce as thin as paper, intending each other in all diredions, and leaving unequal cavities of various angles between the fepta.

The ftmihire is therefore very cellular, and makes the stone fo ight, that it fvvims on water. It is of a yellow goflan colour, and as to its extenour, has fome resemblance to a light kind of cave- OUS calammaris which I have had from Wirkfworth, near

or y. I have not heard of this stone s being found any where in Cornwall but in this work.

Suppofed to be the flowers of cobalt.

have observed the fame purple elHorefcencils on a damp ftuckoed wall in the chapel at ot. Michael's Mount.

c which quality however it is inferior to the pamlh Ruggiola (mentioned in Willughby's

travels through Spain, page 471), which are broad plates, like tiles, cut out of a mountain of red fait near Cardona, which, being well heated on both fides, will keep warm twenty-four hours.

y Hill, page 553, calls this stone the blueifti white brittle Telaugium.

Of

Sect. Vii.

Of talc in Cornwall.

Ji2 Natural History

of the brown foliaceous talc, a tin-work, in the parish of St. Tuft ', affords a fair specimen ; the leaves thin and elastic from the tourth of an inch downwards in diameter, of no determinate figure, nor inferred in any order. In the microscope the leaves are of a tortoise-hell transparency and colour. It is found in a bed of ruddy fpeckled granite, to which it adheres '.

N°. ii. A much more beautiful foliaceous talc I have .rom a cliff near the Lizherd, of extream thinnefs, fine texture, transparency, and silver hue : the leaves were in diameter but half inch downwards, being broken smaller than their natural fize be.ore I had them. It is the Mica particulis membranaceis jijjiltbus chap hams .

N°. iii. A specimen of the fame kind of a browner, more corneous colour, lefs flexible, and its membranes larger .

N°. iv. Radiated fllvery talc. In a bed of milk-white tabulated quartz. The rays are an inch and a quarter long and under, confilling of several membranes of talc one-fourth of an inch long by one-fifth of an inch wide, in the Ihape of the leaf o. a peachtree : they lie in straight lines, fpnnging as it were from a

centre , rpi

N°. v. The shining gold-coloured talc, or mica aurea. 1 he

micffi are of silver as well as gold-colour, but lefs distinct ; neither

of them elastic : they lie longitudinally in parallel flakes, one on

the back of another, and between them have white cryftallme

fhivers ; but what part of Cornwall I had this from, I do not

recollect.

Sect. Viii.

Of the afbeftos found in Cornwall.

Of the solid albeftine talc we have before taken notice, that it is sometimes found adhering to the purest specimens o t e eatites Cornubienfa, or Soap-rock. The fame fubftance is spread like an enamel on the surface of the rocks exposed to the fea. This is near of kin to the Ophites, or Serpentine marble of the ancients, and sometimes is but a thin film, a kind of enamel, ftiiver, or cruft; but where it is in larger and more tony males, it admits a high polifti, is cut into various forms, and turned into vafes ra ..

Of the fibrous abeftos I have a sample found in a stone in the church yard of Landawinek, the filaments flat, pointed, of a bright purple colour, and silvery glofs, extremely small and flexile, appearing; in the microscope edged with a foft down, the fibres longer and of a brighter hue, but not fo woolly as fome samples I have from the ifle of Anglefea. In greater plenty I have received specimens of

h Huelanboys.

1 It seems the Mica particulis fquatnofts Jparjls of Linnaeus. Syft. Nat. page 159.

Linnaeus Syft. Nat. ib. k From Gwenap.

1 From Bellchapel work, in Gwenap. m This should be the Ollaris folidus virefcens, maculofus polituram admttms of Linnaeus, page 160, N°. iii.

an

Of Cornwall. 113

an afbeftos lately found in the parish of St. Clare, near the town of Lifkerd, by the Reverend Mr. Vofper, in the month of March 1756. It was first discovered about 150 yards, South-Weft of the church, in an orchard belonging to the vicarage, but afterwards in several stones of the adjacent grounds ; fome of it of a light yellow, adheres to the outftde of a green hard fandy killas, this is short jointed, and not flexile, but it lies in veins generally, courflng in a wavy line " through the tender gritty cinereous killas before mentioned, page 92. The veins of N°. i. are of like colour to the mother stone, from the tenth of an inch to three inches wide ; this is what is called by Authors 0 the whitifh brown ftlky afbeftos, with long, continued flat filaments ; it is not equally fine in all the stones wherein it appears ; in fome samples the afbeftos is very downy, and the filaments rife flat and easily, from one inch to two inches and an half long. N°. ii. Is the amiantus jibris mollibus parallelis facile feparabilibus of authors p . N°. iii. is in its exterior like decayed willow wood ; in other samples the fibres are three inches long, but more tony, rounder, more compact, and heavier, scarce at all plumous ; this third fort I take to be the Amiantos fibris durioribus in lamellas crafftores compaElis ponderofus .

There is another fort mentioned by Grew r , called the bastard amiantus which grows in veins in a clay and mundick load between beds of a greenish earth in our Cornifh mines ; the threads being one third or near half an inch long of a glofly black colour and brittle." Oi the more downy forts of this stone, the ancients had the art of making a kind of cloth resembling linen, it had this Angular property that no fire would injure it, for which reason it was called Linum income uflibik, and the ufe of it was to shroud the dead bodies of princes, fo as to preserve their ashes pure, and unmixed from thofe of the funeral pile. Pliny lib. xix. chap. 1 . fays, that he had feen napkins made of this linen which after being ufed at table, were thrown into the fire, and thereby cleaned better than if they had been waflied with water. The ancients made alfo nets of this stone, and reticulated caps for the head ; it was alfo ufed as wicks for lamps, in which it proved fo retentive of the fire, that Callimachus at Athens dedicated a golden lamp to Minerva, which continued burning, by means of the lint of this stone immersed in oil, for a whole year without being extinguished : Paufanias in Atticis, chap. xxvi. A lamp of the fame kind burnt in the temple of Jupiter Hammon . It is to be observed however, that wicks for lamps made of the afbeftos do not yield fo bright a flame

n See plate XXV. fig. xxx. See Linnaeus, page 1 63, ibidem.

0 See Hill's foffils, page 102. r Mufeum of the Royal Society, page 313.

v See Linnaeus Syft. Nat. page 162. Plutarch de def. Orac.

G g

as

Ii4 Natural History

as thofe of cotton. This stone was very rare among the ancients pliny 1 seems to think that it was only to be found in the burning defeats of India, from the extremity of the heat in which climate it derived it's quality of relifting the force oi lire. He fays, (ibid) that it was fo rare and precious, that the finding it was esteemed a piece of good fortune, equal to the discovery of precious Hones, and calls the linen wove of it superior to any other in the world. Plutarch fays it was found in Greece among the Caryftian marble. It is now difeovered in several parts of Europe, but whether lo excellent as that of which the ancients made thele curious linens it is hard to decide.

It may feem to fome a little improbable that there Ihould ever have been an art of extracting cloth out of stone, but when we confider the downy filaments of the albeftos, and the extream finenefs of its fibres, fo apt to mix and entangle one with the other, and make a kind of tender wool, it will feem little more furprizing than that cloth Ihould be wove out of cotton. The art is fuppofed by fome to have been loft in the time of Pliny, for what reason I cannot fay ; for, by the paflage above-mentioned, it is clear, that the cloths made of it were extant, and in ufe in his time. Plutarch alfo mentions them as made in his time ; and at present the curious try experiments in the fame way for their amusement. " Septalius (fays Grew, Mufeum, R. S. page 313,) hath, or lately had, ropes, paper, and netted-works, all made hereof, and fome of them with his own hand." Whether the moderns understand the moft efficacious manner of treating this Honey flax, is what cannot be determined; but their present manner of preparing it, is thus laid down by Pontoppidan, page 169, but from what authority is not mentioned : the stone is softened in water, then beaten with a moderate force till the fibres separate ; afterwards carefully and repeatedly walked, till cleared of all terrene particles ; then the flax is dried in a five ; the filaments are then fpun carefully, the fingers being softened with oil." The reason why the art is loft, or rather difufed, seems not fo much owing to the want of this stone, nor to the difficulty of weaving it, as to the little or no demand for it, burning the dead (which was the principal ufe of it) having never been an universal custom in any even the moft cultivated nations ; and where it was a custom, few were fo curious as to prevent the mixing of the ashes with thofe of the funeral pile, and fewer Hill were equal to the expence of procuring fuch softly cloathings for the dead ; but when the Chriftian Religion prevailed over the Roman empire, and burning the dead was laid aside, then, and not

Ibid, ut supra.

before

Of Cornwall. „ 5

before, this art seems to hare expired of itself, because the manufailure was of no longer ule.

Here, as fitter to be ranged among stones of curiosity, than to sect.ix. have a pace among thofe of ule or profit, I cannot pafs by unnoted Small gems the beautiful gems which we find sometimes among the tin grains, a though they are fo final 1, that, to be viewed properly, they require the afiifitance of the microscope ; but they are not the lefs perfect, being as true gems, and of as high a lure, as thofe that are larger.

N . i. Among the tin grains found in Gofs-moor, in the parish Oi St. Columb, and thole found in St. Audel-moor, I have found topazes very high-coloured, and fome of a paler yellow gold-colour, very transparent, fome zoned, about the twentieth of an inch diameter.

N S °me rubies alfo I have found pebbly formed, fome lio-ht, and lome of as flrong red as a carbuncle.

N°. iii. Some of the ruby kind are mixed with yellow, and may therefore be ranged among the hyacinths.

N°. iv. A very finall chryfolite of a very dark-green with a tran- Iparency of yellow.

N . v. A very deep amethyst, pebbly formed, of the fifteenth of Coloured an inch. We have alfo hexagonal crydals of the amethyftine kind, cryftak tinged wrongly with purple, from our mines, sometimes an inch and more long ; but the fined lure of this kind which I have yet feen in the Cornilh done, is incloled in the body of the Folrudon done ", where the fpaiks are the tenth of an inch long and under; but whether thefe are fo hard as to deserve the name of gems, I am not diffidently satisfied.

All thefe are fo small, that (it may be faid) they are of no value, which is very true; but my enquiries (unfuccefsful I own in many particulars) I shall not think entirely fruitless, if they can bin point out the way to farther and more happy discoveries ; thele finall Iparks prove that fuch gems are to be found among our tinores : it may not be unworthy therefore the attention of my countrymen carefully to infped the tin-grains of the smaller fize found m dream-works, wherein they will probably find much larg er than what I have here deferibed, and fuch as may well compensate the labour of feeling.

N . vi. One crydal I have coloured with the fame brown and of as fine a lure as the Kerry dones of Ireland, but of a much deeper tinge, and, as I take it, of the Beryl-crydal kind w .

" See before-mentioned page, 96. - See Hill's Foffils, page 178.

N°. vii. What

„6 Natural History

N°. vii. What we callCornilh diamonds are figured crystals, and among crystals we fliall treat of them ; but fome of our crystals are tinged with green : they are of the Emerald kind ; what I have feen came mostly from a copper-work in the parish of Camborn, called the Long-clofe : the Oriental emerald is a moil beautiful gem; for the occidental, the jewellers x usually fell this tinged crystal, common crystal being as hard as the occidental emerald ; with us it is angular or columnar, but beffc when found in the pebble form, of which I have yet met none in Cornwall.

N°. viii. Some of our crystals are alfo of a fea-green or beryll colour, and the fame which authors call the Pfeudoberyllus : after burnt red-hot, they will retain their shining in the dark for a few minutes only, in this falling short of the fmaragdus which shines a considerable time y , but, like that, change their green into a pale fkyblue whilst hot, but recover their native colour as they cool.

N°. ix. But of our curious green stones, none come near the colour and polish of a green cupreous incruftation found in Huel-fortune, in the parifti of Ludgvan. Its texture is ftratous, cruft within cruft ; its surface puculated ; the tubercles which it forms on the stones, are sometimes an inch in diameter, sometimes small, and either perfectly round or truly oval ; the colour fo deep a green, and fo high a polish, that I have obliged several gentlemen with fome to fet in rings, for which nature has fitted them without the aid of a jeweller. This comes very near to the properties of the occidental turcois, and has been taken for fuch by Naturalifts. I have, from the fame place, this copper of a blueifh green clouded, but the green appears even there in fome parts, and in the greatest part of the specimens, the green is predominant and unmixed. The blueturcois is generally esteemed a precious stone, but indeed no other than foflil bone, or ivory saturated with copper diffolved in an alkaline menjiruum ; the green-turcois is the fame fubftance intimately penetrated by a cupreous matter diflolved in an acid menjiruum but this precious stone from our Cornifti mines is the aerugo or a plain folution of copper, as appears by its forming itself into threads and ftratous incruftations z . I have met with none of this kind of any value but from this work, and it has been found there only in one small cavity of about one foot and a half in diameter a .

1 Hill, 596. Grew's Muf. R. S. page 284.

y Dr. Grew's Muf. R. S. page 287. a Fig. xiv. and xv. Plate XXI. have their tu-

z " The turcois is much foster than crystal." bercles of this beautiful green enamel.

C H A P.

Of Cornwall.

Chap. Xi.

Of the general basis of Stone , viz. Of Spar, Cryftal , and Diamond.

T HERE is a kind of tony lapidific matter which runs through and mixes more or lefs with the fubftance of all stones, and may juftly be esteemed the universal cement, by which earth and minerals are combined into all the fevejal orders and Ipecies of stones, for when this cement is diflipated by fire, or diftolved by a menflruum , the stone becomes earth or metal ; and ceases to be stone : it is of itself transparent and colourlefs, but when mixed, is found either of that colour which the materials it joins together were of before they became stone, or of that which any after infection from other bodies has imparted.

This cement is either lpar, crystal, or diamond. Thefe I fall not only treat of as being diftincft stones, in figure, nature, and effect, but as one universal cement, running through and connecting all other stones in three degrees of purity and perfection. Thus for instance lpar not only forms simple stones of its kind fuch as the Lapis fpecularis , double rcfradting and simple refradting fpar, ftaladtites and the like, but is indeed the basis of a great number of compound stones, from the tendered: lithophytes to thehardeft marbles. So again, crystal not only forms hexagonal columns, and cufpides, pyramids, and the like, but is the gluten, the connecting basis of flat, killas, granite, flint, porphyry, and the like ; as diamond is allb the bafe of gems. The state of fpar is the moft impure, its parts are calcarious, lax, difperfed, they ferment and give way to acids, are extracted, fufpended, and walked away by common water, consequently the stones which it combines are foft, brittle, and easily diflolved ; .this is the cafe of all ftalactical productions, of alabafter, free-stones, lime-stones, and moft forts of marbles, of which the cement is fpar. But the cement of fpar is not always equally weak, lometimes it will scarce ferment at all, gives fire with feel b , and it approaches fo near the state of crystal, in hardness, transparency, and figure, that it is juftly called crystalline fpar.

Cryftal has nothing calcarious in it, it's parts unite clofe and firmly, and consequently forms much harder stones than lpar, with equal quantity of earth, fand, or whatever the charge or materials in grows may confift of, and this is the cafe of porphyry, granite, jasper, and other compound stones, (whole basis is crystal) as well

k See the Spatum compaflum fcintillans Linrusi Syjl. Hat. gen. vi. page 167.

H h

as

ii8 NATURAL HISTORY

as pure crystals ; and as fpar approaches near to crystal, fo does crystal oftentimes to the diamond, in hardness, luftre, and refilling of fire. The diamond is the bails of all gems, which in hardness and luftre exceed the state of crystal ; the diamond is therefore but another remove, and in a more eminent degree the fame stone and cement in the utmost perfection, (and therefore rare) which in inferior states of purity we call crystal and fpar. To one of thefe three cements all stones whether ftmple or aggregate, may be faid to owe their connexion and folidity ; a stone being nothing more than earth concreted by the intervention of cement, fo as to acquire hardness and weight sufficient to denominate it a stone c .

If the stone will ferment with acids, foon diflolve, be eaftly pulverized, gives no fire with feel, and fhews other evident symptoms of fpecifical foftnefs, it is then either wholly fpar, or of a fpar basis ; on the other hand, if it refills acids, remains moderately firm under the hammer, and in a strong fire, mixed with alcaline fait, will turn into glass, upon collision with feel gives fire, and in the hands of the engraver Ihews evident signs of a fuperiour hardness, then it is either crystal or of a crystalline basis d .

Cryftal is the fofteft of all perfpicuous gems, whatever exceeds it therefore in hardness is a gem, and if by a ftill greater degree of purity than what is above-mentioned, the stone becomes specifically heavier, and of better luftre than any other meer tony bodies, and refills fire almost to immutability, then it is called a diamond, and all gems, the ruby, fapphir, and the reft, are but this diamond, fubftance tinged and reduced, as to luftre and hardness, by fome metalline admixture.

sect. ii. In Cornwall all the white, opake, common, hard stone, is called

Of fpar. Spar ; erroneously it mull be owned, for it is quartz, and not fpar : but the Cornifh are not lingular in this point ; for if any thing could countenance error, they have the authority of the greatest lithologifts in England (Mr. Lhuyd only excepted) of their fide '. Indeed it mull be acknowledged, that, till within thefe few years, the diftinguilhing characters of thefe two bodies have not been sufficiently noticed in England ; the late learned and ingenious Dr. Ilaac Lawfon was among the foremost of our countrymen who infilled upon their being treated always as really diftind and

c See page 80, note b.

d If it is not naturally figured and transparent, the Germans properly enough call it Quartz; that is, a coarse, debated, opake, crystalline body, and not crystal. See page 91.

e It is juftly objected to Dr. Woodward, that he has confounded fpar and crystal in all his treaties, without noting the obvious differences abovementioned 5 and we may fay the fame of others, particularly of rhe learned Dr. Grew ( fee his Muf.'R. S. Part III- Chap, v.) though he had his acid menjiruum always before him.

different

/?a 1/9

' Inur f%mva( oAmmrve.v -At qwai redftt'ci)

in CotUl( h illl, t/iijarieh/ oj (otnuh CniaL irucyiA'c/O — in/ Wm: BorlM#-

OF CORNWALL. u g

different stones r. That fpar is fufpended in all waters is likely, but in particular waters is evident, from the incruftations formed in water-pipes till in time they choak and can transmit no more; from petrified mofs, and many other phenomena. That fpar is alfo to be found in fea-water muft certainly follow, from the fea's being open to and ready to receive all that which springs will convey into it ; from fears being evaporated by great degrees of heat 8 , and therefore capable of being again precipitated by winds and rain

Hence, from the folution I mean of Ipar in common water, come all petrifa&ions, and moft of our ftala&ical concretions, marbles, and free-stones, which will ferment with acids, of all which the basis is Ipar ; hence aho the new parry productions perpetually forming and formed in proper nidus's, by fpar being easily solved and difperfed, and as apt to coalelce again into stone upon the delertion of the water in which it is fufpended. However, thefe parry productions are not common with us, and Ipar by itself, transparent and unmixed, is very rarely found in this county.

Our crystals are in great plenty and variety : I shall confider them sect.iii. either as plain or figured ; for, even in the plain, there are fome Cornifh cryvarieties not unworthy our notice. By plain, (that is quartz ') I ftaL mean a mafs of crystal which covets no particular form, but hardens into that figure to which the gravitation of its own parts, and the medium in which it forms determines it. Of this fort is that which fills the veins and interftices of the tony Jirata , and the white angular maffes of single-dilperfed stones common every where in Cornwall Of this fort alfo are the wavy procefles of crystal, which, like fo many flakes of ice, incruft the perpendicular fides of our karns of granites, Plate XIII. Fig. i. Of the plain fort are all crystal horizontal incruftations which coat-over stones, and hang in threads as they defend, reaching cross the hollows from one tubercle to another '. Of this fort alfo may be reckoned all crystals of the bliftered and mammillary kind, which end in one drop, and have their fides preffed into orbicular puftules by the [weight of succeeding drops, as Plate XIII. Fig. u. Of the plain kind alfo are all crystal ftaladtites, of which I have fome fo perfect, which I received from a work, called the Pool, in the parish of Illogan, exhibited Plate XIII. Fig 8 , hi. and iv. that the

f " Hoc frujiulum & alterum fpati addidi quo- mentioned, in that it is not figured : it is radiniam hccc duo fofftlia [fell. fpatum & quartzum ] fi- cally the fame stone ; and therefore quartz is crygun; naturd et efftftu adeo dijimtia anhnadverto hie in fta), plain, not angularly figured ; but yet has Anglia null modo difcriminccri" If. Lawfon , M. D. fevcral varieties. " Lapides cryjlalli di£H a quartzo et ad auclcrnn A. D. 1740. fpato folumfigura different." Lin. Syft. Nat. p. 224.

E Hill's FolT. page 156. k See before, page 48.

h See Woodward's Cat. vol. I. page 113, 116. 1 Philosophical Tranfa&ions, on the Cornilh

1 Quartz differs only from crystal, as before- diamonds, by the author. A. D. 1750.

formation

120 Natural History

formation of them in the ftala&ical manner can admit of no dispute. They are of the colour of fine glew, transparent as gum-arabic, and to the eye of like texture ; they end in one drop as round as any drop of dew or rain whilffc it hangs ready to fall. It breaks like flint into irregular, edgy Iplinters. In Fig. iv. one of the ftalactical productions, <3, was evidently wreathed and twilled from the usual perpendicularity, by fome force (in the mine) either of fire, wind, or water. This mult have happened whilst as yet it remained in its liquefcent tender state ; but the liquid was lo stiff and clammy, that though the three pendant procefles were connected by this force, yet the circumference of each process, its annular tumours, and the termiing drop of each ftalaCtite, is plainly to be difcerned. Among the plain-crystals I shall alfo reckon the pebble-crystal ra ; for this seems to owe its orbicular figure to nothing more than what is common to all bodies, I mean, the gravitation and mutual attraction of similar parts aflifted or controlled by the medium in which thefe round males formed. Cryftal, in all thele circumstances, has no uniformity of figure, gives no evidence of any inherent aCtive principle, but suffers itself to be fashioned and molded by its own gravitation, by the nidus it rests in, or by the medium which surrounds it, and yet is perfect crystal, breaks irregularly, gives fire plentifully with feel, is very hard to the graver, and ferments not in the left with aqua forth.

sect. iv. But though the Cornifh crystals in thefe instances are pafiive, cryibif an d covet no particular figure, yet, in a great variety of instances, they are figured either uniformly, or with fome accidental differences.

Cryftals are moft generally found in the hexagonal form, and in thefe three different states ; either pyramidal, as Fig. ix. Plate XIII. their fix fides tending to a point ; or columnar, the shaft capped with a pyramid, Fig. x. ib. ; or columnar with a pyramid at each end, as Fig. xi. ib. (page 119); making in all eighteen fides or planes.

The fides of the fame mafs are feldorn of an equal breadth and length, fome fides being more than three times as wide as others, as in Fig. vm. and xv. ib. neither do they always end in a sharp point; sometimes the point is fhortend and notched, as in Fig. xm. ib. each plane of the cufpis making a diftinCt angle.

Sometimes the point ends in a sharp edge, as Fig. xii. xiv.

The pyramidal cufpis is not always hexagonal, but sometimes tetragonal, confifting of four equal planes, as Fig. xii. ending in

Before page, 104.

an

Of Cornwall. I2I

edge, underneath which there is a tendency towards forming another equal pyramid ; a tendency completed in Fig. xiv. where the pyramids are nearly equal, on one square bafe common to both.

The crystal, Fig. xvi. Ihoots in a triangular form, like a wedge.

Fig. xvn. is tabular, the planes pentagonal, the Tides quadrangular.

Fig. xviii. is a draft on a rhombic bafe.

Fig. xix. conlifts of a pentagonal fhaftj it is pointed, but very obtufely, at each end, the cufpides being comprefled almost into one hexagonal plane. It breaks into rhomboids.

Fig. xx. is the plan of the bale of an hexagonal flattifh piece of cry dal Fig. xxi, whole ddes are alternately wide and narrow at its top and bottom. Thefe figured crydals, N°. vm. and from xn. to N". xx. are all from theLong-clofe copper-work inCamborn, and being heated gradually (for if violently scorched they will fly) by applying a hot poker, or rather placing them in a crucible over a gentle fire, will throw forth a lambent flame of the rainbow colours, like a native phosphorus.

Fig. xxii. exhibits a polyhedron of cryflal.

Fig. xxiii. is the plan of the circular bale of two cylindrical columns, Fig. xxiv. of fhotten cryflal, the only one of that form which I have feen.

Fig. xxv. is the bale of the frujlum of a cone ; the exterior ring of cufpides is bright amber; the next plain opake white; the third radiated, the rays tending from the centre ; the next opake white, till you come to the central nucleus which is an irregular Ipeck of the yellow copper ore; Fig. xxvi. is the elevation of this frujlum

Fig. xxvii. exhibits a piece of hexagonal crystal of the finest water, inclofing green fprigs seemingly of mofs. This happens sometimes to crystal, and doubtless to our Cornilh crystals as well as Others A piece of crystal (fays Dr. Grew, Muf. R. S. Part III. Chap, iv.) in which is immersed a molly fubftance of a reddish colour, and there are lome crystals have been known naturally to inclofe a liquor."

Fig. xxvm. is a duller of femipellucid crystal flirt into reclined cones, which make an angle of near forty degrees with the surface of the stone. The fides of thefe cones are very curious fret-work of little lpires or briftles, many of them sharp as the fmalleft needle, and pointing nearly in the fame direction as the cone on which they rile. The surface of thefe Ihoots is of a ferruginous flint-like fubftance, but the infide more clear and tranlpa-

n Mr. Lhuyd has a specimen of like shape, but 0 This specimen was not found in Cornwall, but

a parry balls which he calls Fluor triquetrus, is introduced to fhew that crystals inclofe, and

. xxxiv. I able i. of his Lithophylacium. therefore have been formed firice plants.

rent.

Natural History

rent. It has this farther peculiarity that its shoots tend all one way, whereas, in other crydal lumps, they point differently according to the beds they rife from : the only one of this kind I have yet feen. It came from Trevafcus mine, in the parish of Gwynier.

Fig. xxix. is an afterifk of the cleared: crydal ; its rays hexagonal, swelling or gibbous in the middle ; their fides not rectilinear, but ridged near the edges, and somewhat hollow, but not uniformly fo, betwixt the ridges. The extremities are entire, ending in one sharp point ; and it is very plain that they never had any pyramidal apices : the rays near the bafe spread horizontally, but the others raile themselves, gradually making a greater angle till the middle and higher make nearly a right angle with the bafe. I have feen one more of this kind, but not fo entire as this curious specimen .

Fig. xxxiv. a triangular pyramid, the fides confiding of triangles equal to one another, and to the bafe.

Fig. xxxv. a triangular cunoeid jointed crydal, the bafe of the one alternately contiguous to the apex of the next adjoining.

Thefe are the principal varieties of crydal which a collection of fome years from our Cornidi mines has afforded, and I doubt not but new didin&ions and different forms, and very likely more elegant ipecimens, will occur to gentlemen who will indudrioudy colled:, compare, and fet in order, the crydals of different mines. Of this the curious Mrs. Grace Percival of Pendarves (to whom this colledion is indebted in more than one indance) has offered us a fair pattern, by fixing fide by fide in her Fofiillary an infinite number of crydals of various and the cleared waters, in all drapes, single and in cluders, madly out of mines in her own lands, all out of her neighbourhood. So many rich fubjeds will well remunerate the attentive infpedion of every inquifitive Fodilid at her feat of Pendarves, in the Parifh of Camborn, Plate the XIV.

sect. v. The figures in Plate XIII. are all of the natural fize, but the Their fize. bodies described are not always of the larged kind. The larged hexagonal crydal which I have yet feen found in Cornwall, is ten inches and a half in girt near the bafe, and oven inches and three eighths high. It weighs three pounds and half an ounce. From this fize we have thefe crydals of all dimensions down to that of a small pin.

sect. vi. They are sometimes of a fine clear water, and are therefore andcoiour common ty called Cornifh diamonds, and of all our badard diamonds in this nation are deemed the bed p ; but they are not all colourlefs,

The intermediate numbers are explained in the Cornifh are the beft, much better than thofe the following pages. on St. Vincent's rock near Briftol." Grew's Muf.

p " Of our bastard diamonds here in England R. S. Part III. Chap. iv.

fome

AIX r I3.

Of Cornwall. 123

fome are yellow, brown, cloudy, opake white, green, purple, black, fome freckled with little fpecks of various colours and magnitudes, every crystal being either pure and pellucid, or receiving its tinge from the mineral juices and earths adjacent. Thefe hones, it is observable, are generally more clear and transparent at the point than at the root. I have had two samples of crystalline cufpides entirely black, and have feen no more, they being very rare. This fort is taken notice of by Linnaeus Syft. Nat. page 167, and is, I think, his Nitrum quai'tzofum nigrum , or Morion

The more clear they are, the heavier; of which the reason seems ; SE ct. vii. to be, that in clear ones there is more hone in any given quantity, Weight, than in opake ones, which latter confifting of earthy and mineral impurities mixed with the tony, muft therefore under any equal surface include lefs stone than the purer ones, and this observation is confirmed by the firperior weight of the true diamond to that of other stones. The weight of our Cornifh diamonds to water, I find at a medium, as ten and a half is to four.

The fame reason that makes the pure more heavy than thofe sect.viii. which are otherwise, makes them alfo harder ; the more tony fimi- Hardnefs. lar matter there is, the closer is the connexion of parts; whereas the cohesion is greatly weakened, and the body becomes more friable by means of the earthy parts which intrude themselves among the tony ; the clearer therefore our Cornifti crystals are, the better their points will cut glass (though not fo free, or fo deep as the true diamonds) and the better they will bear engraving for feels.

The texture of thefe figur'd crystals is various; fome are of an sect.ix.j uniform texture, of one colour and confiftence throughout : this Texture - was the cafe of Fig. v. vi. xxiv. and many others here exhibited.

Some spring as from a center, or one common line, as Fig. v. vi. vii. xxxiii ; fome have hexagonal fheaths described one within another, as Fig. xxx. a very remarkable ftrudture, and not easily accounted for ; fome learned men imagine that they are different incruftations, applied fucceflively at different times, one without the other, and fuch indeed at first fight they feem to be, but if we recur to the original formation of thefe bodies (as in order to discover truth we muft) it will be very difficult, not to fay impoftible, for us to conceive any position or direction in which the middlemoft shaft could lie, fo as that three incruftations of fuch an equal thickness should form round it, neither will the laws of gravitation and

1 Vide Morion.

projection

124 Natural History

projection permit that any juice should cryftallize in fuch thin, equal, and continued plates as form thefe fheaths : it is an opinion attended with much fewer difficulties to think that they all hardened nearly at one time, and that the whole shoot when uniform was produc'd at one effort, but where the ftru&ure varies, by fome fuccedaneous, direct, or undulating efforts in point of time following clofe upon one another ; that in the latter cafe the juices of which the mafs confided, gave way to the efforts in proportion as their different mixtures made them more or lefs fufceptible of the motion impreffed, the moft agile and purest stone flying off to the greatest distance from the center, and the coarfeft and mold opake remaining nearest to the center; and to this latter opinion I the more willingly adhere, because (as I hinted before) thefe stones are generally more clear at the point than at the root, and because in many orbicular lumps of crystal, particularly Fig. vn. I find all the middle of the lump (a, 6 , c,) opake, terrene, and cloudy, the ffieath next the middle faint and dufky white, the next sheath faint purple ; the third a brighter white than the first, the next a wider feam of purple, but its tinge fainter ; the fifth a more diftinCt white, the next a transparent lift of crystal in which the purple tinge was scarce difcernable; the laft and outmoft of all, the purest crystal. In this specimen it is very observable that the white and the purple are alternately fixed in parallel angular fillets, the crystal gradually forfakes the purple tinge as it advances to the extremity, and the white increases its purity in three degrees till it ends in a fourth of the cleared: crystal, confirming (as I should think) what has been hinted before, that the purer the crystal, the farther it proceeds from the center, whilst the more impure and fluggifh parts of the mafs reft stubborn and unmoved in the center of all. The texture of Fig. xxv. eftablifhes the fame truth ; at the first effort, the purest crystal fled off and coated the circumference with hexagonal culpides; a fainter effort succeeded, whereby the purer parts of the remaining crystal were protruded lo from the center as to form a circle of fubdiaphanous rays in the opake white,

sect. x. The variety of figures in which thefe bodies are found has been

Theirfigure. already mentioned, and the cause to which thefe figures are owing muft now be taken fome notice of. That thefe stones have been in a fluid state, and thence paffed into their present folidity, muft evidently appear, by observing, that the four first figures, Plate XIII. page 1 1 9, are of the ftaladical kind ; that Fig. v, vi, vii, xxm, xxix, xxxm, plainly indicate their having fhot forth as from a center, protruding themselves every way till they terminate in a

point ;

Of Cornwall. 125

point ; that Fig. xxvn is of the cleared crystal inclofing something of the mofs kind, which could never happen but when the crystal was in a fluid state. Fig. xxxi is a groupe of hexagonal crystals pointed at each end, and immersed in the fubftance ol one another, in Inch a manner as could not have happened but when fome or all of them were in a state of fluidity, the hardest making their way into the fofteft, and the fofteft closely cohering to the hardest, fo as that they both consolidated into one lump. All thefe fads are plain from the infpedion of the bodies before us, and there is not the left occafton to have recourse (as fome moderns have done) to any operofe chemical analysis to prove, that crystal has been fluid, and therefore may be fo again. Another consequence is alfo plain, viz. that, during this state of fluidity, they received the several figures in which we now find them ; but to what cause this variety of figures is owing, muft be the next enquiry, and is very .difficult to be satisfied. That stone, quatenus stone, has not the faculty of producing thefe configurations, is a truth sufficiently confirmed, one would think, from the vaft Jlrata of quarries, cliffs, and fiflures of stone in which there is no regular redilinear form : the shootings of stone into figure are small in comparison, few, and rare, owing to accident and mixture, not the eflential produds of the Jlrata. All small quantities of lapideous matter would probably form themselves by the mutual attradion of similar parts, and the equal preffure of surrounding fluids into globular males, as water, oil, quickfilver, and liquid bodies do, were it not for something which intermixes with the tony matter, and prevents this Ample figure from taking- place. The crystal which appears in the ftaladical form, has nothing in it which tends to configuration, more than any common fhapelefs marble, fpar, or killas, and may convince us that meer crystal covets no particular figure. Cryftal in this state wants that alive principle which throws the fame stone at other times into a great variety of shapes ; what that principle is, the learned do not agree ; but clear it is, that it is something adventitious and different from crystal. It has been imagined, that the angularlyfigured crystals owe their shape to the different metals which they encounter during their fluidity ; but this is seldom the cafe % for crystals, which are of four, five, or, what is ftill more common fix angles, are oftentimes extreamly clear, and have no appearance of any metal in them, neither do they yield any metal upon trial by fire that ever I could learn. " Pure crystal, and without mixture of other matter, fays Dr. Woodward r , concretes ever into an hexagonal figure, pyramidal or columnar, terminating in an apex : but we

K k

r Cat. vol. I. page 220.

See page 127.

have

126 Natural History

have as pure crystals of the tabular kind ; we have quadrangular columns, and triangular pyramids, as pure, to all appearance, as any of the hexagonal kind whatsoever ; the cause therefore of the hexagonal figure muft be somewhat diftind from pure crystal, since we find that pure crystal can fubfift without it, and is found as transparent, hard, and immoveable to acids in other figures as in that. It muft be alfo distinct from the caufc of other figures ; for the fame principle which forms bodies into an hexagonal mafs, cannot be that which in other places give the trigonal or rhomboidal shape to bodies of like fubftance. It is true, crystals are oftener found hexagonal than in any other figure ; but this can prove only, that the cause of this figure is more abundant than that which occasions the other figures ; it will not prove, that it is inseparable from pure crystal. Salt is the moft alive principle of the fofiil kingdom, every where difperfed, ever bufy, when fluid and at liberty, in producing multangular figures, according to the several powers with which nature has invented particular falls s ; and it muft be observed, that there is hardly any figure in the crystalline clafs but may be found in the analysis of fome fait or other. Thus, for instance, in nitre (a fait difperfed in earth and stone, in air and water, in plant and animal, ) we find the exad representations of hexagonal crystals in their different states ', now with one pyramidal apex, as Plate XIII. Fig. x. now with two, as Fig. xi. sometimes with equal correspondent fides, as Fig. x. sometimes with unequal, as Fig. viii. " fome cut doping at the ends down to a sharp edge, in the manner of a chiflel," (ib. page 62) as Fig. xrx- but always hexangular. In fal gevimcz , and fea-falt, we find the quadrangular pyramid, with the truncated ends, (ib. page 57) as Fig. xii. In the crystals of alum we have the polygon, Fig. xxil. as well as in the falls of lavendar and thistle, (ib. page 180). Among the crystals of distilled verdigreafe, (N°. vn. ib. Plate II. page 96) we have the columnar rhomboidal shoot, Fig. xvill. In the falls of tin (page 128, ib.) we have the two pyramids applied bale to bale, as Fig. xiv. In Cheltenham falls (ib. page 154, Plate V.) we have the exa£t afterilk, as Fig. XXIX. The fait of Camomel has Fig. xx. (ib. page 166), and the parallel lifts of Fig. xxx. may be feen there and in the falls of fennel, (page 172), and in the lalt of thistle, (page ib. 180.) The fait of the Jefuit's bark is full of rhomboides. In the fal getnmce (letter ib. pa. 74) is that lump of pyramidal cunoeids placed laterally as in the crystal, Fig. xxxv. The pentagonal tabulated crystal is found alfo in the falls of camo-

This has made fome Naturalifts advance that omnis cryftallizatio eft a fale. " Salia cryftalliaationis omnis unica caufa." Linnaeus Syft. Nat.

page 224.

' See employment for the microscope, by Henry Baker, Efq; F. R. S. vol. II. page 65.

mel,

OF CORNWALL. i 2 J

mel, (ib. page 166.) THe zig-zag angular fillets of Fig. vn. are found in Cheltenham falls, (page 154, ib.) In the fait of antimony we find the conick fires of Fig. xxviu. and in- general it may be affirmed, that there is scarce a figure among the crystals but may be traced among the falls analyzed ; here therefore I would observe, that all the influence which metals have upon the shape of crystals, is probably owing to the falls of thofe metals ; for it is observable in the falls procured from tin (as exhibited by Mr. Baker, ib. Plate IV. page 128) that they are exadly of the fame polygonal shape as the real fiona crystals, including this metal which in Cornwall we call Tin-grains Again : Let it not pafs unnoted, that crystals in several specimens have all the indications neceffary to fhew that they were protruded, sometimes from one common intermediate line, as Fig. v. vi. sometimes from a point, like rays from a center, as Fig 5 , xxm. xxv. xxix. and xxxm. herein alfo imitating the agility of cryftallizing falls, which shoot and extend their rays visibly in like manner ; and forafmuch as here are proofs of the fame procedure of figured bodies from an unfigured mafs, and of the fame figures produced by that process, it seems but reafona- # ble to conclude, notwithstanding the objections of fome moderns, that the figures oi crystals are owing to the adventitious falls which prevail in the crystalline matter.

As crystals, especially thofe of the hexagonal kind, are frequently sect. xi. found in clusters with one end fixed in a bed of coarfer crystal than The pointing the ffioots, and that bed broke off from a larger mafs of ftill coarfer Comiftt materials, I went not many years since into a mine* on purpose to c 7 ftals in the obforve thefe crystal productions in their natural fite.

The cavity to which we were introduced, was not much larger than a common baker's oven, and much of that figure, about five feet high from the floor. The roof was the moft furprizing piece of fretwork imaginable, confifting of hexagonal crystals pointing forth in every direction very plentifully x of several files, sometimes projecting in groupes and clusters from large protuberances in the dealing, sometimes tingle, now crofting each other, now standing by each other with parallel fides ; the finest were thofe which had innumerable little diamonds or parks of the clearest water befprinkled upon their fides : I observed that their pointing was usually according and nearly perpendicular to the planes from which they proceeded ; from which I conclude, that as the plane, the shape, and turn of the

See Plate XX. of the figured-tins. w Pillion-erth, in the parish of St. Juft. x In Norway hexagonal crystals, " are called Mountain Drops, and known from experience (fays Biftiop Pontoppidan, page Eng. 170) to be

generated in a chalky porous stone, in shape like a drop-stone but if this was their original, fuch bodies could only point to the center of the earth, as all ftalaftites muft by gravitation of their parts ; but the reverie is true.

i2 8 natural history

lapidific matter (when drained of superfluous moisture, and difpofed to shoot) happens to be, fo will the tendency of the shoots, both column and point, be : in all concave beds, lor instance, tne points will converge ; in all convex ones, they will turn the contrary May . if the concave part, for example, of the ammonites, Fig. XXXII J . be fet with crystals, their points will tend inwards towards the centre, being thereto compelled by the regular contour of the cornuammonis ; but if the crystal rides from a convex bed, or orbicular lump, then will the columns spring as from one common centre, and point forth their radii , as in Fig. XXXI II* PI* XIII. p. 119. If theie be a thin plate of crystal, equally exposed to the influence of heat or cold on each fide, with equal room and force to shoot, it will throw forth its points on each surface, and the line, from which the fibres began to spring, shall be exactly in the middle or fuch plate of crystal, as Fig. v. Fig. vi, ib, is alfo easily to be accounted for on the fame principles : it is the fection of an oval lump of crystal, equally impregnated with fait ; it muft therefore shoot as from a line or commiflure in the middle ; for the contiguous columns, being protruded on every fide with equal force, muft be of equal length ; if the lump had been globular, thefe rude columns would have fhot as from a center, as in Fig 3 , xxill. and XXV. ib. the fibres do. Hence I conclude, that the direction of columnar crystals is nearly rectangular to the plane of the bed from which they iflue, and that all the feeling confusion in the pointings of thefe bodies in the mine above-mentioned was owing to the great variety of surfaces and angles into which that large body of crystal was hardening when thefe hexagonal crystals fhot from its extremities.

Chap. Xii.

Of Semimetals found in Cornwall .

F ROM stones of ornament and curiosity come we next to the products of the mines and stones of profit, few countries, according to the judgment of foreigners, exceeding this county in the variety and plenty of minerals z : but we have rather the poffeffion than the enjoyment of this treasure ; for though this multitude and variety appears every where in thofe parts moft subject to mines (I mean from St. Auftel weftwards), yet few of our people

y From Mr. Allen's quarries at Bath, none of alphabeti fui mineralis fe credere nullum terrarum that fort being yet discovered in Cornwall. locum reperiri qui minerarum multitudine et vari-

8 Beecherus rcfert de Cornubia in dedications etate antecellat.

(erigrofled

Of Cornwa Ll. 129

(engrafted as they are by tin and copper) are either delighted with or even fenfible of the one, or at all the richer for the other.

Of bifmuth, fpeltre, zink, naptha, antimony, lapis calaminaris, and molybdaena, I have received specimens from several parts of Cornwall : they are juft enough to whet the appetite of the curious, but hitherto not enough to awake the industry or fix the attention of the owners.

We call bifmuth tin-glass, and several bits at several times, pure Bifmuth. as if in a metallic state, I have received from the parish of St. Juft, but, put all together, they will scarce make a pound weight : it is more plenty, though more dilperfed, in Mr. Beauchamp's cobalt mine, in the parish of Gwenap.

Speltre ore I have had from a mine near St. Columb, and Dr. s P eitre. Woodward, Cat. vol. II. page 83, mentions fome from St. Merwin near Padftow. One lemimetallic specimen, which I have from Camborn, of a brown, cinereous colour, very clofe-grained, ponderous, and of uniform ftru&ure, has been taken for zink

Oi Naptha I have feen but one specimen, which came from Naptha. Tolgaric work, in the parish of Camborn.

In the parish of Endelian there are several veins of antimony sect. n. mixed with small spots of copper and fome lead, there called Rof- Antimony, carrock s (as Grew fays, Mufeum R. S. page 334) : thele veins run sometimes north and fouth, but oftener eaft and weft : the north and fouth veins are the biggest ; and when the eaft and weft veins join, or cross the former, they commonly make a bunch of ore from one root to two feet wide, all of solid antimony. Some antimony is now raised in the lands of the Reverend Mr. Hearle, in St. Minver, a parish adjoining to the former. Antimony has alfo been found in St. Auftel parish, in St. Stephen's at Howton, and in a place called by Dr. Woodward (Cat. vol. I. page 184) Barbarywork ; in St. Kew parish alfo, as the fame author (Cat. vol. II. p. 20) informs 11s, and, I doubt not, is thrown away as ufelefs in a greater number of places ; but there are no workings on this mineral in the county at present, considerable enough to be more particularly mentioned. It need only be observed, that antimony is reckoned to be of an intermediate nature betwixt gold and silver, and by the texture, and weight of its ore, fo likely to contain metal, that the late famous Dr. Boerhave tried for a whole year to extract from it a real metal, but without fuccefs c .

By Mr. Ornfkolcl, a learned Swede. of that neighbourhood. See the Map annexed.

from a Manor of ancient note there, I c Theor. Chem. page 13. mppofe, more abounding in antimony than the reft

Manganefe,

SECT. III. Magnanefe.

Sect. Iv.

Molybdsena, or the pencil lead.

SECT. V. Cobalt.

130 Natural History

Manganefe, a ferrugineous mineral, ufed to attemper and bring glass to its proper luftre d , has been lately discovered near Tregofs moor, in the parish of St. Columb ; the load is twenty feet wide, and fo near the surface that one ton may be raised for one {hilling and fix-pence ; there is fome iron in it, and a great deal of the coarse lapis : but there muft be something much more valuable than iron; for, in the year 17545 a ton of this ore was fent to Liverpool, and thence to Boflam, forty miles diflant, and was there fold for five pounds eight {hillings and fix-pence : but though many tons have been raised, the adventurers meet with very little demand for it ; one, among many proofs of the want of intercourse and correspondence betwixt Cornwall and the proper markets for minerals. Dr. Woodward, Cat. vol. I. page 30, mentions a considerable quantity of manganefe, discovered about three miles from Penzance.

In the year 1750, in a mine near the town of Penryn, were discovered several bunches of load-stone ; having tried and armed fome pieces of them, I found their magnetism not strong, and the present perfection of artificial magnets renders the labour of searching further after natural ones entirely needles.

I have one specimen only of molybdaena ; the stone to which it adheres is very like the more gritty kind of lapis calaminaris, which sometimes contains lead : fome small gravels or this will mark paper as free as the molybdaena from Cumberland ; the gravels are about a third of an inch in bignefs. They came from a work in Camborn, called Huelcrafty, whereabouts very likely there may be more of this very scarce fofiil to be found.

In the year 1754 the society at London, for encouraging arts and useful discoveries, thought proper to offer a premium of thirty pounds for the belt cobalt discovered in England ; and a discovery of this kind being made in the lands of Francis Beauchamp, Efq; in Gwenap, the mineral found was fent to London in December 1754, and honoured accordingly with the premium; and as the different arfenicks, as well as zaffer and malt, (ot great ufe for staining glass blue, and painting in oil-colours) are procured from Cobalt, and hitherto imported at a great price from foreign countries, it is wished that this discovery may be completed, and, by keeping our money at home, be of ufe to the nation in general, as well as profit to Cornwall in particular. At present the Cornifh

d Cramer's Theor. page 201. forest of Dean usually at the price of twelve Ihil-

e Iron is delivered at the iron-works from the lings and fix-pence per ton.

Of Cornwall. 131

are entirely to feek for the method of allaying, and even diftinguiflhng critically the cobalt from its various mixtures in the mine ; and till the cobalt is carefully elected, it will probably be of little value. In the fame load there is a good deal of Bifmuth, not only where the cobalt is, but fo prevailing in other parts of the mine, that it may as juftly be called a mine of bifmuth as of cobalt*; and bifmuth being of great ufe for hardening and perfecting pewter,

&*c. and many thousand pounds fent out of the kingdom yearly for it, this mine will, it is hoped, prove as valuable for its bifmuth as its cobalt, under proper direction.

Native rock-falt, or fait from springs, or pit-coal, I have never yet heard of found in Cornwall : thefe feem to be the portion of other parts of England ; fome countries are favoured with one thing under the foil, fome with another, and Cornwall has little reason to complain of her allotment.

Dr. Woodward® mentions a sulphur-ore from Redruth, and native sulphur in a mafs of antimony from a mine in St. Kew parish This is the yellow matter that covers and interlaces the veins of antimony in the parish of Endelian : at the mine it is unCtuous, and bums freely with a blue flame

But of all our foflils, which are mineral only, (as far as is yet sect. vi; discovered) and not metallic, that which we call Mundic offers itself 0f Mundic in greatefl: plenty, every where almofl: intermixed with tin, lead, and copper, but sometimes found making a lode or vein by itself without any metal near it.

This is sometimes called a Pyrites, but better known among Naturalifts by the name of Marcaflte k , a name proper enough for any foflil, which, for ought we know at present, has only the appearance, mark, or outward testimonies of metal, fuch as weight and colour, but oftentimes ufed as well to express a foflil any-ways remarkable for the regular figuration of parts, or glitter of its surface.

The Cornifh name is Mundic, from the cleanly Alining appearance both of its surface and ftructurc, and to this name I fliall confine myself.

This femi metal is variously coloured on the outside with blue, sect.vii. green, purple, gold, silver, brass, and copper-colours ; but, exa- Colour, and mining it at the fraClure, I find only three diftinCb colourings, which

f The bifmuth was quite thrown away till the s Vol. II. Cat. page 17.

learned and fagacious Dr. J. Albert Schloffer, h lb. page 20, g, 3.

F. R. S. came to view it September 8, 1755, who 1 lb. g, 12.

extracted the cobalt tint for glass and malt, and k Italice Marcafita a verbo marcare, to flame

at the fame time separated and prefer ved the or mark any thing.

Bifmuth.

I diftinguifh

132 Natural History

I diftinguifh, first, into the silver or plate mundic ; secondly, the brass or pyrites aureus of Grew ; and, thirdly, the brown colour : the other colours are no more than a thin film or sediment, which water, either from its own impregnation, or the nature of the fofiil it rests upon, depofites upon the surface.

The texture of mundic is either fibrous and radiated as in pyrite nodules, or flaky and tabulated, or wavy and of crooked fibres. It is found sometimes solid in large glebes and plates, sometimes in grains and detached males from two inches diameter and under, or, lastly, in micaceous granules, either loose as fand, or fixed in incruftations.

sect viii. There are very few copper lodes, if any, but what have this Its combi- femimetal (which may be called a kind of wild, mock-copper) coppe n r. With attending as it were upon them; and therefore, in searching for copper, it is reckoned a great encouragement to meet with mundka The mundic does not intimately incorporate itself with the ore of .copper ; for copper, in its mineral state being usually of clofe confiftence, repels the mundic, which is therefore easily separated from it either by breaking off that which is fixed with hammers, or by walking away the small in water, or by evaporation in the

furnace.

sect. ix. But mundic unites more closely with our tin-ores, especially with tin. when found in a lax fandy state, oftentimes as moist and foft as mud : in this cafe the mundic mixes intimately with the tin ; and, being specifically heavier than the tin-ore, will not separate from the lame by washing as other impurities will, but impoverifhes the tin, and makes the produd fo brittle, that the tin is worth little or nothing. To destroy this connexion therefore, we have recourse to the following method : When the tin-ore has been stamped, that is bruised sufficiently and pulverized by the mill, we put it into a furnace eroded purposely for roasting it, called a Burning-house. Here the fire mull be managed and kept very moderate, and the tin-ore raked and stirred well every quarter of an hour, otherwise the tin will fufe (especially in the hottest part of the furnace), and then it muft undergo another expensive trituration in the ftampingmill. The gentle fire evaporates the arfenical and fulphurous parts of the mundic sooner or later, according to the quantity it has to work upon. 500 pounds weight of black-tin, strongly impregnated with mundic, will take twelve hours roasting to evaporate the mundic, .but the moderately infeded ore will throw oft the mundic in eight hours; fo that nothing but the earthy and lighter parts

remaining

Of Cornwall. 133

remaining, thofe are easily washed off, and the tin-ore remains behind in fuch purity, that the melters will give twelve parts of white melted tin for twenty parts of fuch tin-ore, and this is as good a price as the generality of tin-ore brings.

Our waters are infe&ed by mundic more or lefs, according to SECT x the quantity which they pafs through, and the difpofition of the its ™ mundic either to retain or communicate the noxious principles of ni i °" s ter which it confifts. Arfenick, sulphur, vitriol, and mercury are the earth, and constituents of mundic, yet thefe seemingly fo pernicious ingredients md&S. the are fo bridled and detained by their mutual a£tion and reaction, and by mixing with other minerals, that the water is not poisonous (generally speaking) even in the mine where it proceeds directly from the body of the mundic lode ; nay, in the mine, as I am well affured, this water will sometimes cure wounds, bruises, and fores, if the habit of the body be not very corrupt. However, though the mundic in general is fo retentive of its arfenick that it will not yield it to water, and that nothing but fire can certainly separate it, yet it is not always fo innocent ; for at times it yields that or fome other poison fo copioufly, that I have known a tinner of the parifti of Ludgvan ', who, by walking his wounded leg in a very strong mundic-water in Ludgvan-lez mine, brought on fuch a gangrene that it foon killed him. In the fame work it was remarked, that the fell of the mundic was about that time fo strong, that it altered the moft fanguine complexion of the labourers into pale and languid, and the effluvia of their cloths were quite loathfome ; but in fome parts of this mine the water was more tainted than it was in others, and the damps and fleas much more offensive. At Crowlifs, a village of Ludgvan, in the year 1739, a flock of geese belonging to James George, taylor, went into the river as usual, and, drinking heartily of the water, upon their return to the bank nine of them lay down immediately, and died ; but commonly this brook, though of a red turbid colour, by realbn of the mines and ftampingmills through which it makes its way, is not poisonous, for many horses, as they pafs daily, drink of it, and receive no harm. This mundictvater however is a great enemy to the finny breed, being either poison- °us at times, or fo loaded with the dirty paula of metals, that the young pawn of filh cannot live in it ; for it is observable, that in fome brooks, where, about fifty years since, there was plenty of fine trout (particularly the river Conar in Gwythien) since the copper-mines have thrown into our streams this mundic-water, there is not a fifh to be feen. This mundic-water corrodes iron, by reason

Edmund Thomas.

M m

of

i 3 4 NATURAL HISTORY

of the vitriol with which it is impregnated, very foon ; fo that, in our hydraulic engines, the pistons of the pumps in copper-mines muft be made of brass, or they are eaten away and become ufelefs in a little time.

sect. xi. Mundic mixed with earth will destroy all vegetation, its falls

with earth< being too acrimonious and fiery to enter the finer veffels of plants without rending and utterly spoiling them ; for which reason the mundic, pulverized at the stamping-mill, is carried off to mix with the fea-gravel and clay, and effectually prevents all grass and weed from growing in gravel-walks.

sect. xii. Fire has a much worse effeCt upon mundic than the other ele-

witJi fire, ments, and throws it into its moil fatal state ; for when it has been somewhat burnt, and the sulphur which fheathed the poisonous fpicula of arfenick is difperfed, the arfenick acts without restraint. In the management of the furnace, called the Buming-house, great caution muft be ufed : the arfenick, which flies off' from the ore, has several rests and pauses ; it fixes upon the ftem and head of the iron rake which ftirs the tin, in bunches of white-yellow duft ; and here it is reckoned moft poisonous, as being left mixed ; but it is alfo strongly poisonous from the bottom of the flue of the chimney upwards, where, although it is a mixture or mundic, sulphur, and foot of pit-coal as well as arfenick, it is yet fo fatal, that a person of an adjoining parish to Ludgvan, rafhly looking down, and prying into the chimney of one of thefe Burning-houses, was seized instantly in fo violent a manner, that, notwithstanding all proper afliftance, he foon died. The workmen are oftentimes obliged to sweep out thefe furnaces and clear the chimney, a service of no little danger ; it is usual therefore to put a cloth before their mouth and nofe when they are upon this duty ; but Elijah Bond, a youth of the parifti of Ludgvan, sweeping out what they call the oven, (the place where the tin-ore lies roasting) at Rofmgrows Burning-houfo, January 25, 1750, without the necefiary precautions, was taken ill immediately, and, though he had the usual remedy of oil given him, he died that evening.

sect. xni. The smoke of burnt-mundic when it leaves the chimney being more difperfed, is not foon, but as surely fatal to all tender herbs and plants, and bees of the adjacent neighbourhood, as it lights upon them ; and the fire-men, who attend this process, greatly impair their constitutions, if they make it their foie and constant employment.

The

OF CORNWALL. i 35

The three forts of mundic above-mentioned, Section vii, differ sect. xiv. not only in colour, but in the more decisive and lefs variable pro- Weight of perty, weight. mundic.

f Plate-mundic ftriated weighed to water (Au-

) guft 19 r 755) as - - - - - -

i Plate-mundic granulated - - - - -

to 1.

r Brafs-coloured cubical mundic lD°. - - - granulated -

f Brown-mundic - - - -

1 Second sample of D°.

to 1. to 1.

The plate-mundic therefore is in weight to water near as even to one ; the brass-coloured is not fo heavy, being but as five to one ; and the brown is ftill lighter, being but as 4 - - 'to one.

Notwithftanding that the fpecifical weight of mundic exceeds sect. xv. that of moft follils, and that it has, to all outward appearance of l ts produce, colour and texture, fuch a near resemblance to brass, it is fo pregnant with sulphur and arfenick, that, though a fierce fire will melt it, yet will it fly into powder under the hammer, and by no flux hitherto difeovered can it be reduced into a metal. Notwithftanding the failure of all former experiments, the appearance promised fo much, that the late learned Dr. Boerhave lent to me by a friend m for all the forts of it which could be procured, in strong confidence that he should be able to find out a method of making it turn to account. All the forts were accordingly furthered to him ; but the death of that great chemist foon after, deprived us of thofe afliduous and fkilful experiments, which, under his eye, might have been bleifed with difeoveries of great importance.

Mundic will yield in evaporation its. quantity of sulphur and arfenick ; but thefe are fo much easier, and at a left expence, to be procured other ways, that it is not worth while to endeavour after them by burning mundic. Mr. Boyle " procured by distillation four ounces of good brimftone from three pounds of thefe stones ; and fays, that they contain particles of copper and iron ; that mercury may be thence procured ; and that a fkilful person may poftibly make a profitable ufe of marcafites, either by fixing the volatile gold or silver contained therein, or by graduating silver by their means ; and Kentmannus observes, that fome marcafites contain silver, others gold, and others both, ibid. The white or platemundic far exceeds the other forts in weight ; and, if I am not

n Boerh, Theor. of Chemiftry, Englifh.

mif-

Dr. J. Andrew of Exeter, then at Leyden.

i 3 6 NATURAL HISTORY

mifinformed yields not only arfenick and sulphur, but a powder very near, if not equal to, and the fame as ultramarine.

In the year 1750 I had a sample of the fame plate-mundic, abundantly mixed with fpeltre, from a work in Gwynier parish. It may therefore be well worth while to enquire farther into this mundic, whether ultramarine may be procured from it in any anfwerable quantity ; and, secondly, whether it may serve the purpoles, or increase the powers and quantity of fpeltre ; and, in continual searching, other ufes, not now forefeen, may probably occur.

sect. xvi.

Mundic concretions formed at different times, and are ftill forming.

Cryftals and mundics are frequently found in the fame beds, and by the infpe&ion of several specimens, we may reft allured, that fome mundics were indurated before the crystals, as appears by the plain imprellion made in the crystals which adhered to them, and from which we may easily separate them ; and other specimens will as readily convince us that they were indurated since the crystals, being formed into cappings and incruftation s upon the culpldes of the Cornifh crystals, from which they have visibly received the hexagonal imprellion. Further : There is great reafcn to believe, that mundics are perpetually forming (as is probably tl cafe Oi ail ores) new combinations where they have proper room, h rty, nidus, and fubjedts to fix upon ; for in the fragment of a Cornilh crystal brought me, in the year 1752, from a mine which had layn idle about thirty years, I perceived an incruftation of granulated befprinkled mundic beginning to coat the crystal in the fratfture : now, there is all reason to believe, that this crystal was broke in the columnar part when the mine was worked laft, which is betwixt thirty and forty years ago, fo that this mundic incruftation muft have fixed itself on this fra&ure since that term. The following accident confirmed the fuppofition : Having laid by fome mundics in a drawer, and coming about two years after to examine them, I found several glebes of yellow-mundic, which were separated when I put them by, flicking clofe together ; one glebe had picked up a bit of blue vitriol, a grain of lead, a grain of copper, and a grain of crystal ; and the yellow-mundic had alfo fhot round about, and closely embraced a piece of the plate-mundic : hence we fee that the mineral principles are always active, and forming new concretions ; and likely this activity is in proportion to the mineral and metallic falls which the foflil contains : here the yellow-mundic was moft atftive, as conftfting of more fait than the plate-mundic ; but the brown-mundic has more fait ftill than the yellow, and will divide and fall in pieces commonly in any moist place, and shoot

0 By a letter from Dr. J. Andrew from Leyden, 1738.

forth

OF CORNWALL. i 37

forth its vitriolic falls into white wool-hke threads : this is therefore the more apt to diftolve former, and to frame new aftociations.

Some learned men have thought that the variety of foffils issECT.xvn. greater than that of plants ; Mr. Ray doubts it p , and the he var,ous estimate cannot be made with precision till the fubterraneous mundics. parts of nature are as well known as the superficial. Many foffils have been discovered fmce Mr. Ray*; in the 'year 1716,

Doctor Woodward reckoned three thousand forts, and distinct species are making their appearance every day : however, it muft be allowed, that it is very conffitent with the goodness and wisdom of Providence that the surface of the earth ffiould be clothed in a gayer dress, and engage the attention of man with a greater variety of colours, ffiape, and beauty, than thofe parts which lie underneath, and come more rarely under the infpetftion of mankind. But nature, where-ever we pursue her, has not left herself without testimonies of her regard for colour, ffiape, and elegance; this will appear from the description of the figured foffils which follow, but in none more confpicuoufly than in the mundics, in which figure, luftre, gilding, carving, regularity, and finery, are as it were thrown into the fcaie to make amends for its little intrinsic value. As this mineral therefore has been hitherto very sparingly traced, I have given two plates of the several varieties which have reached my notice in this county, in a search of twenty years, all in their natural fize.

Fig. 1. Bliftered mundic of the fmalleft grain, a kind of ftalag- plate xv. mites, or exfudation. Circular pro-

1 1 . Bliftered D°. of high relievo, the blisters covered with fpan- gi™un-

gles, smooth, hexagonal, brass-coloured, the fibres at a ffiootino- as dics '

from a center, and forming a femicircular opening like the arch of a bridge.

hi. Surface fquamous, wrought like the scales of a fiffi ; its texture radiated.

iv. Part of an oval incruftation of brass-coloured mundic, within which an elliptical crystal pebble, ffiewing at the fedfion, by three lifts, the tremulous efforts of the crystal when it ffiot.

v. Three lumps of hexagonal, large-fpangled mundic, capping a piece of crystal.

VI A gl°be or ball of sparkling, brass-coloured mundic.

vii. Part of a round nodulous pyrites ; its texture radiated from a central point, by the moisture of the air divided, and falling easily afunder into taper pegs, as Fig. vm.

p Of the Creation, page 21.

N n

Viz. 1691.

Fig.

138 Natural History

Fig. ix. A botrueid, or high-blidered, sparkling mundic-incrudation on the cleared: crydal, the colour of the mod polished brass.

x. Stiliatitious mundic, sparkling, yellow, pendant, from the Pool copper-work in Illogan

xi. The tubercles or bliders oval, inclined in parallel direction ; on the fummit they have mammillae or nipples ; the surface sprinkled with a gold-coloured and purple powder ; the texture brown flakymundic, very uncommon. Likely dillatitious.

xii. Oval bliders of the brown-mundic, cludered like a pineapple, sprinkled with gold powder as the former, on a bed of copper.

xiii. Brafs-coloured mundic of a velvet glofs, wreathed in the shape of a turbinated hell, from the mould of which it seems to have borrowed its figure, and may therefore be reckoned an extraneous foflil: from Pendarves. It is one of the cochleomorphites of Dr. Plot, ( Oxfordfhire, Tab. VI. Fig. n.) and what Lhuyd, in his Lithophylacium, calls the Nerita foJfiks> N°. 312.

xiv. ? Bliders like reclined tubes, formed of parallel rings, as if worms or caterpillers half buried in the ground of mundic r .

xv. Buttony mundic in five perfectly globular protuberances. Circular con- xvi. A wavy bordure, or cordon of brass-coloured mundic, cave mundics poi nte d at one end, and at the other spreading into a circle, ending in a small cavity, and inclofing a larger in the shape of an inverted cone, which has three several dages of radiated fibres.

xvii. Several segments of circles, creed with a continued adragal, which edges a tuft of the larged-fpangled brass-coloured mundic.

xvi 11. A piece of fpangled brass-coloured mundic in relieve, with a fringed edging shaped by five segments of a circle ingrained, or with the points where they meet outwards.

xix. This beautiful piece of lace- work is at 0, funk into the mod exact circular cavity, from whence the fix lids or threads turn off on either hand, and protruding themselves into various angles, and preserving their parallelifm throughout, trace round the extremities of this rare specimen. From a tin-mine, called Ludgvanlez work, in the parish of Ludgvan.

xx. On the top there is a molding of fringy, tufted, brass-coloured mundic, which divides the fpangled surface into compartments, as k , and makes the upper brim of the cavities with which this specimen is fo didinguifhed. Below this tufted edge runs a mod exact circular lid, b, h, which gives great regularity to the cavities underneath. This lid has little breaks in it, like an adragal

'i See of this fort two other specimens, PI. XVI. r See Plate XVI. Fig. liv, lv, lvi. page Fig. xxxiv. and xxxv. page 141. 141.

of

Of Cornwall. 139

of bead-work in architecture. Beyond the circular cavities are fome angular ones, as if for variety.

Fig. xxi. The colour of the highest polished silver, the circles raft exact, somewhat concave, edged with a beaded aftragal ; is about the tenth of an inch deep, radiated as in the sculpture ; has a taper hillock of the fame fpangled mundic in its center, and fome faint traces of rays round it. This is part of a large rich incruftation of the plate-mundic on milk-white crystal. The specimen is one third of an inch thick, nine inches long, and five wide, at a medium, with seventeen cavities funk in its surface, nearly of the fize of what are here exhibited, five of which have in their center the little hillock, b : it coated the fide of the mine, fo that its surface was not horizontal but perpendicular. From the fame mine.

XXII. On a greenish sparkling mundic, a lift of small beads plate xvi edging like a gold twist, the flap (as it were) of a pocket, imbofled. Pa s e h 1

XXIII. A mundic figure, imbofled in the shape of a fear's head, carved at the edge.

xxiv. On the top of a yellow-fpangled mundic is this flower in high relievo, lying Angle and entire, carved at the edges, sparkling with gold dull ; it does not confift of circular lines only, but is a curious mixture of straight and spherical, not much unlike the form of an ancient harp.

XXV. An embofled flower, carved at the edges, like a goose-head, of gold-colour'd fpangled mundic, covered with a sparkling ochrous

giidder.

xxvi. A bird's head (as it were) embofled, on a thin plate of purple-fpangled mundic powder'd in fome parts with gold duft.

xxvi 1. A regular triangle of fpangled yellow mundic carved at

the edges.

xxvni. Granules of brass-coloured mundic placed in a rhomboidal order, fixed on white opake Quartz.

xxix. A duller of fpangled mundic, with Items underneath, at a y a , perpendicular to their brim, fibrous, lacerated like the body of a broken nail ; brass-coloured, seemingly of the fungoeid kind.

xxx. Crefted with grains rectangular, fpangled ; at b, b, it has two talks or supporters like the roots of a tooth, brass-colour'd, fungoeid.

xxxi. It's craft is tufted, the roots of parallel fibres or threads, like the fungi ; marked tranfverfly by three indented furrows ; brass-coloured.

xxxi 1. Crefted as Fig. xxx. but not indented ; fungoeid.

xxxiii. Under a cap of leafy, rectangular mundic, d, a wavy girt or bandage, of mundic lace, e , e, surrounding the whole, the threads perpendicular, crofled and divided into fillets by protuberant

lifts ;

Geometrical

angular

mundics.

140 Natural History

lifts ; brass-coloured ; fungoeid. There is a fungoeid in stone, in Lhuyd's Lithophylacium, N°. 122, very like this specimen ; of which he alfo gives an Icon. He calls it columellus f ungum Niloticum Clufii , nonnihtl refer ens , ex lapicidina Cowleiana : Thele are all the mundics I have met with.

Fig. XXXIV. Mundic ftillatitious, in perpendicular, capillary tubes, both surface and texture smooth, of a cinereous lead-colour.

XXXV. A cinereous, ftillatitious, tubular mundic, the pipes of different diameter and lengths, and in regard to one another parallel as the pipes of an organ.

xxxvi. On the surface, thin wedges, acuminated, as if small bits of a knife or word, not parallel, but with their edges turned upwards, standing out of the bed.

xxxvii. Afhoot of mundic, columnar, the bafe at f a rhombus, but at g the fide angles are planed off, fo as to make the column there hexagonal. Of plate-mundic.

xxxviii. A rhombo-columnar clump of plate-mundic. The columns make different angles at their infection ; the bafe a rhombus, which in one place has its ridge planed of, as at g, in the foregoing figure.

xxxix. A rhomboidal single die of mundic, pale brass-coloured.

xl. A clump of intimately connected cubical mundic, polished, brass-coloured.

xli. Two cubes of mundic infer ted in each other's fubftance, therefore fhot at the lame time, but by forces differently directed. N. B. Where equally immersed, and of equal dimensions, the forces and materials were equal.

xlii. A perfect cube of mundic, of burnifhed brass-colour.

xliii. A polyhedron ; its surface confifting of thirteen pentagonal planes.

xliv. The surface is divided into twenty triangular planes, five of which make a pentahedral cufpis at one end, and five make the like cufpis at the opposite extremity, the other ten triangles cornpleat the face or fillet betwixt the two cufpides ; a moft remarkable polyhedron this, and perhaps as curious a difpofition of triangles as is any where to be met with. Brafs-coloured.

xlv . A bunch of mundic rhombus's with their points planed off.

xlvi. Another view of the fame subject, Ihewing the front of the chief rhombus, as a.

xlvii. An exact equilateral triangular fide of a mundic pyramid with a small one of the like figure on each fide, in different directions.

xlviii. One grain of mundic ; its fides and ends cut in the fegment of a circle, and convex in the front, b .

Fig.

iu

f

'

Figur'd Mundics

txr

r Uo ( ?F li //an/ CfiaJjet o/ U/{aldane

in two //ato, engraixi ai /ier ea/ietuvP

txn

ixm

in 'hirtef// o/ . J/tj/uJm

ivm

rvx

Of Cornwall. 141

Fig. xl ix. A cubical die of mundic, with its redangles planed off, as c, d, e.

l. A rhombus, #, betwixt four Hopes ; the two uppermoft, d d, triangular; the two underneath, b b, incomplete triangles; their apices planed off. From Huel-Cock in St. Juft, 1750.

li. Another view of the fame mundic-grain, exhibiting the odogon, c, betwixt four triangular Hopes, d, d. li 1. A very exad parallelopiped of a gold-colour. liii. A cube of mundic with this peculiarity, that it has five of its eight angles with their apices as it were cut off, and yet of the fame polished surface as the reft of the cube.

liv. A piece of tubular- wreathed, brass- coloured, sparkling mundic.

lv. Another specimen of the fame kind, brass-coloured. lvi. A vermicular scroll of mundic, thrown into irregular meanders as if once the habitation of an infer. TV. B. Thefe may be called Vertnicularia glomerata , as Lhuyd calls the tony foftils of of like shape ( Lithophylacium, N°. 1215) from the stone quarries near Thame in Oxfordfhire, and may serve to fhew that we have extraneous foftils of the vermicular, as well as teftaceous, and fungoeid kind in mundic

lvii. A heptahedral cufpis of yellow, polished-mundic. lvi 1 1. A tetrahedral cufpis of brass-coloured mundic, with two opposite Hdes quadrangular, two triangular.

lix. Tetrahedral cufpides of mundic, the fides triangular. lx. Two pyramids of a quadrangular plan joined bale to bale. lx 1. Wire- wrought, globular, button mundic, from the Pool copper- work, 1756.

lx it. Another variety of the fame. lx 1 1 1 . A third.

lx 1 v . Three echinated balls of button-mundic conceded. From the fame mine.

Here we have in mundic the refemblances of plants and animals, the moldings, cats, and carvings of fancy, the figures of science and erudition, and more varieties will occur doubtless to thofe who search longer and with greater attention than I have done ; but thefe are enough to furprize us with their regularity and art. The first of thefe may proceed from natural principles (fuch as mineral or metallic falls) determined to ad in a particular manner, although to produce fuch a multiplicity of geometrical, spherical, and redilinear figures, as are here exhibited, thefe principles muft be very

The following figures are supplemental ; the dies, as the laft four do to the convex circular four first belong to the clafs of geometrical mun- mundics.

O o

various ;

I4 2 Natural History

various ; but to what shall we attribute thofe freer strokes of art, whereby the curved lines and lifts are sometimes plain, sometimes carved, as in Fig. xx. Plate XV. now radiated, now plain, as in XXI ; now wavy, more numerous, and exactly parallel, as in XIX ; now a mixture of straight and circular fillets, as in xx* Trigonometry, now ftraightlined, as in XXVII, xxvill, &c. now spherical, as in XVII, XYIII* XXII, &c. and now the moft elegant mixture of both, as xxn, XX ill, xxxv, &c. now plain, smooth globes, as xVi now wire-wrought, button, as lxi, lxii, lxiii, lxi v. now tubular and pendant, as x, xi. xxxiv, xxxv. now wreathed and vermicular, as xiv. liv, lv, lvi. Shall we attribute this to a plaftick power fuperintending the congress of fofiils, and sporting itself with natural or preternatural representations or shall we rather fay, that the great power which contrived and made all things, needing no delegate, artfully throws the flexile liquid materials of the foflil kingdom into various figures, to draw the attention of mankind to his works, and thence lead them, fiift, to the acknowledgement, then to the adoration of an intelligent being, inexhauftibly wife, good, and glorious ? Doubtlefs thefe are the works of that fame lover of shape, colour, and uniformity, that paints the peacock's train, that veins the Onyx, that freaks the Zebra : It is the fame hand whole traces we may discover even among the meaneft and moft obscure fofiils. God loves symmetry, gracefulnefs, elegance, and variety, and distributes them for his own complacency as well as glory, limits them not to plants, and animals, and open day-light, but, like a great Mafter, habitually imparts them to all his works, though in the deepest ocean, and in the moft secret parts of the earth.

Chap. Xiii.

Of the Fiffures in which Metals are found ; their Properties ,

Origine , and Ufe.

sect. I.

T H E greatest part of our metals is found in veins or fiffures, and the contents which fill thefe veins we call in Cornwall Lodes. We will examine the hell first, and then confider the kernel.

sect. II.

Properties.

The fides or walls of a fiffure do not always confift of one and the fame kind of stone, nor are they are equally hard; on one fide

The female Zebra, or wild-afs of Africa, was drawn and published by the ingenious Mr. Edwards, librarian to the College of Phyficians, London, front the living animal belonging to his

Royal Highnefs the late Prince of Wales, and the male, ftill more remarkable for the regularity of its freaks, from the fluffed fkin preferred in the College of Phyficians, in the year 1 751.

of

Of Cornwall 143

of the fiflure there is hard hone, on the other sometimes loose clay ; the walls, generally speaking, are harder than the lode they inclofe, but sometimes foster ; sometimes perpendicular, but much oftener declining somewhat to the right or left as they defend, but without any certain rule, and without any uniform relation to one another.

FiiTures are not of equal breadth or depth : The course of Mures (especially great ones) is generally eaft and weft in Cornwall, yet in fome places have a north and fouth direction ; but in neither cafe do they exactly tend to the cardinal points : their course, to whatever point they are directed, is not in a straight line but wavy, full of little curves, alternately deviating from and recovering their chief direction ; the curves they make are generally greater at croffing a valley than otherwise; the larger fifliires have many letter veins branching out from them, which recreate, like the boughs of a tree, as they become farther distant from the trunk, till they end in threads, aud are no more to be found ; thefe fubordinatc dependant veins join the after-fiflure at different angles.

Let us now confider the origine of thefe fixtures, and the cause sect. iii, of their several properties. As to their origine, the learned are not Origine of agreed. Some u imagine them to be the chanels through which the fifluies ' waters retired at the time of the creation, that the ocean might be formed, and the dry-land appear; that where a large ftream chanced to force its way, the paflage became wide ; where only a petty current, the paftage was proportionably narrow : but to this may juftly be objected, that the walls of the fifliires are too hard in many places for the waters to have penetrated, in others too foft to have refifted the left impetuoftty of fuch a current. Their course does not at all agree with this theory ; for they run mostly eaft and weft, or towards the other cardinal points ; whereas, if they had been formed by waters retiring into the fea, they would thither generally tend ; but we find no fuch difpofttion, nor the left regard to the fea in their tendency.

Others think them w fo many breaches of the Jlrata , made at the conclusion of the universal deluge ; whence it would follow, that there was neither fiflure nor lode before : but that the lode Was prior to the flood, the rhodes which have been dilperfed from the top of the lode by the flood, inconteftably fhew ; and that the fiflure muft be prior to the lode it bears, is as evident as that the cabinet muft have been made before the jewels could be inclofed and laid up in it. In fuch matters however it is more difficult to affign the true cause, than to confute the falfe ones ; but in all

8 Agricola de ortu, &c. lib. iii. pdge 39. v Woodward's Nat. Hift. page 187. Loofeftones.

fuch

I44 Natural History

fuch doubtful points, Naturalifts are to submit their own sentiments to the examination of the publick, that by a variety of hints, and the joint affiftances of all, the truth may at laft appear.

Fir ft then thofe fifiures are no more, as they feem to me, than the neceffary consequences of the first settlement of matter, when it was divided into wet and dry, solid and fluid. That we may the more clearly apprehend this, let us recoiled! what happens to imall males of matter, cloven by like fiflures, whence we may infer wirat is probably the cause of thofe greater clefts which we are now in search of. We all know that flime, diluted clay, and pulverized or diflolved stone, shall occupy more face in that state of moisture than when the fame clay, flime, or stone, becomes dry and hard ; and, from a parity of reason, we may argue, that when folds and fluids formed (and from a state of chaos became divided into diftindt bodies) the parts of the former, being defeated by the latter, muft needs grow closer together, and consequently leave charms and crevices betwixt them. But the males of earth, stone, and clay, were not at this time merely paflive ; they formed larger and more compact bodies every where, in proportion to the quantity and mutual attraction of their similar parts, within proper distance. Hence arose firmer combinations, and consequently greater openings between fuch males. Farther, it muft be observed, that as all similar particles struggled to come into contact with each other, fo, at the fame time, they defeated, repelled, and exprefled all diflimilar and contending particles; consequently males of differently natured particles feceded and fled from each other, every party (if I may ufe the expreflion) tending to form and flick clofe to its like : betwixt finch different fubftances therefore, attracted here, and there repelled, fome chink or interval muft needs happen. Thefe causes then, viz. the defertion of moisture, the union of similar and the mutual repulfe of diflimilar particles, muft all have contributed to form the males of our terraqueous globe into fuch separate portions as we now find them in ; for that indeed it was not poflible for bodies to grow dry and hard, unite and contract, without leaving fome charms or fiflures between them. What ensued upon the hardening of particular and smaller males, ensued alfo in the larger portions of the whole earth, in proportion to the quantity of folds united at any one effort, whether a grain, a Jlratum , a county, or a region. Hence therefore the cracks in all foftils, whether filled with heterogeneous matter or open ; hence the clefts and reparations of the firata , whether horizontal, perpendicular, or oblique ; and hence the larger divisions or fiflures which divide whole counties into as many fubterraneous diftridts, whether charged with stone, metal, or earth, or kept open by the constant course

Of Cornwall. I45

of running waters. The largest fiffures which we are apt to wonder at, extending themfeves in one direction for fo many miles, are no more to the body of the earth than the fmalleft, and to the naked eye invisible clefts in bricks, stones, and minerals ; they are but lo many terminations of the effort, whereby similar, foft, and moist bodies contradcd themselves, and paffed into drought and hardness.

I need not fay, that, according to this theory, the paflage of the waters through thofe clefts was the consequence and effed and not the cause of thefe fiffures, as Agricola fuppofed. Which is moft likely, muft be submitted to the candid reader ; but the above account seems to be confirmed from a very common and juft observation, that where the failures are widest, there they are fewest ; and, on the odier hand, proportionably small where they are moft fi equcnt ; boih equai evidences, that the concreting glebes could not harden without cracking to a certain degree; that, where a large chink ensued, it answered all the exigencies of the contrading-mafs ; but where the ci cvicc or eafement to the forming-mafs was but small, there many cracks did supply the place of a large one.

That the breadth, depth, and length of thefe fiffures are all dif-SECT. iv. ferent, flies/s that they are not the effeds of any exact rule, but Properties, the product of feme natural immechanical operation, on a various, mixed, and unsettled congeries of bodies concurring to form themiehes in different shapes, quantities, and pofttions.

iiwm seems to be fome uniformity in the diredion of our Cor- Direction, nifh fiffures, pointing, as they generally do, eaft and weft. In the coal and lead-mines throughout England, they generally do the fame as Mr. Ray observes (Phyficotheol. page 378); but, from fuch small spots, nothing certain can be concluded; and there are fo many fiffures in contrary and more oblique diredions, that no uniformity in general can be presumed. The four principal veins of Poton run north and iouth, and thofe of Oruro, reckoned the second beft in Peru, have the fame course, though on a different fide of the mountain. At Schemnitz, in Hungary, the veins of silver-ore run north and fouth, other rich veins north-eaft ; all veins keep not to the fame point, even in the fame mine." Brown's Travels, pa.

57 Of the gold-mines, in Schemnitz, fome run to the north, fome to the eaft, ibid, page 63. In the mines of Gottenberg, in Bohemia, the veins of silver and copper run fouth, ib. page 162.

That the north and fouth fiffures should be generally smaller than Magnitude, the eaft and weft ones, is merely accidental ; for they are sometimes as large, and larger. In general, we may conclude, that the fiffures were large or small in proportion to the adivity of the confading maffes on either fide. Again, as the forces of that con-

P p tradion,

Pofition perpendicular.

Inclined.

Horizontal.

SECT. V. Ufe of fiffures.

I4 6 natural history

tradion, which formed the mailer-vein, gradually ceased and died away, the subordinate cracks and little fide-veins, proceeding laterally from the fame forces, became lefs and lefs as they became more distant from the chief fource of motion.

Fiffures are either perpendicular, inclined, or horizontal. The general position of fiffures, at first, was probably the perpendicular or near it ; for it is a common observation, that the fifiure, which inclines much near the surface, grows gradually more upright, as it shoots deeper into the earth, where the flrata are usually more compad, and consequently more apt to have preferred the primary position than thole which are nearer the surface, and therefore more liable to have been disturbed.

Fifiiires inclined (that is, deviating from their perpendicular, as indeed moft of them do) owe their obliquity partly to the first irregular contradion of the flrata , and partly to fome after-violences, whereby the neighbouring flrata were unfooted, and, in proportion to their own fubfidence, inclined and bent from their natural position every thing in their reach, as will more clearly appear in the examination of the properties of lodes in the following chapter.

Horizontal fifiiires are owing probably to the accidental interpofition of hard and different bodies, whereby the flrata were kept from contad and fettling dole upon one another, and partly to the different efforts of the upper and under maffes at their first induration. By either of thefe causes, or by both conjointly, horizontal chains in the flrata might be formed ; but they are much lefs frequent than the perpendicular and inclined. We find them sometimes replete with metals and minerals, and call them floors, not lodes.

Some fiffures are quite broken and discontinued, and the defeated fragment, from which they have been divided, found again at a final 1 distance : this is alfo the effed of violence, and will come to be particularly explained among the properties of lodes.

Although thefe fiffures are the natural result of a moiftened and mixed congeries of matter, palling by approximation of parts into a state of folidity and drought, we are by no means to conclude them ufelefs, or the works of chance, produced without or beside the design of the first cause : No ; the great Archited, who contrived the whole, determined the several parts of his scheme fo to operate, as that one useful effed should become the beneficial cause of another. God provided for the ufes of things in his first ideal difpofition of them, and their refpedive beneficial ufes flowed naturally from each other thus aptly difpofed. Hence it happens that matter could not conrad itself into solid large maffes without

leaving

Of Cornwall. I+7

leaving fiffures between them ; and yet the very fiffures are as neceffary and useful, as the Jirata through which they pafs.

Flrft ' thef e are th e drains which carry off the redundant moisture from the earth, which, but for them, would be too full of fens and bogs for animal to live or plants to thrive on.

Through thcfe fiffures the rain, which finks beneath the chanels of rivers, not having the advantage of that conveyance above ground, returns into the fea, bringing the fait and mineral juices of the earth into the ocean, enabling it thereby to supply the firmament with proper and sufficient moisture, and preserving that vaft body of water the fea, wholesome, fit foi fifh to live in, and sailors to navigate.

In thefe fiffures, the several ingredients, which form the richest lodes, by the continual paffing of waters, and the menjlrua of metals, are educed out of the adjacent Jirata , collected, and conveniently lodged in a narrow chanel, much to the advantage of thofe who search for and pursue them ; for if metals and minerals were more difperfed, and scattered thinly in the body of the Jirata, the trouble of finding and getting at metals (thofe neceffary instruments of art and commerce, and the ornaments of life] would be endless, and the expence of procuring exceed the value of the acquisition.

.Laftly, without thefe failures we could never make drains to our mines and quarries, and consequently neither metals nor marbles, neither falls nor earths, nor stones, could be fo easily, or in fuch plenty provided as is neceffary for the ufe of man.

Chap. Xiv.

Of Lodes', their Properties, Parts , and Inclinations , &c.

F ROM the fiffures, let us proceed to that which they contain, sect.i.

and whatever fills them, whether clay, stone, mineral, or metal, we call in Cornwall a Lode, and not improperly for a lode is very seldom rich, or equally impregnated ; metals are local, distributed sparingly, not befiowed without reserve, found in fome, llot p ar t s °1 the lode ; but, where the lode is barren, it may five to lead us to what is rich, whence the name lode of the fame fignification as the Englifh word, lead, or led

Firft, let it be observed, that if the general run of the neigh- sect.ii. bouring Jirata be of any particular colour, be lax or compact, be Properties of of a fpar or cryflal cement, be of flat, granite, or any other stone, the lodc '

From an old Anglofaxon word, lode, idem ac lead j fo lode-stone quasi leading-stone. See Lye's -uit. of Junius ad verbum. & J

fo

I4 8 natural history

fo will the lode be for the moft part. Again, the fubftance of the lode is observed to be frequently the fame, at the fame level and depth with that of the jirata ; but though there is oftentimes fuch an agreement betwixt the lode and the jirata near it, ii is iar from being always the cafe : in the Mil grammar there is no general rule Without many exceptions, experience convincing us, that sometimes lodes are both as to colours and textures, as well as impregnation, entirely different from the adjoining jirata y . However, the general resemblance betwixt the lode and the ground adjoining, may probably conduct us to the true origine of lodes ; for as loon as the fiffures were made by the contraction of the jirata , whatever did not join the hardening mafs was carried off' by the exprejj'ed moisture into the adjoining fiffures, the waters depofiting what they brought with them where-ever a proper nidus , or sufficient attraction to arrest it, occurred ; that the little collateral veins are oftentimes filled, and at the lame depth with like fubftance to the after-lode, will convince us that they were filled at the fame time, by one and the fame cause, and from one common repository. The contents then of the fiffures proceeded from the nearest jirata and ft the openings of the Jirata into the fiffures were horizontal, then the cavities were filled at equal depths with the lame fubftances but if the communications were in any other direction, as frequently they muff needs be, and indeed are fo found, then the deposited matter is not found at equal depths in jirata and fiffure, but higher or lower, in fuch quantity and direction, as the vacancy of place, the opposition or compliance of other bodies, and the respective gravitations of the adventitious matter, shall have distributed it.

sect. hi. That part of the lode which is inclofed betwixt the two walls of

Of the broil fiffbre, is called the body of the lode, but the fiffure ending

otop of the t ic k arn ffe lode has its top covered over with a parcel of

loose stones and earth, usually of the fame impregnation, though in a lefs degree, of the fame colour and cement as the lode, and this in Cornwall we call the broil of the lode. See Plate XVII. Fig. vii. D. p. 149. This broil not being confined betwixt walls, as the lode is, is frequently found to have been disturbed, and sometimes wholly diffipated, especially when the walls of the fiffure reach up to day, as they do in naked karns ; but where there is a layer of rubble or stiff deep clay above the fiffure, which is much oftener the cafe, then the broil is always found covering the lode, and

y Hutchinfon is therefore too general in his fol- strata, there are ever the like in the fame depths lowing observation on the strata of Cornwall, in the vein ; that of the vein, being ever of hke Trails, page 86. " Where the fpar and the talk kind with that of the ftratum." happen to be different at different depths in the 31 That is, the rocky ftratum.

brooding,

Eg. VUI. c f/an ofosj/xte 0,0, C,

L.. Jfe 'Jfiod&s G, H,0 / X / &r. /fadvruj jhafo L ,M,Nyia./ff('

s'Lxva

Fig . I. (Zleclma/am of ,t/m 'Mra/a. toward.) d/h i wyo.

pa. /tig.

Fig . VII. i/ectum a code, id ,/wod, Sc oAot/co./ia. &r.

.te/ia. 7jj.

li.sSSS

Of Cornwall. 14.9

brooding, as it were over the treasure underneath. It is fuppofed by Tome that this broil was collected and deposited where we find it by the waters of the deluge a ; but if the parts of the broil were fortuitoufly call together, they would not be of the fame nature with the lode underneath ; they would alfo be found difperfed in other parts without diftintftion, as well as where they are ; whereas they are found only upon and above the lode : in short, the broil is only the more shattered and lefs impregnated part of the lode, which, when the fiffure was filled, wanted cement and a proper nidus to fix it into a more compad state ; and being defeated, as it were, by the purer parts of the lode which fettled below, became exposed to the impurities of the surrounding earths, and liable to be difperfed by floods.

Firft, The broil is found in greater quantity in the vallies than on the tops or fides of hills ; in the level grounds, it is but juft moved from its first station, and Ipread on each fide the vein in an equable manner ; but if the lode has any declivity near it, then many of the loose stones of the broil are found ftrewed down the hill. See Plate XVII. Fig. vm. M N O.

Secondly, The longer the declivity, the farther are thefe stones removed ; but the shorter and fteeper the fides of the hill are, the lefs distant they are found.

Thirdly, The smaller stones are carried farthest ; on the contrary, the largest stones are nearest to the lode.

Fourthly, The smaller are alfo nearer to the surface of the ground, but the larger ones, deeper, and ftill deeper as you approach the lode, till the laft are found contiguous to the lode itself. See Plate XVII. G, B, H. Fig. vn.

Fifthly, The farther distant thefe stones are from the lode, the fewer they are in number ; but they multiply as you come nearer, and are always in greatest plenty next the lode.

Sixthly, Thefe stones are known from all others by their being of a different colour and ftrufture from the shelf, rubble, and other common stones of the ground where they lie, but more particularly by their angles being worn off ; and the farther distant they are from the lode, the smoother they are ; and the nearer, the lefs are their angles blunted. In Cornwall we call thefe difperfed parts of the broil Shodes b . See Plate XVII. Fig. vm.

From daily observing the grounds they search, and the different sect.it. fubftances they there meet with, the tinners can readily diftinguifh

fliodes.

1 " Loads usually covered with rubble and fragments call upon the veins by the hurry of water," v of the deluge. Hutchinfon's Tracts, vol. I.

Qq

trail ii. page 3.

b Perhaps from the Teutonic word Shutten, to pour forth.

between

l5 o NATURAL HISTORY

between what has been removed, from what has perpetually kept one and the fame station ; the karn, that is the firm solid rock, seldom affords us any instances of alteration or movement, but every loose unconnected part of the earth has been moved and shifted ; and forafmuch as the tranfpofed bodies are found to be moved more or lefs, farther or lefs distant from their former beds, according to their own specific weight, and the declination of the plane they moved on, it is the general perfuafion of every intelligent tinner, that this change of situation can be owing to nothing but the force of water, and of no other water fo likely as that of the universal deluge : neither are we to think this lefs the voice of truth, because it is fb common an opinion ; for indeed the cause speaks fo much for itself, that in order to confirm the juftnefs of this reasoning, there remains nothing more to do, than to point out the correspondence and circumftantial agreement betwixt this affigned cause, and each particular effect and property mentioned before.

Firft then, In low and level grounds the broil is greater in quantity and lefs disturbed than on the tops or fides of hills, as being but juft moved from its first settlement by the vacillating waters of the deluge on a plane surface ; whereas on a declivity, and a more exposed situation, the waters had more power to agitate and difperfe, and consequently the original covering of the lode is much leflened in quantity.

Secondly, The gravitation of thefe stones (usually impregnated with metal) will, when moved with water, make them defend a steep hill quicker than down a more eafy decent, in the fame proportion as bodies moved on inclined planes, their velocity being in proportion to their own weight, the declivity on which they move, and the impediments they meet with there ; but the quicker they defend, the sooner they get at reft, and fix by immerging themselves in the stiff clay and rubble, and vice verfd.

Thirdly, The smaller rhodes were moved to and fro easily and frequently, and consequently much difperfed ; whereas the greater and weightier the rhodes were, the more they refifted the agitation of the waters, and were lefs removed.

Fourthly, The smaller rhodes are usually found in and near the surface, being washed downwards, till, by the refiftance of the ground on which they are fprcad, they are forced out like the rills of brooks into open day, whilst the larger, by their fuperiour weight, reft deeper interred, and nearer the lode.

Fifthly, The more distant rhodes are found from the lode, the more they were difperfed by the water, and consequently became fewer in number in any equal face, like diverging rays ; and the nearer to the lode, the thicker and more frequent they remain for the fame reason. See PI. XVII. Fig. vm. Sixthly,

OF CORNWALL. r 5 x

Sixthly, That the angles of thefe stones are blunted, proceeds evidently from the agitation of water, and they are fmoothed in proportion to the distance they have been rolled ; and had the force continued a sufficient while, thefe stones would have been as round as the pebbles on the fea-whore ; but the farther we find them from the lode, the more trituration they have undergone, and vice vera .

It may be here objected, that if the deluge Smoothed off the angles of thefe rhodes, why had it not the fame effect upon the loose parts of the killas, granite, marble, and other stones with which thefe rhodes are intermixed ? The reason seems to be this :

The long, flattifh, light, and sharp-angled parts of the broil continued their former situation on the top of the lode ; they could not but be washed, yet they were not detached : thofe parts only of the broil which were tony nodules, impregnated with metals and minerals, upon every agitation rolled, and fell with forces in proportion to their weight ; whereas lighter and flatter stones moved with lefs violence, and suffered little as to their extremities. This was the cafe in general ; but where declivities were long rather than steep, and many little vallies concurred and difeharged their contents, there, the force of the waters being increased, not only the tin-rhodes are much rounded, but the granite and killas nodules ; and every kind of stone, from a foot diameter and under, is rounded into a pebble-like form, as well as the tin, as any one may satisfy himself by observing the Jlrata of rounded stones in the ftrearnworks of St. Auftel moor. Shodes therefore are not always metallic ; they are sometimes barren. One thing more may be here observed, which is, that the broil is seldom fo well impregnated as the lode underneath ; the reason I take to be this : The broil, being more loose and fhattery than the lode, has had much of its tin washed away by floods, whereas the metal of the lode lay more secure from fuch diftipation. Again : The broil being in pofttion above the walls of the fixtures, had no depth of Jlratum to draw the metallic particles from, had no chinks or collateral crevices for the Waters to communicate the treasures of the adjoining Jlrata , nor fiffure to lodge and detain them : this is alfo the reason that the upper parts of the lode itself are seldom fo well impregnated as thofe parts which lie deeper in the fame vein, infomuch, that it is a common rule with the miners to fink upon lodes which are poor, it being generally found, that lodes prove richer in depth, than near the surface.

From the top or broil, let us defend, and take notice of the sect. v.

moft remarkable properties of the body of the lode. rf f the e iode dy

The

Its contents.

2 Natural History

The lode is either barren or impregnated. Many of our lodes in Cornwall are happily flocked with plenty of metals, but the richest are not equally impregnated in all parts, and numbers of lodes have nothing metallic in them : there is nothing constantly uniform in the bowels of the earth ; metals are not more differently distributed among climates and countries than they are oftentimes difpofed in different parts of the fame mine. Hence arises great uncertainty and frequent lofs in mining, the certain gain even here in Cornwall, where metals are in fuch plenty, being only the maintenance and constant employment of the labourers and artificers depending on the mines, and the consumption of materials which bring in a considerable revenue to the publick whether the adventurers gain or lofe.

The lode is not fo often two feet wide and more, as it is one foot and under ; sometimes however it is wider, but, generally speaking, the smaller the lode the better impregnated c .

Lodes either confift of hard, solid stone, or are lefs compad, loft, and crumbly. If the adjoining Jlrata have yielded plenty of liquid fpar and crystal to incruft the metallic particles, then the tin or other metal is found inclofed in solid, hard, tony fubftance ; but where nature has been more fearing of her cement, the ore is found in a lax, arenaceous, and rubbly state : both hard and foft lodes may be well and equally impregnated, but foft lodes are more apt to have their metals difperfed.

sect. vi. Lodes are seldom perpendicular; they decline as they defend, The inch- either to the right hand or to the left, but in very different degrees ; jureof and the fame lode may decline in one part to one fide of the pertheir°cause nd P en dicular, aud in another part to the opposite fide. This declination increases as it approaches the fides of hills, and the cliffs of the fea-whore, of vallies and of rivers ; but the fame lode which shelves away quick at the declivity of a hill, or the approach of a precipice, when it gets upon a champaign plain ground, coats it almost upright. Again : Lodes are not only inclined but fractured, and the inclined fragments found separated from each other by the intervention of earth stone, or both, entirely different from the lode ; from whence it follows, first, that fuch lodes were formed before the fradure ; secondly, that as the fradure muft have been the effed of violence, and probably 'of a violent agitation, the inclination muft have been alfo the effed of force, although in many instances that force only bent, and did not proceed to that degree of violence as to occasion a difrupture of the lode ; thirdly, the first diredion

of

c Ip the parifti of St. Juft (Penwith) the lodes are seldom wide, but the tin. is of the beft kind.

OF CORNWALL. i 53

of the lode was the perpendicular, or nearly jfo, and the inclination and fractures are but two different degrees of variation from it. If therefore we can discover the probable cause of the inclination of lodes, the fame cause, allowing it but a greater impetus, will account for the fra&ure. Now betwixt the inclination of lodes, and the dipping of the adjoining Jlrata , there is oftentimes (tho' not always) fo manifeff an agreement and correspondence, that whatever occafioned the latter could not but produce the former. Let us firff note the dipping of the Jlrata ; for if they have alfo been wrefted, the lodes contained in them could not have preferred their Ration. As the original position of lodes was perpendicular, that of the Jlrata was horizontal, each layer of Rone, earth, fand, gravel, and their commixtures, reRing (for the moR part) according to their different gravitations, and fprcading in belts and floors nearly parallel to the surface of the earth ; but we often find thefe Jlrata very fenfibly declined from that, their firff position ; nay fomctimes quite reversed, and changed into perpendicular. Thus, for infiance, the rocks and ledges on each fide of large rivers, laid bare by tides, are frequently observed to turn their points and thin edges down towards the chanel, intimating, that, from horizontal, they have dipped forward towards each other, making an angle in the middle, in which the waters pafs, as in Plate XVII. Fig. i. page 149. Again: In finking on the fides and bottom of vallies, we find the natural rock or karn, G, H, F. (Fig. 11. ibid.) equally covered with earth and rubble, and running nearly in a plane parallel to the surface of the ground. For infiance, at the hill, E, the karn shall be ten feet under the surface; in the bottom C, it fliall be somewhat deeper, that is, more covered by what is waflied off from the fides; and as it coaffs upwards again to the hill D, it fliall be buried only ten feet again, as at F. Now the lode which croffes fuch vallies, rides and falls, as the karn G, M, H, which cannot therefore be the natural firff fite either of karn or lode; for it is utterly impoflible, that any fifiure, being an open chanel, could contain in its fides M, L, K, any liquid (which all lodes muff at firff have been) if they were formed in fuch a curve-line ; as much as that a fyphon, if the tube was flit and open on one fide, should draw water : this observation therefore will lead us to this further truth, that the fubfidence of Rich vallies muff have happened since the formation of lodes, and that the Jlrata , in many instances, have departed from their primary position ; which was to be fliewn. But the Jlrata have not only dipped in iome places lefs, in lome more, but from horizontal have become perpendicular. Now, when we fee a wall lean, we conclude immediately that the foundation has given way according to the angle which the wall makes with the horizon ; and

R r when

i 5 4 NATURAL HISTORY

when we find the like declination in the Jlrata , I should think we may conclude, by parity of reason, that there has been a like failure of what supported them, in proportion to that declination.

That we may trace thefe dipping through their several stages, let us fuppofe A and B (Plate XVII. Fig. vi.) two Jlrata of clay or stone under the surface, N ; if the ground gives way below, from R Qto S I, thefe jlrata shall fink into the position of C D; a declivity often feen on the fea-whores and the banks of rivers : if the fubfidence be greater, reaching to L O, making with the horizon an angle of 45 ° (as in many steep fides of vallies we may observe) then A B shall defend and become E F; but if the ground recedes at M P, as well as falls, an utter fubverfion ensues, and A B shall become GH; that is, the Jlrata from horizontal become perpendicular a : on the other hand, if the fubfidence under the jlrata A and B, be in the dire&ion of S, I, O, then shall A B become T U, a position often to be feen in large inclined maffes of cliffs on the edge of the fea e .

If the jlrata then, in which the lodes are found, have departed from their original position, it is no wonder that lodes should partake of the fame alteration ; for whatever wrefted the Jlrata , muft have proportionably affected the contents of fuch Jlrata. Let us fee whether the fad; anfivers the theory.

In the vicarage ground of St. Juft (Penwith) there is a tin-lode, to the north of which there is a valley, as C, Plate XVII. Fig. 11. accordingly the lode A B dips away towards this valley in the top, and underlies (as the tinners express it) into the hill D ; that is, shoots away from A to B.

In a tin-mine in Rofmerguy cliff, in the parifti of Morvah, the lode near the brim of the cliff, A B, Plate XVII. Fig. hi. underlies ten feet in fix perpendicular ; but this great and unusual dipping ( for, if the lode varies from a perpendicular five feet in twenty, we generally reckon it a great underlying) grows lefs and lefs, that is, the lode approaches more and more towards a perpendicular line as it runs farther into the hill, fo that when you come inwards from the cliff about one hundred fathom, and as deep as C D, Fig. in. (above which the ground is level and champaign, as M L) the fame lode becomes perpendicular, as D F.

This remarkable relation of inclined lodes to the next adjacent depreffion of the earth's surface (which might be confirmed by many other instances) will naturally lead us to conclude, that whatever made the Jlrata fall fo much awry, muft alfo cause every thing included in thofe Jlrata to fall proportionably.

d This is the furprizing present situation of the taken notice of by Mr. Hutchinfon, Traits, vol. I. strata of Caldy Ifland in Pembrokelhire, defervedly page 27, Edit. 2. e See OSH, Fig in. ib.

Suppofe,

OF CORNWALL. i 55

Suppofe, for instance, TVWS (Fig. iv. Plate XVII.) a finall island with four lodes A B, G H, IK, NO, running eaft and weft through it. In the middle, where there has been no extraordinary secondary fubfidence, (by which I mean a fubftdence fence the first division of folds and fluids at the time of the creation) the lode, G H, shall keep its natural perpendicular direction, and the Jlrata lie on each other in their horizontal usual manner ; but fubfidences and diflocations of the Jlrata having happened near the edges or cliffs of this island, (as may be observed more or lefs in almost all cliffs) the lodes which run near the extremities, shall be variously affedfed. Suppofe a lode, A B, in its original perpendicular position ; a fubftdence of the Jlrata happening underneath, the jlratum , E D, finks and becomes D F, then shall the lode, A D, fubfide alfo, and become C D, the inclination tending towards the general fall of the ground at T ; but if there be a lode on the other fide of the island, as I K, where the dipping has been in a quite contrary direction, and the Jlratum, K L, dips fo as to become K M, then shall the lode, I K, become inclined, as X K. If farther on, and nearer the edge of the cliff, at S, there be a greater dip of the the under flrata, as from O Qto O R, then will the adjoining lode, N O, become inclined, as O P, and fo proportionable to the dip of the Jlrata , shall be the inclination of lodes.

Again: Where thefe fubfidences below were extensive, andsECT.vn. have affected large tracts of ground, there is a certain uniformity The uniforin the inclination of lodes; as, for instance, in fome parishes in the hTrticutfr western parts of Cornwall (as in St. Juft) we generally find the c,I nCts - lodes underlying towards the fouth ; but in the parishes of Gulval and Lannant, ( the first about even, the other ten miles from St.

Juft) they dip to the north as often as to the fouth, according as the fubfidence prevailed. Where-ever the greatest fubfidence was to the north of fuch trades, the tops of the lodes would consequently point to the north, (as Plate XVII. Fig. hi. A B to C) and the lodes themselves underlye to the fouth ; and this uniformity would take place, notwithstanding the lefter dipping of vallies and low grounds in fuch districts ; for it muft be observed, that vallies might in fome measure diminish or vary, but could not always wholly controul or prevent the general tendency of fuch large males falling with fo powerful a momentum.

Again : Many vallies and depreflions were the consequences of sect.viii. the first fottlemcnt of folds, and were therefore formed before the lodes themselves : it is no wonder therefore if we fee lodes inclining inclination sometimes without any regard to the declivity of fuch primeval

depreflions,

j S 6 NATURAL HISTORY

depreflions, forafmuch as the lodes mud; owe their inclination to and pofteriour fubfidences produced by a cause which we {ball by-and-by enquire into. Another reason of fome irregularities, is, that no fubfidence could equally affect all the adjacent parts of fo mixed a mafs as the intestines of the earth are, nor all parts moved fettle again in one dire&ion ; from the texture of the earth,

I fay, it could not happen, but that the inclinations would be greater in one place than in another, nay fome quite contrary to others ; and the is agreeable to the reasoning ; for we sometimes find two adjoining lodes of a quite opposite inclination, viz. one underlies to the fouth, as C D, Fig. iv. Plate XVII. the other, not twenty fathoms distant, shall underlye to the north, as Y Z, till both meet and unite at D, as in the mine called Huel-oules in St. Juft. Such lodes will sometimes cross each other, as C, D, a , Y, D, Z, ibid. ( as they do at Bartifiy hill in St. Juft) plain evidences that they proceeded from fubfidences on the different fides of the lodes, viz. CD a from a fubfidence at a Z b, and Y D Z from a fubfidence at Z a c. Here is alfo plain evidence that thefe different fubfidences happened at different times, for one lode defends in full body through the other : when they cross in fuch a manner, it is not eafy to decide which of the two lodes was first formed. Mr. Hutchinfon, in his Trafts of the Cornifh lodes, page 19 and 20, thinks that thefe lodes which cross, (that is, run north and fouth) and run in full body through the main lodes, (which run eaft and weft) were formed after the main lodes, which, by cracking, gave way for the cross-lodes to pafs through them, an ingenious fuppofition, and moft likely in general to be true ; but much will depend upon examining the inward ftrudture of thefe lodes ; if that ftrucfture is uniform throughout in each, and different from that of the other, then Mr. Hutchinfon's folution is right, and that which is cracked muft have been prior to the other ; but if at the point of interfe&ion, D, both lodes have nearly an equal mixture of the fame feeders, stone, clay, or ore, then were the fiffures inclined probably, and became replete at one and the fame time, and filled with one common matter.

sect. ix. But that there have been different fubfidences, and at different

Different fub- eg w ftm b e m0 re convincing, from another remarkable pofi-

licences prov- J r 1

ed from frac- tion in which we sometimes nnd our Cormlh lodes.

tared lodes. j n a m j ne called the North-Downs (a considerable mine of tin

and copper near Redruth) when they find the tin-lode quite worked out at the bottom, and no farther appearance of a lode, either dead or alive, (that is, impregnated or not) with or without walls; instead of finking any farther, they drive across, and at a small

distance

Of Cornwall. 157

distance find a part of the fame natured tin-lode as they worked before, and in the fame direction. When the parts of the fame lode are found thus separated from each other, the tinner's exprefiion is, that the lode is heaved or started ; and, as much may depend on the reader's clearly apprehending what is here meant, let us recur to the explanation of figures. Let AB (Fig. v. Plate xvn.) be the lode first wrought ; the miners finking till they come to B, there find no more lode ; they fink a little farther in the dire&ion A B, but to no purpose ; guefiing then from their experience in like cafes that the lode is heaved, or, more properly speaking, started, they let alone the bottom B, and drive a level paflage or drift to C ; there, to their comfort, they find a part of the former lode C D ; and having worked it down to D, where it disappears, they drive again across to E, and fo work it down to F, or as far as it goes ; and when they find it no more in that direction, repeat the fame search to as good purpose as before, fo that experienced workmen can tell nearly at what distance, and in what place, the started lode is surely to be found. . .

In the lands of Kelluz, in St. Erth, the lode is started to the north twenty-five fathoms ; but this is looked upon as very extraordinary : the fame fractures are observed in the coal-mines, where there are sometimes, though rarely, three dipping, (as Dr. Plot, Staffordfhire, page 130, fays) and the coal is faid to leap: the colliers alfo from experience know where to find it again.

Now in this remarkable phenomenon, it first appears, that A B,

CD, E F, are lb many separate portions of the fame lode ; for they confift of the fame paula> the lame metal, and make nearly the fame angle with the horizon, and abruptly and equally vanish ; being broken off at B D F, at one and the fame distance nearly they appear again ; all irrefragable evidences that they are not different lodes, but each a diftindt frujlum of the fame lode.

Secondly, That this lode was formed before the fiffure which contains it became inclined and fractured in this manner ; for B was joined to C, and D to E, whereas now they are at a distance.

Thirdly, That there muft have been three fucceftive different shocks which could create three fuch fractures.

Let us fee therefore whether the fubfidence of the Jlrata , the cause before afiigned for the dipping of the lodes, will naturally account alfo for this their very lingular disjointed state.

Firft then, from thefe and several other apparent alterations in the sect.x. bowels of the earth, it is highly probable, that the Jlrata were not Caufe of frac-

, r , - ' 1 i r 1 r 11 1 tured lodes.

only unrooted, shaken, and brought to rail, once only, or twice, but several times. Suppofing then the lode N F (Plate XVII. Fig. v.)

S f in

x 5 8 NATURAL HISTORY

in its original perpendicular position, and M F a Jiratum spread on any precarious foundation to give way and defend to RLF, then will the lode N F defend alfo, and become O E F. A piece of the fame Jiratum , R L, is afterwards unfooted, and becomes S I K, then will the lode, O E, fall in proportion, and become PCD. Another fubfidence happens from like concurrent causes, and S I shall become G H ; then shall that portion of the lode, P C, fall into the position of A B, and, in proportion to the times and falls of the under Jlrata , shall the lodes defend either in whole or in part. It may be faid, that if thefe fubfidences were the causes of the above-mentioned fractures, then the interftices of fuch broken lodes would be filled by earth, clay, gravel, and fuch loose materials, as the difordered Jlrata could not but throw into the opened crevices ; this is very true, and the matter of fadt confirms the speculation ; for between B and C, D and E, ( ibid.) a fhelving foft congeries of rubble, clay, land, or the like, (by the Cornifh called a Flookan) is interpoled: it is of a different fubftance from the lode and wall of the filfure, and by the vulgar is thought the cause of the lode's being started ; but is indeed the effect, and nothing more than the depofite of the adjoining grounds after the fracture of the lode had been made.

sect. xr. As we have endeavoured to Ihew that the fubfidences of the Caufe of the jlrata were the cause of the inclination and fracture of lodes, it canthe f strata! ° f not be improper to hint at the date and cause of thele fubfidences.

It has Been observed before, (page 80) that, at the first induration of bodies, it was impoflible, but that the surface of our globe should be higher in fome parts, and lower in the reft ; that the earth, porous and cavernous as it mull be by the intermixture of fubftances apt to give way, ferment, and explode, mull fink deep in fome places, and lefs, or not at all, in other places. Now, as we owe the mountainous and hilly parts of our globe to the folds which flood firm and prominent, fo to thefe deprelfions of the more lax and cavernous parts we owe the bed of the ocean, and the fubfidence of vallies ; but thele deprelfions, fo neceflary, ( the lefler to conduct the rivers, and the greater to contain and form the fea) could not but influence more or lefs all the adjoining Jlrata , and the Jlrata all their fifiures and lodes ; hence fo manifest a relation in many parts to thefe first and principal deprelfions.

Secondly, When the fea was formed, its searching fluctuating waters walked and exhausted the loofer fubftances from betwixt the Jlrata , and time occasioned many fubfidences of the higher upon the lower Jlrata , which fubfidences mull have been in fize and tendency according to the Ihape and dimensions of the vacancies

from

OF CORNWALL. t 59

from which fuch loose fubftances were educed, and not to their situation with regard to the fea. To thefe secondary fubfidences we may afcribe irregular and contrary inclinations of our lodes.

Thirdly, When it was determined that an universal deluge should destroy all terrestrial animals, excepting only a small number preferred in order to restore the several species : to produce this deluge, the fea mod: probably was the chief instrument ; its bottom inflated, and raised fo as to throw its waters over the highest mountains, covering them as a garment. When the Divine Juftice was fatisfled, the bottom of the fea returned nearly to its former level, yet not fo exactly ', but that it left fome parts above the fea (now islands or hills) which were before part of the oceans bed ; the firata of thofe parts were therefore greatly disjointed, fome inclining one way, fome another, fome quite reversed. To this dreadful catastrophe are we to attribute many irregularities of the firata , which have no correspondence or the lead relation to the primary fubfidences.

But whatever was the instrumental cause of the deluge, that there has been a deluge is the united voice of tradition, of Scripture, and of nature ; and from fad it appears, that this deluge diflolved all clays, earths, falls, and the foster {tones, and muft have occafloned great ebullitions and exploflons among the pyrites, falls, and fulphurs, where-ever its waters pierced; and hence happened very conflderable lubfldences in the protuberant parts of our globe, where the fea never before reached fo as to affed the firata.

Laftly, a few fubfidences may have happened since the deluge, from the fame exhausting diffolvent powers of water, inundations, or by the force of earthquakes, but none could happen either first or laft, from whatever cause, or at whatever time, without altering the situation of all folds within their reach, in proportion to the force with which they aded upon the adjacent grounds.

Chap. Xv.

Of Metals found in Cornwall ; and jirfi of 'Tin.

H AVING examined the fiflures and the lodes, and their several properties moft worthy of notice, we muft proceed in the next place to the metals which our Cornifti lodes contain.

Of metals Tin is the lighted:, and therefore should be the firftin our scale, if there were no other reason than the usual method of ranging metals according to their specific gravity ; but tin would otherwise deserve the first notice here, because it is in a manner the

peculiar

e See page 78.

Sect. I.

Tin, where found.

Sect. Ii.

Several Hates in which tin is found.

SECT. III. In the floor.

!6o NATURAL HISTORY

peculiar and moft valuable property of this county, creating at home employment and fubfiftence to the poor, affluence to the lords of the foil, a considerable annual revenue to our Prince the Duke of Cornwall, and demanded with great eagernefs by all the foreign markets of the known world.

How anciently tin has been railed in Cornwall cannot be precifely determined, but this county and Scilly files (nine leagues distant from it to the weft) were traded to for tin by the Phoenician colonies of Spain several hundred years before Chrift. The Grecians and Romans, as foon as they applied themselves to marine expeditions, ftudioufly inftnuated themselves into the fame traffick. Some tin was formerly found in Gallicia and Lufttania, but this seems to have been little in quantity, in an arenaceous state, with a few rhodes intermixed f .

To Cornwall therefore the commerce for tin principally tended, and here solely continued till about the middle of the thirteenth century after Chrift, when a tinner of this county, being difobliged by Richard Earl of Cornwall King of the Romans, went into Germany, found the fame metal, and taught the Saxons how to diftinguifh, search for, and dress their tin ; and in Saxony, and fome other places, there are at present fuch workings as supply fome of thole inland parts ; but the quantity is small, and the expence of railing, and carrying it by land, is great. On the coat of Malabar, in the Eaft Indies, fome tin has been discovered of late years, and brought into Europe. Alonzo Barba 8 tells us, that, in the Spanifh Weft Indies, tin is discovered in several places, but the working of it neglected, because of the neighbourhood of richer metals ; but the tin of Cornwall is fuperiour in quantity and quality, and facility of exportation, to that of all the reft of the world

Tin is found either collected and fixed, or loose and detached. In the first cafe, it is either accumulated in a lode, or in a floor, or interfperfed in grains and bunches in the natural rock ; in the second and more difperfed state, it is found either in Angle separate stones, called Shodes, or in a continued course of fuch stones, called the Beuheyl ; or, lastly, in an arenaceous pulverized state. Of which in their order.

The fiflure and the lode have been already explained (chap 5 , xiii and xiv.) The floor is a horizontal layer of ore. Mr. Hutchinfon, fent into Cornwall by Mr. Auditor Harley and Dr. Woodward in search of

f Pliny, lib. xxxiv. chap. xvi. h Woodward's Method of Foffils, page 52.

s Englifh translation, page 9 r, 92. Cat. vol. I. page 5.

foffils

Of Cornwall. 161

foffils ', found none of this fort. " I neither faw, fays he ', nor could learn upon enquiry, that there was either pipe, float, or belly of ore in Cornwall," yet fuch there are, and in federal places ; indeed tin is not fo often found in this pofltion as in a lode, the fame fubftance which fills the fiflure, and there concretes into a wedgelike form, not meeting with fo many horizontal as perpendicular cavities for it to reA in. The floors are found at the depth of many fathom, and sometimes very rich, as were Bal-an-uun, in the parish of Lannant, and Huel-grouan, in the parish of Breag; and the fame ore fliali be sometimes in a perpendicular lode for several fathoms, and yet in depth diffuse itself into a floor. Where theft floors are, the mines are ordinarily more dangerous, as well as expensive than others, the largefi and firongefi timbers being required to secure the several paflages of the mine, and great care mufl be taken that supporters, though of the richefi tin, be left untouched at proper intervals; for want of this caution (which never should give place to gain) the ground at Bal-an-uun before-mentioned, for a large compass, and without any previous notice, funk down-right a few years since, and buried all the men below, and all above within reach of the fatal circle.

Tin-ore is alfo found difperfed in spots and bunches in the body sect.iv, of the Aone, where there appears no fiflure, lode, floor, or rectangular n spots. interactions, as in other fir at a. Thefe spots are sometimes fo large and numerous when in granite, (as in Trevegeon in St. Jufi) that they well requite the labour of the tinner, though he is generally obliged to blafi the rock, and afterwards break it with fledges, in order to get at the tin.

If thefe spots be in the blue Elvan Aone (as we find them near the Land's End) no iron will pierce the Aone, neither can it be blaAed with gunpowder.

Tin is alfo found diflfeminated on the fides of hills in Angle sect. v. stones, which we call Shodes, (as is before observed) sometimes af nfllodeand furlong or more defiant from their lodes, and sometimes thefe loofo rcam ' stones are found together in great numbers, making one continued course from one to ten feet deep, which we call a Stream ; and when there is a good quantity of tin in it, the tinners call it, in the Corniflh tongue, Beuheyl, or a Living Jiream ; that is, a course of stones impregnated with tin '. In like manner, when the Aone has a small appearance of tin, they fay it is juA alive ; when no metal, it is faid to be dead ; and the rubble which contain no metal, is

1 Woodward's Method of Foffils, page 55. 1 See IK, Plate XVII. Fig. vni. page 149.

k Tracts, vol. I. odtavo, tract ii. page x.

T t called

162 Natural History

called deads. Thefe streams are of different breadths, seldom lefs than a fathom, oftentimes scattered, thongh in different quantities, over the whole width of the moor, bottom, or valley, in which they are found ; and when several fuch streams meet, they oftentimes make a very rich floor of tin, one ftream proving as it were a magnet to the metal of the other.

In the tenement of Douran, in the parish of St. Juft, (Penwith) in the year 1738, there was a very Angular ftream of tin discovered; the ore was pulverized, betwixt one foot and one foot and a half in depth or thickness, of various breadth. In the moody ground, where it was first discovered, it had a back of foil and gravel over it, only two feet high, but, as the ftream advanced farther to the eaft, it had ftill a higher covering, till at laft it had all Douran hill (which may be about forty feet perpendicular) over it, the ftream continuing ftill its horizontal pofttion.

That this ftream was collected from the adjacent Jlrata , and then spread in this equable manner by the force of waters, is extreamly probable; but how it fliould become covered with fuch a large heap of rubble, clay, and gravel, as compofes the hill of Douran, is not fo eafy to decide : there are indeed strong proofs, in feme of the adjoining cliffs, of large heaps, very little inferior to this in quantity, which were moft likely laid where we find them by the waters of the deluge. But whether this remarkable pofttion of arenaceous tin is owing to the waters of the flood (which indeed is a moft fertile folution of fubterraneous difficulties, but I fear too often recurred to) may be well questioned. It seems to me, that whereever there is an horizontal extended vacancy betwixt the Jlrata , and at the bottom of that vacancy an even hard floor, either of stone, clay, or gravel, into which the waters cannot readily fink, and lodge their deposits in chinks and crevices, there the waters will spread their contents horizontally. Suppofe then the Jlrata of the hill of Douran to be well impregnated with this arenaceous tin, the waters percolating thro' the hill would by degrees congregate and wafh it forwards till it met with fuch an horizontal floor as has been mentioned, which the tin, not being able by its weight to penetrate, muft consequently spread itself upon the surface in breadth and thickness anfwerable to the vacancy which receives it ; and this is moft likely to be the cafe, and may happen under the highest and moft rocky mountains which flood unfhocked by the flood, as well as here at Douran under a gentle riding.

There are several Jlreams of tin in St. Stephen's Branel, St. Ewe, St. Blazy, and other places, but the moft considerable ftream of tin in Cornwall is that of St. Auftel moor, which is a narrow valley about a furlong wide, (in fome places somewhat wider) running

near

Of Cornwall. 163

near three miles from the town of St. Auftel southward to the fea. On each tide, and at the head above St. Auftel are many hills, betwixt which there are little valleys which all discharge their waters, and whatever elfe they receive from the higher grounds, into St. Auftel moor; whence it happens that the ground of this moor is all adventitious for about three fathoms deep, the rhodes and streams from the hills on each ftde being here collected and ranged into floors, according to their weight, and the fucceftive dates of their coming thither. The uppermoft coat conftfts of thin layers of earth, clay, and pebbly gravel, about five feet deep ; the next Jlratum is about fix feet deep, more tony, the stones pebbly-formed, with a gravelly land intermixed : thele two coverings being removed, they find great numbers of tin-stones from the bignefs of a goofeegg, and sometimes larger, down to the fize of the finest fand. The tin is infected in a Jlratum of loose fmoothed stones, from a foot diameter downwards to the fmalleft pebble. From the present surface of the ground down to the solid rock or karn, is eighteen feet deep at a medium : in the solid rock there is no tin. This ftream-tin is of the purest kind, and great part of it, without any other management than being washed upon the Ipot, brings 1 3 parts for twenty at the melting-house*. In one of the workings here were lately found, about eight feet under the surface, two flags, or small blocks of melted tin, of about twenty-eight pounds weight each, of a shape very different from that which for many years has obtained in Cornwall ; and as they have no stamp on them, probably as old as tne time when the Jews had engrofled the tin manufacture in the time of King John. They have femicircular handles or loops to them, as if to fling and carry them more conveniently on horseback : they are much corroded by the sharp waters in which they have layn, a kind of ruft or fcurf-like incruftation inclofing the tin. Probably there were fome Jewilli melting-houses near the place, and when thele houses were plundered and destroyed, fome of the blocks remained in the rubbish, and by the floods, which this valley is fo fubjeCt to, walked downwards, and covered where they were found. Their shape and dimensions may be feen Plate XX. Fig. xix. A is the upper-part, B the under-part of this ancient block of tin.

In the ftream-works in St. Stephen's Branel, they alfo find now and then fome small lumps of melted tin, two inches square and under : what I have feen of this kind cuts with difficulty, and more harsh and gritty than the common melted tin, owing to this perhaps, that the ancient melters had not then discovered how to flux

Upon delivering twenty pounds of this tin- to deliver to the owner's order thirteen pounds of

0re at the melting-house, the melter will contract melted tin at the coinage.

their

!6 4 Natural History

their tin into the purity and toughness of the present age. Thefe nodules I look upon alio as fragments of melted tin scattered from the Jewifh melting-houses.

sect. vi. Tin is alfo found among the dime and hands of rivers and of the

infold and p ea LOrej ( as i n feme creeks of Falmouth harbour several lords of the foil have lately experienced to their advantage) washed down probably from the hills, and resting in fuch sheltered dtuations that the fea has not power to carry it oft'. This was probably the ftrft pofttion in which tin was discovered ; for i n the Chaldee signifies dime, mud, or dirt ; and when the Phenicians came here, and faw this metal in its dimy bed, they called it the Mud, by way of eminence, and thence has the name Tin (in Cornubritifh Stean, in Latin Stannum) proceeded, and is ftill continued.

Not only creeks and rivers, but sometimes the open fea, (as I have feen in Mount's Bay) throws in the fame metal to us in a pulverized date. In fuch open bays the tin comes probaoly nom fome lodes, which, lying bare to the fea, have their upper-parts fretted off, and by forms thrown in among the hands.

sect. vir. That tin grows, or is formed anew where there was none be-

In what fence £ any ot h er f en f e than by approximation of like particles

tin or other 7 ' - y . VU1 „

metals grow, moved from one place to another, is, m my numDle opinion, a mistake. That by fortuitous concourfe (for what agency is it that conduces them) sulphur, quickfilver, or any other principles in different proportions, compreffed by cold, or evaporated and fuppled by heat, can be fo exadly forced as to form a metal, seems to me altogether as impoftible as that the types oi a printer should become words and sentences by being casually thrown together. The parts of metals are indeed variously involved, pafs into different nidus's or cements, from malleable and metallic become lapideous, from lapideous again metallic. The ore is translated from one part of the mine to another, and is renewed where it has been exhausted ; the metal is by fire or ufe wafted, diffipated, and loft ; yet, if it could be recollected, might again become metallic ; but tin is no where formed but by the peculiar metallic principles of tin concurring, nor iron but by thofe of iron. The formation of metals was not left to the accidental occasional combinations of diftinCf ingredients : their principles and criterions were all created in their proper kind ; one metal or mineral may mix with another, and remain dilguifed for a time, but never changed. Sulphur and quickfilver, and other minerals as well as metals, may have tin in their lubftances, and by proper magnets and solvents, will doubtless difmifs that tin, and remain as much sulphur and quickfilver as they were before ; but

Of Cornwall. 165

To adroit and exact a mixture of any principles in the bowels of the earth, as to conFitute one peculiar metal unalterably remaining itself, and not tranfmutable into any other, seems to me inconceivable, if not impofiible ; the con Fancy, and immutability of metals, muft be irrefragable arguments of their being created bodies fui generis , diFinct from each other, and from all other bodies of the universe, and of their growing only by juxta portion. However, learned men are of various opinions, and thofe more especially whole profefiion it is to resolve bodies into their original principles, and determine the number, forts, and quantity of the ingredients wdnch compose them m . It is true all bodies which come under our observation are compounded, but, not to range beyond the fubjedt of our present enquiry, every metal has its peculiar charadteriftick from which it will not depart, nor change into any other metal ; each therefore has fome diftindt principle which others have not ; for if all metals are but mixtures of the fame principles in different portions and different degrees of refinement, why will they not by any Subtraction of fire or solvents, or addition made to any one principle, become a lefs refined and inferior, an intermediate or new, or a more refined and more valuable metal ? In other words, why will not tin become lead or silver, and gold become copper, and vice verfdf

Having now considered the Several Fates and Ftuations in which sect. viii. tin is found, it muF be observed, that tin does not appear fo fre- Several ways quently in either or all of them together, but that people are perpetually Searching after more, and endeavouring to make fresh covering tin. difeoveries.

To fay nothing of dreams and fires by night, motives equally illufive, though prevalent Fill among the vulgar, few of the C01- nifh have ever heard of the virgula divinatoria y and its virtue in difeovering metallic lodes ", neither are they often (perhaps not fo often as they Should be) directed by the taFe and colour of waters: the run of a lode is Sometimes difeovered by the barrennefs of the Surface and want or weakness of grass in a particular furrow ; thus in the tenement of Trenethick, in St. Agnes parish, though the field is cultivated equally in every part, you can diFinguifh the course of the lode, by the unequal growth of the grass; this muF be owin to one of thefe two causes, either there is fo much mineral fait below the foil, that the roots of plants are parched,

m See Agricola de re met. lib. v. cline its upper twigs, (by admitting into it's pores

the mineral fteam ) in cafe it paffes over any

" The virgula divinatoria is a small forked metallic vein. Some persons in Germany are

hazel wand, which, being carried slowly over any hill credulous enough to be fond of thefe magical area of ground, will bend, it is fuppofed, and in- investigations.

U u

or

166 Natural History

or the earth and fubftance of the lode is fo porous, that all the nourishment of the manure is diflipated, and finks below, inffcead of being raised into the plants.

Much furer indications of treasure are often found in cliffs and caverns, where the lodes, being laid bare for fome fathoms in depth, may easily be examined at its several stages.

Some of the curious will think that discoveries may be made by observing the position and alteration of the several Jlrata as we defend in our mines ; but there is no fort of uniformity to be affumed in the Jlrata of one hill and thofe of another half a mile off, no relation betwixt the lodes and Jlrata , as to depth, width, feeder, length, colour, or texture, and therefore no judgment can be formed from the situation of the Jlrata in one place, where, how, or in what condition lodes are to be found in another place ° .

In order to make discoveries, fome drive adits p or drifts through their grounds, but few can prevail on any fellow-adventurers to bear fo heavy an ex pence where the fuccefs is fo precarious. It is much ealier, and lefs expensive, and therefore moft common to trace lodes by the scattered fragments of them called rhodes (fee pag. 149. feet, iv.) ; and as this is a kind of science which few tinners understand but thofe who have chiefly applied themselves to thefe researches, it will require more particular notice. If the rhode is found in the vegetable foil, it gives no evidence of any lode's being nigh ; but if in the fajl , (that is, the rubble or clay never moved flee the flood) it is taken as a never-failing proof that it came from a lode farther up in the hill. As foon as the rhode is found impregnated with tin, to find the lode it came from is the next care ; the process confifts in digging pits at a proper distance, depth, and in proper direction, and judicioufly regulating their advances to the lode according as the properties of the rhodes diretft. Firft, the run of the lode being known to be in the hill above the rhode, the several declivities below the hill, and where water may be fuppofed to have run with greatest force, muft be considered, and there, at right angles to fuch force, muft; the shafts 11 be placed crofting fuch declivities. For instance, let A B, Plate XVII. Fig. vii. page 149, be the feeftion of a hill in which there is a lode running eaft and weft at C ; D is the broil or loose capping of the lode ; S S the outward coat or surface of the ground ; the rhodes proceeding from the lode C D, shall be found courting down the declivity of the hill in the dire&ion of G H. Again, Fig. vm. Plate ibid, gives us the ich-

0 Something however of fuch recitals may he feen collected by Dr. Woodward, Cat. vol. I. page 201, &c.

p Subterraneous paffages for the water to run

off, and for better communication betwixt the several parts of the mine.

'i Called, in the Cornifh tongue, Cofteaning- Ihafts, fromCothas-Stean, i. e. fallen ordroptTin.

nography

Of Cornwall. 167

nography or plan of the fame lode and its difperfed rhodes ; C C is the lode ; G H the course of the diodes : Suppofe a man at S, on the declivity of the hill to have found a rhode in the faft , well flocked with tin ; in order to discover the lode whence it came, he links a pit or shaft, about lix feet long and three wide, at L, above the place where the first rhode was found (the pit may be about eight feet deep, more or lefs) ; and finding a fliode like to the firfl, he proceeds up the hill to fink a shaft more at M, then at N and O ; and if he finds the rhodes lefs fmoothed as he advances, growing deeper and in greater plenty than at first, he may confidently allure himself that he is growing nearer and nearer to the lode defined : finding at laft at O, that the rhodes lie as deep as the solid karn, he is certain to cut the lode C C in a few paces : if he does not find any rhodes in the train L M, he begins in another direction, and finks a fide-shaft at P, or any place next adjoining, keeping the run of the hill ftill at right angles, till he finds a rhode of like fubftance to the first, and then pursues the lode in the forementioned manner.

No one in Cornwall can search for tin in this or any other man- sect.ix. ner, where and when he pleases. If the land where the Ihode jg Of bounds found is inclofed and not bounded the leave of the Lord of the for torching! Soil muft be first obtained ; if the land is bounded, then is the bounders content only neceflary ; but if the land is neither bounded nor inclofed, but a waftrel or common, then may any one mark out bounds there, (observing the legal forms) and search for tin. Thefe bounds are the limits of particular portions of ground, containing sometimes an acre, sometimes more, but oftentimes lefs ; they are little pits dug in the ground about a foot wide and deep, at the extreme angles of certain parcels of land, by drawing straight lines from which, the extent of thefe bounds is determined ; in like manner as in geometry, by drawing straight lines from three or four points, the extent of a triangle or quadrangular fuperficies is known.

The lode being found, three things are neceflary to be considered sect. x. by the miner ; first, to difpofe of the barren rock and rubble ; fe- mini o?, a j

11 it i i ii 11 i i r now pracufed

condly, to dilcnarge the water which every lode yields more or lels, in Cornwall, and generally in quantity sufficient to obftrud the labourer, if not duly attended to ; thirdly, to raise the tin ; and all thefe are easily performed when the workings are near the surface ; but the difficulties increase with the depth, and kill and care become ftill more and more neceflary, and indeed all the mechanic powers, the tnoft forcible engines, and the utmost fagacity of the chief miners.

natural history

is often too little and vain, where the workings are deep and many. Anciently they worked for tin, (especially when found difpoled in floors) by laying open all the ground, as they now do in (tone-quarries ; several of thefe openings (called Coffens) are ftill to be feen in the parish of St. Juft, and elsewhere ; but this being a method too operofe and expensive, it was not long, we may imagine, >e- fore the tinners learned to make paffages into the bowels or the earth, of dimensions no more than neceffary to examine the lodes, and bring off the ore; and this is what is properly called mining.

The arts neceffary to mining are many, and every mine almoit requires a peculiar management: mining therefore mint be learned by praftife, by experience, and matters; not from books, the rules of which, though ever fo juft, muft be frequently fufpended, altered, qualified, and fuperfeded, according as the various circumstances require. Rather than attempt any diredions, I chute to give a defection of one considerable mine from an adual measurement, intending that the reader may have a clear notion of the manner in which our Cornifh mines are at present carried on.

Sect. Xi.

Explanation of PI. XVIII. in the following page.

Fig. i. is the fedtion of the pool-mine, exhibiting its several

parts, and the underground workings.

A, black-ore fliaft ; B, house (haft ; C, fire-engine, fouth front ; D, North-house fliaft; E, Little North-house fliaft; F, Penhelichoufe fliaft ; G, Water-Whim shaft ; H, Rofkeer fliaft ; III, the main adit, or principal drain; K, fire-engine fliaft ; L L L, Hueldudnans lode when first difeovered in Angle dots ; M, Penhelic lode in double dots; N, South-house winds ; O, hollow cylinders (tome iron, fome of brass) through which the fire-engine, C, draws up the water that it may run off through the adit, 1 1 ; P, the several workings on the fouth lode, called Huel-dudnans, as they flood in the year 1746; Q, a drift to carry the water from the north lode to the bottom of the engine-shaft, X, on the fouth lode; R, bottoms of the great North-house on Penhelic lode, dotted; S, a dippa or pit with a force-pump to free the water ; T, bottom of Huel-dudnans ; V, Pen-relic deep bottom ; W, little winds, that is, small fhafta made from a drift in pursuit of the ore, and leading down to R X, the bottom of the fire-engine fliaft, from whence the water of the whole mine there gathered together by various drifts ana lanaers, or gutters of wood, is drawn up to the main adit, I j grey-01 e shaft on the fouth lode.

Fig. 11. exhibits the plan of the two lodes worked by the pooimine ; a, the north or Penhelic lode in dotted lines ; 6, fouth or Huel-dudnans lode ; c, black-ore fliaft ; d, home-shaft ; 2, engine-

shaft, and summer-pole fliaft ; /, drift for the water of the non

lode;

Of Fig. II. ibid.

yj (mmyi/tv 'jflMnUO ) ' Jo yrum/ / W ' /dtmU,~fOO *y/ Jo UOt/J,)/*

Of Cornwall. 269

lode; g, North-house shaft; h, Little North-house shaft ; i, P en - relic-house shaft ; k, water-whim shaft ; /, Huel-dudnans bottoms; the north lode is marked a a a, and dotted, the fouth lode is diftinguifhed by perpendicular lines ; thefe lodes joining at a, keep contiguous from a to then separate, and are of different widths as they advance to the eaft, and of different diffances from each other, as in the plan. The reft o! this figure the letters infected in the different parts of the ichnography will beft explain in the fequeJ.

In Fig. 1. which gives the fecftion of thefe lodes, the height of SEC T xii the fouth lode is known by the crooked line of ffngle dots at L Z, Progrefs of the different riffngs of the north lode are marked with a lift of dou- the works ' ble dots or points at M m . There being a very hopeful discovery made at L L Z, and no getting at the riches by reason of the water ; the adit, I, I, I, twenty fathoms deep, was driven up to the lode from the weft, and having the two lodes in the shaft A at L N, they work with little expence down to the adit I ; but finding the lode ftill rich, they fink on it down to I P a, searching the lode to the eaft and weft as they defend, and bringing away the ore from drift under drift at dd d, where the men work in Jlopes , that is, in several degrees or steps one above another; the figures 1, 3,

4, flew the mafs of ore L N, 4, almost exhausted in this manner, by twelve men working out the lode in twelve ftopes, at 5, 6,

7, 8. The miners finding the lode to hold the ore no deeper than P a, drive to the eastward, searching the bottom carefully, till, coming to P d, they find the ore there to deepen, and purfiie it to the depth of P b ; then drive and fink alternately as the lode gives encouragement, which in this mine was generally to the eastward ; but P e fhews that the lode was at that time rich to the weft, which occafioned their pursuing it by that recess. Whilft one party or tinnCiS was thus engaged in the bottoms, the chief miners (called Captains) took the bearing of the lode with a well-approved needle (which they call dialling the ground), and funk another shaft at B, as more convenient for getting at the lode at Z, and neceffary to give air to the workmen, and draw the water, lode, and deads from the workings below at P b ; and sometimes there are three shafts or f n °rc finking on the lode at one time. Whilft the shaft B is defending to P b , the bottoms are carried forward in a ftep-like manner, wherefoever the lode invites, and the water permits. It will occur to the intelligent reader, that the fifliire being cleared of fo much ore, many vacancies in the mine muft enfue ; in thefe vacancies by putting timbers cross the fiffure like beams, and laying planks of

Thefe lodes were of copper and very rich, but the way of working tin and copper-lodes in equal Cl rcumftances is the fame.

fir

I7 o NATURAL HISTORY

fir timber upon them, they difpofe conveniently of a great part of the deads an economy which has two good effects ; it faves the expence of bringing thofe deads up to the surface, and, by filling the fiflure at proper intervals, it prevents the adjoining strata from preffing the walls of the fiflure together, which might otherwise be of fatal consequences. That the common labourers may be employed without confusion in breaking and railing the ore, the captains fee that they be properly difpofed in the several parts of the mine j that they have neceflary tools and implements ready provided ; they are to examine the fate of the mine, and provide for its security ; fee that the adit be found and clear, that the ffiafts, hollows and loofer parts of the mine, be well propped with timber ; they are to to fee that proper communications be made and maintained between the several works of the mine ; more especially are they to infped the ores, infift that they may be as fpeedily broke, as carefully separated from the deads and from each other, and as honeffly brought up for the owner's ufe, as may be. But indeed their chief care, and what requires their conffant Ikill and attention, is the management of the water, which in the Cornifh mines is generally very troublesome, every cranny that is cut throwing forth it's water into the cavity where the miners work. To obviate this inconveniency the captain should be a kind of engineer, and well know how to collet, divert, and condud, as well as raise the water. It is not expeded indeed that the captains of mines should know how to build, repair, or redify the several engines ; for fuch purposes there is a profeffed undertaker, or engineer, but the captain is to take care that the engineer has immediate notice as foon as any thing goes amifs, that he has proper materials, and without delay attends to remedy the disorder. In order to this, the water muff be convey'd over and beside the paflages, and cross the openings of the mine by fide drifts and gutters, fo as all that poffibly can may run off by the common drain I, 1 ; what is below that level muff be collided and drawn up to the adit. Where there are two lodes (as here, Pi. XVIII.) there muff be duds of communication, as / a , Qjz, Fig. 11. which serve to convey the water of the north lode into the ciftern made in the fouth lode.

sect. xiii. From fuch cifterns, judicioufly placed, the water is raised to the

Hydraulic ac q t sometimes by large buckets (in the Cornifh tongue called

fn Cornwall. Kibbals) beft managed by the engine called the Whim, confiding of a perpendicular axis, on which turns a large hollow cylinder of timber (called the Cage) round which the rope (being direded down the shaft

s See horizontal planks from 5 to 6, and from 7 to 8, Fig. 1, L n. PI. xvm. See m m, Q_a, Fig. n. ib.

by

OF CORNWALL. IyI

by a pulley fixed perpendicularly over the opening of the shaft, winds horizontally : this axis has a tranfverfe beam infix'd, at the end of which two horses fattened go their rounds, and draw more or lefs according to the number of circumvolutions in any given time, the largenefs of the barrels, and the depth it is to draw. This is an engine which can only work in a perpendicular shaft, if the lode underlies considerably it cannot be ufed.

Another water-engine which the Cornifh ufe is the rag and chain ; Rag and it confifts of an iron chain with knobs of cloth (fenc'd and ftif- chain - fen'd with leather) betwixt two and three feet afunder ; the chain is turned round by a wheel of two or three feet diameter, furnifii d with iron spikes which inclofe and keep steady the chain, fo that it may rife through a wooden pump of about fix or eight inches bore, and twelve or fifteen feet long, and by means of the leather knobs bring up with it a ftream of water anfwerable to the diameter of the pump, and in quantity according to the circumvolutions of the wheel in any given time. This engine is worked usually by hand, but where plenty of water can be had, as in St. Auftel moor, much more effectually and frugally by small water-wheels.

Several of thefe pumps may be placed parallel upon different stages of the mine, as at pd, pj pg , , p h, Fig. i. PI. XVIII.

Other pumps they have alfo, as the hand-pump, and the forcepump, which like the rag and chain will do well for small depths and little water, and are neceflary in all Jumps n and the first linking into the lode, before the Hopes can proceed.

More effectual is the water-wheel and bobs, an engine whole Water-wheel power is anfwerable to the diameter of the wheel, and the length and bobs - of the bobs fattened to it's axis by large iron cranks ; a perpendicular rod of timber to each end of the bobs, works a piston in a wooden, or (which is far better) a brass hollow cylinder, and the quantity of water exhausted will be in proportion to the bore of the cylinder, and the number of times which the piston moves up and down in any given face.

This is an engine very eligible where a sufficient quantity of water may be procured, but in fumrner, our superficial water in Cornwall (where we have few great rivers, and our brooks have no long course, and the mines are generally on high ground) fails much ; fo that many of thefe engines cannot work from May or June to October ; a great hindrance at that feafon of the year when men can labour longer and with more spirit than during the other months.

" Pits made in the bottom of the mine for the Workings.

water, or for trying in depth beyond the general

This

! y 2 NATURAL HISTORY

sect. xiv. The moft powerful as well as conflant engine hitherto invented Of the fire- J s the fire-engine. This engine is now well known to the learned, power and but as their books do not reach every where, and this machine is P u°bHc t0the especially ferviceable for the working of deep mines 11 , and of great advantage to the publick revenue, a general explication of it s principal parts, it's powers, and profit to the government, may not be improper. The principal members of this engine are exhibited in the plate annexed, N XIX. viz. the ciftern or boiler T, (Fig. ii.) the cylinder P, and the bob O, I, turning on an axis which rests on the middle of the wall Y. The following is the process of it's several operations : The ciftern T, full of boiling water, supplies fteam (by means of an upright tube and valve which shuts and opens) to fill the hollow cylinder P, and expel the air through a horizontal tube S, placed at it s bottom . the cylinder, as the fleam rides, and the weight of the mine-water depending from I, K, L, preponderates, begins to fill with vapour and the piston which plays up and down in the cylinder rides, and when it is got near the top opens a clack by which cold water is injected and condenfes the vapour into nearly the twelve thoufandth face which it before occupied, and the cylinder being then nearly empty, the piflon of iron edged with tow and covered with water, (to prevent any air from above getting into the cylinder) is driven down by the preflure of the atmosphere (with the force of about 1 7 pounds F on every square superficial inch) nearly to the bottom of the cylinder; at this inflan t it opens the valve which lets in the fleam from the boiler T, and then the piflon afcends till it opens the condenfing clack above, which brings it down again to open the under clack and admit the fteam, and thus continues ascending and defending as long as the managers think proper; this process is quick, or otherwise, as the fleam is by increase or fubftra&ion of fire made more or lefs violent, to drive the engine after or flower. To this piflon the end of the bob O, is fastened by an iron chain, and as the piflon defends in the cylinder P, this end of the bob is drawn downwards, and vice versa ; as the end O is drawn down, the other end of the bob I, afcends, and by a chain, I K, draws up with it, from an iron or brass cylindrical tube, called a pit-barrel ", through a tyre of wooden pumps, (O O, Plate XVIII. Fig. 1.) a column of water out of the mine equal in diameter to the bore of that tube, and in height to each flroke or motion of the piflon in the cylinder P, and the sweep of the bob, I K. Many improvements nave lately been added to this excellent piece of mechanifin, among

x By aft of parliament the duty of coals ex- t Seventeen pounds eight ounces and 347 grains pended in the working fire-engines in Cornwall is according to Helfnam.

remitted Letter X ' P!ate XVIII> Pi S' Xl

which

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Mbs!

Hm

Of Cornwall. 173

which I cannot but mention one in particular which is, that as this engine flood formerly, if the fire-men chanced to nod, the violence of the motion increasing with the fire, the weighty bob, O I, beat, shocked, and endangered the whole machine, and the fabric it is inclofed in ; but now when the fire is at the extreme height, and the bob begins to beat and flrike the springs, it lets fall a trigger into a notch and flops the injeCtion-cock, and the whole movement is flopped, till the injection of the cold water into the cylinder is reflored ; fo that this engine is now brought to fuch perfection, that in a great measure it tends, regulates, frees, and checks itself; several subordinate members, wires, clacks, and valves are all moved, opened, and fhut by the force of the fleam, and the motion of the piflon ; inafmuch as that by enlarging the cylinder, and other parts in proportion, few Cornifh mines are subject to more water than this engine will mailer : its power is in proportion to the diameter of the cylinder principally, the flrength of the fleam, and the depth it draws. This, here exhibited Plate xix. Fig. 1. and 11. is the fire-engine which, in the year 1746, belonged to the pool-mine, Plate xvm. and the cylinder's diameter from the outer edge, was but three feet; but they make them much larger now; and it is imagined y , that if they were flill to increase the diameter of the cylinder, and make it alfo shorter than they do now, the force would be augmented, and though the column of water exhausted would be shorter, yet might this be well remedied by increasing the number of tubes, which the greater preflure on the piflon would easily manage. A cylinder of forty-even inches bore at Ludgvan-lez work, in the parifli of Ludgvan, making about fifteen flrokes in a minute, usually drew through pit-barrels of fifteen inches diameter, from a pump thirty fathoms deep, about an hogfhead at each flroke, that is, fifteen hogfheads of water in each minute ; fo that the quantity of water raised in a given time, is as the square of the diameter of the pit-barrels, O O X, Plate xvm. Fig. 1. and the height and number of the flrokes in that time. But the cylinders may be made much larger; that at Herland (or Drenack) mine, in the parish of Gwinear, is seventy inches in diameter, and will draw a greater flream of water at any equal depth, in proportion to the square of its diameter. The only objections to this engine are the great expences in ereCting, and vafl consumption of coals in working it. To obviate thefe expences several methods have been fuggefled of increasing the elaflicity of the fleam and reducing the fize of the boiler z , which can be decided only by experience, and to that we mufl refer them.

y See Philofophical Tranfaaions, vol. XLVII. page 197, for tjie years 1751 and 1752. 1 Ibid,

vol. XLIX. part ii. page 539. .

Y y Explanation

Its principal parts.

Its profit to the publick.

i 74 NATURAL HISTORY

Explication of the principal members of the fire or fleam-engine, Plate xix. Fig. i. and n.

A, fouth front of the fire-engine houfo ; B, triangle for tending the engine pumps, ©A. C, arch for the main bob to play in ; D, coal-house and fire-place ; E, capftan, and cable for the triangle ; F, Balance-bob to afiift the draught ; G, the bell.

Fig. ii. H, feCtion from the weft; I, fouth end of the main bob ; K, main chain to draw up the water from the bottom ; L, end of the balance-bob, marked F, in Fig. i ; M, a small chain drawing from the adit to a ciftern, a ; N, force-pump to supply the ciftern, b, for the boiler T, Me. ; O, north end of the main bob ; P, the cylinder ; Q, the planchings of the house ; R, the eastern door ; S, pipes to let out the air and fteam from the cylinder ; T, the boiler which supplies the fteam ; U, the damper, to moderate the fire ; W, the fire-place ; X, the ashes pit ; Y, the axis of the main bob.

Before we conclude this feCtion, let it be observed, that the people of Cornwall are not the only gainers by the introduction of this useful engine ; the government participates the profit, and indeed without hazard : it may not be amifs therefore here to take a short view of the advantage to the publick revenue arising from the neceffary materials ufed in our Cornifh mines worked now by the fireengines, fuch as ropes, candles, timber, powder, iron, coal, Me. the duties of which, together with the profit of four shillings per hundred weight for all tin railed in the three following mines, Hand as follows:

The neat gain to the government from the mine (mostly of copper) called the North-Downs, in the parish of Reddruth, in one month, (the drawback of the duty on coals confused in the two fire-engines, amounting to forty-nine pounds fifteen shillings and fix-pence, being first deduced) amounts to four hundred and feventynine pounds five shillings and fix-pence.

In the mine called Pitt-louarn, Refnorth, and metal-works, the neat gain to the government (the drawback on coals confused in two fire-engines, amounting to fifty-two pounds four shillings and five-pence, being first deduced) is two hundred and eighteen pounds and four-pence per month.

In Polgooth mine, in the parish of St. Mewan, the neat gain to the government (the drawback on coals confused in one fire-engine, amounting to twenty-oven pounds eighteen shillings and four-pence, being first deducted) amounts, in one month, to two hundred and twenty- fix pounds oven shillings and four-pence.

" Thefo

OF CORNWALL. i 75

Thefe calculations have been fo faithfully extracted from the account-books belonging to thefe mines, that the whole may be attested by affidavits, if occasion ffiould require 1 ."

Hence it appears that the consumption of coals in the fire-engine is very great, the duty of coals confused by thefe mines at five shillings per chaldron, amounting, in one month, to one hundred and thirty-nine pounds eighteen {hillings and three -pence. The government prudently remits the duty on coals fo expended, by which bounty, besides repaying itself for the duties remitted, it gains clear by thefe works, when in full working, five hundred and twenty-three pounds thirteen {hillings and two-pence in one month ; whereas, without this bounty, fire-engines would not have been eredfed, nor could thefe mines, nor many others in the county, ever have b ccn worked, and consequently the lofs to the government would be as their present gain. There are several other very considerable mines now worked by the fire-engine in Cornwall b , by all which the government gains in proportion to the materials ufed, and the metal railed.

The tin-ore being raised out of the mine, is then divided into as sect.xv. many {hares, as there are Lords and adventurers. The Lord usually Dividing tinhath a fifth-part clear of coft, but in consideration of draining the ° re ' mine, and otherwise encouraging the adventure, is oftentimes content with an eighth, and sometimes a tenth. If the lands are bounded c , then the bounder has the right of Jetting , or giving authority to search and work, and has the fifth clear, or as he agrees, and the Lord of the foil has only a fifteenth. The adventurers have in proportion to the part of the work which they carry on. Thefe {hares ( which they term doles ) are parcelled out, being first measured by barrows, and then carried into fo many different heaps ; every mine having the privilege ( to the great regret oftentimes of the hufbandman) of distributing and dividing the ore, on any the moil adjacent parts of the field. As the barrows are carried off to their several divisions, one person, who is the reckoner, keeps an account by notching a flick at every barrow : if there be any fractions in the numbers to be divided, they then divide the whole into five or fix or more parcels, according to the proportion of the Lord's and bounder's shares, and leaving thofe shares untouched, proceed to throw the remainder of the parcels all together into one heap, and then divide it easily among the adventurers; and it is furprizing

Letter from William Lemon, Efq; May 8, 17561 to whole accuracy and universal knowledge in the art of mining, I am indebted for thefe and other observations.

b Huel-rith in Godolphin-ball, Herland, BuJlengarden, Dolcooth, the Pool, Bofproual, Huelros, and fome others. c See before, page 167.

to

i 7 6 NATURAL HISTORY

to fee how ready and exad thefe reckoners are in dividing, though oftentimes they can neither write nor read. The parcels being laid forth, lots are call, and then every parcel has a diftind mark laid on it with one, two, or three Hones, and sometimes a bit of Hick or turf fuck up in the middle or fide of the pile; and when thefe marks are laid on, the parcels may continue there half a year or more unmolefted ; the property is fixed, and no one may add to, or diminilli it.

sect. xvi. What the ancient method was of preparing tin for the furnace,

Ramping we cannot t fay ; but Polybius the Hiftorian is faid to have described

tin. r Ulg it, and that work is commended by Strabo d , but now loft with other valuable compositions of that judicious author. The short defeription which we have of the tin-trade in Diodorus Siculus (lib. iv. page 301, edit. Hanov. 1664) muft not be omitted, though it is too general for us to learn many particulars Irom it. " Thefe men (fays he, meaning the tinners) manufacture their tin by working the grounds which produce it with great art. For though the land is rocky, it has foft veins of earth running through it in which the tinners find the treasure, extra, melt, and purify it ; then shaping it [by moulds] into a kind of cubical figure, they carry it off to a certain island lying near the Britilh whore, which they call Idis ; for at the recess of the tide, the face betwixt the island and the main land being dry, the tinners 'embrace the opportunity, and carry their tin in carts, as faft as may be, over to the Idis (or port) ; for it muft be observed, that the islands which lie betwixt the continent and Britain, have this Angularity, that when the tide is full, they are real islands; but when the fea retires, they are but fo many peninfulce . From this island the merchants buy the tin of the natives, and export it into Gaul ; and, finally, through Gaul, by a journey of about thirty days, they bring it down on horses to the mouth of the Erydanus, meaning the Rhone c ." In this defeription it will naturally occur to the inquifitive reader to alk, where this Idis was to which the Cornifti carried their melted tin in carts, and there fold it to the merchants. I really cannot inform him ; but by the Idis here, it is plain that the Hiftorian could not mean the Idis or Vedis of the ancients (at present called the Ifle of Wight), lor he is Ipeaking of the Britans of Cornwall, and, by the words, it Ihould leem, thofe of the moft western parts. Trig yap Bgsjamrie tcocla to uzicIyiiov to xaX 8 y.£vov B stepiov 01 xuloixavlsc, & c. O vlot toy xacraflsgov xoclaaxivxfeai cpiholsyvxc, &c. that is, " thofe who live at the

4 Geogra. lib. ii. feilles, fays Poflidonius, in Strabo, lib. iii, page

Rhodanus, fays the Latin translation ; to Mar- 147, edit. Par. 1620.

extreme

OF CORNWALL. iyy

extreme end of Britain, called Belerium f , find, dress, melt, carry and fell their tin, c. Now it would be absurd to think that thefe inhabitants should carry in carts their tin near two hundred miles,

(for fo far distant is the Ifle of Wight from them) when they had at left as good ports and harbours on their own whores as they could meet with there ; besides, thefe inhabitants are faid, in the fame paragraph, to have been more than ordinarily civilized by converting with strangers and merchants. Thofe merchants then muft have been very converfant in Cornwall, there trafficked for tin, that is, there bought, and thence exported the tin, or they could have no bufinefs there, their residence would have been in fome of the ports of Hampfhire, and Cornwall could scarce have felt the influence of their manners, much lefs have been improved and civilized by them at that distance. Again : The Cornifh, after the tin was melted, carried it at low- water over to the JCtis in carts ; this will by no means fuit the situation of the Me of Wight, which is at left two miles distant from the main land, and never (as far as we can learn) has been alternately an island and a penmfula , as the tide is in and out.

The IClis therefore here mentioned muft lye somewhere near the coat of Cornwall, and muft either have been a general name for any penmfula on a creek, (Ik being a common Cornifh word, denoting a Cove, Creek, or Port of trafiick,) or the name of fome particular penmfula and common emporium on the fame coat, which has now loft its iftmus, name, and perhaps wholly difappeared, by means of fome great alterations on the fea-whore of this county. But to return : If this art of manufacturing the tin was ever at any great height among the ancients (as this author seems to intimate), it has had its rides and falls like all other arts, for fo late as the reign of Elizabeth, the process seems to have been in a state of imperfection, and to have been greatly altered for the better, by the then Sir Francis Godolphin of Godolphin, Knight, as Mr.

Carew informs us (page 13 and 153) ; it has been improved since that time, and is ftill capable, I believe, of farther improvements.

It will therefore be the more excufable to give a detail of this process, and fet forth the whole method of ordering the tin -ore, as it is praCtifed by the moft fkilful artists of the present time, illustrating the fame with the mill, and the several works fubfervient thereto.

The tin-ore being divided, is then (as every owner's opportunity sect.xvii. serves) carried to the stamping-mill, and deposited on the area or The present floor at C, Plate xix. Fig. hi*. If the ore be very full of clammy Effing or flime, it is turned from the area, C, into a pit near by, called paring a Buddie, L I, to make it stamp the freer without choking the the furnace.

Of stamp-

f Now called the Land's End. Pao-e 172. ing.

Z z

grates,

Buddling.

iy 8 natural history

grates, and brought back to C. If the ore is not dimy, it is {hovelled forward from C into a doping chanel of timber, E, c fed the Pa/s, from whence it Aides by its own weight, and the affijtance of a small rill of water, D, into the box at Y ; there by the lifters, a, b, c, falling on it after being raised by the axel-tree, a, which is turned round by the water-wheel, B, it is pounded, or damped small : to make the lifters more lading, and fall upon the ore with the greater force, they are armed at the bottom with large maffes of iron of one hundred and forty pounds weight each, called Stampheads ; and to aldd the attrition, the rill of water, D, keeps the ore perpetually wet, and the damp-heads cool, till the ore in the box, Y, is pulverized, and small enough to pafs through the holes of an iron grate at Y. The grate is a thin plate of iron, no more than the tenth of an inch thick, one foot square, full of small holes punched in it about the bignefs of a moderate pin, not always of the fame diameter, but as the different fize of the tin granules requires ; for the larger the crydals inclodng the metals are, the larger mud be the holes, and vice vera ; fo that in fuiting the grate to the nature of the tin, the {kill of the dreder appears. From this grate the tin is carried by a small gutter, e , into the forepit, F, where it makes its drd and pure settlement, the lighter paits running forwards with the water through holes made in the partition, f, into the middle pit, G, (much of the fame shape and dze as the forepit) and thence into the third pit, H ; what settles in G and H is called the Jlimes, and what runs off from them is crowd for nothing. The forepit, F, as foon as full is emptied, and the contents carried to the buddle, I, a pit even feet long, tiree wide, and two deep : the dreder, dancing in the buddle at I, spreads the pulverized ore at K, called the head of the buddle, in small ridges parallel to the run of the water which enters the buddle at L, aud falling equably over the cross-bar, M, ladies the dime from the ridges (which are moved to and fro with a {hovel ) till the water permeating every part, ladies down the whole into the buddle, I : while the dreder's hands are employed in dirring the ridges at K, he keeps his foot going always, and moves the ore to and fro, fo as the water may have full power to wadi and cleanse it from its impurities ; the buddle dlls, and the tin is forced into three dividons ; that next the head, at g , is the pure ; the middle, at h , is next in degree ; that at i mod impure of the three ; and each of thefe dividons goes through a different process : the forepart, at G, is taken out drd, and carried to a large tub, N, called the Keeve ; there immersed in water, it is moved round with a {hovel for a quarter of an hour, by which means the impurities rife

from the ore, and become fufipended in the water ; the tin-ore is

then

Of Cornwall. 179

then lifted in a five purposely conftru&ed, and if it needs, muft be fent to be buddled again, then returned to the keeve and worked as before with a {hovel, which they call taxing the tin : the keeve is then packed., that is, beat with a hammer or mallet on the {ides, that the ore within may drift and {hake off the waft, and fettle the purer to the bottom. The foul water then on the top of the keeve is poured off, and the forces which settles above the tin, is ikimmed off, and what remains is pure enough to be fent to the meltinghoufe, and is then called Black-tin. The waft Ikimmed off, is carefully laid by to undergo another washing. Whilft the forepart of the buddle, I, is thus manufacturing at the keeve, another hand is moving forth that part of the buddle, in the fame manner as g was before ; and in its turn that, and the settlement at /, is promoted to the keeve, and thus what is depoftted in the forepit, F, is brought about , as the tinners term it, that is, undergoes all the neceffary lotions.

What runs off from F, into G, and H, muft be dealt with in an- Trunking other manner. The contents of thefe pits conftft of the small and thc ims ' lighter parts of the ore, and are intimately mixed with a greater quantity of earth and stone bruised to duft by the mill. Thefe are called the Jlimes , and are carried by fome boys ( mostly under fourteen years of age) by direction of the chief workman, to the trunk O, whole head (called the Pednan) is a femicircular pit, wherein a boy moves the slimy tin round with a little shovel that the water (which runs into P from Q, called the Strakes) may wafh away both the filth and tin over a cross stick or board about ten inches deep: the board is somewhat lower in the middle than at each end, for admitting the wary mixture with more cafe into the body of the trunk, O, R, R, which is a pit lined with boards ten feet long, three wide, and eight inches deep ; that which rests in the forepart of the trunk at O a, is carried off to be framed , and the settlement at R R, is moved forward to P to be trunked over again before it is fit for the frame. The frame, T W, confifts of two planes of Framing, timber the body W, the head T. The water falling in a gentle manner from S upon the head T, washes the ore, which there offers itself (as at the buddle) in little ridges, downwards over a Hope piece of timber, U, called the Lippet , into the body of the frame W. Upon this frame the water is spread fo thin, and runs fo {lowly,

(the plane being nearly horizontal) that by moving the fiimy tin to and fro with a light hand, and exposing it cautiously to the water with a femicircular rake, all the forces is washed away, and the tin, though ever fo small, remains on the frame near the head m , when the tin is found sufficiently clean, the body of the frame, which is fixed on two iron axes, called Melliers, one at the head.

180 Natural History

the other at the foot, (by flipping the flake which supported it) is turned easily from horizontal to perpendicular, and the tin, which remained on the frame, runs off, by the afTiftance of a little fprinkling, into a wooden chest, X, called the coffer, which lies below ready to receive it ; the frame is then righted into its horizontal position, and the fame process repeated, till the coffer is full ; the contents are then carried to the keeve N, where they are towed, lifted, and packed ; the ore is then carried back again to the frame, W, and cazedy which is performed by flopping the lower end of the frame with flime and turf that the water may be quite ftill, and the tin more easily fettle upon the frame, and defend the more surely into the coffer ; the coffer is then emptied the second time, the tin carried again to the keeve, there towed, fkimmed, and packed ; and thus the Himes are finished, and brought to as great a degree of purity as the fize of the tin (which, being exceedingly small, will neceffarily have somewhat more of waft than what is larger and heavier) will permit.

Thus proceeding only upon this Angle principle, that the force of water, properly applied and introduced among the particles of ore, and the forces mixed with it, will difperfe the latter, and leave the former at reft for them to colleCt and treasure up, they vary their operations inconceivably, conducting with great ingenuity, leflening, increasing, diffufing, or contracting their water (the great instrument of purity), as the fize, weight, and combinations of the metal and its feeders do require; indeed, it is furprizing to fee with what eafo, cheapnefs, and regularity all thefe several proceffes are performed.

It muft here be remembered, that mundic, and fome other femimetals, being Ipecifically heavier than the tin, whatever tin-ore is incorporated with thefe muft first be burnt, and the lulphur, &?c. evaporated, and then, and not otherwise, will the water wafh away the remains of the femimetal, and leave the tin behind. This bufinefs of dreffmg is a particular trade, entirely different from that of the labouring miner, and is beft learned under a after-workman, who makes it his foie occupation to follow the stamping-mill, and the works belonging thereto. This after- workman hires boys from oven or eight years old to eighteen, gives the former about three {hillings a month, and raises their wages as they advance in age and workmanship, till they have man's wages, viz. at the left twenty-four shillings, at the highest thirty shillings per month. This is of double benefit to the poor parents; the boys being taken in fo young become healthy and hardy by using themselves to cold, and to work with wet feet all day ; and, 2dly, they learn early to contribute to their own maintenance. Each stamping-mill, which has

constant

Of Cornwall. 181

constant work and water, will employ one man and five boys ; and one hundred hacks (each hack containing twelve gallons) are Lamped, walked, and fitted for melting at the rate of fix-pence per lack (or fifty {hillings per hundred) more or lefs somewhat, according to the quality of the ore, in the face of a few days. For bruising the tin-ore into a finer powder, formerly they ufed the crazing-mill (Carew, page 12) after the ore was Lamped, an engine not much unlike the present griL-mill ; but Sir Francis Godolphin beforementioned (as it is fuppoled) either invented or improved this much more effectual engine the water Lamping-mill here exhibited, lb as it might serve all purposes, and the other has been ever since difuled.

Tin, being drejjed is carried in hacks under the general name of sect.xviil Black-tin (though what is called Frame-tin is ufiially of a yellow- Of melting ifh earthy colour, and home other ruddy brown, and Ibme cinere- n ous and whitifh) to the melting-house upon horses, each horse carrying about three hundred pounds weight. Here, the parcel brought is firL allayed ; in order to which, either the whole parcel is emptied into clean timber hutches, and there well mixed, or a little out of every fack is taken by the affayer, and well mixed together, that the aLay of that little parcel may ascertain the real quality of the whole : for it muL be observed, that although the process of cleaning all forts of tin is nearly the fame, and after this cleaning all goes by the name of Black-tin, yet each parcel of every work may be of different value, according as it is more or lefs Ikilfully dreffed, and according as the different paula with which it is incorporated do either promote or obviate the fusion of the metal.

That this " black-tin therefore is ever all of the fame richness and yields alike," as Dr. Woodward s was informed, is a great mi- Lake. Kal, for inLance, viz. wild-iron, is reckoned to mix well, and melt kindly with tin-ore, and increases the quantity of melted tin in a greater proportion than the quality is thereby debated, as we find by that of Huel-boys mine in St. JuL, and that of other places ; fuch ore will therefore yield one quarter of a twentieth part more than ore of a much finer appearance to the eye. The melter is not paid in money for melting the tin brought, but by allotment of fuch a share in twenty : for the charges of coals, labour, and utensils, expended in the fusion, the melter has usually

the other twelve in twenty parts remaining to the owner ; fome tin however will bring the owner twelve and a half and thirteen out of twenty, which is the moL that is given : on the other hand, fome black tin has fuch a quantity of other metal, or of its own Lubborn feeder adhering to it, that it will not bring more than

5 Catalogue, vol. II. page 31, m. 26.

A a a

eight

Of coi: tin.

! g 2 NATURAL HISTORY

eight for twenty to its owners. The melter having bargained for the parcel brought, gives his note to deliver the quantity of white tin agreed upon at the ensuing coinage, and at his own convenience (taking care judicioully to mix, correct, and qualify the diderent forts of tin which he takes in) melts the tin in a reverberatory furnace, with a fire of pit-coal, all which comes from Wales. The great consumption of wood ufed in charcoal by the former and more ancient method h of melting tin by a blowing-house ' , fuggeftedat lad the necefiity of introducing the pit-coal for this purpose, and among tne ied to the noble Sir Bevil Granville of Stow in this County k , who (as I have been informed) made several experiments for melting of tin therewith (though without fuccefs) in order to fave wood, and keep the tin from wafting in the blast. The invention of the reverberatory furnace, about fifty years since, has rendered this fire effectual, but the pit-coal leaves a fulphureous brittlenefs in the metal which the wood-fire does not, the former aftimilating in fome measure the metal to the harfhnefs of stone, and the latter infufing the toughness of wood ; and this is the reason that tin melted in the olowinghoufe by charcoal fells for more at the market (usually a twelfth part more) than that of the furnace, as being the purer metal. When the ore is fufliciently melted, it is poured into quadrangular troughs or moulds of stone, containing about three hundred and twenty pounds weight of metal l , which, when hardened, is called a block ol tin, and carried to the coinage town.

; Five towns m are appointed in the moft convenient parts of the county for the tinners to bring their tin to every quarter of a year. In the time of Henry VIII. there were but two coinages in a year, viz. at Midfummer and Michaelmas n , but two more were added at Chriftmas and Lady-day, for the convenience of the tinners, for which they pay an acknowledgement (called Poft-groats) of four-pence for every hundred of white tin then coined. When the tin is brought to the coinage-town, the officers appointed by the Duke of Cornwall aflay it, by taking off a piece of one oi the under corners of the block of about a pound weight, partly by cutting and partly by breaking ; and, if well purified, stamp the face of the block with the impreffion of the feal of the Dutchy °, which stamp

h At present pratHfcd in fome parts of Cornwall but only for small parcels.

Called fo from a fire or blast perpetually kept in vigour by the blowing of a large bellows turned by a water wheel. k Temp. Car. I.

1 Formerly they made not thefe blocks fo large, as appears by the blocks lately found inSt. Auftel-Moor mentioned pa. 163, which do not weigh full 3olb.

I " Lilkerd, Loftwythye), Truro, Helfton, and Penzance, which laft was added to the four ancient Towns, in the time of Charles II. for the conve-

niency of the Weftern tinners.

" Leland, Vol. iii. Itin. page 12.

0 The arms of Condorus laft Earl of Cornwall of Britifh blood (temp. W. 1.) were Sab. 15 bezants (5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ) in pale. Or. See Camden, page 26. Richard King of the Romans, Earl oi Cornwall, fon to King John, threw thefe bezants into a bordure round the bearing of the Earls of Poidlou : He bore therefore Argent a Lyon Rampant Gul. crowned Or within a bordure fable garnifhed by Bezants, (fee Camden, page 27) and this ftill continues the Dutchy Seal.

Of Cornwall. 183

is a permiflion for the owner to fell, and at the fame time an aflurance that the tin fo marked has been purposely examined and found merchandable. The flaming of this imprellion by a hammer (in like manner as was anciently done to money to make it current) is called coining the tin. Every hundred of white tin its annual fo coined, pays to the Duke of Cornwall the fum of lour {hillings prol t before the property can be dilpofed of, and this makes up a considerable annual revenue, much superior at present to what it was formerly. " The tin fo fold (fays Mr. Carew, p. 1 5) usually amounted heretofore to thirty or forty thousand pounds q at twenty and thirty pounds a thousand, sometimes higher and sometimes lower but for fome years laft paft, the price of each hundred weight of white tin has considerably advanced, and been from three pounds three {hillings to three pounds eight {hillings and fix-pence, and the quantity fold has been much greater ; fo that the tin of the whole county, for fourteen years laft paft, has amounted, one year with another, nearly to the fum of 180000 pounds sterling; and for ten years laft paft by a particular account of the number of blocks coined in that time, and the price they fold at (though somewhat low for four years laft paft) I find that the whole tin of this county has, at a moderate computation, brought in cafh, one year with the other, at left to the amount of one hundred and ninety thousand nine hundred and fifty-three pounds nineteen {hillings and threepence halfpenny. Of this the Duke of Cornwall receives (for his four {hillings duty upon every hundred weight of white tin) above ten thousand pounds yearly ; the bounders and proprietors of the {oil may receive about one fifth at a medium clear, which we may reckon about thirty thousand pounds yearly ; the remainder goes to the adventurers in the mine, who pay for all labour and materials, and may sometimes chance to be lovers (as in every kind of merchandize is sometimes the cafe) but muft alw 7 ays have the commendation and inward comfort of contributing in a great degree to the employment of the poor, to the enriching of their county, and to the increase of the public revenue.

If, together with the Cafh which tin brings in clearly to the Lord of the Soil, procures as duties to the King by its mines, and to the Duke of Cornwall as tax upon every hundred weight of tin, we confider the several branches of employ which it creates for boys as well as men, carriage by cattle and {hipping, the many handicrafts it promotes, and the trade for neceflaries, which belong to mining, drefling, and melting, and all this out of a narrow flip of land usually of the moft barren and hilly kind, without diftrefiing the tillage,

p Till the year 1553 when the coining mill s Yearly, as Mr. Norden, page 14, explains was invented. Mr. Carew's meaning.

pasture.

J 84 - Natural History

pasture, or fishery, tin muft needs appear to be a great blefling to this county ; but indeed that part of it where the mines chance to be at present, viz. from St. Auftel weif wards, feels this advantage molt fenfibly, lands bringing a higher rent, the number of people being greater, and the markets much better flocked with buyers, than the eastern parts of the county where there are no mines.

sect. The ufes of tin are many : the ancients ufed it to make their XI . mirrors, which served all the purposes of looking-glafles ; but to ufes thi§ con f um ption luxury put a flop (fays Pliny) by introducing of fllver : in other particulars their ufes of this metal were much the fame as thofe of the present age, though not fo many. Tin is ufed in tinning brass and copper furniture of the kitchen, in fodering pipe and feet-lead, in making of lattin, bell-metal, hard-wares, in lining of looking-glafles, in surgery, medicine, and painting, but above all in making pewter, which in iome measure is ufed in all civilized nations, by every degree, from the poorest day-labourers to the prince upon the throne, there being hardly a house in Europe, or any part of the world where commerce reaches, but has tome pewter : in all thefe particulars the consumption is as general as the ufe, and frefti demands and fresh supplies are perpetually quickening and urging on one another.

sect. xx. Tin is the lighted: of all metals, being reckoned nearly to water as Tin in gc- j2i to iooo'; the fofteft of all metals, (lead only excepted) and gine, con- the left fixed in fire ; it easily mixes with other metals, but imparts (hapeand a brittlenefs to all ; aqua regia is its proper natural menftruum. richness. Tin in its natural state and hardest bed muft, I should think, be Coseval to reckoned coeval with the creation ; for it is found in bunches and the creation. pp Qts - m g ran it e , and the much harder stone of the Elvan kind,

stones which can give no fufpicion of their having ever been diflolved and reformed since the first induration of folds ; in laxer nidus's the particles of tin may have fluctuated and changed situations. It has been imagined that tin fettled in fuch bunches by the percolation of waters charged with tin, but thefe bunches are frequently found in separate blocks of stone, open to day, and subject to no moisture but that of the heavens, and consequently to no percolation. Again : In percolation, either the texture of thefe stones would in a great measure refill the paflage of the tin, or would freely permit it ; in the first cafe, we should find the tin condensed near the surface ; in the latter, find it funk and collected near the bottom ; but it is difperfed without any regard to either.

r But in the computation allowance should be made for the different purity of the weighed specimen.

Tin

Of Cornwall, 185

Tin nearly approaches to Fiver in colour, but has fo much more its connexfulphur in it, that it quickly tarn idles in the air or moisture, and is 1 v ° c wlth fil really not fo fubjedt to hold Fiver as its Ffter lead, which is reckoned an inferior metal ; but, beFdes the colour, it has several properties in common with Fiver, and frequent connexions with it ; diflolved in strong acids it grows bitter as well as Fiver ; fused with Fiver obftinately adheres to it, and reFfts lead almost as much as Fiver.

Silver, though not of the purest kind, may be extracted from tin

In the neighbourhood of Oruro (a town in Peru famous for the mines near it) is the Colloquiri, which although a mine of tin, yet now and then in following the veins thereof, they meet with rich ores of Fiver, which they call Lipta

Native tin, or tin found in the Cornifh mines in a metallic Fate, Native tin.

I am not certain that I ever faw; but March 21, 1747, viewing a rich piece of tin-ore from Boffehan in the parish of St. Juft in a microscope, I thought I faw a Fnall lift of maturated tin, white, shining like a thread of melted pewter; I then took a greater magniFer, and plainly perceived the fame lift; but intending to try further experiments to ascertain the truth, I could not afterwards Fnd the specimen, and therefore do not alert the matter of fadt.

Agricola u alerts, that this metal is no where found fo pure as to be malleable; but the learned Dr. Grew (Mufeum R. S. page 328) describes one specimen of " native tin lying as it were in bright drops in a brown stone," and I fee no reason yvhy tin may not pof- Fbly be reFned, and the impurities of its pabulum separated by diffolvent juices in the bowels of the earth, in like manner as copper is. Metals (as it seems to me) are only enftirined, more or lefs concealed, and wrapt up into ores by falls, sulphur, and stone, which are sometimes removed by a fubtil menjlruum in the earth.

This is frequently the caffe of copper, sometimes of Fiver; and gold, the moft perfect of metals, is ftill more frequently found in a metallic than any other state ; but with tin this very rarely happens, by reason of the scarcity of its proper ?nenjlruum . Sea-falt (the baFs of aqua regia) being the only fait we know which will operate on tin, difperfe the impurities, and release the metal.

As white as tin is when melted, yet in the ore it is generally Tin cryftais. black, and the cryftais, which inclofe the metal, are like black glass. We have however fome white, fome cinereous, and fome red tin grains, and fome of a reFnous colour, but they are rare, and I fear often thrown away by the heedlefs, although curious as well as proFtable. Stamping and drejfing do but pulverize and reduce the ore to smaller cryftais, and the forces which intervene

See Boerh. Chem. by Shaw, page 97. u Page 421, fee alfo Woodward's Cat. vol. I.

' Alonfo Barba, page 92. clafs ii. part second.

B b b being

186 NATURAL HISTORY being waffied away, the crystalline parts, mixed with a flux proper to evaporate them, do not prevent the fuflon of the metal inclofed. As to the shape of thefe crystals, tin is faid to difpofe them to the quadrilateral pyramid figure w ; but this is not all, Nature has given us a greater variety of figures, but mostly geometrical, ftraightlined, and angular, fo that indeed it is difficult to fay which figure this metal covets moft ; this we may be fure of, that all metals vary the fize as well as figure of their mineral granules in proportion to their own, and the power and quantity of the ingredients connected ; thus, for instance, in the cafe before us, tin-ore shall be composed of crystal, fait, fpar, sulphur, and metals and femimetals more than one, of all which the figure shall partake, and be regulated, mixed, and qualified, according as the tin, which is the principal, is determined by the several subordinate concretions intermixed ; nor let it be thought by the reader fanciful and unprecedented to take notice and exhibit here the several ffiapes of tin and other metallic ffioots. The greatest Naturalifts have not thought them unworthy their notice. Dr. Tancred Robinfon observes in his MS. Itinerary of Italy (fays Mr. Ray of the creation, page 94) the wonderful diversity of shapes and colours that oars and other foflils ffioot into, resembling almost every thing in nature, for which it seems very difficult to him to affign any cause or principle ; in the pyrites alone, he believes he himself may have feen, at home and abroad, above a hundred varieties." I shall therefore proceed in the fame manner with all our foflils, as I have done with the mundic or pyrites before, (page 137, fife.), and fet forth, in their natural fize, the several ffiapes of tin-grains, or crystals inclofing tin, found in our Corniffi mines.

The following figured tin-grains have occurred to me, and are exhibited in the annexed Plate.

Fig. 1. Is a comprefled oblate pyramidal tin-grain of a refinous colour and texture.

11. Side-view of a black tin-grain indented in the centre.

in. Front of the fame, the apex towards the eye, with a perfect rhombus in the middle indented, regularly lifted round the edges ; from two angles of the rhombus, the lift is only continued along two of the four ridges which diverge from the central point.

iv. Ten inclined planes, quadrangular, triangular, and hexagonal ; black ; composing all together one complete figured tingrain.

v. Irregularly quadrangular planes, the furnaces larger in the mid-

w Woodward's Cat. vol. I. page 220 .

die

riffle

U/i/icriiri/ jfaad-

fdutton t

one arnt n. oi

le brunch in f/onn in/ a (atyeri/caie

(Sm>(ba-

(frat {hnencnii Ucc ohooGny

ytv ordcrlo Anw'rlydcuic AA.

of (Saxt&r aid JFl It. S. M) b7( ariely of [ are in.>en/</ anM yreatrefieetAi/ WmlioMa.ve,

&?*ea/- (hneriacvn- (l/#c in

f nw 22 ffl/y/ %/caie AA

ii&FcrUieL ft,

J o Me iuuiiMmiv cfyttelWMLJ'J)

ifhJ at M Me b/aiciiean t in /Af

Of Cornwall. X S 7

die, and contracting gradually at each end ; black, smooth, shining as glass,

Fig. vi. A very large grain of tin ; the prifmatic ridges in which this metal delights, are here placed nearly at right angles. It has a small rhomboid plane at the point of infection where the ridges meet at e ; but where the fides of the two ridges should meet, as at f fi they are there planed off. 1 he largest tin-grain I have yet feen.

vii. The surface of this grain is divided into eight triangular - planes, fo applied to one another as to constitute four ridges meeting in a small central fulcus. This figure is very rare, and the planes of a high polish.

vm. A columnar grain on a rhomboidal bafe.

ix. D . more diftindt, the apex a quadrilateral pyramid.

X. A bunch of tin-grains, connected as if one large grain with its surface differently fhot. The figures are pyramidal and cuneoid, three of the latter spread like the toes of a bird from the point of contact.

xi. An equilateral triangular plane projecting from a parallel ground, edged on one fide with a quarter-round bead parallel to the adjoining fide of the triangle.

xii. A pyramidal pentahedral grain perfectly smooth and black ; its front confiffs of two unequal equilateral triangles, divided by a fulcus ; of the other faces of the pyramid, two are cuneoid, the other circular.

xm. Plan of the foregoing pyramid, N°. xn.

xiv. A quadrilateral, irregularly -pyramidal grain. The two ends are cuneoid, the two fides defend from the apex in a slope, ftriated to the bottom, where the fries spread off in an obtuse angle, as if designed to form another pyramidal process of like structure on each fide.

xv. Another of like form, but more finished in figure, and of a higher polish.

xvi. A plan of a quadrangular pyramid on a column of a nearly square bafe ; one face of the pyramid is divided into two nearly equal triangles by a fubfidence in the middle, approaching somewhat to N°. vn.

xvn. The elevation of N°. xvi.

xvm. Grain-tin melted, first in the common way, then farther purified, as far as the present method will permit.

xix. A, the front, and B (by scale annexed) the back-view of an ancient block of tin, explained before, page 163.

xx. A curious grain of tin, black and shining, with flammulce of a golden colour ; the faces pentahedral ; but the greateff rarity of this

specimen

Rich tinmines.

l8 8 NATURAL HISTORY

specimen is, that it is. fixed on a bafe of a metallic hue at a a, b # , whole compofition is micaceous, fcaly, and foft, like burnt tin ; it refills aqua forth , and as it has the exterior of native tin, might pofiibly be mistaken for fuch, though meer talc.

Fig. xxi. A pentahedral pyramid of crystalline tin, the ridges and fides concave, with a slender rhomboidal, well-finished plane on the apex ; it has many shining yellow jlajnmulce in it, and not improbably holds gold.

xxii. A quadrilateral pyramid of tin, with a slender rhomboidal

plane on one of the angles, with fome parks of yellow as before ;

but more refinous. , r c

xxiii. A tin-grain extended like a book unfolding, lneie tour

laft curious specimens came from Huel-fortune in Breag.

xxiv. On a rhomboidal bafe two quatrilateral pyramids applied

bafe to bafe.

xxv. Two pentahedral pyramids joined bafe to bafe, each having a pentagonal cellule in the center of its apex. Both from St. Mewan

Glebe. . ...

xxvi. The fide- view of two hexagonal pyramids of tin joined

bale to bafe.

xxvii. One of the pyramids with the apex in front. xxviii. Section at the fracture of a piece of tin in undulated ingrained Iheaths, nearly of an equal thickness throughout, inclofing one another ; the central nucleus is bafe crystal.

xxix. A white pyramidal grain of tin with tranfverle belts of

folcick

xxx. A red, tetrahedral pyramid of tin found in a ftream-work

in St. Auftel, 1757. .

Let it be observed, in the laft place, that whatever the figure oi

thefe crystals is, this is the purest state of tin-ore, that ore producing moft metal which has moft of thefe grains and largest under any equal surface ; and black-tin is no more than thefe crystals cleared of their impurities.

The richest tin-mine I have ever heard of, as to the quality of the ore, is one in the parish of St. Agnes, near the beacon, called Polberou. Several parallel and contiguous veins, mostly oi large-grain crystals, make the treasure of tin in fuch quantity, that, in the year 1750, they could not get horses enough in the neighbourhood to carry the tin from the mine to the melting-house, but carried it in ploughs, a very unusual light (though doubtless a more effedlual and eafy draught where the ways will admit of wheels.) Great part of the ore was fo rich and pure that it needed not to be stamped, and the lode is fo large that it affords vaft rocks of tin : one rock, in March 1750, was brought to Killinick melting-house

near

Of Cornwall. 189

near Truro, which, as a clergyman present at the weighing informed me, weighed lix hundred and sixty-four pounds, and it brought eleven and half for twenty, in the hone without stamping and drifting. I have since been informed, that one stone, brought to the melting-house from the fame work, weighed 1200 pounds. It is judged that the late Mr. Donithorn, who had the whole adventure, and worked it at his foie expence, in a few years laft pall got at leaf!: forty thousand pounds clear by this mine, and much more tin he might have raised yearly if he pleased. It is a mine at present deep and wrought at a great expence by a water-wheel, bobs, and whims ; but the lode is wide, rich in quality, and turns out great profit.

The mine which has turned out the moft gain, and the greatest quantity of tin as yet known, is " Polgooth, in the parish of St. Mewan, where it appears by the old books, that the adventurers have got twenty thousand pounds annually for a great number of years following

How far the Phenicians and Grecians interested themselves insECT.xxr. the management of our mines, and whether, as is more probable, Summary of they were any other than the merchants to purchase and export our and preS tin when raised, cannot be decided ; but as it appears at present, from the testimony of Polybius, Strabo, Diod. Siculus, and Pliny, varies. and others, that the Romans traded hither for tin, and improved the inhabitants in mining ; fo by their coins, fepulchres, and facrifical instruments found in and near the ancient tin-works, (whither nothing perceivable could tempt them, but the riches of thofe mines y ) it is as apparent that the Romans worked thofe mines, or at left with their soldiers fuperintended the workmen. At this time the Britans had likely little or no property ; they were the working miners under their conquerors, but what regulations they were fubjed to is uncertain.

The Saxons are faid to have neglected the Cornilh tin-mines ; but indeed they had no authority in Cornwall till it was entirely conquered by Athelftan, after which they had no leisure, their attention was wholly taken up by the Danilh wars; thefe wars at laft prevailed, and the Danes foon after gave way to the Normans, and thefe laft promoted the working of our mines to their great emolument. However, in the time of King John, I find the produd: of tin in this county very inconfiderable, the right of working for tin being as yet wholly in the King, (King John being at this time alfo Earl of Cornwall) the property of the tinners precarious and

' Letter from Mr. W. Rofwarn of Truro, Feb. n, 1756. r See Antiq. of Cornwall, page 279.

C c c unsettled,

I9 o NATURAL HISTORY

unsettled, and what tin was raised, was engroffed and managed by the Jews to the great regret of the barons and their vaflals. The tin-farm of Cornwall at this time amounted to no more than one hundred marks, according to which valuation the Bifhop of Exeter received then in lieu of his tenth part, and Hill receives from the Duke of Cornwall annually the fum of fix pounds thirteen shillings and four-pence 1 , fo low were the tin-profits then in Cornwall, whereas in Devonfhire the tin was then let to farm for one hundred pounds yearly Ring John, fenfible of the languifhing flate or this manufacture, granted the County of Cornwall fome marks of his favour, disforefted what part of it was then fubjeCt to the arbitrary forest-law, allowing it equal title to the laws of the kingdom with the other parts of England, and is faid to have granted a charter to the tinners (Carew, page 17), but what it was does not appear.

In the time of his fon Richard, King of the Romans and Earl of Cornwall, the Cornifh mines were immensely rich, and the Jews being farmed out to him by his brother Henry III. what interest they had was at his difpofal : at the fame time the tin-mines in Spain were flopped from working by the Moors, and no tin being as yet discovered in Germany, Cornwall had all the trade of Europe for tin, and the Earl the almost foie profit of that trade. This Prince is faid to have made several tin-laws ; but matters foon declining into disorder where the Prince has too much, and the fubjeCls little or nothing, and the Jews being banished the kingdom in the eighteenth of Edward I. the mines were again neglected, for want of proper encouragement to labour, and security to enjoy and difpofe of the produds of that labour ; which the gentlemen of Blackmoor (Lords of even tithings, beft stored at that time with tin) perceiving (Carew, page 17), addreffed themfclves to Edmund Earl of Cornwall (fon h of Richard King of the Romans, and ob-

tained from him, confirmed by his own feal c , a charter with more explicit grants of the privileges of keeping a court of judicature, holding plea of all aCtions, (life, limb, and land excepted) of managing and deciding all ftannary causes, of holding parliaments at their discretion, and of receiving, as their own due and property, the toll-tin, that is, one fifteenth of all tin raised. At this time alfo, as it seems to me, the rights of hounding , or dividing tingrounds into separate portions for the encouragement of searching for tin, were either first appointed, or at leaf! more regularly adjusted than before, fo as that the labouring tinner might be encouraged to feek for tin by acquiring a property in the lands where he should discover it, and that the farm-tin acquired by the bounder,

2 Camden, page' 5, Not the brother, as-in Gibfon's Camden, p- 4

1 Ibid. c Says Camden, page 4.

and

Of Cornwall. 191

and the toll-tin, which was the Lord's share, might remain diftind and inviolated. What bounds are has been already mentioned, p. 167, the right granted in fuch bounds is now before us ; and for the better promotion of tin-working in all waft and uninclofed grounds, every tinner had leave to place his labour in searching for tin ; and when he had discovered tin, (after due notice given in the ftannary court to the Lord of the foil, and formally registering the intended bounds without oppofttion or dental) he might, and at this time ftill may, mark out the ground in which he should chute to pursue his discovery, by digging a small pit at each angle of fuch wafteral, which pits are called bounds ; by this means he did acquire a right in all future workings of fuch grounds, either to work himself or fet others to work upon his own terms, referring to the Lord of the foil one fifteenth part of all tin raised therein. In Devonfhire " the tinners constitution (fays Mr. Carew, page 14) enables them to dig for tin in any man's ground inclofed or uninclofed, without licence, tribute, or fetisfadion," which infraction of common property fhews that the constitution of the ftannaries was never equitably eftablifhed in that county, as the fame judicious author observes. Thefe pits, all bounders, by tbemfelves or others, are obliged to renew every year, by cutting the turf and cleaning up the dirt and rubbish which falls into them, to the intent that fuch landmarks may not be obliterated. In consideration of thefe privileges fo granted by charter, the gentlemen tinners obliged themselves to pay unto Edmund and his fucceflors Earls of Cornwall, the linn of four shillings for every hundred weight of white tin, a very high duty at the time it was laid on, the tinners of Devonfhire then paying but eight pence for every hundred weight of tin ; and that the payment of this tax might be the better secured, it was agreed, that all tin should be brought to places purposely appointed by the Prince, there weighed, coined, and kept, till the Earl of Cornwall's dues were paid. To this charter there was a feal with a pick-axe and shovel in faltire (fays Carew, page 17), as he was informed by a gentleman who had feen this charter, though in Carew's time it was not extant.

In the thirty-third of Edward I. this charter of Edmund seems to have been confirmed, and the tinners of Cornwall were made a diftind body from thofe of Devonfhire ; whereas before, the tinners of both counties were accustomed to meet on Hengfton Hill every seventh or eighth year to concert the common interest of both parties Two coinages yearly, viz. at Midfummer and Michaelmas, were alfo granted by this charter, and the tinners had the liberty

Camden, page 26.

of

i 9 2 NATURAL HISTORY

of felling each man his own tin, unless the King infilled on buying

it himself e .

A farther explanation of the Cornifh privileges and laws f was made by the fiftieth of Edward III. (Carew, page 17) and their liberties confirmed and enlarged by parliament in the eighth of Richard II. third of Edward IV. firfl of Edward VI. iff and 2nd of Philip and Mary, and in the 2nd of Elizabeth and the whole society of the tinners of Cornwall, till then reckoned as one body s , was divided into four parts, called from the places of the principal tinworkings of that time, Fawy-moor, Black-moor, Trewarnheyl h , and Penwith. One general Warden was 1 conflituted to do juflice in law and equity with an appeal from his decision to the Duke of Cornwall in Council only, or for want of a Duke of Cornwall to the crown.

The Lord-warden appoints a Vice-warden k to determine all flannary disputes every month : he conflitutes alfo four Rewards (one for each of the four flannary precinds before-mentioned) who hold their courts every three weeks, and decide by juries of fix persons with an appeal referred to the Vice-warden, thence to the Lordwarden, thence finally to the Lords of the Prince's council.

Thus continued the tin eflablifhment till the reign of Henry VII, when Arthur, eldefl fon of that King, and consequently Duke of Cornwall, made certain conflitutions 1 relating to the flannaries, which the tinners refused to observe, and indulging themselves in other irregularities not confiflent with their charters, Henry VII, after his fon Arthur's death, seized their charter as forfeited ; but, upon proper fubmiffion, by his own new charter reflored all their former privileges, and enlarged them with this honourable and important addition ", that no law, relating to the tinners, should be ended without the content of twenty-four gentlemen tinners, fix to be chosen by a mayor and council in each of the flannary divisions. This charter was confirmed by the twentieth of Elizabeth, and (it being found inconvenient that the content of the whole twentyfour should be required) it is declared at the meeting of every convocation or parliament of tinners, that the content of fifteen flannators shall be sufficient to enad any law. Accordingly, when any more than ordinary difficulties occur, and either new laws for the better diredion of the tinners and their affairs, or a more explicit declaration and enforcement of the old ones becomes neceffary, the

0 By the charter of Edmund therefore it seems 'By thefe ancient charters (Carew 18) ; by Edas if there was but one coinage in a year, and the ward III. fays Camden, page 5. tinner could not fell without leave first obtained. k Not a Sub-warden over every company, as

f Particularly recited in Plowden's Commenta- in Camden, page 5. ries, page 327, Camden's Annotat. page 4. 1 Camden, page ib.

Pearce, page 49. e Camden, page 4. m By which charter [viz. of Pardon] he farther

h Alias Tywarnail. granted, fays the editor of Camden, page 6.

Lord-

Of Cornwall. 193

Lord-warden, by cominiflion from the Duke of Cornwall, or from the Crown, if there be no Duke ", ifi'ues his precept to the four principal towns of the ftannary diftridts, viz. Lancefton for Fawymoor, Loftwythiel for Black-moor, Truro for Trewarnheyl, and Hellion for Penwith. Each town chufes fix members, and the twentyfour fo chosen, called Stannators, constitute the parliament of tinners. In the reign of Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh being Lordwarden, the tinners perceiving that by the charter of Henry VII. no law could be ena&ed, unless the full number of twenty-four ftannators concurred proposed that twenty-four other ftannators should be chosen, fix at each of the tin-courts holden for each flannary, returned by the fleward and added to the former number, in order to make forty-eight members ; and that the majority of that number, or as many as should affemble of that number, should be enabled to make laws : This proposal did not take effect ; but in the twenty-fifth of Charles II. 1674, fome terms and claims infilled upon by the Crown meeting with great opposition, the ftannators, being under difficulties, named to the then Vice- warden fix persons for each ftannary, and defined they might be summoned by the Vice-warden to meet and consult with that convocation +. Since that time it is usual, but not necefiary, for every ftannator to name an afliftant, and the twenty-four afliftants are a kind of Handing council, and affemble in a different apartment, and are at hand to inform their principals of calculations, difficulties, and the state of things among the lower clafs of tinners, fuch as the ftannators might not otherwise be fo well acquainted with. The ftannators, for the more orderly dispatch of bufinefs, chute their speaker, and present him to the Lord-warden to be approved. Whatever is enabled by this body of tinners, muft be signed by the ftannators, the Lord-warden, (or his deputy, the Vice-warden who prefides in his absence) and afterwards either by the Duke of Cornwall or the sovereign ; and when thus paffed, has all the authority, with regard to tin-affairs, of an a£t of the whole legislature.

The present Lord Warden is the Right Honourable Earl of Waldegrave.

Reverend Walter Borlafe, L L. D. Vice-warden.

The present ftannators of the tin-parliament, continued by adjournment and prorogation, are, for the

Stannary of Fawy-moor,

Sir J. Molefworth of Pencarrow, Baronet.

Sir J. St. Aubyn of Clowance, Baronet.

The eldest fon of the King is Duke of Cornwall, without grant or inveftiture ; but if this fon dies, and leaves children, his eldest fon cannot

be Duke of Cornwall without grant, but the title remains in the Crown.

See page preceding. t Mr. Hawkins s Mb.

D d d " J ohn

Natural History

John Harris of Hayne, Efq;

James Buller of Morval, Efq;

Richard Vyvyan of Trefmarrow, Efq;

John Sawle of Penrice, Efq;

Stannary of Black-moor,

Honourable Richard Edgcumb Efq;

George Hunt of Lanhydrok, Efq;

William Trevanion of Caerhayes, Efq;

Philip Rafhleigh of Menabilly, Efq;

Thomas Hawkins of Trewithen, Efq;

'Nicholas Kempe of Rofteag, Efq;

Stannary of Trewarnheyl,

Honourable Edward Bofcawen.

Honourable John Bofcawen.

John Enys of Enys, Efq;

William Lemon of Carclew, Efq;

Richard Huffey of Truro, Efq;

Reverend Thomas Hearle, A.M. Vicar of St. Mich. Penkevil.

Stannary of Penwith and Kerrier,

Honourable George Bofcawen, Efq;

Robert Hoblyn of Nanfwydn, Efq; fpcaker, deceased. Reverend Walter Borlafe of Caftlehornek. L L. D. Chriftopher Hawkins of Trewinard, Efq;

Ed. Elliot of Port Elliot, Efq;

John Rogers of Treaffo, Efq;

Chap. Xiv.

Of Iron found in Cornwall.

I N the reign of Queen Elizabeth there were no iron-mines, it is faid, in all England °, excepting Glocefterihire, and thofe not difeovered many years before; but this was not for want of iron, neither could the difeovery of thefe mines be the hr ft, for we have undoubted proofs that the Romans wrought iron-mines in England, many Roman coins fresh and rough being found under large heaps of cinders which were, and are ftill, wrought over again for iron with good profit, the first melters having not fufftciently extracted the metal from the ore p ; and it now appears, that we have numbers of iron-lodes in several parts of England. There are many in

See Dr. Mufgraves Antiq. vol. I. page 156. Walker's Dedication to bis Account of coins.

Cornwall,

Of Cornwall. 195

Cornwall, as in working for tin we often find, and, by the great number of chalybeate springs, may juftly infer ; but not one that I have heard, or can learn, worked as yet to effed, although in fome of them the ore is very rich, and near the surface. The truth is, the Englifh iron-works are not only supplied with this ore in great plenty from the forest of Dean in Glocefterfhire, but there are many rich iron lodes in Lancafhire, Chefhire, Suffex, and Derbyfhire, and other parts of England. In Stafford (hire Dr. Plot (page 159) observes, that there is an iron-ore, called Mufh, fo rich and fufible that it may be made into iron in a common forge : in Wiltfhire alfo they have an iron-ore of equal richness r ; nay iron is not only found in lodes in many parts of the earth, but, when the lodes have been exhausted, the iron is in fome places fo collected and renewed from the neighbouringynz/#, (this metal being easily fufpended, carried of, and deposited by common water) that a certain mine in Tufcany, after it is wrought out, becomes, in the face of three years, as pregnant with iron as it was before s . There being fuch an abundance of this moft useful metal elsewhere, it is not likely that there will be any demand foon from other parts of this island for the iron-ore of Cornwall, neither can the Cornifh entertain any reasonable hopes of manufacturing it in their own county, at leaf!; till wood for making charcoal becomes more plenty with them than it is likely to be for fome generations ; and if there were wood sufficient, it is no eafy matter to fet on a manufacture of this kind. This however is no fenfible disadvantage to the county in general, our tin, copper, hulbandry, and fifh, with the necefiary branches of trade dependant thereon, finding great employ as they are managed at present, and with fome improvements (which might be easily introduced) would find ftill more ; fo that, till thefe resources fail, we shall be under no neceflity of working our iron lodes ; but it is worth our while, in the mean time, to acquaint ourselves with the nature of them better than perhaps we are at present informed ; for if any iron lode is of a richness equal to that mentioned before, it may prove very profitable to the owner, even as matters now stand, especially if fo near the lea that it may easily be exported coat-ways to Briftol and the river Severn, to which places ships are frequently obliged to go without lading. Again : In iron-mines a kind of ocre is often found, valuable according to the different degrees of its purity, and much ufed by painters ; and if this happens to abound, it will well reward the miner for railing it, the beft we have at present coming from France.

'i Iron is found in the parifties of Morvah, Pi- page 37. — vol. I. page 232, kc,

ran-fand, Lanivet, Gwynear, St. Die, Temple, at r Grew's Muf. page 331.

the Lizherd-point, &c. Woodward's Cat. vol. II. 8 Phil. Tranf. 174c, page 89.

When

SECT. II. Shapes.

i 9 6 NATURAL HISTORY

When iron forms by dropping from roofs and fides of caves, it becomes a lump of tubular parallel items which hang fide by fide in the fame manner as the mundics, Plate xvi. page 141, Figures xxxiv, xxxv. and copper, Plate xxi. Fig. ix. and is called Brufhore. Sometimes it is found in the form and fize of mulket bullets ', Plate xx. Fig. xxxi. page 186, each of which is fixed in its nidus, but never detached and perfectly globular, as far as I have yet feen. Dr. Grew (Muf. R. S. page 332) mentions iron balls made by the rolling of iron-fand off the banks among the iron-mines near Senneck, especially after rain; but thefe here are natural from the mine. Sometimes it is bliftered into round tubercles, as Plate xv. Fig. ix. page 137, and Plate xxi. Fig. in. at other times made into the exact shape of a button, protuberant in the middle, and declining on every fide into a variety of polygonal planes, as Fig. xxx 11. Plate xx. In both thefe laft cafes it is called the Button-ore. Iron is laid to give the rhomboidal form to crystals u : if this be true, it may allb do the fame to mundics ; but, as the rhomboidal form is not peculiar to iron, the question will ftill remain undecided, whether one and the fame mineral fait may not give this figure to them all, and be no more the proper consequence of iron than of the other fofiils. This ore is sometimes found in Cornwall, near Truro, confiding of parallel plates which break into very shining and glofiy surfaces w , and a coarse falle kind of iron-ore, called Kal, is found in moft parts of Cornwall ; this laft promotes the fusion and toughness of tin, especially where mundic abounds ; for the mundic by itself will scarce permit the tin in many places to be at all ducftile : the truth is, the Kal connects the metallic parts, whereas the fulphurs of mundic have a quite contrary effedl, and[ render them volatile.

Chap. Xv.

Of the Copper found in Cornwall.

T HIS fupple, rich, and useful metal, Cornwall has for fome ages been reckoned to have been plentifully stocked with % but it has never turned out any considerable profit to the owners of the land till within thefe fifty years ; fo little does discovery signify, unless it be purified with application, and knowledge how to make the proper advantage of it. At present it may be alerted

- r As in Huel-an-boys, in St. Juft. w Woodward's Cat. vol. II. page 86.

u Woodward's Cat. vol. I, page 220. Hill, x See Carew's Survey, page 7. Norden, page page 197 - 9,41,42,104.

with

Of Cornwall. 197

with great security, that there is no richer copper, nor a greater variety of ores any where than in Cornwall.

Copper is found sometimes deposited on the fides of fiflures in sect. 1. thin films, which are no more than the sediment of waters ifluing fojjj atftate from fome copper lode ; sometimes in spots and bunches irregularly difperfed, but rnoftly in fiflures, in like manner as the tin-lodes.

Copper lodes throw from them few rhodes, fo that they are not often accefiary to their own discovery ; the reason of which is, that there is seldom any copper on the back of the lode, fo as to constitute a broil\ but when there is, and that copper is heavy, and promotes its own removal downwards by its gravity, copper lodes throw rhodes as well as thofe of tin, of which several instances might be produced.

Veins of copper are oftentimes by the fedulous discovered in cliffs, where they are laid bare by the fea, copper being much easier discerned than tin. The mod; encouraging leader to copper is what the Cornifh call Goffan, which is an earthy, ochrous stone, ruddy and crumbling, like the ruft of iron. Where the ground is inclinable to an eafy, free, blue killas, intermixed with white clay, the miners think it a promising symptom. A white crystalline stone is alfb reckoned very retentive of yellow copper. The ore does not lye at any one certain depth ; but it is a general rule, that when copper is found in any lode, that lode should be funk upon, it generally proving better at fome depth, than when it is first touched.

That ore which is moft common is of a yellow brass-colour : it sect.il is found adhering to stones of all kinds, but purest commonly in the white opake crystal, or in the white clay, and according to the lours and quantity of the barren stone intermixed, fells from five to fifteen texU,rc ' pounds per ton. Of this yellow ore there are different forts : fome not only looks like mundic in texture, but is shaped into cubes (as the yellow mundic generally is) and will bear aqua forth without Stirring, and yet has been found to be real copper-ore, and worth eighteen pounds per ton ; but the beft fort of yellow is the flakeore, called fo from the clofenefs of its texture, which is as smooth and glofly as brass, and not more porous : this fort is not fo brittle as the former yellow, and has undergone the purification of a menflruum , being probably no more than the first-mentioned common yellow diffolved and deposited in the mine : it is found commonly in thin, visibly diftind, ftratous maffes, with its under parts of a bliftered button surface, (Plate xxi. Fig. in.) according as the drops of the folution fell from different parts of the roof (Plate ib.

Fig. 11.). Where the folution is vifcous and lefs diluted, it forms tubular

E e e (heaths

I9 8 Natural History

fheaths, one without another, like the dala&ites, from the bignefs of a thread to a cylinder of two inches diameter y .

sect. in. Of the green coppers, fome are as light as a feather, being meer

Green ore. cerugo , or verdegris 2 ; lome more solid and dony , little metal in either ; fome a thick incrudation of a deep velvet green. One sample is very ponderous, (Fig. xm. ib.) nothing of stone or rud appears, the texture confiding of small shining Jlriez, parallel, glofiy as fatin, extremely rare. It appears to be a folution of copper which diddled its gloffy filaments upon a thin hell of the fined flake-ore, part of which caps this specimen dill at a , b.

Of the green-coloured there is alfo a flaky kind of dole contexture, sometimes cohering in tubes as it drops, (N°. xi. ibid.) but forming a richer, closer, and more poliflied surface dill when it gets free (as Fig. x. xiv, xv.) which is perhaps one of the mod curious productions of the copper kind. It is of two lots, the rich, deep green, and the pale blue ; the fird much the more precious and bed formed, prettily clouded, fets well in rings, but whether it may be reckoned a gem of the turcois kind, as has been already observed among the gems, page 1 1 6 , I will not alert N . x. came from Mr. Baflet's work called the Pool*, the others, xiv, xv. from Lord Godolphin's mine in Ludgvan, called Huel-fortune.

sect. iv. Befides the pale flaky blue mentioned above, I have likewise a Blue ore, blue earth of an extremely fine and small grit, but the created quantity I ever faw does not exceed the bignefs of a bean : this curious earth is likely thrown away, because it appears in fuch little quantities as nature generally didributes her mod precious gifts in. I have had it from two places, from the Pool, and the other, uncertain. Of the lapis lazuli I have never yet feen any found in a Cornifli copper-mine, but this gritty blue is as it were the powder of it, and seems a kind of that precious done incomplete, and not sufficiently hardened.

sect. v. The grey-ore is often prettily spotted with yellow and purple, Grey ore. but the more of this mixture the lefs is its value. When it is of an uniform lead colour throughout, it is riched, and contains a great deal more metal than the yellow or green, being worth between fifty and fifty pounds per ton.

sect. vi. Copper appears sometimes as a blue-black earth, of an indigo Black ore. co lour, very light, interlaced with an opake bafe crydal. Mixed with

1 Fig®, v, vi, vii, vm, ix. xi. PI. ib. p. 200. according to the falls which produced them. Boerh.

Thefe /Erugo's, viewed in a microscope, ap- The. of Chem. Engl, page 88. pear to be clutters of crystals of various colours, Plate xvm. page 169.

water

Of Cornwall. 199

water it is a rich blue, but with nut or poppy oil it makes a deep ivory-black. Befides this black grit, there is a more solid kind of black copper-ore, very ponderous ; it is bliftered into large tubercles, by which it appears, that it is a folution of copper concreted in a bed of sulphur, and covered over with a giaffy, sparkling cruft a : it may pofiibly be worth while for thofe who prepare paints by fire, to try whether fome valuable blue colour, fuch as Pruflian blue or ultra-marine , may not be extracted from the blue grit, Section iv, and thole two black copper earths.

The red-ore mixed with gladly freckles (the cryftallized falls ofsECT.vii. this metal) is called the fire-ore; it rides generally in small, detached Red ore. glebes from a bed of coarse ochre, and the ferrugineous rubrica , covered at times with a cruft of lapideous green copper ; fome of it is a folution, as by the bliftered granules appears ; fome the natural ore ; it is very ponderous, and more valuable than any of the reft.

Some ores of this colour break into Ihining surfaces, and resemble fo much the ores of silver, that scarce any one can diftinguifti the laraeft grains of this fort from the argentum rubrum of Andreafberg in Hanover, which contains betwixt eighty and ninety parts of an hundred of silver, the waste flying oft', being meer arfenick.

This beautiful and rich ore is never faved separately from the reft, although it promises fo fair for silver. It was fuppofed by fome gentlemen at Leyden, to whom I fent a large specimen, clofe-grained and solid, that it contained much zink.

The moft perfect copper, from which the before-mentioned are sect. viii. only fo many inferior and different removes, is the Malleable (from Malleable its purity called in Cornwall the Virgin-ore) which, in small quantities at left, is found in all the moft considerable copper-mines. It is variously combined and allayed ; fome with bafe crystal (granulated) intermixed; fome with goffan, fome with white gravelly clay, fome in ruddle and the ruft of iron ; in shape very various, sometimes thin spread, and shaped like leaves, now like drops and boffes, now branched, fringed, or twisted into wires, in hollow filagree, in blades and daggers, now in powder little inferior in luftre to that of gold ; sometimes bliftered, at other times a congeries of combined granules ; but which is the finest of all, sometimes in solid lumps (as the Mullion copper) of several pounds weight, maturated, unmixed, and highly polished.

Fig. 1. Virgin-ore, somewhat bliftered ; it has several little co- sect.ix. lumns at a , croffmcr each other like bones, with knobs or bunches

' O perSj Plate xx,i,

A very rare specimen from

at

2oa NATURAL HISTORY

at their ends : at their interfedtions they make unequal angles, and therefore could not be of the ftaladtite kind. Its colour is like manufactured copper before it is poliftied.

Fig. ii. The upper face of a flaky brass-coloured Ipecimen ; its fiirface beet with circular lamina growing lefs towards the top, Ihewing that drops of this metal falling from above, were at first large, and Ipread into the broadeft lamina ; a smaller drop succeeded, and falling on the fame centre, hardened into a lefler circle, and fo on, the circles being as many as there were drops. Some have five lamina on one another, as 6, c; others two, three, and four, large in proportion, and in number equal to the drops which fell. This rare Ipecimen fhews how the flaky ore is formed, namely, by distillation. N. B. The under part is bliftered into large tubercles, as in the following sample.

in. The bottom of flake-ore bliftered by diftilling into a foft bed, (likely of sulphur) each drop making a convexity.

iv. Brafs-coloured flake-copper, small-bliftered, deprefied on the surface into five concave cells, divided by plain partitions.

v. Brafs-coloured, powdered with blue earth, the top divided into two cylinders, below which, from a wreathed edge, the filaments are perpendicular, in the fungite manner.

vi. Brafs-coloured; the filaments courting tranfverfely at right angles with one another ; it is powdered with a blue little inferior to the ultra-marine.

vn. A conic cluster of wreathed threads, brass-coloured, curioufly interlaced, in fome parts detached from the main body like hollow carved-work, incrufted with a beautiful cinereous film, the surface rather of a fine grit than fniooth and glofly.

vm. An hexagonal tube of flake-copper, its perforation filled with the fame folution, girt round with a continued bandage of bliftered flake-ore.

ix. Brufh copper-ore, in parallel tubes, of a dufky brown colour.

x. A solid piece of the finest green ; its texture confifting of different Jlrata of greens, large bliftered, probably the malachites of authors.

xi. Lefs solid green, of a glofly coating, formed into tubes, braced with vermicular rings like the joints of a caterpillar ; the outer tubes have an inner one inclofed, the perforation small as the point of a needle.

xi i. Solid, glofly, green, branchy.

xiii. Green ; the filaments as fine and glofly as the pile of velvet, armed with a thin hell of bliftered flake-ore, on which are formed three parallel circular determinations of the defending Jlria.

Pl Xxi.

pa.%oo.

Figur'd Codders, ' :2.0c.

' C/ o t/ie /xiyAtfe C Content F nnl/iyrmt duty/

&u£ view of aftiece of fold nat.jixe .

30 Cvt

*JuAe vie w of t/ie dame .

f/mvnA

Wm.Hm'lase .

Of Cornwall.

Fig. xiv. The smooth, solid, high-bliftered copper, (fe&ion hi. page 198) from Huel-fortune in Ludgvan, the moft pure and beautiful of the green kind.

xv. The fame fort, mamillary with a drop at the bottom, formed probably in a pendulous position.

xvi. Virgin leaf-copper, branchy.

xvii. Ditto.

xv 111. Ditto.

xix. Virgin- ore branched, and fibrous like the anatomy of a leaf.

xx. Virgin-ore, fringed at the edges.

xxi. This elegant specimen of virgin-ore run into hollow filagree, confifting entirely of fo many branchy filaments, terminating in little aftroite tufts, and the ends of the branches tipt with papilla , all of pure copper, came from the Tolvaen copper- work in the parish of St. juft, Penwith, 17 54 b .

xxii. Brighteft virgin-ore fhot into daggers, cufpides , branches, and fprigs, as <2, /£, c, dj e.

xxm . The purest virgin-ore from Mullion formed into drops.

XXIV. D°. spread into regular leaves, and bunchy.

The two laid specimens are of the richest, moft sparkling, and beft naturally polished copper-ore which any mine affords ; fome years since it was raised in the parish of Mullion in large lumps of several pounds weight, one lump of it weighing forty pounds: what heightens the beauty of this ore is this, that in moft places it is enamelled with that green flaky azrugo , which age alone gives to coins and medals, and art in vain endeavours to imitate.

Copper covets not geometrical or angular figures.

It may feem a little furprizing that we should find copper native sect.x. and malleable fo much more frequently than any other metal, and aUe copper," in fuch a variety of colours and shapes. The reason is this : Cop- andof per in the mine is more easily diffolved and stripped of its tony from the involucrum than any other metal : it is soluble by all the lasts known, nune - both acid, alkaline, and nitrous c , nay even by common water, and in fome states by the air itself. What makes it yield fo to almost every fluid, is, that there is little stone, but much vitriol incorporated with copper; and vitriol, being no other than a free soluble fait, is always ready to mix with every kind of moisture which attempts it. Hence it comes to pafs, that copper is frequently liquified in the earth, and every time the vitriol melts, and becomes fufpended, the incorporated copper defeats its priiiiceval bed of stone, and when it becomes too heavy to be born along by the fluid vehicle, diftills from

b This seems to be what the Spaniards in their page 85.

Peruvian mines call Machacado. Alonfo Barba, c Boerh. page 88,

Ff f

higher

Natural History

higher into lower parts of the mine, flicks in tubes fide by fide, or forms into thin leaves or fringes in the chinks of the rock, floats into horizontal lamince on plane surfaces, or is detained and formed by the hollows which it swims into.

Let it be observed in the next place, that when the menftruum is different, the folution of copper will be fo too, and will be more or lefs pure according to the quality and power of that menftruum. If iron (which is a magnet to copper) interferes, the vitriolic fluid depofites the copper, and mostly in granules, corroding at the fame time, imbibing and carrying off the iron, by which it is attracted more forcibly than by the copper. Again : There being fo many menftrua , and the concretions of copper fo soluble, the metal muff undergo fbmetimes a great many solutions in the mine ; and as every diffolution muff deposit fome faces, the metallic glebe consequently becomes proportionably the more pure the oftner it is diflblved. This observation may lead us to account for the different states and degrees of purity which wc find in the solutions of copper abovementioned. The yellow, flake, brass-coloured copper, (Section u.) is a folution, as appears not only from its frequently blifcered bottom, as Fig. hi. Plate xxi. but alfo for that the plain signs of the drops, as they fell and concreted on each other, are evidently to be feen at b , c, in Fig. n. ibid ; but by reason either that the menftruum w r as not forcible enough, or that this and fuch like was the primary and only folution, thefe specimens have neither the ductility, nor colour, nor weight of the malleable ore ; they retain more of the arfenical fulphureous fate of the common yellow ore, and are indeed but one remove from it. In other solutions, as particularly in the red bliftered ore, we find a further degree of purification, owing to a, more powerful menftruum or reiterated folution, or both, till at lafl the metal becomes thoroughly maturated, that is, as duaile, and free from Hone, sulphur, and fait, and as brilliant in colour, as fire itself can make it, which indeed is the cafe of the Mullion copper Again : The different menftrua not only defecate the ores of copper, but alfo impart various colours to them. Acids will make copper green, alcalies will make it red, ftal armoniac and the intermediate falls will give it a blue caff d . Thefe menftrua again being reduced and qualified by one another, will give it the grey, black, and purple dies, whence arises the great variety of colours fo conspicuous in thefe ores ; but when the mejtftrua are clear and forcible, they borrow from the copper, and impart the mofl piercing dyes to precious Hones, making the lapis lazuli , the sapphire, emerald, amethyst, beryl, and other gems.

Se£t. viii. page 199. " Hiflory of Waterford, page 304.

As

Of Cornwall. 203

As to the mining part, copper- works do not differ from thole of sect, xi, tin materially, but the method of dreffmg or preparing the metal firing, for fale is very different. To separate the good ore from the bad dreffilfg the* with greater advantage, certain overfeers e are appointed to super intend copper cre ' the labouring miners, and fee that all the richer forts of ores be kept together in the bottom, then raised as unmixed as may be, and laid forth on the grass in distinct heaps ; and because there will be fome waste in breaking, the ore is taken out of the lode, and brought to grass in as large lumps as the tackle of the engine will mufterf What comes from the people below, is reexamined as foon as it arrives at the mouth of the shaft ; the bell: is broken final! with hammers, which they call Spalling, or brought away to the adjacent bucking mills, where there are men ready to bruise it upon a rock with a fart bar of iron, and thence carried to the heap of beft ore, and what is not worthy of the first place, is laid by to make another fortment ; the bell small ore (which conliffs of the smaller fragments of what has been broken and forced before) is then walked and lifted into a tub or keeve as near to the shaft as poffible (to prevent waste), first through an iron lieve or fearce, called in Cornwall the Griddel, the meafhes about half inch square ; here the waste, or barren stone, by walking is difeovered and thrown away, and what has copper in it forced into beft , and dredged , (that is, freaked, spotted, powdered ore, which requires a second walking) and the larger pieces of ore of each fortment are thus divided ; what paffes through the griddle, is taken up out of the kieve, and put through another fearce of smaller meal, called the jigging fearce, which has eight holes in every square inch ; here, when it has been lifted up and down, and turned round in the fearce a few times (which they call jigging ), the waste will all rife to the top, and fettle in the middle like small fand, and what remains underneath will be clean ore. The poorer fort, which is the freaked or dredged ore, is carried from the mine to the next adjoining ftream of water, where in several pits made for that purpose, called the ftrakes , it is walked clean ; all the richest bits of ore are then culled from the reft by girls or boys at the hire of four-pence per day, and the poorest or moft tony parts, which are not fit to be put with the picked ore, are carried to a stamping-mill, there pounded, and paffed through a rough grate s ; what ore rests in the forepart of the pit, F, Fig. hi. Plate xix. is carried back to the jigging fearce and worked as before-mentioned ; but what runs off to the hinder-

Called Under-ground Captains. to raise it entire by the whim, but the beam break-

f July 1 2, 1 743, I faw a large rock of copper ing, the rock alfo broke in two parts, and the taken out of a lode in Clowance wood, which pieces were then brought up. weighed 1275 pounds weight : they endeavoured s See (lamping of tin, ch. xv. fe£t. xvii. p. 178.

moft

204 Natural History

moft part of the pit, F, and remains there, and in the second pit, G, is slimy, and muft be trunked , huddled , and towed , as the slimy tin h .

This is the present method of drefiing copper, which employs many hands ; and yet in works which throw up a quantity of ore, it is all broken, raised, fired, washed, picked, damped, and forced into particular heaps for one tenth part oi the whole produce when fold, and sometimes for lefs.

sect. xii. A quantity being forced, cleaned, and divided into heaps, accord-

Mod of j n g to the quality of the ores, the agents for the copper-companies

per in Com- of Wales and Briftol (who refi.de at Truro and Reddruth) upon notice given, attend to f ample the ore, and each sampler having taken from each pile as much as is sufficient for allaying and alcertaining the value of that pile, a day is appointed by joint content of the feller and buyer, at fuch defiance as may give the sampler time to repeat and verify his afiays, for the fale of the copper : on the fixed day each of the famplers attends, and produces a ticket, or written paper, sealed up, in which is exprefied the price which each sampler will give for the ore : he, who in his ticket bids moft, has the ore*. This way of felling has obtained about thirty years, and muft be a very fair way of dealing provided the agents do not in concert consult one another's convenience in buying ( which perhaps is no more than every buyer thinks he has a right to do) rather than the juft value of the ore ; provided alfo, that they do not divide the parcels occasionally, fo as that no buyer may have reason to complain, and remonftrate ; that they do not groundleflly fuggeft an exorbitant fall of the price of copper which the owner cannot contradict ; provided alfo, that thefe agents do not combine to diftrefs and reduce the copper of a relu&ant and too inquifitive miner. Such complaints are muttered, but with what grounds I pretend not to decide. If, besides this, the agents for the companies should combine, and refuse to admit the tickets of any person whatever, who had a mind to offer for any parcel of copper, it would juftly increase and give weight to thefe fufpicions : neither can thefe companies blame the present generation, if they be somewhat uneasy ; people who have wares to fell, of which they know not the value, (which is the cafe of the owners for the moft part) have been fufpicious in all ages of their being imposed upon at the time of fale : this is no where more evident than in the cafe before us. My bufinefs is hiftory, not traffic, and I shall meddle with the

h See before, pages 178, 179.

1 It muft here be observed, that if the a flayer offers only'- according to the product of his affay, he offers much Ihort of the real price, " it being-

well known from the laws of attraction, that a large portion ol ore will yield more in proportion than a smaller quantity." See Smith's state of the county of Kerry.

latter

Of Cornwall. 205

latter no further than is neceffary to illudrate the former. The richness of our copper-works is not a late discovery, but indeed the application of the Cornifh to work them effectually, is not fo old as the present generation ; the reason mod; obvious is, that thole who bed knew the value of thefe mines, made it a part of their trade to conceal it. Mr. Carew (in the reign of Elizabeth) hints at the little profits made in Cornwall from copper, and affigns them to the learcher's being kept in ignorance by the merchant. " Copper is found, fays he, (page 7, fird edition) in fundrie places; but to what gain to the fearchers, I have not been curious to enquire, nor they hady to reveal : for of one mine, of which I took view, the ore was shipped to be refined in Wales, either to fave cod in the fewel, or to conceal the profit." Mr. Norden, 150 years since, seems to have had full information that the Cornifh copper-mines were rich, and therefore in his letter to King James I like a faithful servant, (furveyor as he was to the then Prince of Wales) intimates the expediency of a better infpeCtion into the date of thole mines, and furmifes the arts by which the value of them was concealed. " So rich are the works (fays he, ibid.), especially fome lately found, as by the opinion of the Ikilful in the misery the like have not been elsewhere found, though the worth hath been formerly extenuated by private pryers into the secret, and covertly followed for their own gain." Notwithdanding thefe hints, I do not find any thing material going on here in Cornwall, as to the improvement of the copper-mines, till, about fifty years since, fome gentlemen of Bridol made it their bufinefs to infpedt our mines more narrowly, and bought the copper raifedfor two pounds ten shillings per ton', and scarce ever more than for four pounds per ton. It mud be observed, that the yellow ore, which now fells for a price between ten and twenty pounds per ton, was at this time called poder , (that is, dud) and thrown away as mundic. The gains were anfwerable to their lagacity and diligence, and fo great, that they could not long be kept secret ; this encouraged other gentlemen of Bridol , about forty years since, not only to buy copper at a low rate", but to engage as adventurers in fome old mines ; and at this time Mr. John Codar, a gentleman well {killed in metals, judicious, and particularly knowing in mechanics and hydraulics, undertook, by means of a waterengine, (either of his own invention, or at lead improvement) to drain fome considerable mines with fuccefs : he taught the people of Cornwall alfo a better way of affaying and dreffing the ore.

k See Norden's Survey of Cornwall, page yenanted to fell all the copper which should rife 1 04. out of a mine well flocked, for twenty years, at

1 At N'uun-vian in Piranutbno, and at Mr. five pounds per ton, and the ore at Reliftian in Uftick's works in St. Juft. Gwinear was covenanted for at two pounds ten

m Mr. Beauchamp of Gwenap at this time co- (hillings per ton.

G g g

Here

20 6 Natural History

Here may we date the advance of the price of copper and improvement of copper-mines ; for though this gentleman was frequently purchaser of the whole product, as well as dire&or of all the mining part, (as indeed he well deserved to be) and by this means could the better, and not unjuftly, conceal his profits ; yet the copper could not be forced, drefled, and weighed, and sometimes separately fold, without the real value tranfpiring in fome measure. By degrees the Cornifh dreffers of copper-ore grew informed nearly of the value and proper management of the ore, and at present a great many allay it.

The copper being thus fold to the agents of the copper-companies in Wales and Briftol, is shipped off for thofe places to be melted and refined.

sect. xm. The first and greatest copper-mines which have turned out contheireve fiderable profits within thefe forty years, are the following : nues yet im- Chace-water, in the parifb of Kenwyn (a) ; North Downs, in proveabie. . Huel-ros, in St. Agnes (c) ; Rofkaer and Huel-kitty,

in Camborn (d ) ; Huel-fortune, in Ludgvan ; the Pool, in Illogan (f) ; Dalcooth, Bullen-garden, Entral, Longclofe, in Camborn (g) ; Metal works, in Gwenap (h ) ; Trejeuvyan, in Gwenap (i) ; Binner Downs and Clowance Downs, in Crowan [k] ; Huel-cock and Rofmoran, in St. Juft (/); and Herland mine, in Gwinear : But the greatest and moft sudden gain produced by any copper-work which I have yet heard off, and as far as the memory of man reaches, was that of Huel- virgin, in the parish of Gwenap, in July and Auguft 1757. In the first fortnight's working, it threw up copper fold for five thousand even hundred pounds; in the next three weeks and two days, as much copper as fold for nine thousand fix hundred pounds : to raise the first-mentioned quantity, it coft the adventurers no more than one hundred pounds ; to raise the second, a trifle more in proportion to the quantity.

All thefe either are or have been of late years very profitable works ; and besides the many thousand pounds annually returned to the Lords, (their dues being generally one fifth part of the whole produce clear of all expence, never lefs than one eighth clear) great fortunes have been railed to adventurers, and there are several other gainful though lefs considerable mines now in working, fo that the annual income to the county from copper equals very nearly at

Lords of the Soil are

Lord Vifcount Falmouth. Efq; Mr. Abel Angove.

(b) Sir John St. Aubyn, Baronet, and John (g) Francis Baffet, Efq;

Nance, Efq; (J) Francis Beauchamp, Efq;

( c ) Thomas Heyes, Efq; (/') Hugh Rogers, Efq;

\d) Samuel Percival, Efq; late Sir William (b) Sir f . St. Aubyn, Baronet.

Pendarves, Knight. (/) J. Uftick, Efq;

Earl of Godolphin. James Buller, Efq; the late Robert Hoblyn,

(f) Francis Ballet, Efq; H. Mackworth Praed Efq; Mr. Abel Angove.

Of Cornwall. 207

|jrefent that of tin, it being computed " that, for fourteen years laft paft, the copper of this county has produced cafh, one year with the other, to the amount of one hundred and sixty thousand pounds.

This is a happy addition made within thefe forty or fifty years to the employ and revenue of this county ; and what the Cornifh gentlemen have now to confider is, whether both may not easily be ftill improved.

The water, in which they wafh their copper ore, has been sect. xiv. lately experienced by an ingenious foreigner 0 to make as good blue vitriol as any in the world, which appears from the vitriol manufacture ''2 lately carried on at Reddruth ; but there is ftill another, and more wall , fuggelted profitable ufe to be made of the fame. The water which comes Miners. 0 ' from the bottom of the mine, is now buffered to run off in waste through the adit, whereas it is fo strongly impregnated with copper, that if, together with the water in which they griddle , jig, (lamp , and huddle the ore, it was collected carefully, and detained in proper receptacles and pits, old pieces of iron might be immersed in thefe pits to great advantage, and thereby a quantity of malleable copper might be obtained without hazard or attendance, or other coft than that of the molt ufelefs old iron. When the water is strongly impregnated, the exchange is usually quick, and performed in fourteen days ; but if a much larger face of time was required, the demurrage will be well requited. The experiment has been tried by W. Lemon, Efq; of Truro, and with fuccefs : I have alfo a specimen of ore precipitated in the copper-mine of Trewan in St. Agnes, and there is scarce any copper-mine but will have the fame ; and the gain may be estimated in feme measure by a calculation made at the copper-mines of Arklow in Ireland, where " one ton of ironbars immersed in the adit in twelve months time produces one ton and nineteen hundred and a half weight of copper-mud, or dull ; now, each ton weight of mud, when melted, produced fifteen hundred weight of the purest copper, felling at ten pounds per ton more than the copper made of the ore p . In thefe mines the proprietors had at one time five hundred tons of iron, and might with proportionable advantage have laid in as many thousands. The fofteft iron is beft ; the pits ten feet long, four wide, and eight deep ; the fides faced up with stone and lime, with wooden beams across the pits to reft the iron bars upon : chains of thefe pits are continued along the ftream as far as the dire&ors please, for the water never abates its quality V' It is not every ftream which comes from

n Letter from William Lemon, Efq; to the au- p Philofophical T ranfactions for I 75 2 P a S e thor, January 12, 1758. 502.

0 Mr. Rouby of Plymouth. 9 Ibid.

a copper

208 Natural History

a copper lode that will produce fuch a furprizing quantity or copper, and in Cornwall, where we have fo much water usually in the bottoms of our mines, the cupreous particles may in many places be too much diluted to yield the above-mentioned great return, but it is not to be questioned that the experiment will answer, under proper directions, in a great many adits, especially where one drift or adit serves as a drain to many workings.

Another point worthy of consideration is this ; " that copper grows in the fame places with gold and silver, and oftentimes, in following a vein of pure copper, they have met with a neft of the finest gold ; but it is more usual to have its veins change into silver The mine of Ofloquee, in the Lipes of Peru, was at the top in a manner all copper, and every fade's depth, as they dug downwards, the ore grew more rich in silver, untill in the bottom it became all pure silver s ," and in a copper-mine called Huel-cock, in the pariffi of St. Juft, native silver has been found among the copper ore, and it would be very wonderful if this mine should be the only one which afforded an instance of this kind among fuch a number of mines as we have, and fome much richer than this.

That the glafiy red has a great affinity to the silver ores has been mentioned before, and it is not improbable but fome of our ores may contain gold as well as silver. Copper-mines have alfb quickfilver oftentimes in their lodes, and in Hungary it is thought strange when the Herenground mines are ever without it. Now in Cornwallthe proprietors, generally speaking, do not know the quality of the plaineft copper, much lefs the nature of the richest : they take the word, as well as the money of the buyer implicitly ; nor are they at liberty, by the present rules of commerce, to infift upon any afiay they have made of their own ores, or postpone the fale to a better offer. This matter might poffibly be put upon a more fatisfadory as well as equitable footing, in cafe an affay-office was eftablifhed for every owner to have recourse to, and ascertain in fome degree the value of his ore before he treats with the agents of the company ; but better ftill, and more likely would it be to bring the ore to a juft value, if melting-houses were eroded for refining copper in the fame manner as there are for tin. This would employ an additional number of hands, and every new employ is of service to the county in proportion to the number employed : this would alfo leave the feller at liberty to frequent that melting-house which offered moft kindly for his ore. It is objected, that the expence of importing coals from Wales for melting copper, will never permit fuch a scheme to take place. Whether this be matter of fad or not, is at present

1 Sir Hum. Mackworth of the mines, page 151. s Alonfo Barba, page 8 v.

kinder

Of Cornwall. 209

under examination, several gentlemen having concurred to fet up furnaces for melting and refining copper-ore in Cornwall, and to the fuccefs of the experiment, without entering into the dispute, I refer it.

Chap. Xviii.

Of Silver, Lead , and uickftlver found in Cornwall.

I T is reported that Edward I. and Edward III. reaped confider- sect.i.

able benefit from the silver found in thefe parts, since which ° f fllver - several gentlemen have searched for the fame metal at several times, but without fuccefs ' ; and in the fifteenth century, one Mr. Burchard Craneigh, a German, seems to have had the direction of fome mines carried on to raise this valuable metal ; he fet up a refininghoufe alfo in the hundred of Weft fome little time before Mr.

Carew's writing, though with small advantage ". Silver found in Cornwall by itself, unmixed, (I mean, free from tin, copper or lead,)

I have never feen but once, and that was found native, about the bignefs of a walnut, (of which I have part,) in Huel-cock, a copper-work in the Parifh of St. Juft. It is indeed seldom that silver is found any where native w ; 'tis generally fo intermixed with stone, that it is not to be known but by men of experience x : 'tis usually mixed alfo with other metals, tho' ofteneft in a kind of black tony glebe, full of shining freaks : it has a corrosive sulphur or bitumen always attending it y . What may be mixed with the ore of copper has been hinted already in the foregoing page ; and if any unknown ore fumes and runs before it ignites, it is moft probably silver, and merits farther enquiry

Lead and tin were anciently reckoned only two different states sect. n. of one and the fame metal. Tin was called the Plumbum album, lead - and esteemed the purest ; and what we call Lead, was the Plumbum nigrum : but if thefe were really but two forts of one metal, as not only the ancients but fome moderns b have thought, then there would be different and intermediate states of purity and weight, whereas we find lead always of the fame determinate weight, lead being to water as 11345 to 1000, and tin always as 7321 to

1 Carew, page 7. and forty-five, and a fourth three hundred and

" Ibid, page 130. forty pounds weight. Pontop. parti. Englilh,

w Some furprizing instances however there are page 188. of this kind in the Norway silver-mines. In the Alonfo Barba, page 77, 78.

Royal Mufeum at Copenhagen, there is preferred r Boyle's Hydroft. balance,

a piece of native silver five hundred and fifty z Boyle ut fupr.

pounds weight, another piece two hundred and Plin. lib. xxxiv. chap. xvi.

seventy-nine pounds weight, another two hundred b Clerk's Phyf. page 136.

H h h

1000,

Natural History

1000, or as y-'-Xt 0 lC: Befides, lead will diHolve in acids, but tin, like gold, in aqua regia only. Lead therefore and tin are two metals radically diftindt, each constant to its own peculiar specific weight, and requiring a different menfiruum from the other. Lead is of great ufe, not only in sheets, pipes, or more solid fubftances, but for refining other metals, for making paints, varnifhing pottery-ware, for yielding oils, tinctures, and fome other affiffances in phyfic ; lead will alio yield silver, and fome lead a quantity very profitable to the owner.

sect. hi. of this metal many mines have been anciently and lately worked

Mines of Cornwall d , and in many places it is discovered among other

wall. metals but in too small quantities to yield much profit. The mines at Penrofe, near Helfton, have been wrought above two hundred years, and have yielded tolerable profit within theft thirty years ; the ore is mostly of that fort called Potter's ore, but sometimes yellow e . Dr. Woodward (vol. II. page 29) gives a very advantageous character of the ore found at Guarnek, in the parish of St. Allen, near Truro. " It was a blue lead ore, very rich in silver, perhaps beyond any in England besides : this ore, when only defied, fells for eight pounds a ton, which is about the value of lead itself ; one of the proprietors, and fome of the workmen, averred, that a ton of this lead yields one hundred and forty ounces of silver : the vein of ore was about a foot over, but in fome parts near three feet, and about fifteen fathom deep."

sect. iv. Lead is for the moft part of a greyifh blue colour in the mine, featfores 110 muc unlike what it is in the metallic state. Of this kind there are several forts ; as, first, potter's or teflellated ore, confifting of a shining, rectangle, tabulated ftrudlure, and always breaking into granules of like parallelopiped shape ; and, when lead is cheap, this ore, well cleaned, is worth about fix pounds a ton. This is found in Sithney, Cambom, and many other parts of Cornwall. Secondly, that which is of a flaky, smooth, and glofiy texture, not breaking into cubical dies, but more ponderous, and therefore containing more lead. Thirdly, a very clofe-grained ore, breaking into an uneven sparkling surface like a grey tiflue, very rich in silver. This is scarce in Cornwall f .

c Boerh. by Shaw, page 59. d 1 ° the parishes of St. Meran, Boconek, Piran- Sands, St. Agnes, Crowan, Sithney, Gwinear, St. Ifly, St. Columb, Ulogan, and Camborn. The works moft noted formerly, are thofe of Penrofe, Penwortey, Trevafcus, Reliftian, and Guarnek. See Woodward's Cat. vol. I. page 217, 218, and vol. II. page 30.

" Woodward's Cat. vol. II. page 28, line 7,2.

f Some of it was fent me from the works at Beerferris in Devonfhire, and I have it alfo from Cardiganfhire in Wales. There is a mock-lead very shining, and like the true of this colour ; the irregular shape and texture of its granules, and its want of weight, will discover it. By fire, it will divide into a powder, which may be ftrewed upon writing.

Lead

OF CORNWALL. mt

Lead is sometimes found fo involved and hidden in fpar, that) were it not for its eminent weight, no metal would be fufpeded. Some of this Ipar is like a pumice-stone s , fome granulated, others of a fibrous ftriated texture, like the fplinters of a bone glewed together, and of a brownish colour h ; fome of a tabulated crystal, making little or no effervefcence with aqua forth , of a whitifii ochrous colour, transparent ' ; another fort of white transparent fpar in ftraightlined columnar ftrice , from Cardiganfhire in Wales, of which we have fome alfo in England. Some ores of this metal are cavernous, in green crystals, which are scarce : at Mifnia, in Germany, it is found in beautiful colours, in Mendip hills Somerfetfbire, in Denbighfhire, and at Penros in Cornwall Of like fort, but in a more ochrous feeder, I have feen lead-ore broke in the tenement of Nanikeg, in Illogan parifli, bedded in a yellow clay of the exad colour of sulphur, without any other fulphureous fign but that of colour, very heavy, and reckoned rich in lead. This laft ore is variegated in St. Iffy works, Cornwall We have alfo in Cornwall a foliaceous talky kind of lead-ore, but what I have feen is light in comparison, and of lefs beauty than the ftriated talky lead-ore from Ireland, which is white, fpeckled with purple, and exhibits very elegant specimens. Lead is seldom, fome think never found in a native, that is, in a metallic state ; but Dr. Woodward m has given us an account of one specimen of this kind, and Linnaeus has native lead found in Germany, which he calls Plumbum nudum (Syft. Nat. page 184, N°. I.) Lead is alfo faid to be found compleat and malleable in a mine of the ifiand Jamaica. It is however very scarce, and in general, if lead-ore will yield three parts in four of the metal, {viz. seventy-five out of one hundred) it is reckoned very rich, but if it yields only forty out of one hundred, it is not worth working, unless eafy to come at. Lead-ore may be very rich in lead, and yet not afford one grain of silver ; and, on the other hand, the ore which, is poor in lead, does sometimes yield silver plentifully. As to the potter's ore, the finaller the grains the more silver they are likely to contain, and vice verfd n ; but where-ever silver is found incorporated with lead, extrading the silver does by no means impoveri£h it ; if the aflay be Ikilfully performed, it leaves the lead in a better and more useful state than it was before 0 ; but lead is very apt to confume and lofe of its weight every time it is melted ; upon this, and many other accounts therefore, it requires a ikilful hand to make the moft of it.

£ From Turky. h From Tipperary, in Ireland.

1 From Ireland.

k See Woodward's Cat. vol. II. page 28.

1 Ibid. vol. I. page 217. m Ibid. vol. II. page 28, 1 . 23.

Grew's Muf. R. S. page 329.

0 Sir Hum. Mack worth, page 41.

Our

lead

212 Natural History

sect. v. Our lead-veins in Cornwall generally run eaft and weft, but are Lodes of not large in dimenftons, nor fo lifting as the veins of this metal in fome parts of Wales, in Derby fire, and other parts of England, and seldom or never yield much lead, excepting when they are crafted by other lodes, and then they make what the miners call a Bunch, or bank of ore, juft in the place where the fiflures interfed:. Tho' this be the general course of lead-veins with us, yet the widest and richest lodes of this metal which we have in Cornwall, are observed, as I have been informed, to run north and fouth. Lodes ol lead in Britain, fays Pliny p , when exhausted, after resting awhile, are replenifhed with the fame ore. The matter of fad is much to be questioned ; yet if there be fuch fucceftive renovations, it cannot be from the air, as he imagines, but from the water, which circulates the contents of the adjacent Jlrata , and depofttes them in the retentive hollows and fiflures of the mine. Lead does not throw itself into fuch a variety of figures as tin ; the only regular ftiape in which I have yet feen lead-ore in Cornwall, is that or the parallelopiped kind, called the Dice, or teflellated ore : three of thefe in their natural fize, are infected Plate xx. Fig 5 , xxxm, xxxiv, and xxxv ii. (the largest grain of lead I have feen) ; and, lor the fatiffacfion of the curious, two specimens of the Tipperary lead are added, Fig 3 , xxxv and xxxvi, ibid.

sect. vi.

Little wrought in Cornwall.

Though lead has been discovered in fo many parts of this county, we have not any one mine of note, excepting only in St. Iffy near Padftow, in present working, upon account only of the lead ; but as our grounds are fo fubjed: to this metal, and in fome places the ore is fo rich in silver and yet fo latent, difguifed, and, as appears from what has been faid before, of fuch various affociations, that no two Mils can be more unlike than fome forts of lead ore ; and as new difguifes, not here particularized, may occur to the curious, and particularly as the ore richest in silver has no more than the appearance of fpar, and sometimes common clay, the gentlemen of Cornwall have reason to be cautious that a great deal of this precious metal be not thrown away, as good for nothing, by the unlkilful miner, and that the several forts of lead-ore, as they are raised, be carefully examined, and separately tried ; and because few miners know or can diftinguifti lead, or will be at the pains of procuring proper information for their matters, when they meet with any thing new, it is much to be wished that gentlemen, who have property and leisure, would acquaint themleives with the eafy process of allaying metals, or would fubfcribe towards the maintaining a

p Lib. xxxiv, chap. xvii.

i See above of Guarnek.

general

Of Cornwall. 213

general aflay-mafler, who should not only be obliged to affay, but come to the fpot upon proper notice, and examine, at the fide of the mine, any new or likely product which the ground should afford. It might alfo be a part of his province to procure conflant quarterly information of the price of metals and ores at all foreign markets. It has been mentioned before r , that the true black lead, or molybdsena, is found in Cornwall ; and if a vein of this lead, which is found no where in Europe to any purpose but in the county of Cumberland, should offer, as is not unlikely, it is in fome danger of being neglected or thrown away, because it is neither tin, common lead, nor copper.

Quickfilver found in Cornwall I have not heard of, yet it is thought by fome mineralifls a Handing rule, that where copper abounds, there is always quickfilver Moff likely it is fo mixed and entangled with other bodies, that our miners, not feeing it liquid, never endeavour to discover it in the cinnabar or ore ; neither do they at all heed that quickfilver is found sometimes in hard Hones of a saffron, and blackifh colour c ; in both cafes it is very eafy for it to escape our labourers.

Chap. Xix.

Of Gold found in Cornwall.

I T has been queflioned whether there was ever any gold worth sect. 1.

notice in Britain ", and Cicero w fays, that, according to his in- Of gold formation, there was neither gold nor silver in Britain ; but Strabo J™. ly and Tacitus y , who muH have had better information, confess both, and the latter intimates, that thefe precious metals were the Roman motives to conquer Britain 2 . Mr. Carew informs us, page 7, (and Camden from him) that fome little quantities of gold were found in his time, but fo inconfiderable that they were usually fold for a few half-pence. Mr. Scawen, who writ near the middle of the laH century, fays, that " gold has been made out of the Cornifh tin-works." Mr. Boyle a observes, that " he had by him fome fine gold, which never endured the fire, taken out of tin-ore," moH likely from Cornwall ; for Sir Humphrey Mackworth b , in his pre-

r See page 130 of femunetals. J Vit. Agric. chap. xu.

See before of copper, page 208. z Fert Britannia aurum & argentum pretium

1 Boerh. page 76. viftorise.

u Mufgravc, vol. I. page 169. a Philof. Tranf. N°. xix. page 339, and ge-

w Ad Famil. tom I. lib. vii. epift. Vii. edit. neral heads, page 39.

Elze. & Hack. 1676. b Curiofities of England, page 24.

x Lib. xv.

face,

Sect. Ii.

Of late farther discovered.

2I+ Natural History

face, fays, " the tinners of Cornwall do now frequently find little quantities of gold and silver among the tin-ore, and Queen Ann (1702) granted a patent to Mr. Robert Lydall of Truro, for feparating gold and silver from tin by precipitation in a reverberatory furnace by fome peculiar fluxes.

Thefe difeoveries have been lately advanced : in 1 7 53, fome persons % of the parish of St. Stephen's Branel, streaming for tin in the parish of Creed, near the borough of Granpont, and perceiving fome grains of a yellow colour, very small, but yet fo heavy as to refill the water, culled out fome of the largest grains, and carried the tin to a melting-house near d ruro. The gold was in fuch plenty in this tin, that the melter, Mr. Walter Rofwarne, taking the gold at first lor mundic or copper, " blamed them for bringing it for fale without having first burnt it ; but, upon aflaying the ore, found it to make a very great produce, and exceedingly fine metal : the miners then took out of their pockets several pieces of pure gold, and one stone as large as a walnut, with a pure vein of gold in the middle of the stone, about the bignefs of a goose quill ; the clear bits of gold, and that in the stone, were then aflayed, and produced juft an ounce of pure gold d ." The tinners became afterwards more attentive to what was mixed with their ftream-tin, and at several times are fuppofed to have fold somewhat considerable. This piece of good fortune not remaining any long time a secret, the tinners in the adjacent parishes of St. Stephen's Branel, St. Eue ', and St. Meuan , followed their example, and have rather had better fuccefs this way. At Luny, in the parish of St. Eue, James Gaved, a streamer there, found native gold immersed in the body of a blue fandy flat : " He has alfo feen gold (as he fays) kerned about fpar, that is, fixed and concreted on the quartz 6 ; but it is very rare to find it thus incorporated. Mr. Rofwarne above-mentioned fufpe&s, as he informs me, that there is gold, more or lefs, in all ftream-tin in the county, having feen it in tin brought from St. Eue, Creed, St. Stephen's, St. Meuan, Probus, Kenwyn, and many other parishes. He has now by him one piece of pure gold, brought him by the forementioned persons, which weighs to the value of twenty-even {hillings, another that weighs in value seventeen {hillings : he has feen two or three bits from Probus which weighed about fifteen {hillings, intermixed with white fpar or quartz : I have one which weighs half a guinea ; but the largest piece found in Cornwall, which has reached my notice, is that in the pofleflion of William Lemon, Efq; of Carclew, which weighs in gold-coin three pounds three

c Charles and Samuel T rethewy. 'At Luny.

d Letter from Mr. Rofwarne, February nth, f At Trelowa. jneS In Cornwall called Spar.

75 {hillings,

Of Cornwall. 215

shillings, or fifteen pennyweights and fifteen grains, brought him in the latter end of September 1756. The dimensions "of this piece of gold may be feen Plate xxi. where Fig. xxv fhews the thickness, and Fig. xxvi the fide-view or width of this piece of pure gold ; and from the comprefled shape, Fig. xxv, it appears to have come from a vein half an inch wide at a medium. On each fide it has a light-brown, fatty earth, which is the only impurity it is mixed with. It was found in the parish of Creed, near the borough of Granpont.

That gold lies sometimes fo intermixed with tin was not unknown to the ancients ; Pliny (lib. xxxv. chap, xvi.) gives us a plain account of thefe metals being found together in the fame manner as we find them now in Cornwall, the tin in calculi , (that is, smooth, pebbly ore) of the fame gravity as the ore of gold and separated by fearing. cc Separantur canijlris ," fays he, (not caminis y as in fome editions) that is, by baskets of the lame nature and ufe as our fearces. Befides this detached gold, gold is alfo immured, if I may fay fo, in tin ; the tin-crystals, Fig. xx, xxi, and xxn. Plate xx. have not only jlammulce or parks, but alfo freaks of gold ; gold has the fame appearance sometimes in foreign parts. At Wunfiedel, in the margraviate of Baireuth in Germany, tin-grains of various colours, holding particles (Jlammulce) of native gold, are not uncommon h ."

This late difeovery of gold in Cornwall is therefore neither with- sect. in. out former precedents, nor at present of any great importance ; it Difcoveries is in its infancy, though known one thousand leven hundred years er atten r " since ; and, if pursued, will at leaf! gain my countrymen the credit tion. of industry, if it should not produce the profit which industry deserves. Some circumstances in this difeovery, however, may well claim our farther attention. Firft, This gold found in the parishes above-mentioned, is always intermixed with grains of tin -ore, which, by their roundnefs and fmoothnefs, fhew that they have been washed down from the neighbouring hills. Is it not likely then that the fame hills contain gold as well as tin, each in their mineral state ? for native gold fixed in the stone, and veining it, as well as in leparate grains, is now found in Cornwall ; and native metal is but the accidental defecation of the ore by fubterraneous menjlrua . In America gold is found in veins ' as other metals are found here with us, and it is moft likely that the gold-duft found in Africa and Afia, in the hands of brooks and rivers, all comes from the veins in the hills adjacent, though not worked by the ignorant Moors and In-

Tin purified is the lighteft of metals, but in 26, 1755. the ore the heaviest. Alonzo Barba of Oruro mines, page 75.

h Letter from Mr. E. Dacofta, F. R. S. June

dians.

2 1 6 Natural History

dians. Should not therefore all uncommon ores near thefe places be well examined, not only by washing, but by the more ceitain cri tenons of quickfilver, fire, and the hydroftatic balance ? Our dreamers know indeed native gold, but gold is not always apparent to the eye ; sometimes it is found in brooks, as in Larecaja in Amer lean Spain k , in colour and shape like small fhot (the ore being fmoothed and rounded by the agitation of water as our tin-grains) ; of theie they melt away the outward coat, and then the granules are or a red colour : Sometimes gold is found in the clefts of rocks , o: a grey colour on the ou tilde like unto lead : Sometimes the ore of gold well powdered muft be tried and coheded by quickfilver, cr great lofs will enfue, and the gold be washed away. Again : Gold is often found mixed and incorporated with other metals ; with copper often, with silver ftill oftner, and sometimes infected in tin crystals, but mostly bedded in diverse forts of stones m , and sometimes to the depth of one hundred and fifty fathoms.

It may be worth while therefore for people to acquaint themselves with thefe different appearances of this moft precious metal ; and since we are convinced by thefe late discoveries, that we have more gold in Cornwall than was ever formerly imagined, it may reasonably be fufpeded, that in our Copper and tin, in the state of ore, and for want of a proper commixture of quickfilver, a great deal more escapes us than we coiled:. Laftly, in working the mines of thofe hills in St. Stephen's, St. Meuan, and St. Eue, for which there is fuch apparent encouragement, careful and intelligent persons should be appointed to fuperintend the bottoms ; besides, the brooks and rivers, which run from thofe hills, might probably pay well for searching.

sect. iv. Before I finish this treatise of metals, I cannot but take notice Mountains that feme learned men, observing moft mines to be on riding grounds, tothTpro- 17 have thence concluded that mountains were necefiary to the production of dudion of metals 5 and Mr. Ray (Creat. page 216) doubts whether there can be any generation (as he calls it) of metals and minerals in perfedly plain and level countries ; with fubmifiion, there is very little reason for this doubt. A mountain, quatenus fuch, has no more to do with generating minerals than a valley ; it cannot be owing to its shooting up into the air that it becomes metallic ; the unevennefs of the outward surface of the earth can have no effed this way : if there be any generation, it muft be owdng to the concurring materials contained in the bowels of the mountain, materials as well spread in the lowest valleys ( though perhaps somewhat deeper immersed) as in the highest hills, and as apt to unite and form a body of ore in the one as in the other : in short, metals are

k Al. Barba, page 74.

1 In Coroico, ibid.

m Ibid, difpofed

Of Cornwall. 217

difpofed in fuch particular didridls as it pleased God (who divides his different blefiings among the different parts of his world ) to distribute them, and in fuch parts of thefe didridts they are found as they were either originally lodged in, or have been transferred to, accumulated, and deposited in by after-movements ; and we find in Cornwall (where we have no hills which deserve the name of Mountains) our lodes, in low as well as riding grounds, stored with metals, without any regard to the height of the one, or depreflion of the other : It is true, hills and mountains facilitate the discovery and raising of metals, but cannot increase them where they are, more than the lowed: valleys, (the inward ftrudture of the fir at a being nearly alike) much lefs generate them where they are not.

If there be any superiority with relpedt to metals, it mud in all reason be to the advantage of the lower grounds ; for where- ever the waters percolate, they may translate in fome degree the metallic particles, and it muff be from the higher to the lower, not from the lower to the higher parts of the strata.

Chap. Xx.

Vegetables of the Land and Sea.

T HE oak, afh, and elm, and other forest trees in Cornwall, sect. 1.

are madly fituated round the dwellings of the inhabitants ; State of in other counties, the willows in the vale, and the beech and other general in tall trees upon the hills, adorn the whole county : it is otherwise in porefTtrees. Cornwall ; but this deficiency is not owing to any incapacity of foil, or fournefs of climate, but to this ; that hulbandry and planting, which separates counties into fields and inclofures, came late into ufe here in Cornwall, and have not yet prevailed upon the planter, at lead in the wedernmod parts, to surround his meadows with poplar, willow, or alder, or edge his hills with elm, oak, and beech. There are fome other reasons why we have few large plantations in Cornwall. All the Duke of Cornwall's ancient parks* in which there was (according to the old manner) a great number of forced-trees, and much cope, being difparked by Henry VIII. upon a fuppofition that the ground would turn to better account in tillage, the wood was dedroyed ; but, by fome mifmanagements, the royal intent was never answered. Another reason of the scarcity of woods is, that blowing of tin (that is, melting it with wood fire n ), has much diminished and confused our wood by charming ; the manner of melting tin-ore with pit-coal having not been pradfifed

Nine, I think, in number.

Kkk

See page 182.

more

218 Natural History

more than fifty years. Another reason of the scarcity of wood in Cornwall is, that fome of our ancient woods are now covered with the fea as particularly between Ramhead and Loo, and, in the weft, betwixt Penzance and St. Michael's Mount, and very likely on fome of our other strands. However, fome small woods, or rather large plantations, we have in Cornwall, which are mostly fttuated in the valleys adjacent to our four great rivers, viz. the Tamar, Fawy, Fal, and Alan ; cultivation beginning, as is moft likely, and gentlemen of fortune building their feats on the banks of rivers for delight and convenience. In thefe situations therefore we have fome old woods ; at Godolphin there is a very ancient and extensive plantation round the house, as there are alfo at fome other ancient feats, and at present no gentleman builds without allotting a proportion of ground to his forest-trees and gardens ; alio we have several plantations lately raised and laid out in a more unconfined and rural manner than was formerly the custom p ; fo that at present the taste for planting is general, and oak, elm, and other forest trees, but above all the several kinds of firs and pine, are propagated with great fuccefs. We muft not expetft indeed in our southern climate, that the fir will be of any great utility ; trees have their climates, and may live, but never come to perfection out of diem ; this tree in particular, though found foflil in fome parts of England q , covets the more northern colds, which compress and strengthen the fibres, and infpiftate the juices more than warmer climates can do ; and the firs in Cornwall (fome of fifty years standing) I have observed fhortfibred, the timber not refinous, smooth, nor well compacted, in no wife comparable to that of Norway. However, the fir-tree may be the winter garnish of our gardens, and at left compensate the culture by its continual verdure.. Several trees, unknown here in the laft generation, have alfo been introduced, and rife to the credit of the owners, as well as to the ornament of their groves. Among the reft, it should not be forgotten, that the plane-tree, of which the ancients were fo fond, which hiftory has thought it worth while to record as planted at Delphi by Agamemnon's own hand, which Xerxes thought worthy of a golden wreath, and dedicated solemnly to a peculiar deity, a tree whole several stages Pliny r has traced from Syria through the Grecian Ifiands, till it arrived in Italy, and palled thence to the western parts of Gaul -Let it not be forgotten, that this tree, fo defervedly celebrated, and for its broad leaf and

° See the Ancient and Prefent State of Scilly s Jn Lincolnfhire, Ray's Difcourfes, page 233, Ides, page 94, 95. and Staffordfhire, 237, ibid, and Lancafhire, Dr.

p At Anthony, Port Elliot, Trewithen, Tre- Leigh's Nat. Hift. gothnan, Carclew, Nanfwhydn, Tehidy, Clow- r Lib. xvi. chap xliv.

ance, Trelowarren, Trevetho, Enys, Caftlehornek, s About the time that Rome was fucked by the

and others, Gauls, lib. xii. chap. 1, ibid.

wide-

pa : 2 fp .

Of Cornwall. 219

wide-fprcading fade exceeding all the trees of the wood, was introduced into thefe western parts, about the year 1723, by the late worthy Sir John St. Aubyn of Clowance, Baronet. He found his paternal feat naked and fencelefs, bereaved of its old plantation 3 be applied himself to restore, and left it in a fair condition to rival the mold considerable planted grounds in the county.

Some accidental Angularities happen to our foreff-trees in Cornwall, as elsewhere. The a£h-tree has sometimes its leaves variegated with white, but having kept one several years, I could never perceive that it made healthy vigorous shoots, but the contrary.

The oak called Arundel's Oak, in Lanhadron park, in the parish of St. Eue, mentioned by Mr. Carew ', bore its leaves fpeckled with white, and, as the neighbourhood fancied, the leaves were never of one colour but immediately before the death of the Lord 3 but the moft remarkable alteration in the colour of leaves that I have heard of, is that which is reported to have happened to " an oak near the mansion-house in the park of Boconek u , in which King Charles I, when in Cornwall, fet up his standard : the leaves at this time were green, as in other oaks ; but, foon after the King's murder, changed mostly white, and continued fo till about thirty years since." The truth is, that the leaves of trees become variegated by fome infection communicated to their fap 3 when they imbibe the poison, fome obftruCtion, feeblenefs, and decay of their veffels ensues, and the juices are not fo duel fecreted and concocted as before.

Fruit-trees have been at lead as much cultivated of late years in sect. ii. Cornwall, as thofe of the forest. There is no gentleman now Fruit-trees.

' t O

without his peaches and nectarines, as good as any 3 the apricots do not thrive with us in the wefternmoft part 3 they bloffom well, and bear tolerably, after they are come to maturity, for a year or two, but never after 3 they have been tried in different foils, under good direction, and all kinds of Ihelter, but to little purpose 3 perhaps our air is too sharp and fait for them : Cherries, pears, and the more useful apple, have been cultivated to great advantage within our remembrance, and a great deal of cider made, which by proper choice of the fruit, and judicious racking the fettled juice, has been greatly altered for the better, as well as increased in quantity, within thele thirty years. In the. latter end of Elizabeth, Mr. Carew (a gentleman very intent upon the improvement of this county) seems

' Page 140, and from him by Mr. Norden, P a ge 57-

u Late Lord Mohun's, now belonging to Thomas Pitt, Efq;

w " This account, fays my author, (Mr. Cockran) in a letter, fent me about thirty years ago, he had from Mr. Dennis, Mr. Aubyn, and Mr. Alexander, (who was a justice of the peace) all

three gentlemen of estates, who have it from ancient people (whole families knew the oak before the King's death) and have themselves viewed it." Dr. Brown-Willis to the author, April the 15th,

The mulberry fruit does ripen well in the wefternmoft parts of Cornwall, as I have observed for thirty years laft paft.

to

SECT -III. Foflil-trees.

220 Natural History

to wonder why more vines are not planted in Cornwall, fo much nearer as we are to the southern fun than any other part of England ; but being more foutherly in situation is not the only thing requisite to vineyards ; our Autumn, which is the time for gathering grapes, is generally wet; then, our summers are never hot, (it being hotter in the moil: northern inland counties of England than with us) consequently they cannot ripen the juice to that flavour and spirit which making of good wines indifpenfably requires ; I much doubt therefore whether vineyards in Cornwall will ever answer. Hopgardens have been much improved of late years, and in many parts of the county supply the inhabitants with a fufliciency for their maltliquors ; but the major part of what is ufed, is imported from London.

From trees above ground, let us defend to the fubterraneous vegetables called Foflil-trees. In the year 1 740, Chriftopher Hawkins, Efq; of Trewinard, draining a marfliy piece of ground on the banks of the river Heyl in Penwith, found several pieces of oak, buried four feet deep or more under the surface, in a fait clay; one large flock of a tree about ten feet long, had no branches, its top part pointed to the downhill, the colour of it very black. The timber was hard and firm, and indeed timber never decays as long as the oil, one of the chief ingredients in the compofition of plants, is kept in its proper place; perpetual moisture effectually performs this ; but let the warm air exhale this oil, and the ligneous parts shall imbibe and evaporate their moisture, extending alternately, and then contracting and fhrivelling the tubular veflels : a separation then (in which all deftruCtion confifts) ensues, and the parts difunite, which were before glewed together by an inimitable mixture of oil, earth, and water. Land-floods feem to have loofened and overthrown thefe trees, and the adventitious foil, washed down from the neighbouring hills and tin-works by the river Heyl, (which has contributed to choak the harbour below) gradually interred thefe trees deeper after they were fallen. In fuch situations, that there should be foflil-trees is not to be wondered at, and I believe there are few fuch without them ; but we muft look out for other causes, where the circumstances of the ground, and the properties of the trees discovered, manifeftly differ. In the year 1750, John Roberts, of the parish of Senan, digging for tin near Velindreath, found, at the depth of thirty feet, an entire skeleton, about the bignefs of that of a large deer, but fuch a fet of bones as he had never before observed : The beat lay on its fide, and near it, in a line parallel to its vertebras, a proftrate tree of twenty feet long, about the diameter of a moderate man's waste ; great numbers of leaves

were

Of Cornwall.

were on the branches, home large, home small, and the impreffion of the leaves was plain in the earth. The tree was of the oak kind, and fo foft in home parts, that the shovel (luck in it, but extreamly hard at the knots and fours : not far from the skeleton, but unconnected, lay part of a deer's horn two feet and a half long, thicker than a man's arm-wrist, with the branched antlers to it ; one of the knobs v/as as big as a man's fift, but, as foon as this part- of the horn was touched, it crumbled to dull: ; one tooth which I have was taken from the skeleton, with several other pieces of deer's or elk's horn, found, in the fame place, in the year 1753, twenty feet under the surface. The Jlratum in which they lay was the fame shelly fand as that of the fea-ftrand adjacent for nine feet, then a fandy earth intermixed with small Hones, which the tinners call Cothan, (wherein the fand-tin is usually found) about a foot and a half above the karn. The qu eft ion here will naturally occur, how

this tree and the skeleton became interred together. There is no fign of a tree any where near this place, nor any record of fuch creatures as the elk or moose-deer ( to which thefe horns are moft usually ascribed ) having been ever in this country ; besides, although the horns of fuch creatures are sometimes found, " the bones of them are a rarity yet, by their lying in a parallel line, they muft have fallen together, and the fame violence likely that overwhelmed the beat muft have alfo proftrated the tree. This muft: therefore either have happened at the universal deluge, when the fame waters which 'had unfooted the tree, and drowned the creature, retiring, drew them both towards the ocean, or by fome hidden fubftdence of the fhelving part of the hill, when the land finking hurried away both the creature and the tree in one direction : to one of thefe causes the reader will probably afcribe this unusual phenomenon. The first may feem moft likely, because the tree and the creature are found deposited at that depth where tin-stones, rounded and dilperfed by the flood, are usually lodged ; and yet, that there was anciently a hidden fubftdence of the ground in thefe parts, has been a constant tradition for fome ages.

A third fort of fofiil-trees is sometimes discovered in lakes, bogs, and harbours, in whole groves together, and fome trees among the reft Handing as perpendicular as they grew. This is a phenomenon moft likely owing to the fubftdence of the ground,* it being no unusual accident ( sometimes perhaps by the undermining of the fea, as Mr. Ray imagines x , but oftener in earthquakes) for the ground to fink, and a lake of water (where there was dry and planted land ) to spring up and fill the cavity. On the ftrand of Mount's

Though I think it uncertain whether thefe fangs as the horns of the elk always have, horns belonged to the elk or the common flag of Theological Difcourfes, page 229.

°ur own country, they having no broad plated

Bay,

222 Natural History

Bay, midway betwixt the piers of St. Michael's Mount and Penzance, on the ioth of January 1757, the remains of the wood which, according to tradition, covered anciently a large trad of ground on the edge of Mount's Bay, appeared. The hands had been drawn off from the whore by a violent fea, and had left several places, twenty yards long and ten wide, washed bare, ftrewed with Bones like a broken causeway, and wrought into hollows somewhat below the reft of the hands : this gave me an opportunity of examining the following parts of the ancient trees : In the first: pool, part of the trunk appeared, and the whole course of the roots, eighteen feet long and twelve wide, was displayed in a horizontal pofttion ; upon fading round, we found the fand to be a thin layer only of ten inches deep, and then the natural earth appeared, in which the roots remained fo firmly fixed, that, with a pick and crow of iron, we could not get off one piece, but were content to faw off what we could come at. The trunk at the fracture was ragged, and by the level range of the roots which lay round it, was part of the body of the tree juft above its division into roots. Of what kind it was, there did not enough remain above the roots positively to determine : the roots were pierced plentifully by the teredo , or auger-worm. Thirty feet to the weft, we found the remains of another tree ; the ramifications extended ten feet by fix ; there was no ftock in the middle ; it was therefore part of the under or bottom roots of the tree, pierced alfo by the teredo , and of the fame texture as the first. Fifty feet to the north of the first tree, we found part of a large oak : it was the body of a tree three feet in diameter ; its top reclined to the eaft. In this much more solid wood, the teredo had made no lodgements ; we traced the body of this tree, as it lay fhelving, the length of even feet, but to what farther depth the body reached we could not discern, because of the immediate influx of water, as foon as we had made a pit for discovery. The earth reached within fix inches of the surface of the hands ; but fo firmly rooted was the tree, that no fledge could move it : not fo fixed was the ftock of a willow-tree, with the bark on, one foot and a half diameter, within two paces of the oak, where, upon endeavouring to cleave oft a part of the willow, the earth hook fo much under the people at work, that they were "in fome doubt whether they had beft to proceed : the timber of the willow was changed into a ruddy colour by lying fo long in fait water. Hard by, we found part of a hazel-branch with its fat lofty bark on. The earth in all the tried places appears to be a black, cold, march earth, covered only with a thin layer of fand, but very little intermixed. In it we found fragments of the leaves of the Juncus equations max wins ; and had any flowers

appeared,

Of Cornwall. 223

appeared, they would have pointed out the feafon of the year when all thefe vegetables were interred, but I could find none.

The place where I found thefe trees was three hundred yards below full-fea-mark ; the water is twelve feet deep upon them when the tide is in. Thefe several phenomena will enable us to draw from them fome interesting observations.

Firft, That the body of thefe trees mull have flood at lead: twelve feet higher than at present; consequently there has been a fublidence on thefe whores, and the ground has funk more than twelve feet.

Secondly, Thefe foffil-trees diffidently confirm the tradition of thefe parts, that, where the hands are now firetching three miles in length, and a furlong (when the spring-tide has retired to its full extent) in breadth, from the town of Penzance to St. Michael's Mount, there was formerly a wood y .

Thirdly, From the different levels of thefe vegetable remains, the body of the oak being many feet deeper than the undermoft roots of the second tree, it is plain that this fublidence could not have been equal in all its parts j the land funk in fome places more, in fome lels (as is usually the cafe in all fubfidences, occafioned either by earthquakes, or by the fea's exhausting the Jirata , as Mr. Ray imagines, or by whatever other cause 2 ), the fubfidence being in proportion to the depth of the cavities underneath, as well as according to the folidity and texture of the hell above.

Fourthly, This fubfidence of the earth had different tendencies in its several parts ; the first tree seems to have preferred its perpendicular situation, and to have leant only a little forward towards the fouth, but the oak defends obliquely into the fand with its top reclining to the eaft ; the motion therefore, which occafioned the fubfidence, was undulating.

Fifthly, The ground which funk, appears to have been a fwarthy, marfhy plain of land, not much unlike the lower lands of Gulval and Ludgvan, parishes adjoining, covered thick with trees of the oak, hazel, and willow, at leaf!, if there was not a greater variety.

Sixthly, This fubfidence having happened fo many ages (probably near a thousand years) since a , without being followed by any succeeding convulfions or depreffions of the earth since that time, (as far as we can learn) intimates to us, that where there are fuch fubfidences at the time of earthquakes, there is lefs danger of return, than where there are none ; the caverns below, from which the momentum proceeded, being filled and choked up by the falling in of the earth, and consequently fucceffive earthquakes are not to be dreaded ; but where there are no fubfidences, or very small

r Leland Itin. vol. III. page 7. Carew, page 3. 3 See observations on the ScilJy Ifles, page ibid.

Obfervations on the Scilly Ifles, page 92, &c. ut supra.

See page 158 and 159 before.

and

224 . Natural History

and partial ones, in proportion to the agitations of the eartn, as was the cafe of Lifbon in the late dreadful earthquake of November 1 7 5 5) caverns continue open as before, and the inflammable matter is at liberty to range, ferment, and expand itself, and consequently produces new and frequent emotions of the earth, and that this is likely ftill to be the cafe till the cavernous pafiages below are closed up by the fubddence of the grounds near the surface,

Laftly, Thefe fwampy pits of marfli earth retaining their moisture, protected as they are from all exhalation by the fea and hands above them, are in the date of quagmires ; and when the hands are difperfed and thinned, (as will happen by the dorms and the outhall of the fea) the quagmire is not sufficiently covered : this is the reason that thefe and other hands are occadonally quick and finking, and give way to any incumbent predure ; but the hands in this place are never dangerous, as they are in other places, where the interred bogs are more lax and deeper .

SECT. in. From trees let us defend to flirubs. It is fuggefted that the Of flirubs. sweet-brier, or eglantine c , does not grow naturally in Cornwall , but this is a great midake, as, from experience, I can aver, having plucked this perfumed plant out of the hedges in the neighbourhood of Mount's Bay, and transplanted them into my own garden, where they dower in as great perfection as any where, and may be easily multiplied by feeds, dips, or cuttings, dhe furze-bufh (01 ulex) grows in great plenty, and affords cheap fuel to the poor. We have two forts of it, one a dwarf-furze of a small prickle and branch, in the coarfed, hallowed foil, which we call Cormfh furze, never growing three feet high, dowering in autumn; the other dve, fix, and eight feet high, more woody, thriving bed in a deeper and more tenacious foil, this makes a more lading and mercer dre ; we call it French furze ; it is the genifta fpinofa vulgaris d , and bloffoms in the spring. Its leaves are of a deep green, and its yellow dowers fo numerous and sweet, that iome gentlemen have raised hedges of it in their gardens, but the leaves are foon cad, and the hedge grows bare and dicky, fo that experience, I think, does not favour the attempt. Among the Cormfh furze is great plenty of the common heath, (or erica) a plant which by its roots makes the turves cut up for fuel much tne better, but its branches impede and weaken the furze. The Danes drew an intoxicating liquor from the erica , and fome think they accounted it fo precious as to ereCt lines of large dones for boundaries to limit the properties of this plant

4 See page 75.

Rofa filveftris foliis odoratis, Ray. Stirp. Brit, page 454. 3ded.

4 Ray, ibid, page 4.75.

Hift. of Cork, vol II. page 358.

The

Of Cornwall. 225

The great esteem in which the ancient Cornifh held the Elder (or fambucus) is very remarkable ; the Cornu-britifti words for it are fcau and fcauan , and hence we have many villages', and two ancient families s denominated. It may at first feem to be owing to the general scarcity of trees that even this humble shrub was thought conflderable enough to give name to fo many places ; but if we confider the great virtue of this plant in all its several parts and stages, we shall be convinced that few shrubs deserve a greater regard. It is very hardy, enduring all weather, fuiting all foils, eaflly propagated by feeds and cuttings : the medicinal ufe of its leveral parts is extraordinary ; its leaves, buds, blolfoms, berries, pith, wood, and bark, have more virtues than can poflibly have room here without entering into too minute a detail ; the following are moft obvious, and moft generally applied to for relief : The buds and leaves, as foon as they appear, are gathered to make baths, fomentations, and cataplafms for wounds, and are a remedy for inflammations, &°c. As foon as the flower-buds come on, they serve to make a pickle of very good flavour; the flowers at their opening, infused, communicate their taste and fell to vinegar ; infused, and let to stand in beft Florence oil, excellent to be laid over bruises and external fwellino-s, and, taken internally, very healing and cooling: the flowers, in their natural state, are very fudorific, and aflwage pains ; distilled with Ample water make a sweet, cooling wafh for the face in summer, which takes off inflammations of the eyes as a collyrium , is good for the wind in children, and a very innocent vehicle in fevers; distilled on spirits it aflwages cholical pains in adult persons ; and there is a spirit to be drawn from the elder, which the late Duke of Somerlet (who married the heiress of Piercy) took for the gout, as I have been informed, with fuccefs. When the berries are ripe, they make a very wholesome syrup in colds and fevers ; and fome make wines of them, by mixing rhenifh or other white wines h . Of the younger happy branches, the bark pared o£F clofe to the wood makes a false efficacious beyond moft others for fcalds ; this inner bark is allb very falutary in Dropfles, fays Mr. Ray ; the wood is clofe-grained, sweet, and cleanly, and beyond any other chosen by butchers for Ikewers, as left affedling their flesh : it is very beautiful alfo for turner's-ware and fingering, and, for toys, of as neat a polifti as box, and the very pith of this useful shrub is proper to cool, and make ulcers and wounds digest. More ufes than thefe may occur by way of medicine,

f Bofcauan-ros, and Bofcauan-un in St. Berian parifli ; two called by the name of Penfcauan in St. Enodor ; Enyfcauan in St. Denis ; Lefcauan in Sheviock ; Fenton-fcauan, name of a water in St. Ives ; Trefcau formerly the moft considerable village in the Scilly Ifles ; Trefcau in Breg, &c.

£ That of the Right Honourable Lord Vifcount Falmouth, called Bofcawen, and the Scawens of Molinik in St. Germans, and of Carlhalton in Surrey.

h Ray de Sambuco paluftri.

M m m

but

226 NATURAL HISTORY but the above are perhaps more than sufficient to fhew that the Cornu-britons did not denominate places and persons from this seemingly contemptible shrub without great propriety : its peculiar properties are not to be wondered at, though numerous ; they are indeed chiefly medicinal, and thofe of other plants are sometimes principally nutritious and domestic. Nature has differently distributed her bounties among plants, and placed them together sometimes in great numbers. The palm-tree, as Strabo fays, has 360 ufes, and the cocoa or coker-nut-tree yields wine, bread, milk, oil, sugar, fait, vinegar, tindtures, tans, spices, thread, needles, linen-cloth, cups, diflies, baskets, mats, umbrella's, paper, brooms, ropes, fails, and almost all that belong to the rigging of a fhip ' , if we may believe Fr. Hernandez and other authors. Befldes this Sambucus aquatilis feu paluftris , we have another fort, which we call Scau-an-Cuz, or the Elder of the wood, fome call it the Maiden Elder k . Its ufes have not been hitherto discovered to be as various and falutary as thole of the foregoing, but its wood is more flexile, and will divide lengthways as perfectly almost as whalebone, and is thereiore much Greenhoufe coveted by joyners. Greenhoufe shrubs may be preferred in Cornwall & rubs - with lefs care and attendance than in any part of England, and without any artificial heat. Myrtles even of the tendered: kind, as the striped small leaved, the double flowering, and the reft, (all which are greenhouse plants in other parts of England) we keep out all winter, yet in the summer they flower plentifully ft. Geraniums and jeffamins stand out all the winter, unless when the cold is extream, and then they muft be housed till the severity of the weather is over, when they may out again. In the month of January, 1737, tuberofes in the dwell ing-house at Ludgvan, jonquils and the small pearl-aloe in the garden, were in high bloflom ; but the general mildnefs of the Cornifti air cannot be better evidenced than by the great American aloe which bloffomed in the garden of Mr. George Keigwin of Moufhole in Mount's Bay in the year 1757, and at the writing of this 1 ftill survives. This plant is common in hot climates, and, though it seldom bloffoms, is well known to the learned in this ; but as this is the first instance of its bloftoming in England in the natural earth, I shall describe and trace it. It was planted in the natural earth in the year 1724, and having flood thirty-three winters without the left covering, on the 9th of June, 1757, the flower-talk began to emerge from among the middlemoft leaves. The talk was round and taper, and beet with small marginal alternate leaves, above which was the infection of each branch, as

1 Ray's Hiftory of Plants, lib. xxi. chap. vir. stands altogether in natural ground, and yet in its and Creation, page 208. feafon is covered with flowers — the fame may be

k Qu. an fambucus humilis Raii. faid of many others.

The Phlomis firuticofa falvise folio latiore et Agave, Litinxi. rotundiore, Tourn. ( vulgo fage of Jerufafem ) 1 February 1758.

Fig.

Of Cornwall. 227

Fig. xl. c, d , Plate xx. page 186. It ftiot above live inches at a medium in twenty-four hours for the first month, but gradually lefs as it approached the fummit. On the 21ft day after its appearance the top of the talk was fourteen feet from the ground, in which stage of growth I give it Plate xx. Fig. xxxvm. On the 4th of Auguft the principal parts were all formed, (as Fig. xxxix. ibidem) the leaves fix feet high ; their spread eleven feet ; circumference of the talk at the top of the leaves fifteen inches ; from the ground to the under branch ten feet : the branches were thirty-eight in number ; they extended from the talk at a medium two feet, each branch shooting from above one of the marginal leaves or appendixes ; at the extremity of each branch was its bunch of flowers, which confifted of even or eight pedimculi ; on each peduncle there were from fourteen to forty-even pods, very like the white lilly pods : the pods on one branch we had the curiosity to number, and they amounted in all to two hundred and nineteen; the bunch of flowers on each branch appeared September 16, as b , Fig. xl. ibid. The corolla, or fyftem of generative parts, C, C, Fig. xli. ibid, is of the natural fize ; it was of a light-green colour ; 0, is the capfula , filled with clear water, sweet as hony : the top of the capfula is divided into fix petals in the shape of fingers, which grasp the piftil g, riding out of the center of the capfula , surrounded with fix filaments e , and on the point of each filament one anthera, covered with the farina , as f f all of a bright Naples-yellow colour. September the fifteenth the talk, with the flowers on the top, was twenty-one feet fix inches high, having grown only four inches in height from the fourth of Auguft : the undermoft branches were now nearly in full blofiom, the upper ones more backward ; the outmoft leaves of the plant next the ground were a little flaccid and difcoloured, a prelude to the approaching decay; for, as thefe fconces (fo fome have called the flower-branches) fucceflively break forth into weighty bunches of rich yellow flowers ; the accent of fap is fo copious, that the perfpiratory duds, and the other neceflary vefiels of vegetation, become too diftended ever to recover their former tone ; the root alfo (none of the moft robust) by the continual duty of supplying fuch quantities of moisture for the flowers, is worn out, and the stately plant bloflbms but once, (as if the produdion was too precious to be repeated) then languifhes and dies; but its decay is flow and and commenfurate to the time it takes up in putting forth its flowers. On January 10, 1758, about fifteen of the under branches had dropped their feed-pods, the uppermoft ftill retaining theirs ; the talk not much shrunk, and the succulent leaves next the ground as frefti as three months before ; fome have lived twelve

228 Natural History

months from their beginning to flower . Of this plant the Icon was published by Camerarius in his Hortus Medicus , but the elevation defective, and the corolla lefs exactly, tab. v : ftill worse by Hernandez, page 270, chap, xn : by Bradley alfo (in his 2 d Decad. page 1, of succulent plants) far from accurately, the pet ala of the corolla , being too large and ill shaped, the filaments and cmtherce too short and small. I have given the several parts in proportion by scale annexed, and the corolla in its natural fize, PI. xx. Fig. xli. This plant is of great ufe in America™, serving the poor Indians for almost all the necefiary purposes of life, but in thefe northern climates is cultivated rather for curiosity than advantage.

sect. iv. As to our garden and culinary plants (that we may now proceed Herbs, roots from shrubs to their inferior herbs and roots), they not only come and flowers. ear u f e [ n the spring, but with little care fubfift all the winter;

and when pot-herbs of all kinds are destroyed by severe fronts in the more eastern counties, the tables of the gentry in Cornwall are plentifully supplied. Efculent roots alfo enjoy the mildnefs of our winter, and remain untouched with canker or front till the fuccedaneous plants of the spring make them lefs necefiary. I find the northernmoft Hundred of Stratton was remarkable, in the reign of Elizabeth, for its plenty of garlick ; "the countryman's treacle, fays Mr. Carew n , which they vent not only in Cornwall, but in many other fires."

Every thing that belongs to the flower-garden, and grows in any part of England, will thrive and flourish here, as the late accomplished and courteous Philip Rafhleigh Efq; of Menabilly did formerly manifest, and his present After, Mrs. Hawkins, (widow of the late Reverend Dr. Hawkins of Pennans) now at Pencoit, can satisfy the moft curious. Our winters are usually fo favourable that they are a general encouragement, fuch few roots mifcarrying thro' front, and spring flowers {hooting fo luxuriant. April 27, 1756, perceiving a number of flowers upon the ftem of a polyanthos* I had the curiosity to pluck off the talk, and found it to contain on it 353 flowers, fo well does this plant deserve the name of polyanthos, or the ftem with many flowers 0 .

sect.v. Among herbaceous plants here, I will not pretend to give any Plants in n on-defcript fome, the moft useful, and moft pernicious which Hill' and ' have reached my notice, their files and properties, with the rare hedge-plants pj ants 0 p t-pj s county, published by Mr. Ray, or collected by Mr.

This was blown down by a form February manis modus; innumeri pene funt ulus." Hcr- Ii, 1758. nandez, ibid, ut supra.

m " Planta hsec unica, quicquid vitse efle potent 11 Page 118. neceffarium prteftare facile poffet fi efl'et rebus hu- ° Of grains, fee in chap. vii. page 46.

Lhuyd,

P1Xxitt.

Of Cornwall. 229

Lhuyd, will be sufficient for my purpose ; thofe who are further curious, and would have this article treated of more foientifically, I mu ft refer to fome person who will fmgly apply himself to this extenRve science, and track it not only through all the different Rtuations of this county, (where poffibly his pains may be rewarded by fome not only rare but new plants) but through* the now encreating volumes of herbals, as well as the mountains and vallies of foreign countries.

N°. 1. Of the hill and hedge plants, I find a kind of mercury p with leaves like fpinage : it is fo effectual in the cafes of fore or broken breaRs of women, that by a false made of it, a Lady of the parish of Ludgvan cured in a short time a bread: ' which had nineteen holes in it.

N°. 11. Arfmart (in this Church-town) diflilled has been found r to be better for gravelly complaints than a great variety of drugs taken with conftancy, but to little purpose.

N". in. The ufes of camomel are well known ; it is common in Cornwall on every hill almoR, as well as the banks of rivers, but more especially in green spots, where the heath and furze which surround them have not as yet spread their roots : it thrives alfo in our gardens, whither it is transplanted because of its fell, and strengthening emetick tea : it is placed among the rare plants of Cornwall by Mr. Ray s , and entituled Chamcemelum odoratifs . repens

flore Jimplici , J. B. - - nobile feu odoratius , C. B. Romanum Ger.

We have it with the double flower as well as the single, and equally scented.

N°. iv. u The fir-leafed heath with many flowers, Erica folds Corios multiflora , J. B. Juniperifolia Narbonenjis dense fruticans

Lob. on Gunhilly downs plentifully I have found it alfo near the Land's-End.

N°. V. Erica flore albo> gathered in Ludgvan parish.

N°. VI. " Blue, sweet-fmclling toad-flax, Linaria odorata monfpefflulana , J. B. described in Camden, page 30, near Penryn, along the hedges plentifully u ."

N°. vil. A remarkable flone-crop about four feet high, fedum majus arborefcens vulgare w , found in an old cellar in Senan near the Land's-End. Much smaller Rone-crop of this kind I have found growing in the Riade, out of old damp walls, at Godolphin.

N°. vill. Wood-fage, Salvia agreflis feu fcorodonia , Ger x . at St. Michael's Mount, 1754.

p Mercurialis annua glabra vulgaris. Ray, ed. 2- page 54. q Of Blanch French.

r By the late Reverend Mr. Peter, Rector of Mawnon.

Third edit, page 185.

1 Ibid, page 47 r.

" Ibid, page 282. w Ibid. 2 d . edit, page 151. x Ibid, page 133.

Ninth,

N n n

Natural History

N°. xi. Water-mint of a fpicey fell, Mentha arveiifis verticillata folio rotundiore adore aromatic a scarce plant gathered in St. Berian under a hedge, 1754.

N°. x. Roman nettle, Urtica pint if era femme mag?io Uni , feu Urtica Romana gathered in a ftiady ditch at Velinvran, Augult

4, 1754-

N°. xi. Sheep's forrel, Lapathum acetofum , repens , lanceolatum

gathered on the north fide of St. Michael's Mount 1754.

N°. XII. Hairy kidney wort, Cotyledo?i hirfuta , at Caftle Treryn in the parish of St. Levin.

sect. vi. N°. xiil. The first I shall mention of this fort, is the Ros folks , d Drofera , or Rorella , in Englifh the Sun-dew, from a speck of aquatic 3 water which rests in the middle of the leaf, even in the dryeft day.

plants. In (7; ornW all we call this herb the IJles ; for what reason I know

not. It is lo very fatal to our Iheep, that they pine and die in every pasture where this plant abounds. Mr. Ray c was not ignorant of the hurtful effects of this herb : he observes, that it is of a fiery burning nature, and that the leaf, applied to the Ikin, railes an

ulcer ; that it is accounted hurtful to the Iheep, and by the farmers

sometimes called the Red-rot. This pernicious quality is not owing to the nature of the herb, but to an infer or worm, which, feeding on this herb, lays its eggs on the leaf, and fixes them therein by lbme noxious poisonous gum : the eggs are swallowed with the flowers and leaf, and eluding the menfirua of the stomach, get into the chyle and blood ; they are detained in the capillary veflels of the liver, where, meeting with the requisite degree of heat and moisture they fecundate, the animalcules grow , and there make holes in which several of them lodge together, and feed upon the liver till it can no longer perform the fundions of its station, and the Iheep dies. Two of thefe infeds in natural fize are given Pi. xxiv. Fig. x. a and b . The pregnant eggs of worms are taken in with food by children, and sometimes adult persons ; and escaping the trituration of the stomach, lodge in fuch parts and hatch, where the warmth and juices are favourable to the ripening, excluding, and perfeding the fetus . Many forts of fifh alfo are fubjed to worms and animalcules : the mackerel has fome frequently in its liver, fo has the cod, especially if it has a bad habit ; and the hake is very fubjed to worms in moft parts of the flesh.

d Dr. Francis Nicholls M. R. F. R, S. fays,

z I b j d - P a ge 54- a Ibid, page 56. b Ibid, page 213. Ibid, page 227.

that bullocks, as well as Iheep, are fubjeci to a small flat worm, and often many of them resembling a foie, by the butchers termed Hooks : this worm always builds a wall of Hone for its defence, which is ramified like a Gall dudt." Phil. Tranf. xxxix. for 1756, page 26.

Phil. Tranf.

The

Of Cornwall. 231

The Ros-folks grows in {hallow marlhy grounds : I have gathered it in Torvorian commons in Senan ; it is frequently found on the Barton of Ludgvan-Lez : fome moors alfo, belonging to the lands of the Church-town of Ludgvan, are fubjed to it; but where-ever it grows, the owner takes all poflible care that the Iheep, who are fond of it, may not come near it.

N . xiv. In the wet, Ipongy parts of our heathy grounds grows the black whortleberry, Vitis idea angulofa of J. B. and Mr. Ray % the angular-talked Vaccinium of others c In Cornwall we call the fruit, Whorts ; they are the defeat of the common people, but the juice much inferior to that of the common black-berry.

N°. XV. Other rare plants of this situation are the small, creeping, round-leaved, bastard-chickwced, of which I shall give a more particular account. This plant is at present known by botanills to be found in Cornwall only, and Devon, chiefly in the former. Ray s calls it Alfi?ie fpuria , pufdla , repens , foliis faxifragce aurece ; but it may be juftly fuppofed, that he was doubtful where to clafs it ; for he has not included it in his hiftory of plants, nor in his fuppJement to it which Plukenet in his Almageft, page 23, wonders at; and therefore adds at length a particular description of it from Mr. Ray's Catalogue, a prior work to both thofe before-mentioned : he alio gives an icon of it in Tab. vii. Fig. vi. Petiver (Herb. t. 6 f. n.) calls it, Ghryfofpleniujn Cornubienfe ; the Cornifli penny-wort.

Dodor Linnaeus doubted a long while of the existence of this plant, fufpeding that the Englifli had multiplied the ipecies by mistake ; Dr. Sibthorp, now Profeflor of Botany in the Univerflty of Oxford, convinced him of its reality by fending him a specimen of the plant in the year 1750. Linnaeus, out of refped to the donor, names it in his Gen. Plant arum , N°. 693, Sibthorpia ; in his Species Plantarum describes it thus, Sibthorpia , foliis, reniformi-fubpeltatis , crenatis h ; and in his letter to Dr. Sibthorp from Upfal, dated July 15, 1750, thus exprefles himself : " Pro Alfne Spuria tibi imme?ifas grates habeo , . . . quia tandem pro planta fSla ex Hydrocotyle habuijfem , niji ipfe vidiffem et palpitajfe?n pulchrum fpe - cimen quod in tui memoriam fervabod Of this doubtful plant I give an icon, Plate xxix. Fig. xi. from a fair specimen, (with several kind informations) molt obligingly communicated by Dr. Sibthorp

N°. xvi. Round-leaved, mar£h St. Peter s-wort, Afcyrum fupinum paluflre villofum k , found about spring-waters, mostly near the Land's End.

Second edit, page 457. Chryfofplenium ; of that which grows in Africa,

f Hill of Plants, page 403. and is somewhat different, Dr. Shaw has given an

g Third edit. Synopf. page 352. icon at the end of his travels among the African

h Gen. nov. 1099, P a g e ax. plants, page 39, N°. 139.

1 'This is called the European Sibthorpia, or k Ray, ibid, page 344.

N°. Xvii.

232 Natural History

N°. XVII. Tender ivy-leaved bell-flower. Campanula Cytnba-

larice foliis , ' Ger\ " on many moist and wary banks in this

county." . ini

N°, xvm. The left march-centaury, Centaurium palujtre lu-

teum minimum, , found " on a rotten boggy ground between St. Ives and Penzance 1 "."

N°. xix. Butter-wort with a small flesh-coloured flower, rmguicula lore minor e cameo , £t in moist meadows and marley grounds

about Kilkhamton and elsewhere n ."

N°. xx. Great yellow march-eyebright, Fuphrafia lutea latifolia palujlris , about boggy places, especially towards the further end of this county 0 .

xxi. Verticillate knot-grass with thyme-like leaves, Polygonum ferpyllifolium verticil latum, in wary places between St. Columb and Michel, about Penzance, and towards the Land s End p. I found it at Caftle-Treryn among tne rocks.

N°. xxil. The leaf calve's-snout or fnapdragon, Antirrhinum minus , or Linar ia q , gathered in a bottom in Sancred,

r 754*

sect. vn. N°. xxm. Among the rock and cliff-plants the famphire.

Rock and Crithmuin , feu Fceniculum marinum , may be reckoned the moft cliff p nt u ££ u p j n islands of Scilly this plant grows luxuriant beyond what we have in Cornwall ; fome boil it as a pot-herb ; pickled, it is thought to help digestion : Dr. Leigh, in his Lancafhire, thinks it may be ranked in the first calls of antifcorbuticks : gathered in great plenty on the cliffs adjoining to the lea in Piran-Uthno parish and St. Juft.

N°. xxiv. Common fennel, Fceniculum vulgar? e minus , in the extreme parts of Cornwall near the fea, betwixt Lannant and St. Ives, fays Mr. Ray '. Of this useful plant, the feed quickens the eye-fight, strengthens the stomach and bowels, and relieves the asthma : the leaves increase the nurse s milk, are a good antenephritic, and the root removes obftrucfions u .

N°. xxv. In fome little islands, or rather slightly covered rocks, (as Mullion gull-rock in Mount's Bay, Godrivy island in St. Ives Bay, & cl) one year nothing grows but mallows ( the Malva arbor ea marina , as I take it, of Ray w ); the next year nothing but beets*; the liicceeding year mallows again, and the fourth year beets,

1 Ray* 3 J edit, page 277. ra Ibid, page 286. n Ibid, page 281.

0 Ibid, page 285.

P Ibid, page 147.

1 Ibid, page 383.

r Ibid, page 217. 1 Ibid.

1 Ibid.

w Ibid.

Beta fylveftris, mavitima, radice perenni.

and

Of Cornwall. 233

and fo on, the mallows and beets annually taking their turn to poffefs the island. This is a very lingular vicidltude, of which I have received frequent adertions from eye-witncffes ; and it may be attributed, as I imagine, to the following cause, viz. That when one of thefe plants (the mallow, for in dance) shoots vigorously*, it mailers and keeps under the beet, till its leaves and talks decay ; the beet then, which lay the preceding year obscured and weakened under the fade of the mallow, shoots away more early in the succeeding spring, and having the dart of the mallow, overtops and makers it, till the beet decays, and then the mallow prevails in its turn. To make thefe plants shoot in full drength, and maintain their yearly sovereignty, the Ipray of the lea, the faces of the birds, (with which thefe rocks are perpetually difcoloured) and their own putrefcent leaves and talks may contribute ; but as I have never vidted thefe rocks in person, I am not fudiciently informed of the several circumdances of thele fads, and therefore ffiall not detain the reader, but refer them to further enquiry.

N°. xxvi. Mardi-asparagus or fperage, Afparagus palufiris , Ger found growing on the cliffs at the Lizherd point.

N°. xxvii. Smooth-leaved rupture-wort, Herniaria glabra , found at the Lizherd Point plentifully by Mr. Ray y .

N°. xxvii 1. Leder autumnal dar-hyacinth, Hyacinthus autumnalis minor , Ger. Park, found in plenty on the Lizher4 Point z ;

N°. xxix. Role-wort, T'elephium-roJeum- i Mor a . gathered alio among the rocks at the Land's End, 1754.

N°. xxx. Our hands on the fca-dire afford fome useful plants, sect. vrn. of which the eryngo or fea-holly may be reckoned £ird ; it is the Sand and Eryngium marinum of Herbalids b : its root, for excellent syrup, beachplams " and candying, is universally acknowledged to be a great redorative.

It grows in created plenty on the loose dry hands, above full feamark, between Penzance and Marazion, and on the lands near Gwythien bridge, where the fea never reaches : it is allb found in fo many other parts of this county, that in this and famphire it is thought Cornwall exceeds any county in England c . Having transplanted eryngo from the beach into a light, fandy, funny part of my garden, I found it to thrive very well.

N°. xxxi. Along the fandy hills of the parishes bordering on the North-fea, as Philac, Gwythien, and Piran-fand, there grows a rufh in the dryed and mod naked fand-heaps, which I take to be Juncus acutus capitulis Sorghi Thefe rushes have a two-fold ufe ;

This mallow has a woody ftem, as great as a man's arm, flowers and roots large, fays Parkinfon, ad malvam.

Ray, 3 d edit, page 267.

1 Ibid, page 160.

Ibid, page 373.

1 Ibid, page 269. b Ibid, page 222. c Carew, page 19. d Ray, 3 d edit, page 471.

O o o

their

234 Natural History

their roots fix the hands, and prevent them from shifting with the winds, and consequently from making further encroachments upon the arable grounds j and the late Lord Arundel ot Wardour, Lord of the ancient inheritances of the Arundels ot Lanhern in this county, obliged his tenants of thofe parts (as his ancestors had done before) to plant a proper quantity ot this Juncus , in order to preserve their lands from being over-run ; the other ufe is, that the leaves serve the induftrious women of thefe parishes to weave a kind of coarse mats for laying on floors, and mattrefles for beds, marketbafkets, and church haflocks, and very clean and wholesome they are,

N°. xxxii. Small fea-crane's-bill, Geranium pufillum maritimum fupinum Betonicce folio , found in fandy places near the fea, about Penzance and elsewhere e .

N°. xxiii. Sea cud-weed, or cotton-weed, Gnaphalium maritimum , on the gravelly whore between Penzance and St. Michaels Mount f ."

N°. xxxiv. Creeping cock's-foot grass, Gramen da&yloides radice repent e y Ger s . " found by Mr. Newton on the fandy whores between Penzance and Marazion plentifully h ."

N°. xxxv. Sea-dogs grass, long-rooted with a foliaceous ear,, Gramen caninum maritimum fpica foliacea , C. B. ( conoeidid , folds bifdis, furfum tendentibus) Ludgvan garden, 1756

N°. xxxvi. The Englifh lea-peace, Pifum maritimum Anglicum on the beach near Penzance.

N°. xxxvii. Narrow-leaved wild flax, Linum fylveftre angujlifolium floribus dilute purpurafeentibus vel carneis , C. B. cc in the failures by the fea-flde, about St. Ives and Truro plentifully

N". xxxvm. Small purple fea-purge, Peplis maritima folio obtufo auSlorum , five titbymalus , found on the fandy beach between Penzance and Marazion plentifully m .

sect. ix. Being now on the brink of the fea, it would be an unpardonable Submarine neglect to omit the plants which our fea contains, emulating mou? almost the number, if not the variety of thofe which live in the air, exceeding them oftentimes in finenefs of texture, and beauties of colouring. Submarine plants are diftinguifhed by the learned, into tony, horny or ligneous, and herbaceous. Among the herbaceous fea-plants, the moft common kind is the Alga , Fucus y Grafs-wracks, Sea-wracks, alias Ore-weed : Of this there is a great

e Ray, 3 d edit, page 3.56. f Ibid, page 180. s Ibid, pao-e 399.

1 Ibid, page 391. k Ibid, page 319. 1 Ibid, page 362. m Ibid, page 313.

variety

j

Of Cornwall. 235

variety on our fea-coats, of which the moll curious that have reached my knowledge, for shape and colour, are,

N°. xxxix. Fucoides purpureum eleganter plumofum " .

N°. xl. Fucoides rubens varie diffeSlum °. Of both which plants the capillary ramifications are wonderfully diftinbt, orderly, and of a moft beautiful lake- colour, even to the very extremities, when this fucus is in feafon ; but when they are either immature, or on the decay, their extreme shoots are pale straw-coloured.

N°. xl 1. Fucus folds Ericce Jive Tamar if ci, vel Erica marina p ,

T amarilk- W: rack, found in Cornwall by Mr. Moyle and Mr. Stephens.

N°. xlii. Conferva marina , geniculata , ramofijfima , lubrica , brevibus palmatim congefis ramulis q .

N . xliii. Fucus dichotomus parvus cofatus &? membranaceus Membrana-

N c . xliv. Fucus membranaceus purpureus varie ramofus ceous '

N c '. xlv. Fucus membranaceus purpureus latifolius pinnatus

xlvi. Fucus membraitaceus rubens angufiifolius marginibus ligulis armatis ", a plant of great beauty as to colour, but in shape exceeding all I have yet feen.

N°. xlvii. Fucus membranaceus Ceranoides ; the Scotch call it Dils ; the Irifh, who chew it, Dulefh ; found by the fame w .

N e '. xlviii. The largest and nobleft plant of this membranaceous kind is the bloody fea-dock, Lapathum marinum fanguineum , or Alga folio membranaceo purpureo Lapathi fanguinei figura & magnitudine When it is somewhat faded, the leaf is red variegated with straw-colour, not unlike that of a striped tulip ; when it is in full feafon, of a rich perfect blood-colour, and fo smooth and thin withall, that, when well displayed on paper, feeling can hardly diftinguilh it from the natural surface of the paper ; and it flicks fo tenacioufly, that the paper may be folded or rolled, nay even plaited into the mount of a fan (as has been experienced by fome curious ladies of this county) without any danger of the plant's starting. Thefe membranaceous plants in general, though they retain their high colourings for years, (which fhews how finely their colours are prepared and distributed) are indeed lo extreamly thin, that a gentleman of my acquaintance, with no great impropriety, called N°. xlii. (viz. Fuc. membran. pur pur.) the fenfitive Fucus ; for if brought near the fire juft to warm, and not heat it too much, its edges warp up, and in this state, if a finger is moved towards them, they brink from it, and recover their situation again when

n Ray, 3 d edit, page 38.

0 Ibid. d. N°. 1. page 37. p Ibid. N°. x. page 49. a Ibid. N°. xxiv 7 page 61 r Ibid. N°. xx. page 44.

Ibid. N°. xxx. page 47.

' Ibid. N°. xxxiv. page ibid. " Ibid. N°. xxxm. page 47. w Ibid, page 46.

Ibid, page 47.

the

236 Natural History

the finger is removed ; placed on a hand tolerably warm, it keeps in perpetual motion to and from the hand like an animal flruggling for life y ." Now this is at first somewhat furprizing, but is indeed entirely owing to the ftrudture of thele bodies, the plants being io very thin that they yield to the perfpiration of the hand, the effluvia being of force sufficient to repel the leaves when they are near . Latifoiious N°. xlix. Fucus five Alga marina latifolia vulgatijfma , vel fea-wrack. ercm mar in ma veficulos habens , the moft common broad-leaved

fea-wrack

N°. l. Fucus five Alga latifolia major dentata , broad-leaved indented fea-wrack b .

N°. li. Fucus folio fingulari longiffimo lato in medio rugofo , the

fea-belt c .

N°. li i. Lichen marinus , the laver, fiauk, and by the Iriffl called Slukane We have it with the green leaf, called Oyfter-green ; but the brown or auburn-coloured, is that which is prepared by being boiled to a jelly and ftewed, then left to fettle, and is eat as very nourifhing in Wales and elsewhere : this is alio found with us in plenty ; but never yet, as far as I can learn, manufactured as in Wales. I have been informed, that the juice of laver pounded, taken three fpoonfuls in the morning falling for three weeks together, has been of great service in cancerous disorders ; and that the cure of a cancer in the bread; (with what foundation I cannot fay) has been attributed solely to it e .

Anguftifoli- N°. LIU. Fucus anguftifolius folds dentatis , narrow-leaved fea-

wrack and wrack with indented leaves, found here by Mr. Ray f . teretifoiious. J . liv. Fucus Kali geniculato fimilis , non tamen geniculatus , {mall-wrack, resembling glass-wort, found near the town of St. Ives s .

N°. lv. Fucus angufiifolius veficulis longis filiquarum cemulis , narrow-leaved wrack with long pod-like bladders 5 , near the Mount and Penzance.

N°. lvi. Fucus folio tenuiffime divifo fiiliquatus , codded fea-wrack with finely cut leaves, found by Mr. Moyle of Bake in Cornwall, and Mr. Stephens, 1694/.

N°. lvi 1. Fucus teretifolius fpongiofus parvus , small, roundleaved, Ipongy fea-wrack 1 .

Letter from the Reverend Mr. Griffith, F . of Pembroke College, Oxford, 1755.

2 Ifinglafs, when spread very thin, will yield in like manner to the force of perfpiration, ibid.

a Ray, 2 d edit, page 2. b Ibid, page 3. c Ibid, page 6.

Ibid, page 10.

' This relation came from a young lady who knew the person cured, and had the account of the cure from her own mouth.

f Hift. page 71 ; edit. 2 d Synopf. page 3. s Ray, 2 d edit, page 4. h Ibid, page 5.

1 Ibid.

k Ibid, page 5.

Ibid, page 4.

the

Of Cornwall. 237

N°. l v 1 1 1 . Fucus longo angujlo crajjoque folio , lea-thongs 1 . At the root or clafpers of this plant there is a concave capfulous part, the ufe of which has not hitherto been explained. Mr. Ray m calls it Rotula latiufcula caulem props radicem velut axe?n ambient. Happening to land on the Geer (a rock half a mile fouth of Penzance pier, covered with the tide eight hours in twelve) in search of Corallines with Dr. J. Albert Schloffer, F. R. S. a very curious and learned foreigner, in the year 1755, it was our fortune to fee this fucus in its several stages of growth, but not one without this circular cavity. In fome of them the fea-thongs were in their moft infant Fate, the gemmae or fir ft buds appearing no other than papillae , in the center of the cup-like cavity, which in this state was very concave ; in others the thongs were from an inch, two, three, and four, to four feet long, the capfuloe becoming lefs concave in proportion to the ftze and age of the plant ; by which different stages of growth, it appears, that this cup is the upper part, or first sheath of this plant, deftgned by nature to shelter and protect, by its cup-like cavity, the first tender buds of the fucus , till the fixings within this sheath have gained a little strength and footing, fufticient to wade further into the fea, and by its flexibility able to elude the violence of the water : I will only observe farther, that though the fea-thong begins with a little bud no bigger than that of a line in diameter, yet it extends itself oftentimes to a great length : On the whore of Mount's Bay, in the month of July 1757,

I measured fome, and found them above twenty feet in length ; they have alfo been measured in Falmouth Harbour, and found twentyone feet in length. On the fame whores with this Alga , are often- Sponges, times found sponges, usually affixed to the rocks, shells, or hands ; fome of which are leafy, having their parts {hooting into the shapes ol curled leaves (as are thofe found on the whore near Loo) ; fome are branchy, as the Spongia ramofa fome are solid oblong balls, which inclofe a fifty embryo, Spongia denftffma fpijfa valiaa cinerea " ; fome full of large round holes at the top of its tubercles, of a purplifh colour when taken out of the water, but foon fading to that of common sponge ; this fort has a cavity ahb underneath, as if fome living creatures had nestled there, and ufed thefe holes as paflages into the central cavity ; moft likely it is a kind of crab which lodges its foetus in thefe fpongy receptacles for their security, as Rondeletius intimates

Many other forts there are doubtless of the Alga, and many other submarines on the fea-whores of Cornwall ; but it is now time to observe, that of thefe herbaceous lea-plants there are several ufes. In

1 Ray, 2 d edit, page 5. Some think the whole sponge to be the work

m Ibidem. of infefts, but however that be, the animals above-

n Rondelet, page 1 34. mentioned are adventitious. j " Ibid.

P p p the

2 3 B natural history

islands of Scilly the sheep and black cattle feed upon fea-wrack, especially when the other pastures fail ; and this they do, eating the plant in its falteft state from the rock whereon it grows, when the ebbing tide has but juft left it. That horses too will feed on it, with a little precaution, Plutarch p relates, viz. when Caffar followed Cato into Africa, his soldiers, for want of forage, were forced to give the Alga on the fea-whore to their horses, having nrft washed off the brackifhnefs by fresh water, and mixed it with a little herb called Dog's-tooth. In the islands of Scilly, of the Alga they make kelp, a kind of imperfed vitrification of the fait, oil, and earth of this plant burnt together : they fend it to Briftol to the glass-manufadurers ; and in a fair dry summer, this article has been worth five hundred pounds to the Iflands : but the moft general ufe is for manuring the land ; and there being fo much feafhore on the edges of Cornwall, this plant offers itself fo conveniently, and in fo many places after hard winds, that scarce any induftrious farmer can want dreffmg for his land

sect. x. From the herbaceous, let us defend to the ligneous or horny Ligneous submarines, of which our whores (not having been sufficiently exfubmarines. ar£ t b oug ht to be destitute ; but the wanted fea-fan, Plate

xxiv. Fig. i. is a sufficient instance that fuch plants are natives of the Cornifh whores, and are not to be rafhly pronounced of foreign growth. It grew upon Pednankarn rock, two miles fouth-eaft of Moufhole pier in Mount's-Bay, in twenty-fix fathom of water, whence it was plucked off by Andrew Harvey of Newlyn, fisherman, by his fishing-hook, in the year 1750: it measures fourteen inches wide by twelve high, and, as I am informed, has been found much larger in the fame bay. It is the wanted fea-fan of Mr. Ellis Hift. of Corallines, Plate xxvn, N°. 1. the Keratophyton flabelli -

forme cor t ice verrucofo obdiiclum

The flabellum veneris has been found on the whores of Mount's Bay after a form, but whether from a wrecked veftel, or torn off by the violence of the waves from fome rock in the Bay, is not to be alerted positively that we have plants of the fame ligneous fubftance, and the fame coralloid covering which incrufts all its branches, cannot be doubted.

sect. xi. The tony submarines are either corallines, (sometimes called Stony fub- Coralline moffesj coralloids, or corals. There is a great variety of Corallines, corallines on the Cornifh whore, moft of which, at present known, the ingenious Mr. Ellis before-mentioned, F. R. S. has taken care

p In Carfare.

Obfervations on Scilly Iflands.

See before of manures, page 86. Ray, 3 1 edit, page 32.

to

Plxx3V

Comb Sc IV

Coralbidj

nat:*>i'ze.

rniUeftcrni 'rtte/isrra (bcharw maria.

&c/umi foftacai

'1'tooAcac/c rvm/ /Ae- egq tiatcixe-.

mm.

ft ty ftonuttviHM Gt ft: $Z / . U i7ic/iej /a,

rfutyy yy pvycrug'Jo v/wj

Of Cornwall. 239

to describe raft minutely. Thefe coralline moles are found affixed sometimes to fucus\ and hell-fifh, but in their mod: usual situation to rocks, as a more firm settlement ; here we find them sometimes in scattered taffels, at other times clothing the rock on every fide, and forming a piece of fringe-work equal in variety and strength of colours to the mod: beautiful carpet. The chief design of nature in overfpreading the rocks and pools with fuch a number of Corallines, I need not observe was to be as well a ffielter to the lefler fry, as nourishment to the larger fiffi (as we ffiall find in treating of fea-infeds) ; but whilst nature is principally intent upon and pursuing the useful, it never forgets shape, rangement, and colouring : its works are never barely useful ; they are at the fame time ornamental, neatly finiffied beyond conception or the natural reach of the eye, engaging, various, exad, coloured, abundant.

Of the more Bony, solid, white corals, I have observed three Coralloids different forts. Fiiffi, when it fixes upon cones, and involves them and corals ' with incruBations, as Fig. 11. Plate xxiv ; this coral oftentimes resembles the foliaceous turns of the liver-wort, as Plate ibid. Fig. hi. and is therefore called Lichenoides. In the second Bate, it confiBs of small knotty branches, conceded or growing out of one another like a shrub, and may therefore be termed the fprig or branchy coral, as Fig. iv. <2, b. Sometimes again it is found in globular lumps, in the middle more solid and compad than either of the former, the ffiort fprigs which coat the outside diverging from the centre, and ending at the circumference in solid, fungoid, protuberances, as Plate ibid. Fig. v. Befides thefe ordinary appearances of white coral, we sometimes find it in much more uncommon shapes, as the Efchara retiformis ' , by Mr. Ellis ' called the Efcara foliacea millepoi-a lapidea , &c. It was found on the feafhore betwixt Penzance and Newlyn, in the year 1755 ; the specimen here exhibited, Plate ibid. Fig. vi. is but fix inches wide;

I have been affured by a very intelligent fisherman, that he has drawn up one with his hook as big as an ordinary horse's head : they are foft and tender when firB taken out of the fea, but foon harden and grow brittle in the air.

Corals have been alfo found on the fame Brand of the aBroite kind, pierced with holes of the afterifk ffiape from bottom to top ; the infer which either fcooped out this coral to provide itself an habitation, or formed it as its ffiell, seems to have begun its workings at the bafe, from whence the principal or mother-worm rofe almoB perpendicular ; thefe artificers made several offsets as they rofe, which all diverge from the middle cavity, bending towards the fides of the

Ray, Syn. page 31, edit. 3. 1 Page 71. Hift. of Corallines.

coral

Coral in general.

240 Natural History

corals : thefe maffes are somewhat gritty on the exterior, but within almost as compact as ivory. Of the fame kind are fome with larger tubes, found, as well as I can recoiled, on the fea-whore near Penros in Sithney, in the fame bay. I cannot help adding here the Porus cervinus Imperati u , commonly reckoned an Italian coral, but found in our feas. This rare coral, Plate xxiv. Fig. vii. was taken up by a fisherman at the Pole-bank, which lies two leagues fouth-weft of Gilftone, Scilly ; at the fame place was found the thin cup-like Efchara , Fig. x. which is the millepora Retepora JLfchara marina of Ellis, Plate xxx. d , page 53.

All thefe, as well as the corallines before-mentioned, and the foil'll corals alfo (fuch as the brain-stone and the like, of which Cornwall yields none that have reached my notice) are radically composed of the fame fubftance; all shells alfo (as well of land-animals of the teftaceous kind, as of iiihes), the eggs of birds, and even the pearl itself are but finer pieces of workmanship of the fame materials, railing the fame effervefcence with aqua fortis, but of different colours, different degrees of purity and confiftence, and different shapes. It may not be amifs therefore to trace this submarine general compost, as far as it is found in fea-produdions, through fome of its moft obvious metamorphofes. Coral is a calcareous fubftance, parry (more or lefs) and argillaceous, partly extraded by the fea from the jlrata which it washes, and partly owing to the putrefadion and diffolution of the parts of dead animals, chiefly of the teftaceous kind. In its moft minute state, it nourifhes fea-plants and animals ; it furnifhes a glue and earth to the teftaceous fifties, enabling them to form their own shells : as it floats in the waves in a lefs diluted and pulpy state, it is sometimes bom up by tempefts, and difperfed over the face of the ground, either by its lalt and limy particles, warming and fertilizing both corn and pasture w , or fixing and concreting the land of the fea-whore into stone When larger affociations are formed, they are precipitated by their own weight, and the impulse of the fea-water : what fubfides thus, if it meets nothing in its decent, rests as a sediment in the more sheltered parts of the bottom of the fea ; if it fixes in its way down, it serves as a balls for other nubecula of the fame fort to form themselves upon, arresting the little bead-like calcareous fubftances which come within its Iphere. Hence fome of the incruftations on stones and fea-wracks ; for it is plain that coral, when unimpregnated with active fait, feed, or egg, muft fix like earth in a humble proftrate position, as an incruftation only, Fig. 11. Plate xxiv; if agitated by the waves, then it folds itself into a Lichen- like foliage, as Fig. in. ibidem ; if, whilst it fivims

" Ellis, page 72. w See page 84. Page before, 95-

at

Of Cornwall. 241

at large it meets any ligneous plants, it flicks and coats them round as we find by the fea-fans ; but if this hell is not the plain consequence of the adhaefion only of thefe particles, but the work of animals, and is accumulated round them by millions of fea-infeds, which fix their shells fo clofe to one another as to form a compleat cafe to the branched fubftance which they inclofe, it is much more to be admired ; if it picks up any feeds, we can easily imagine that by its fertilizing nature, it may feed, expand, and nourifh thefe feeds into movies and corallines ; if it meets with the ovarian of infects, it serves as a nidus for them to grow in, and a hell afterwards (which may pofiibly be formed by themselves) where they alternately hide themselves for safety, and whence they extend themselves for nourishment. Of the fprig-coral, (if it be not the fabric of animals, as fome learned men contend) its branch-like shape, though fo knotty and short Hemmed, may be owing to vegetation (as from its figure is usually fufpeded) ; but if, according to others, it grows only by juxta-pofttion , thefe short items are rolled into a cylindrical form by the fea, brought into contact before their foft jelly parts are hardened, then knotted together, and their interftices filled more or lefs in proportion to the quantity of coral with which they chanced to coincide. I shall not not lift in this dispute, but whether in justice to the gentlemen who think corals the fabric of animals, I muft observe, that the efcharae, Plate xxiv. Fig. vi. and vm. tho' animals, curled and folded in fuch a leaf-like manner, are no more (as it seems to me) than thin, and very orderly affemblages of the shells of animalcules : the fafciated coral at its first beginning is no more than fo many tubular fheaths or shells of infeds ; they are conceded gradually by other infeds which stretch their coatings in tranfverfe lines from tube to tube, gradually filling up the faces between, as in Plate xxvii. Figure vii ; and in time this bundle of fheaths is formed into a solid coralloid aftroite, where the first and largest tubes ftill appear, with their openings afterifked as in madre- p ora ports ftellatis of Linnaeus (Syft. Nat. Tab. vi. Figure vm).

The Tubipora (Fig. vii. ibid.) confifts of smaller tubes placed closer together and conceded, formed cylindrically by a smaller and different animal. The Millepora (Fig. ix. ib.) is pierced with holes, and scarce visible to the naked eye ; the tubes probably of more diminutive infeds ; and our fprig and branch-coral may poffibly be the fabric of ftill smaller creatures, though to the eye no more than imperfed, uninformed vegetables. I would observe farther, that the teftaceous animalcule which proceeds out of the balanus hell, (Linns, ib. Fig. iv.) has fifteen legs or claws jointed

y Lhuyd's Lithoph. N°. 104.

Of

242 Natural History

or articulated in the fame pliant manner as the branches of mofiy corallines are ; this might make one conclude, that as nature in fome vegetable instances approaches nearly to animals, fo in many of her lower animals fhe approaches nearly to the shape of vegetables; the face between both kingdoms is narrow, the tranfitTon eafy, and scarce perceptible ; and it seems not to be unlikely, that fome infeCts should confort, and conftrucft their nidus's in the plant-like form, because it is indeed more suitable, upon many occasions of food and security, to the exigencies of the medium they live in. This is no more unlikely, than that the spider should fpin her web to transmit, bend, yield to, and float in the air, and bees conform their combs to the holes and hives allotted them. Inftindt is a fertile monitor, and can fuit her leffons to the occasion of her disciples. But to return: The coral fubftance is moft perfect for polish and beauty, when moft tony and clofe-grained ; but the coral of the Cornifh fea-coat, in its finest state, is of a coarse grit compared to the oriental ; as to polish and hardness greatly inferior ; yet, as a manure for land, I should think much preferable, being by experience found excellent in its kind for this purpose. Some of our coral is white as new-quenched lime, fome cinereous, other brown yellow, according to the materials of which they are composed ; for in the brown yellow more especially, the fpecks of clay and stone which give it that colour, may in the microscope be plainly feen.

Chap Xxl

Of Birds.

F ROM vegetable, inanimate, and doubtful productions, let us rife now to fenfitive life : Of birds found in Cornwall, fome are perennial, others migratory. Among the first may be reckoned the hawks of which we have several forts ; the marlins, fparhawks, hobbies, and in fome places the lannards : In the reign of izabeth, the Cornifh and Devonshire gentlemen employed a great ea of their time in hatching, nurturing, and instructing them to y at the partridge : In Cornwall at present this tedious science, w 1C c °m umes fo much of life for lb little an end, is now no more, but ftill exists it seems in a neighbouring island ; for beincx at rerice (the feat of the present Lord Arundell of Trerice) Au- 2 5 *738, I faw a hawk which, being overpowered by a crow, fell near a man at his labour in the field, who, perceiving the

Carew, page 25. .

a Ibid,

hawk

Of Cornwall. 243

hawk quite Ipent, brought it into the house to a gentleman then steward to his Lordfhip. The hawk was armed as usual with silver plates on its legs and neck, and Mr. Church (To the steward was called) perceiving an inscription engraved, quickly discovered the name of an Irifh gentleman, and the place he lived at ; upon this he took great care of the hawk, and wrote immediately to the gentleman : The bird was a favourite, and the gentleman lent a servant from Ireland into Cornwall on purpose to fetch it.

Among our Cornifh birds, the coracias of Willughby, or thecornifh pyrrhocorax, deserves principal notice. It is found but rarely and Chough ' at times in other countries, but constantly in this county, and therefore defervedly among the moderns it has obtained the name of the Cornifti Chough. Pliny (lib. x. chap, xlviii.) thought it peculiar to the Alpes, but Aldrovandus (lib. xii. chap, vm.) informs us, that it is only feen there among the Rhasti in the winter : It is found alfo in the island of Crete, in the Cyclades, on the fea-coats of Cork in Ireland, in Wales, and elsewhere : there is a pyrrhocorax in Africa called the Crow of the Defart, but bigger than our raven, and therefore called the larger Coracias b .

To the faithful description of this bird in Ray's Willughby, page 126, nothing need be added; as to its defeats and merits, something, and not improperly, may. It is taken much with glitter, very agile and meddling, and therefore not to be trusted alone where fire, money, or papers of consequence lye ; but in both thefe particulars, as I have often experienced, not near lo mischievous as the jack-daw, (the monedula of authors) whole faults by mistake have been too often imputed to our chough ; a great enemy to houses covered with thatch, the moist and rotten parts of which, by its long bill in searching for worms it difperfes, and quickens the decay ; it will alfo pick out the lime-pointing of walls in search of spiders and flies. Thefe tricks have procured this bird a bad character ; Camden calls it incendiaria avis , and Mr. Carew, page 36, the slander of our country ; but certain it is that our ancestors thought of it (and very defervedly too) in a different manner.

Upton, who writ de re milk art , about the middle of the fifteenth century, observes to the praise of the Cornifti, that fome of their moft ancient families bore thefe birds in their coat-armour Now, to fhew that thefe gentlemen made no contemptible choice of their bearing , it muft be remembered, that the Cornifti chough is the moft graceful, slender, and genteel of the crow kind, for which

b Shaw's Trav. page 25 r. dem antiquiffimi nobles ipfius patriae iftas aves in

c Sic ergo in lauded gents & patriae Cornubi- armis fuis portant, quae quidem aves [graculi ennis (quae gens recite a Trojanis trait originem fcilicet quae in roftris et tibiis rubefcunt] Ipeciali- & ab imitation ut creditor, adhuc perfeverat) qui- ter in ilia patria funt repertaj. Edit. BylT. p. 195.

reason

Wild-birds.

244 Natural History

reason I give it, Plate xxiv. Fig. xi. in another and more extended attitude than Mr. Ray's Willughby in his nineteenth Plate ; its legs, toes, and bill of a strong Vermillion, and the bony fubftances of thefe parts clear even to transparency : they are always yellow when the bird is young, and in the hen yellower than in the cock, which different colouring probably made Aldrovandus by mistake ( as in Willughby is observed) think thofe with yellow feet, legs, and bill, to be a different species from the coracias with red feet 1 : its feathers are of a much richer velvet black than thofe of any other crow. It is faid, that, having its tongue flit when young, it will thereby be enabled to imitate the human voice, a property which Bellonius alfo afcribes to this bird d : this is certain, that as it fhrieks aloud at the approach of any thing strange, frightful, and unusual, its chatter is extremely foft and engaging, when it applies for meat, and makes its court to thofe who usually feed and fondle it : its strength lies in its bill and neck, rather than wings ; it is not therefore fo warlike in the air as other crows, but on the ground it is very pugnacious, whetting and darting its bill, and though as tame as may be, not admitting any stranger to touch him. Very apprehenflve of danger, it builds its neft in the cliffs, but neither in the top, as if all danger was from below, nor near the bottom, as if all its fears were from above, but in the middle of the moft steep precipice ; very amuflng when kept tame ; docile, regular, and constant to its hour for meat ; early at roof! ; in bad weather fond of shelter and seldom feen ; but prefaging good weather, it enjoys the air on the tops of houses, if tame, if wild, ftrutting stately along the hills or greens by the fea-flde.

Of flnging-birds, we have thrufhes, the black-bird, throttle or fong-thrufh, and the much larger and better coloured miflel-bird or fhrite, ( the Turdus vifcivorus major of Willughby, page 187) which we call in Cornwall the holm-thrufh ; the Cornifh call the Hollytree, Holm, and this the holm or hom-thrufh, because, as I imagine, in the winter it feeds upon holly- berries, each bird taking poffeflion of his tree, keeping constant to it, as long as there is fruit, and driving away all other birds. ( See Ray's Willughby, page 187). Our linnets are either green or brown; we have gold-finches, ruddocks, hopes or buli-finches, and larks. Nightingales I have not feen, or heard of any in Cornwall.

Of wild-birds, driven here by the extremity of the weather, we have all forts.

Ad terra gurgite ab alto

dam multce glomerantur aves ubi frigidus annus Trans pontum fugat et terris immittit apricis e .

i Aldrovandus Ornith. lib. xn, chap. vm.

e Virg. Ain. lib. vi. ver. 310.

Duck*

Of Cornwall. 245

Ducks of all kinds, the true wild-duck breeding in the march betwixt Penzance and Marazion ; widgeon, teal, woodcock, snipe,

&c. The hell-drake (Tadorna BelloniiJ is rare, but in the hard winter 1739, I had one brought me exactly answering the description of Ray's Willughby, page 363, Tab. lxxi.

Of the common periodical or migratory birds, " the swallows in Migratory, the winter are found in the western parts of Cornwall, fitting in old deep tin- works and holes of the fea-cliffs," fays Mr. Carew, page 26. This is a circumstance queftioried by fome Naturalifts, and as confidently afterted by others ; the truth is, when the winter comes on, and the air is no longer replete with the flies and infedts which are the swallow's proper food, this bird disappears ; fome perhaps may pals into other climates, or die, and others remain in a torpid state in private caves, fome under water, and fome above.

The red-wing or wind-thrufh, in Cornwall called the winnard, and fieldfare, are moft common when there is moll cold, in gentle winters few or none. The Royfton crow, with the black bill, head and wings black with a glofly blue, the breast, belly, back, and neck cinereous grey, shafts of the feathers blackifh, continues with us from Odtober to March, but generally on the fea-whore, and betwixt Penzance and Marazion, fond of the products of the beach, though usually reckoned granivorous.

Woodcocks are reckoned birds of paflage, but they do not always leave the country to which they occasionally refort : Some gentlemen, hunting in the neighbourhood of Penzance, in the summer-time 17 55, flushed a woodcock; furprifed at feeing fuch a winter bird at that feafon of the year, they haftened to the bufh, and there found a neft with two eggs in it : a gentleman, more curious than the reft, carried the eggs home ; and one being accidentally broke, the body of a young woodcock appeared, and encouraged him to put the other egg under a pigeon, and in a few days a living bird was discovered in it with its feathers on, in shape and fize as in Plate xxiv. Fig. xii. page 239. Snipes alfo, young and from the neft, are often flushed on Bodman downs.

As it is my design in this hiftory to reprefent whatever is rare and Pvare birds, worthy notice, as well as what has not been thoroughly described by others, I shall not omit an uncommon bird catched at Moufnole, and brought to me Sept. 23, 1755 ; the great noise it kept in the night, the fmallnefs of its bill, the difproportioned largenefs of the mouth, and the unusual fhortnefs of the legs, made me take the following measurements : From the point of the bill to the extremity of the tail, ten inches; from the tips of the wings extended, one foot nine ; its bill flattifli, thin, and only three tenths of an inch long, somewhat curved ; the spread of its mouth very large, being two

R r r inches

246 NATURAL HISTORY inches and a half from the tip of the upper to that of the under mandible diftended ; the mouth ruddy-coloured within, and it& depth a full inch and a half ; from the point of the bill to the hinder part of the head, one inch and a half; the eye was black, and large in proportion to the bill ; the neck to the pinion of the wing, one inch and a half; from the pinion to the tip of the wing, even inches ; the tail five inches long, confifting of ten feathers equal in length ; four toes, the middle one even eighths of an inch long, legs only five eighths ; foot not webbed ; its colour was betwixt that of a sparrow-hawk and a woodcock, but the ground of the whole somewhat more inclining to a black : the weight of this bird was two ounces and a half, four penny-weights and two grains. It is very quiet and torpid by day, but notify and clamorous by night. Our common people call it the Night-crow ; I take it to be the fern-owl of Shropshire, called the churn-owl in Yorkfhire from the noise it makes when it flies, the goat-fucker, the caprimulgus of Ray, Syn. page 2 and 26. Ray s Vv illughby, page 107. I have given a drawing of this bird Pi. xxiv. Fig. xm. where, every part being done by measurement, it may give fome parts more exatft (or more particular at leaf!) than that in the forementioned author, Tab. xiv. It is found mostly in woods and mountainous places, in the Peak of Derby, in Yorkfhire, and Shropfhire, and fome other places, but rarely in Cornwall.

The held-apple or cross-bill, as Mr. Ray calls it, (Synopf. page 86) or hell-apple, as Dr. Plot, ( Stafford (hire, page 234) is seldom feen in Cornwall; but in Mr. Carew's time, a flock of them coming about the time of harvest, made great deftrutiion among the apples, Car. page 26. In the autumn they sometimes, though rarely, come into England, but never continue the whole year, or breed in our island.

The upupa, hope, or hoopoe, Plate xxiv. Fig. xiv. was killed in the parish of St. Juft, Pen with, in Cornwall : In fome particulars it differed from Mr. Ray's Willughby ; there was no red in its neck, all of a light chefnut ; the eight first feathers of the wing, as to the ground, quite black; five were crafted or barred, the other three spotted near the fummit with white ; the remaining feathers crafted with five white bars ; the upper covering feathers of the wing not fo black, but inclining to the chefnut ; the reft as in Mr. Ray's Willughby, page 14.5. It was near the bignefs of a snipe : it is rarely feen in Cornwall.

The green wood-pecker, or picus Martins , is a beautiful bird, remarkable for its vermilion crown on the head, and the different shades of green in its body and wings, which rife from a deep mixture of brown through four intermediate tints, till it ends in a fine

light

Of Cornwall. 247

light-pink yellow. The structure of the muscles by which this bird is enabled to dart forth its tongue upon infe&s, (its proper food) and recover it again into its {heath, is admirable, and may be read at large in Ray's Willughby, page 136: the legs are very short but strong, and the toes {land two forwards and two backwards, enabling them (suitably to their determined course of life) to climb trees, and fix their footing firmly on boughs, to which alfo the ftiffnefs of their tail-feathers not a little conduce. Ray's Creat. page 143. The present Ipecimen, Plate xxiv. Fig. xv. was killed at Godolphin, Odober 11, 1757.

The golden-crowned wren, Regulus crijiatus Aldrovandi , woodtitmoufe of Gefner, ( Ray's Willughby, page 243. Ray's Synopf. av. page 79) the left bird I have yet feen in Cornwall, remarkable for its beautiful faftron-coloured and scarlet craft, and fmallnefs of its body By the scale of the reft, Plate xxiv. Fig. xvi.

The Pittrel (Catefby, Append, page and plate 14) or little Peteril of Edwards (page and plate 90) is sometimes met with here, as may be feen Plate xxix. Fig. x. in the explication of which it will be further taken notice of.

Of water and fea-fowls, that we should have a great variety in Cornwall is no wonder, considering the great extent of our ffiores. Here we have coots, fanderlings, (which, from the noise they make when flying, we call Towillees f ), fea-larks, fea-pies ; of puffins great abundance in their feafon, and extremely fat, but of lo fiffiy a taste, that fome have lasted them to eat as fiffi s ; all forts of gulls, mews, tarrocks, gannets, murres, heron, bittern, lapwing, curliew, bernacle, fhagg (in the north called the Crane, fays Mr. Ray, Syn. page 123); we have alfo the didapper, to whole instantaneous plunge into the fea after its prey, Virgil fo well compares the descent of Mercury from Heaven to Carthage.

He primum paribus nitens Cyllenius alts

Confhtit , hinc toto preeceps fe corpore ad undas

Mifit avi Jimilis quee circum littora y circum

Pijcofos f copulas humilis volat cequora juxta. ffin. iv. ver. 253.

Of mifcoloured birds, I have known a white thrufh, ( the Merula vulgaris , Ray's Willughby, page 190) kept for fome time. It was living in the year 1724, in the pofieffion of John Bennett, blacksmith, of Ludgvan ; a white ruddock, or robin-red-breast, in the pofieffion of the late Reverend Mr. Collins, vicar of St. Erth, in 1754 ; but I ffiall be more particular in noting the deviations of a white woodcock's feathers : It was brought to me January 1, 1739; at the infer tion of the bill it had a small cinereous tuft of feathers

f Not Curwillet, as in Mr. Ray's Syn. page 109, edit. 1 Car. page 36.

half

Sect.I

248 Natural - History

half an inch high, as much broad, and doping down on each fide to the bottom of the upper mandible ; from thence, the head, neck, wings, and all the other parts, were of the fined fnow white, laving three small fpecks on the crown of the head, of like colour to the feathers of other woodcocks, in the fame place : In the bread and neck it had nine separate feathers tinged fo faintly as scarcely to be didinguifhed from white, but of the natural wavy mark : in each wing it had one principal feather, and four fecondrate of the natural colour; in the right wing fix fpecks on the fmalled feathers, in the left wing too ; in the upper part of its tail two natural feathers, in the under, one, but in both of very faint colouring ; the belly, and under parts of the wings near the fcapida , tinged with a few faint natural feathers ; the legs a little redder, and more of a flesh-colour than in the common bird. This description is of no other ufe than to fhew that this bird was originally coloured as other woodcocks, and that Inch departures from nature proceed from fome accidental defects, extravafation, or obdruction of the juices, occafioned by either exceflive exercise, wound, or unwholefome diet ; but by which it is impollible to determine.

The eggs of fea as well as land-fowls are varioudy shaped and spotted, making a pretty collection ; and a little attention will fhew that not only the eggs of the different species , but that the eggs of individuals of the fame species are really different in shape, fize, and colour, infomuch, that the eggs of particular hens may be didinguifhed from each other, and known (without regard to the neds) from what hen they did proceed. Eggs owe the unnatural defects and excefles to which they are fubjeCt (fuch as a yolk perfectly white, an egg with two whites, preternatural membranes and excrefcencies adhering to the egg, and the like anomalies) to a variety of accidents tedious to number, and difficult to ascertain.

CHAP. XXIL Of Land and Water-InfeEls in Cornwall.

T O trace infeCts through their refpeCtive differences, their transparent druCture, rich colourings, peculiar indinCts and transformations, would much exceed the limits of the present design. Mr. Ray thinks that there are more forts of infeCts than of birds, and acknowledges the multitude of the species of infeCts not to be fewer, perchance more than twenty thousand h .

Page 24 of the Creation.

In

Of Cornwall. 249

In Cornwall, likely, we have more of thofe infects which require Their moderate warmth, sooner and longer in the year, than in other parts of England where their colds and heats are more intense. I shall not dwell much upon particulars, but in general observe, that as little as thefe creatures are, many undifcoverable to the naked eye, fome scarce to be feen by the beft conftru&ed glaffes, they have their ufe, and their necelfary station in the animal scale ; the fmalleft are food to larger, the larger to others of a greater fize, and thefe to the greatest ; thefe again to birds and reptiles afford nourishment, and fome of them provide food, and phyfick for man ; nay the very fmalleft infects fucked in imperceptibly with the air we breathe, by their better concocted animal juices, may serve to qualify and corrcdt the acrimony of air, and thereby contribute to the spirit and rectifying of the blood ; add to this, that the fmalleft infect as juftly raises our admiration, and as direCtly leads us to a first intelligent cause, as the structure of a planet or the fabric of the universe. By their inconceivable numbers, thefe small creatures are the great instruments of divine justice, and are either the vehicles of peftilence, or by their voracioufnefs bring scarcity, famine, and deftru&ion upon a guilty land.

Ufeful as thefe diminutive creatures are, they muft have their al- Food, lotted food ; this food is usually the leaf of flower, herb, or plant ; hither in farms they tend, fix, and eat, and neftle their eggs ; and when their multitudes are increased by wind or weather, confume the bud, the bloffom, or fruit they light upon. Blights therefore in the nursery, fruit, and flower-garden, may with great justice be oftentimes ascribed to farms of voracious or poisonous infedfcs, but I apprehend not always ; the air itself being oftentimes charged with corrosive teams and noxious humours, is of a very cauftick nature, and frequently fcorches and fhrivels the fap-veflels, and brings on decay. However, there are few plants which do not at one time or other fufter in fome degree from infeCts ; nay, exoticks though they come from another climate, and one would think should have been the appropriated food of exotic infeCts, do not escape thofe of this climate. Auguft 20, 1750, finding the leaves of an orange-tree spotted as if mildewed, on viewing it more attentively I perceived on each fpot an orbicular fubftance thin as the leaf, of one tenth of an inch in diameter ; and upon examinmcr it in a microscope, it appeared to be cruftaceous, in shape, colour, and transparent spots on the back, resembling a tortoise , the belly-part foon confirmed it to be an animal ; the edges of the hell were thick fet with briftles, by which I imagine thefe animals fix themselves to the leaf on which they are difpofed to feed as well as fence

themselves from their enemies : besides thefe marginal appendices, they

S f f have

250 Natural Histor Y

have legs four times as long as the briftles ; there were no wings that I could perceive ; but I do not affert that there were none : the leaf turns black in the place where this infect faflens . Pollibly this may not be a non-defcript ; I only produce it as an instance that the difcolouring and decay of leaves, even in exoticks, Inftinft. is owing sometimes to unobferved infeeds. Among the numerous tribes of infeeds which have employed the attention of the curious, it is wonderful to observe, that every species has a different art (if I may fo call the impreffed inftindt) of procuring its food, and preparing proper receptacles for its different states of caterpillar, nympha, and fly : among them the spider cannot be sufficiently admired for extracting its threads out of its own body ; sometimes it fixes, and makes that thread either its freight rope to convey itself from one poft to another, or by its extended surface pins the thread fo much lighter than the air, as to float and bear up its author, till fhe finds a place to fix in proper to her designs ; at other times fhe weaves the fame thread moft artfully into nets or webs for intercepting and fettering her prey. Still more admirable, as well as useful, is the bee ; the frugality of face, the uniformity of shape observed in the construction of the cells and combs, her delicacy and choice of flowers which yield the beft honey, her laborious collection of wax, the economy, policy, colonies, and the general abhorrence of lazinefs of this little infect, are all evidences of an instinct, which ( if it may not be called reason, circumfcribed, and applicable solely to the exigencies of one particular species) is the stamp, the leal, the impreflion of reason from above. By the greatest, ftrongeft, ftatelieft animals of the brute kind, we have no where a richer treasure collected than that of the bee, more fkilfully composed, a magazine more carefully secured, and more impartially distributed. But to return : The honey of Cornwall is reckoned good, and of a high flavour, as I have been informed by gentlemen of fickly habits, who have preferred it to moft Englilh honey : this excellency is perhaps more owing to the multitude of our ftiores, where the bees are frequently feen intent upon the fait and brine which the fea throws in upon the rocks, than to the nature of our heath and other pasture k . Of late years the burning-houses, where the tin is roasted 1 , prove fatal to bees ; thole that are within reach of the smoke languilh, and are foon killed, having no liberty to range as the wind and variety of food determines them, without danger of fuftocation.

1 It Teems of that kind which Mr. Hill calls is but half the value of that which is gathered Scelauus. Hift. of Animals, page io. elsewhere.

k It is observed in Hamlhire, as I have been 1 See page 1 34. informed, that the honey collected from the heath

The

Of Cornwall. 251

The number of water-infects is probably fo much greater than that sect. 11, of land-infects, as there is more need of animal food (the chief end Sea and waperhaps of fuch beings) in fuch a turbulent medium as water, thandS'm- upon the land, where plants and feeds, and other nourifhments of ani- finite nummals, are not fo often destroyed, as in the fea, rivers, and lakes, which be "' are subject to more violent motions. The multitude of thcfe little animals is beyond conception, of which I shall produce but one illustration, which is, that the Shining of the agitated surface of waters is moft probably owing to a multitude of lucid animalcules, a phenomenon which, under this head of water-infects, muSt not pafs unnoted. It has been long observed, that u if the fea -water be SlaShed with a Stick or oar (as Mr. Carew, page 27, Says) in the darkeSt night, it will caSt forth a bright Shining colour, and the drops resemble fparkles of Sire, as it the waves were turned into flames;" this furpriflng appearance the Cornifh Sailors term Briny, and think it prefages a Storm ; but it has no connexion either with a tempefl: or a calm ; it is indeed the usual consequence of agitating the surface of the fea, though in different degrees in different places, and different feafons of the year ra ; in the summer ££ fo very luminous in Strong gales of wind near the files of Cape Verd, that paffengers have feen the very keel of their Ship by it, and fishes playing underneath

We Shall beSt be able to discover the cause of this Surprising phenomenon, by tracing the fame effect into different Subjects, and placing the Several circumstances relating to it under one view ; for the fame phenomenon has been observed by the curious in waters of lakes and moiSt places on the land, as well as in the waves of the fea. Dr. Plot mentions this luminous appearance in a moist fpungy earth on a hill and in a ditch in Staffordshire, where the water, being disturbed. Shined like embers, and covered whatever they touched with a faint flame like that of burnt brandy, which continued Shining for a quarter of an hour f .

Dr. Cotton, May 25, 1664, gave the following account to the Royal Society of the like appearance in this County of Cornwall : t£ Returning from Lancefton with Sir J. Cory ton, Baronet, to his feat Newton, in a fifty, dewy night, at Hinxen, almost a mile beyond Callington in the Lancefton road, in a mooriSh place of Some forty feet in length, the impress of our horses and our own feet upon the ground appeared fiery, much more fiery than glowworms ; the grass we gathered in thofe places where we or our horses trod, referred the luftre in our hands, eer we came to the water within a quarter of a mile of Callington, where watering our

m " In the summer months it is moft visible when the wind is fouth-eaft, or in any point betwixt fouth and eaft," fays Dr. Plot, Staffordfhire, page 117. Ibidem. f Ibid, page 1 15.

horses

25 2 Natural History

horses we observed it, but almost extinguifbed, only a park here and there. At Newton, two miles thence, we viewed it by candlelight, as alfo the next day, and found it coarse, fairy grass, of an inch or little more in length, fuch as ordinarily grows on downs The cause of this luminous appearance has been varioudy affigned ; fome have thought it owing to a certain bituminous matter thrown up by a fermentation, or fleas ascending from the bottom of the fea 0 : But this is too limited a cause, and will by no means account for like appearances by land ; indeed nothing of a bitumen appears, neither do waters of any kind become luminous unless first stirred and agitated, neither does kindled bitumen make fo harmless a fire, nor continue shining fo long, nor expire fo gradually. Others have thought it part of that eledric fire, which (as every one is now convinced) is diffufed throughout the universe; but this electrical fire becomes only visible by flashes, pafiing in instantaneous allies from one body to another, and immediately expiring ; and a learned gentleman* (as I am informed) who had formerly efpoufed this cause, concludes ingenuoufiy from farther experiment, that this luminous appearance is not owing to electric fire produced between the particles of water and thofe of fait, as he had first imagined, but to fome other cause.

Dr. Plot (Staffordfhire, page n6) hints, that the shining of the mire and miry water, may be owing to a kind of glow-worm ; thus the clammy moisture of oyster-shells which shines in the night of a violet colour, comes from luciferous worms that have their holes in the shells p ; and this hint has been adopted, and farther pursued by fome modern authors of reputation ", who are of opinion, that this fliining light is owing to a multitude of animalcules riding to the surface of the fea in the night, and throwing forth their light (like glow-worms) when they are agitated. This hypothesis is confirmed by the late experiments of a learned Italian, Dr. Vianelli of Chioggia, who carrying home a veffel full of the luminous water of the lake of Chioggia, and stirring it in a dark closet with his hand, found that it glittered much ; but after filtrating it through a piece of coarse linen, that it phone no more : the piece of linen however was covered with lucid particles, which in a microscope he discovered to be animalcules entirely luminous 1 . In all the forementioned cafes of mire, lake, and fea, there is none of this shining without water stirred : it is therefore an aquatic glow-worm s of a different element from that of the

n Dr. Birch's Hift. of the R. S. vol. I. pa. 431. 0 Natural Hiftory of Waterford, page 290.

Mr. Franklyn. f Ibid, from Mr. Auzout. h Mr. l'Abbe de Nollet, and others.

' Since Vianelli another Italian author. Dr. Grifelin, has pursued and farther elucidated the fame fubjecf.

5 It is called Nereis phofphorans ; alias, Scolopendra marina lucida.

land,

Of Cornwall. 253

land, not difperfed equally in all waters, but more or lefs in particular parts of land and fea-water ; that they do not fine without being agitated by the treading of horses or men, or by the force of oars, rocks or Chips, is because, when at reft, they mutually hide the luminous juices of their body, juices which fine in the dark, but cannot make that shining visible till the throng is somewhat difperfed, and the disturbed infects have room to exert and display their luftre.

Why none of thefe waters fine in the day-time is obvious, the light of thefe little creatures has not force sufficient to make itself perceivable among the solar rays ; perhaps too, thefe infers rife to the surface of the water by night, and there gather themselves together as the proper feafon for affembling. Laftly, that this harmless fire faints, and gradually expires in an hour, is owing to the death of thefe animalcules for want of their own element; they fine not after death.

Ir then this lucid appearance is owing to infedts, we cannot but admire the immenfity of this order of creatures, and revere that infinite fertile power which (to fay nothing of what we find by land) has spread over the surface of the fea fuch a profufion of animal life, couched in fuch contra&ed and yet splendid bodies, that in one bay or creek there are infe&s more in number likely, than all the quadrupeds upon the face of the whole earth.

But from the number let us come to fome of the moll remark- sect. Hi able and larger forts, among which the fea polype may challenge our next notice. Polypes are found in great number and variety Polypes, inclofed in alcyoniums, corallines, corals, ( Philofophical Tranf- a&ions of 1751 and 1752, vol. XL VII. page 101) marbles, and other stones ', and, if I mistake not, in fome branchy fucus s ; for when they are fixed to the rock on which they grow, they have a moll beautiful blueifh purple at the extremity of the branches, but taken out of the water, appear of the brown common fea-wrack colour ; which alteration for the worfc, I attribute to the polypes, or fome other animalcules contra&ing themselves into their own cells as foon as they are taken from their proper element, and refer to further enquiry. In short, there is scarce any plant or foft stone in the fea without fome polype or other in it, nature having provided thofe creatures which have lefs of the locomotive faculty, with longer and more flexible tubes, and numerous feelers to reach after and apprehend their prey, than thofe which can ken, pursue, and overcome it.

I shall next take notice of fome zoophytes (whether polypes or not, perhaps may be questioned) which have reached my notice in

' Ibidem ut supra, page 68.

T t t

the

2 54 NATURAL HISTORY the alcyonium and the coralline. The alcyonium is of a middle nature betwixt the herbaceous and horny submarines ; its fubftance flefhy, and sometimes hard even to cartilaginous; fhapelefs at times; sometimes tubular ; generally inhabited by animalcules. Dr. Schloffer before-mentioned discovered one of a curious make dredged up in Falmouth Harbour, September 1 8, 1755. The alcyonium was brown and thin, and was the ground in which the animals had placed themselves in ranks, each in a rofe-like shape, making a kind of border round the ftem of an old large fucus. The natural fize of the flowers (of which there are three placed flde by flde) may be feen Plate xxv. Fig. 1 ; one is magnified, as Fig. 11 ; each role had from five to twelve, but more generally eight leaves, each leaf an aperture in it, (as at a , Fig. 11.) which is luppofed to be a mouth ; in the centre there is an opening larger than the reft, within which, when the inclofed animal was alive, something like fibres were perceived to move ; whether this creature extends thole fibres to lay hold of the food which the waves throw in its way, muft be referred to future enquiry ". Somewhat different from this, though of the lame tribe, was an alcyonium which I found on a ledge called Careg-killas, in Mount's Bay, where, as I was tumbling over the moveable rocks, I found one coated with a transparent, callous fubftance,. Ipread on fome rocks about fix inches, in one near two feet square at a medium : the coating was about the fifth of an inch thick ; the ground was dark green ; the flowers eonfifted of ten obtuse petals, which were of a vivid yellow green ; each petal was in two places pierced of the field (as the heralds term it) ; that is, had two fpecks in each (in this differing from the foregoing) which transmitted the colour of the field ; the flowers and ground together made fo pretty a piece of tapestry, that one might be furpriled to find fuch colouring and workmanship hid, as it were induftrioufly, under a rock ; but the works of nature are every where well finished, and cannot be otherwise than exatft and beautiful in their degree. Part of this coating, with its roses in their natural fize, may be feen Plate xxv. Fig. in. magnified, Fig. iv. Searching a little further I found a like congelation on another rock ; the ground of this was of a warm brown colour (fuch as the painters call Cologne earth) ; the petals of the flowerswere fliarp pointed, not always of the fame number, but from fix to twelve ; the flowers were radiated, irregular in shape, as may be feen PI. xxv. F. v. magnified, F. vi. not pierced as in the foregoing, quite yellow, and on the brown ground looking like fo many afte-

u It was fhewn me the day after it was dredg- part n. 1756, page 451, and is fuppofed to be a ed, and from a drawing then made, publiftied in non-defcript. the Phiiofophical Transitions, vol. XXXIX,

risks

I'Lxxv.

m.i.jn.

/ifd.

'VAC',y;+'

3 vevru) of (Lsfvotoo.

M

H B

E=! Z jpi

'[

M®T

jyly*

fml

w

Of Cornwall. 255

risks of gold 5 but their beautiful colour immediately faded, though kept in fait water, fo that they are to be feen in perfection only and drawn (as thefe were) on the fpot, and when the alcyonium is fixed ; when dried, they fhrivel up like a piece of finger leather, and their fubftance ferments strongly with aqua forth. There is no doubt but thefe alcyoniums confift of an arrangement of the jelly-like bodies of a certain animal determined to form in fuch thin coatings upon the rocks. The ingenious Mr. Ellis - has fhewn beyond contradiction that the corallines are pervaded in all their talks and branches by polypes. Into thefe bodies (fo adapted by their jointed structure to float to and fro in the water, and to place them in the reach of their proper prey) they either infinuate themselves, excavating cells for their eggs, and ftiffening tubes and paffages for themselves and their fupple young ones, or according to another hypothecs lately efpoufed by gentlemen of great experience in this branch of science % they form this coralline armature for themselves from the very foundation, being taught their leffon by the fame Matter who inftruCfs the nail, the oyster, and the belemmte to build according to the exigencies of their fpecifical fbape of body However that be, through the extremities of the coralline boughs they thrust forth their tentacula or arms to seize their prey ; they are fo small that they are seldom to be feen but in microfcopes, their prey is proportionally smaller and weaker, yet probably animals, and thofe have other fubordinat zfpecies of animal- food beyond the reach of glaffes (for what elfe but animal-food can confift of parts fine enough for their vital pafiages ? ) ; all thefe are furnished with life and motion, that whilst they range in search of their own fond thev may difperfe and gradually communicate animal noufuperiors in fize and ufefulnefs to mankind.

Among a parcel of fea-plants brought me March 24, 175 2, I Worms found a fea-flug, smooth and fiimy as the land-flug 01 dew-nail, pointing- forth its eyes on its antenna ; it crept and clapped, contracted and extended itself, (as the nail) by its belly, but had this peculiarity, that it emitted at times a moft beautiful purple colour ; when it was almost dead, on dropping a few grains of fait on its back it fent forth the purple dye very plentifully. It seems to me of the Holothurian kind ; of which Rondeletius treats, part 11. p. 125*

Fio-. xni. Plate xxvi. is the long-worm found upon Careg-killas, in Mount's Bay, which, though it might properly enough come in among the anguilli-form fishes, which are to succeed m their order, yet I chute to place here among the lefs perfeCt kind of fea animals : it is brown, and (lender as a wheaten reed ; it measured five

„ F R.S. London, Hift. of Corallines, printed Mr. Ellis, before-mentioned, and others.

T „rr See page 242, before.

256 Natural History

feet in length (and perhaps not at its full dretch), but fo tender, slimy, and soluble, that out of the water it will not bear being moved without breaking ; it had the contradile power to fuch a degree, that it would shrink itself to half its length, and then extend itself again as before. But to run through all the forts of worms, the Tethys , the Lerncea fcolopendra Pulmones , Fungi , and others, would, be remote from my design, fome few enquiries to excite curiosity may here be sufficient, and a' great deal, after entering into the minutice , would be dill ineompleat. 0 mare , 0 Littus ! vermn fecretumque M atreiov ! udm multa invenitis , quam multa di&atis y f Sea-nettles, Of fea-nettles (fo called from the pungency with which they marine* affed the hand, not very unlike to that of the land-nettle) we have the Urtica rubra Saxo innate Aldravandi (Fab. de Zoopbytis , N°. vii.) in almond every pool on the fea-flores, and alfo the Urtica rubra Rondeletii , (page 530, lib. xvii. chap, xvn.) In fome caves in the parish of Piran-Uthno, washed often by the tide, I found several ; in colour they varied from the fined; scarlet four degrees down to the deeper; purple, finely powdered with yellow fpecks, which, as the animal expired, became more pale and lanquid. Thefe animals are as energetic with the clafpers by which they fix themselves to the rocks, as by their arms which are continually waving to and fro in search of food.

Of fea-nettles, unfixed and nay ant , I have observed the following variety :

The Urtica marina , Plate xxv. Fig. vii. is called Medufa. I have not found it fully described, and therefore I jfhall be more particular in my account of it : Its figure is round, its back convex, marked in the centre with a deeded circle, of an auburn colour ; at three quarters of an inch didance from the circle begin the fifteen rays, b b, which point inwards to the centre, and divide into two branches or legs as they tend to the circumference, each leg terminating in a little egg-like knob, c c, half an inch 'long, one fourth of an inch didant from one another : after this infect had reed about half an hour in the difh I placed it for view, a famous, crooked, little fang, d d, appeared and was protruded betwixt each knob, as in the figure : the fubdance was a kind of jelly defh, in the middle hard and cartilaginous, the circle and rays were auburn, the body somewhat clouded for an inch and a half round, and under the central circle, but ot the mod perfect crydal transparency every where elfe : its body was one inch and a quarter thick ; from the convexity, it defended quick near the limb ; fo that the egglike knobs, c c , spread horizontally. In the centre of the under part

y Pliny Jun r . to Fundanus.

of

Of Cornwall. 257

of the fame fifh, Fig. vm. was the mouth, e in the figure of a cross, which closed or opened as a strong muscular labium at each angle of the cross did operate ; at each extremity of the labia was fixed a leg or a teniaculum , f f, about a quarter of an inch thick, flat in fubftance, auburn in colour, between three and four inches long (perhaps maimed) ; at the basis, where thefe joined the body, they were larded or fanged by part of the fame crystal jelly as that of the body, flat as a fin ; within the mouth was a cavity of about four inches diameter, where its fuftenance with its bowels was lodged z .

Fig. ix. ibid, is the back of another variety of the medusa kind. It is convex in the middle, but slopes away quicker than the former at the edge, which is thin ; in the centre it has a pale purple cross, g, of four pointed rays, between which there are four bell-like foliage of the ftrongeft purple ; from the extremities of thefe foliage proceed rays of a faint purple diverging to the circumference. In the belly of the fame fiifh, Fig. x. there is a cross-like opening made by the convention of four triangular muscles, i ; and at each commiffure of thefe muscles there is a fang or leg of the fame transparent fubftance as the body ; with thefe legs, I apprehend they raise themselves from, or flick clofe to, the place where they chute to reft, reach, and convey the food to the mouth, ufe them as fins to fwim, or as legs to walk through the paths of the fea.

Fig. xi. ibid, is another variety of the medusa's, and differs from Fig. vii. before deferibed in the following particulars : It has no circular nucleus in the middle, but a needed fpot only ; its rays are solid, and not divided into lines. I could perceive no famous fangs at the limb its tentacula or legs, m being extended, spread fourteen inches, as in Fig. xii. which is the under part of this medusa.

Fig. xiii. is another variety : It has no colour but that of the purest crystal jelly, oval in figure, on the back it is convex, and on the under part, Fig. xiv. has four separate cavities, but no fang, tentacle, or other projection.

Fig. xv. is the belly view of another Urtica of the fame kind as the laft (as I imagine), but adult and perfect, found on the Mount's Bay whore, Auguft 2, 1757, which I have never feen deferibed: Its brim much thinner than the other parts to further its motions, fcolloped, edged with fang-like appendixes at the several protuberances, a b, and two others, (the reft probably broke off). The holes, cc, are the four mouths or inlets into the abdomen , supplied with muscular excrefcencies which serve to clofe them occasionally. It had eight legs, d d y all dependant from a ftem or talk, e : this ftem is

2 Qi>. an Urtica aftrophyta Linntei, Syft. Nat. Spec. 4 Gen. Zoophy; page 237.

U u u

defied

258 Natural History

dreffcd round with fourteen fangs, / / ; the back is round and convex, like that of the reft ; the whole transparent, colourlels, and cartilaginous ; and to diftinguifti it from the reft, may be called Ur tied marina ex trunco oElopedalis limbo imbricatim undante. Theft five are designed by the scale, A A.

But the moft beautiful of this kind which I have met with, and as far as I can learn has not been yet deferibed, is Fig. xvi. ib. p. 254, which, being large, is here deferibed by the scale, B B : It is all of the moft pure crystal jelly ; Ibme have a greenifti caft ; the margin is formed by little femicircular fangs about half an inch diameter, and as much distant from each other ; transparent as the reft, but that at their very brim they are tipped with a very beautiful blue. Four ftutcheon-like figures, e e, aptly joining their baft points, form a fender fulcus in the form of a cross at the center j four figures in the form of a heart, fill the vacancies between the fides of the fcutcheons ; from the circumference of this compounded nucleus proceed fifteen notched fangs, d Y, contiguous to each other at their baft ; on the outside of which at every fulcus betwixt the fcutcheons and the heart-like appendixes are inftrted the legs or tencles in number vm; they are here turned back and displayed b theft parts of the legs next the body (which is here marked c c) are flat ; but what is next the eye is divided into three blades about three quarters of an inch thick, jagged, carved, or furbelowed at the edges, but the lower part, f f , flattened like the blade of an oar, with three angles for the better cutting the water, as may beft be apprehended from the icon : between theft legs are eight crescent-like mouths, a a , which have a bunch of jelly at their aperture to loft and open them ; all theft mouths are inlets to one common opening which extends within the central nucleus , making a circular cavity, the dimensions of which may beft be feen at e e e, in Fig. xvii. within this cavity are the intestines, confifting of a continued tries of gut, yellow without, fastened to the body by a common membrane of about three inches deep, on which the guts are dependant : Fig. xvii. represents the back of this creature with the legs pendant , as Fig. xvi. repreftnts the various imagery of the under part. Till I am better informed of a name, I should call this Urtica marina oElopedalis 0EI0 faucibus et varies appendicibus ventralibus difinEla. It was found on the landy beach betwixt Penzance and Marazion 1756.

Theft creatures fwim obliquely, contracting alternately, and expanding their brim and promoting their reft and motion by the legs which they are supplied with : their motion however cannot be swift, which makes them an eafy and probably a nourilhing and delicious prey to larger fifh ; but they are sometimes eaten by man.

Rondeletius,

Of Cornwall. 259

Rondeletius, page 532 and 533, has given us (but very different from any here deicribcd) two of the V rica fioluta , whence they are copied into Aldrovandus's Table xvm. de Zoophytis, Natural

Hiftory, page 187. Some call them Blobbcrs ; the Cornifh name is Morgoulis.

Of the Stella marina , or ftar-fifh, Mr. Lhuyd found one near Stella mari- Penzance, which he calls Decempeda Cornubienfis . (Linckii Tabula £ or ftar ' xxxvii. N°. lxviJ. This is very rare ; for in Cornwall this animal ' has generally but live rays. Of this tribe we have varieties, as the Echinafter, or Stella coriacea pentadaSlyla echinata Luidii ; Linckii,

Tab. iv. vii. In this fort the briftles of the back are high and fpinous ; part of one (if I do not mistake) may be feen Plate xxv.

Fig. xvm. The following fix are of different colours, the central

boffes or fibula variously embroidered, and the rays of different workmanship.

Fig. xix. ibid, is entire ; the Afierifcus, fieu Jlella marina pentadaElyla exigua lutea vulgaris , from the fea-whore of Ludgvan ; the rays, when the fifh was first taken up, extended five inches and a half, were stiff and round, but by the next morning flatter, lank, and enervated, extending fix inches and a half in diameter ; 'in the under part a pentagonal nucleus occupied the centre, from each angle of which branched off a ridge of papilla pyramidales , with sharp horny points, running nearly in the middle of each ray ; the ground-colour was cinereous, tending to a purple ; the mammilla of a brick colour, the point of the rays a deep purple ; but when dead, of a brown yellow ; on the belly-part each fide of the rays had strong hard briffles shooting tranfverfely, between which there was a great number of transparent, foft, flefhy tubes, or antenna with small knobs at the extremity, which began to move and exert themselves, as foon as the fifli was laid on its back ; with its rays it crawls like a crab : the uppermoft briftles of the rays feem designed for defence, and perhaps to aflift its motion j the antenna of the underpart (which it flioots forth and contraffs like the horns of a nail ) serve to move it to and fro ( perhaps to fee and reach its prey), and fix it alfo when and where it chufes to reft.

In Fig. xx. the light parts are of a bright-yellow ocre, the dark part brown-red, of different degrees, intermixed and figured as in the plate ; the rays three inches long.

In Fig. xxi. the fibula is of an olive green of different degrees ; the ftem of each ray is diftinguifhed by a lozenge, and studded ; that is, divided into square compartments, alternately red and Naplesyellow, twenty red spots in each ray ; the rays two inches and a half long.

In Fig. xxii. the fibula is of a black ground, striped with

leaves

2 6o NATURAL HISTORY

leaves of a bell-like figure, with milk-white pointed javelins at the infection of the rays which are of a brown, fpeckled green ; the ftem marked with tranfverfe lines; rays three inches long. One of this fort (that is, with leaves of the jibula shaped in like manner) has a yellow fibula ; but the Hem of the radius is diversified by square compartments, as in Fig. xxi ; rays two inches and a half long : A third has no javelins at the infection, but the bell-like leaves with a whitifh nucleus in the centre, and the Hem of the ray cut into squares of the richest scarlet intermixed with green ; rays three inches long. In Fig. xxm. the fibula is black, pentagonal, interfered by five white flips (of the figure of a Lens) running from the ftem of the ray to the central nucleus ; the rays of an olive green, studded with dies of a darker colour. In Fig. xxiv. the fibula confifts of five petals only, the outer edge of which is a brown Cologn-earth, lightning into a yellow in the middle ; the rays are diftinguifhed by two owes of dies, one on each fide of the ftem, the dies opposite, and of a dark green ; another with like rays has the XX&s fibula, but of a fky-blue colour ; rarely met with.

Fig. xxv. is the back of a Stella ?marina fiaxis mfixa. Fig. XXVI. the belly-part of the lame with which it flicks to the rocks ; it was of a flesh-colour ; they are all of the fame fize I found them on Careg-killas near Penzance, October 8, 1756- Some other little differences occurred; butthele are sufficient to intimate what diversity of colourings and workmanship may be met with in this tribe.

On the whores of Mount's Bay we frequently find the cuttle-bone of the fepia or cuttle-filh, or ink-filh, by which it appears that the fepia of Rondeletius, page 498, though reckoned rare on the Englilh coat, is not fo uncommon on the whores of Cornwall : Its bone is uled by the filverlmiths in polishing, and sometimes admitted into the {hops among tooth-powders, &c. Galen and others think theie loft fifli very nourifhing, eafy of digestion, and great attenuators of the blood a .

Fig. xxvil. Plate XXV. is the Loligo b found in Mount's Bay 1757 ; and being a fair entire specimen of this uncommon animal, I add the following description : The body is eleven inches long, compreffed, one inch and a half thick, spreading on each fide into a thin, triangular, flefhy fubftance, a a , which serve as fins in water, and as wings in air; the tail much more obtuse than that of Rondeletius page 508; the head, c , is globular, one inch and a half high ; it had ten tentacles, d d, of various lengths ; the two longest, e e, are pedunculated, not extended to their full length, their Items round, and near the extremities their upper fide spread

Rondel, chap. Ii. lib. xvii, b Loligo minor Rondel, page 508. Salviani major Aldrov.

with

Of Cornwall. 261

with tubular cups of the fame flefliy fubftance as the Rem ; they end in certain nipples or tubercles : the other tentacula are more flat and wide ; they have one edge alfo full of thefe nipples, with a few cups in the middle of them ; of thefe cups I apprehend the fifh expands, and contracts the brim for the reception or emiffion of the air, and fixing itself by fudtion to rocks or plants, as well as for laying faft hold of its prey : the tentacula are both arms and feelers, and by the membranous and tender firudture of their tubes, doubtless of moffc acute fence ; by the recurve figure in which they ftifien as the animal dies, they appear alfo to quicken the motion of swimming by their alternate extension and contraction. This fifh contains inwardly a certain juice fo black in fome of the kind, that it may be ufed fopf ink c . Pliny thinks it the blood of the animal, but by later discoveries it appears to be an excrementitious secretion from the aliment, which from its own repository the animal feds when under the apprehension of any imminent danger, and thereby difcolouring the water, frequently conceals himself from his enemy. The Athenians held this fifh very cheap, but now the smaller fort especially is much coveted, and by fome placed among the greatefi delicacies of the table, when feafoned Ikilfully with oil or butter, pepper and wine ; but Rondeletius thinks them hard of digestion, lib. xvn. chap. v. This specimen had one bone in the middle like the blade of a dagger (therefore called its gladiolus ) ; its ufe is to ftifien the foft and lax flesh of the body ; it had plenty of ink, and was found on the hands of Mount's Bay 1756.

Chap. Xxiii.

Of Fifh.

F ROM the left and seemingly molt imperfect fea-animals, but equally necefiary in their degree, we are gradually arrived to the moft perfect inhabitants of the ocean.

And if I were here to fet forth an orderly arrangement of fishes in general, I should trace them through the several clafles into which nature has forced them, by lungs and gills, by bones and cartilages, by the number, shape and place of fins and teeth, by the fcaly armour of fome, and by the mucilaginous smooth coating of others ; but as my plan is local and more confined, I find myself only engaged to pursue the finny race through the waters of this

c Rondeletius, page 50 1.

county,

Sect. I

River and lake-fifti.

262 Natural History

county, as they were before divided into rivers, lakes, and lea, and

with as much order as thefe departments will admit.

In our rivers, besides eels and mines, and other lefs considerable, we have the fhote d , a small kind of trout, but in ponds growing to about twelve or fourteen inches long, and by fome reckoned e in a manner peculiar to this and its neighbouring county : the flesh is white and lefs firm than that of the trout : it is common in all brooks which are not infected with the mundic-waters of our mines, waters fatal to all fifh sooner or later, but much sooner to thofe which delight in clear running water as the fhote does. This fifh may be feen in Willughby's Tab. N. 4, Fig. 2, but indeed not to advantage.

In our Cornifh rivers we have not the jack, perch, carp, crayfifh, or others with which Providence hath flocked the rivers in the more inland parts of Britain, as it were to make amends for their being fo distant from the much greater variety of fea-fifh; but of the trout kind we have several forts, and in their feafon in great plenty. In the laft age there was a remarkably good one in the river Conar, which divides the parish of Camborn from Gwinear and Gwythien; but the many mines which have been of late years wrought in the neighbourhood, have destroyed this fifh. In the rivers Alan and Laine, near Pendavy, they take a grey trout in the summer time, the flesh of which is red and delicate. In the river Fawy, near Loflwythyel, is taken the black trout in the month of May, and till the latter end of June, sometimes three feet long ; in July the salmon-pele comes up the fame river, but is more commonly caught at the mouths of rivers, and in the fea- waters, than in the rivers themselves ; and about the latter end of Auguft lucceeds a trout, called, from the time of its appearing, the Bartholomew Trout, not fo large as the black trout, being about eighteen inches, rarely more ; it is deeper in the belly, cuts red, and is esteemed by fome before the black trout, and both before the salmon. The salmon is properly a fea-fifh, and comes only occasionally into the river, as to a place of more security from form and enemy, to caft its pawn, on which it is fo intent, that it will go up into large rivers four or five hundred miles f , then returns to the fea as its proper element, but muft be placed here, because the rivers generally afford us this fifh. It is caught in the river Fawy at two Wears, one belonging to Lanhidrock, the other to Glyn, from the the latter end of the Ipring to the end of autumn. The salmon is taken alfo in the feafon in great plenty at Lord Edgcumbe's Wear

d Trutta fluviatilis minor. c Carew, page 26 f Ray's Creation, page 130.

at

'rout,.

(Ae. 'f/ietrcr,

marinito or </eadraywn.

onui/i<-//iarf

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(Ttond/

! ft.t/l of/i<

tma

fa 'Ja/iA Oj fine, ton o/dcmyuo idem - fu/A from '//built?/*

CB/ud j/fdi

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c /rt/uu ma rmiitf fl/drov

Q/acunaduo y bud view.

worm

to // ti t'mfie.1

Of Cornwall. 263

at Cuthel, on the Tamar, and near Bodman, on the river Alan, at a wear of Mr. Flammock of Bofcarn.

The Lakes in Cornwall are but three; Dofmery Pool yields onlv eels ; the Swan Pool, near Falmouth, eels very large and good, with a mixture of small fea-fifh ; but the Lo Pool, in Kerrier hundred, nourifhes a trout, which deserves more particular notice. Of this the icon may be feen with the several parts by measurement, Plate xxvi. Fig. 1. The eye is large, the back of a deep black purple, on which the scales of a Fiver hue ; the belly, from the straight line which paffes from the gills to the middle of the tail, of a bright pearl colour. The spots are hexagonal annulets of a scarlet colour in general, but purplifh on the back, pierced of the field they Band on ; the anterior back-fin has thirteen pines, wavy at the top, with small tender points ; the posterior back-fin is entirely carneous, without any pines ; the gill-fins foliaceous in shape, with twelve pines ; the belly-fin small, with nine pines ; the anus-fin nine pines ; the tail-fin remarkably large, and very little forked ; the flesh very red in the feafon, and much esteemed. The salmon-pele above-mentioned is very different from this trout, being more circular in the back ; the lower mandible rather longer than the upper ; the belly more filtered ; the body deeper, and lefs round ; the gill-fin and anus-fin lefs in proportion ; the belly-fin larger, and the tail more forkled. This is perhaps a larger fort of the fialmulus Baltneri. Will. Tab. N. 4, Fig. 3.

The fea is the great store-house of Cornwall, which offers sect.il not its treasures by piece-meals, nor all at once, but in fuccef- Sea-fifh, and fion; all in plenty in their several feafons, and annually, as it cctace " were to give time to difpofe of what is fent ; and yet in fuch variety, as if nature was follicitous to prevent any excess or fuperfluity of the fame kind.

Of the Balczna or whale kind (that I may follow the usual order of Idthyologifts) we have the blower or fin-fifh (the phyfieter of authors) fo called by the ancients from the quantity of water which, from its mouth, it blows aloft into the air through a pipe or hole in the head adapted to this particular ufe. Balcena edentula corpore firiSliore dorfio pinnato. Ray, Syn. page 9.

The grampus, or Porcus marinus major of Ray, page 15; the Delphinus rofiro fiurfium repando de?itibus latin fierratis of Artedi , page 106. It is usually about eighteen feet long, sometimes large enough to weigh a thousand pounds weight ; fo voracious, that it will prey upon the porpefle itself, though of its own likeness.

Ray, ibid.

A late learned Swede, whole accurate account of fifh was publiflied after his death by Dr. Linnaeus.

The

264 Natural History

The porpefle, Porcus marinus feu Phoc&na vel Purfio ; Delphinus corpore fere conform , dorjo lato , rofiro fubacuto , Artedi, page 104. I have given an icon of this fifh Plate xxvn. Fig. 11. from a drawing of that accurate Idthyologifi: the late Reverend Mr. Jago of Loo. It muft be acknowledged by the greatest admirers of Mr. Ray and Mr. Willughby, that the fifli in their work are very imperfe&ly engraved. What is remarkable in this icon here infected is, that the dorsal-fin points forward to the head, and Hopes away backward ; a Angularity which I have never yet feen taken notice of in authors, and which fo accurate a designer of fifh as I have reason to think Mr. Jago ( from his drawings, as well as Mr. Ray's character of him in his Synopfis Meth. Fife, page 162), could not, I should think, mistake ; yet is the direction contrary to nature, and I have no other authority as yet for placing it thus, but that of Mr. Jago 8 . It is called Porcus-pifcis , or porpeffe, from the copious quantity of lard with which all its body is fheathed, and underneath this lard the flesh is red like that of a hog : it alfo resembles the hog both in the strength of its snout, and alfo in the manner of getting its food by rooting. Ray's Creation, page 140.

The dolphin, the Delphinus of the ancients. and moderns (Ray, page 1 2). Delphinus corpore oblongo , fubtereti , rofro longo acuto of Artedi, page 105. It is in many particulars like the porpeffe, but longer, more slender in body, more white in the belly-part, and spotted ; not fo broad on the back ; its snout more projected, and sharper, somewhat like the beak of a goose ; add to this that its dorsal fin (quite contrary to that of the porpeffe) Hopes forward towards the head, with its apex pointing backward, like the fins of other fifh. I have given an icon of this, Plate xxvn. Fig. 1. from a drawing found among the papers of the late' Mr. Jago abovementioned Thefe four cetaceous fifh prey upon the pilchard and the mackerel, and in fair weather, when fuch large fifli can venture into {hallow water, the porpeffe pursues them near the fliore.

sect. hi. Of long cartilaginous fifh, among others we have the blue-shark deferibed by Mr. Ray, Willughby ICthy.ol. lib. 3, chap. 3. This fifh haunts the Cornifh coats all pilchard-feafon, and though greatly inferior in bulk to the white shark 1 , is fo great an enemy to the fishing-nets, that the fishermen have large hooks made by the

8 This gentleman intended a hiftory of our Cornifh fifh, as Mr. Ray fays, ibid, but it is feared that his notes and observations arc loft, which the curious will always regret ; the few drawings which were found were kindly communicated to me by the Reverend Mr. Dyer, Vicar of St. Clare in Cornwall, and Chaplain of Eaft Loo ;

and what are rare, and not already published in the end of Mr. Ray's Synopfis pifeium, are infected in this work with proper acknowledgements.

h From its high dorsal fin, this filh is sometimes in Cornwall, but very erroneously, called the Thorn-back.

1 Can's carcharias feu Lamia Auth.

country

Of Cornwall. 265

country faiths on purpose to catch them ; they breath through holes or pipes on each fide betwixt the mouth and the pe&oral fins, not through gills.

Of the shark kind (besides others'" which have been reckoned by Mr. Ray, who came to Penzance on purpose to colled: and examine the forts of our Cornilh fea-fifh) we have the fea-fox, Vulpecula , or Simla marina of authors ; this shark we call the Threfher, from the motion of its long fox -like tail with which it strikes or threfhes its larger and lefs agile enemy the grampus, whenever it reaches to the surface of the water to breathe. This engagement lafts several hours as I have been informed by an eye-witness

We have alfo another shark, which we call the Porbeagle, of which I give an icon Plate xxvi. Fig. iv. from Mr. Jago, it being very different in shape from any in Willughby, or any other Ichthyologift I have examined.

Of the flat and broad, cartilaginous and fpinous, befldes thesECT.iv. more common fates and flares, which we call rays, we have one Flatfilh ' in Cornwall called the Cardinal Trilofl: m , or three-tailed ray ; fe- br ° ad ' &C condly, a Britton or Burton fate without any pines, excepting only a few on its tail ; the Raia oxyrinchos laevis of Jago j Ray, page 165.

The monk or angel-fifh, (otherwise termed the Mermaid-fifh, as Artedi fays) the Squatina Rondeletii , page 367; Ray, page 26; of which uncommon fifh, of a middle nature, partaking both of the dog-fifh and ray, I add the icon, Plate xxvi. Fig. v. Two of thefe fishes, one four feet even inches long, the other small, were taken in a travel-net at Penzance, July 11, 1757. That here described is of a middle fize, the belly white, the back of the colour of a foie, without freaks of white, as in a drawing I have feen of Mr. Jago, and without the Linea afpera in the middle of the back, as in Rondeletius, lib. xii. chap. xxi. and Mr. Ray, page 27.

Among the papers of Mr. Jago, I met with an accurate drawing of the Rana pifcatrix of Rondeletius, Willughby, and Ray, &?c. the Lophius ore cirrofo of Aredi, (G. Pifc. 41) which, because it is little known, and not faithfully represented in the books I have feen,

I have given the icon of, Plate xxvi 1. Fig. m. adjusted to the scale of the dolphin, & c. with the exact number of the appendixes at the edges, and ftiffenings of the pectoral fins according to Jago.

But very different is the Rana pifcatrix (Anglice frog-fifh, or fea-

k The tope, picked-dog, smooth or unprickly 1 The Reverend Mr. Dyer, Vicar of St. Clare, hound, bounce, alias greater cat-filh, in theCornifh, m In the Cornifh language fignifying three

morgi, that is, fea-dog, &c. Ray, Syn. page 20. tails.

Y y y devil)

266 Natural History

devil) represented Plate xxvii. Figure vi. found on the whore of Mount's Bay, Auguft 9, 17 57. It had no fin-like appendixes

round the head as that of Rondel, lib. xii. page 363, and that of Mr. Jago, but only on the tail part, interfperfed at the fides from the beginning of the dorsal-fin to within two inches of the infection of the tail ; they were three quarters of an inch long ; it had more capillaments and aculei than Mr. Jago's, and a longer rounder body than that of Rondeletius ; it had pines at the end of the pectoral fins an inch and three quarters long ; pines alfo at the extremity of the tail three quarters of an inch long : the head in general more bony, rough, and aculeated than in either of thofe authors.

The Turbot, alias Brett, Rhombus maximus after non fquamofus , (Ray, page 313) is an excellent fifh, comes in the summer and autumn months, and in fuch plenty sometimes in Mount's Bay, that two boys have taken thirty of them in an evening with hook and line.

We have alfo the Rhombus non aculeatus , fquamofus , called at London the Pearl, in Cornwall the Luga-leaf. Ray, ibid.

Befides others found here by Mr. Ray, as the plaife, dab, flounder, Mr. Jago (Ray, page 163) mentions the kitt, the Rhombus Icevis Cornubknfis maculis nigris creberrimis refperfus pulchrioribus quibufdam interlucentibus the flesh nearly as good as that of the turbot.

We have alfo the whiff, the Pajfer Cornubknfis after of Jago, ibid, of which the flesh is good for nothing.

We have alfo the holibut, the Hippoglojfus of authors : this larg eft of the flat kind is rare : there was one taken in Mount's Bay in February 1756; the colour dark green, scales small, body longer, larger, lefs square than that of the turbot.

The foie is frequently catched on our fandy whores, but rather larger on the hands of Scilly than in Cornwall. Finding the prints in general of this fifh defective or redundant in fome particulars n . I have given an icon of it Plate xxvi. Fig. 11. with its pines numbered, from a fair specimen of Mount's Bay.

We have alfo the Solea Icevis , vel arnoglofus , called the Lantern by the Cornifh (fays Mr, Ray, page 34) from its transparency.

sect.v. Of fea-fifh round, long, and of the eel-form, in Cornwall the Fifh, round, con g e r or conger-eel may be reckoned first : We have alfo the free-

n In Rondeletius the mouth is neither rightly shaped nor placed ; the branchial fin is too large, and not spotted black at the end ; the fide line is too large, and continued to the upper eye ; whereas it is indeed a straight (lender line from the middle of the tail to the under or left eye, and ends at

the cheek-bone, and the mouth winds round clofe under the right or upper eye ; and in him the tailfin is perpendicular ; whereas it is really circular, as in this drawing. This fifh had fifty-eight pines on the mouth-fide, and eighty-eight on the opposite.

eel,

Of Cornwall. 267

eel, the Anguilla libera of J ago (Ray, page 166) which has a milder taste, and fewer little bones than the conger.

Our launces, or fand-eels, are extremely good; they lye about fix inches deep in the hands when the tide is out, but this seems only their place of retirement to wait the next tide ; when that tide returns and covers them, they expatiate again in the waters : they are sometimes taken among the pilchards, as Mr. Jago informs us, Ray, page 165, ib. giving the icon of one fifteen inches and a half long, with one belly-fin, which Mr. Ray's wanted 0 . This fifh is alfo found in the fiomachs of porpefles, but whether from their rooting them up out of the fand, as Mr. Ray (Creat. page 140) observes, or nay ant, can scarce be determined.

We have a kind of fea-adder which I find not at present well described : It seems a species of the acus, or needle-fiSh, but very different from the fea-adder (as the Cornifh called it) brought to Mr. Ray p ; his was like a worm ( Ophidian lumbriciforme ), no more than five inches and a half long, of the bignefs of a goose-quill, ending in a /harp finlefs point : this was fifteen inches and one eighth long, had a back and tail-fin, the proportions as in this figure, Plate xxvi. Fig. xii. the scales shaped like thofeof a land-adder : its paunch, being opened, fome hundreds of young fry (like little eels) put into water, foon moved to and fro g ; it had a Semicircular f ulcus on the back.

Plate xxvi. Fig. vi. is the fun-fifh taken at Penzance in May 1743 r . It was three inches thick at the back, at the belly only three quarters of an inch ; the tail cartilaginous, pellucid ; the colour dapple, Spotted darker on the back ; the belly Silver, pearl-coloured, with Streaks or fillets half an inch wide, confifting of two lifts of dark, between which the middle lift was pearl spotted with black : thefe Streaks begin under the eye, and continue at equal distances to the pe6toral-fin; smooth without scales. This fifh was but small, as may be observed by the scale annexed ; but they are sometimes extremely larger. In the year 1734 s , there was one taken at Plymouth of above five hundred pounds weight ; and in Ireland they are sometimes taken twenty-five feet long, and proportionably thick There is a Shorter fort of this fiSh (Willughby, Tab. 1. page 29) which is described by Ray, (Synopf. page 51) who met with it at Penzance : I have added the icon of it from Jago, adapted to the general scale, Plate xxvi. Fig. vi. It is the Orthrago - rifcos Jive Luna Rondeletii , page 424, the Mola Salviani Raii ,

page 51, and the OJlracion quartus of Artedi, page 83. This fiSh

See ibid, page 38. longo, corpore figuris varies ornate of Artedi, N%

p Ibid, page 47. 23, page 86.

q Qu. an Acus 2 da species Rondel. Willughby, s Philof. Tranf. 1742.

Tab. x. 25, Fig. vi. t Hift. of Waterford, page 271.

r This is the Oftracion oblongus, glaber, capite

Is

268 Natural History

is called by Ray and others the fun-fifh, as being round, and emitting a kind of fplendour in a dark room ; by others (with Rondeletius) the moon-fifh, because not only round and shining by night, but having the shape of the crescent (fee Plate xxvi. Fig. vn. page 263, a) betwixt its little pecftoral fin and eye ; but what is more remarkable in this creature is, that fo large a fifh should have fuch little fins, and thofe mostly at its hinder parts: this fifh is one conspicuous instance how artfully nature adapts the instruments of motion to the form of the body which is to be moved ; it is fo thin, long, and flexile, that a large fin in the former part would hinder its fwiftnefs ; being itself but one thicker fin, it wafts itself forward in a great measure by the meer bending of its back from fide to fide, whilst its wedge-like form, and sharp-pointed head, easily cut their way ; but the chief momentum is from behind, where the tail-fin, b b , is fixed as a rudder and an oar too, reaching from top to bottom, to keep the whole body on its edge the more steadily, as well as further and guide its progress : at each end of this Angular appendix is a fin, the upper one, c , railing itself above the body, and the under one, d , tending below it, both by their spread encreafing the force in thefe parts, co-operating with the wavy flexures of the body, and accelerating its progress in the fame manner as an oar working at the stern of a boat, drives forward and dire&s the whole machine.

sect. vi. Of fpinous or bony-fifh, the rays of their back foft and flexible, n ifh ' bon ( ca from their afinine colour) we have the cod or keel-

&c. ' y ' ing, and of that two forts, the one whitifh afinine, the other ruddybrown spotted with yellow fpecks ; the firfl: has the tinea, or fideftreak, from the gills to the tail quite white, the other of a browner caft. The firfl: is the Afellus major vulgaris , Ran , page 53, &c. (Gadus tyus Artedi gen. Pifc. 16, 4), between three and four feet long, a fifh, for the delicacy and firmnefs of its flesh, equal to moft; the other we call commonly the Tamlin Cod, Red or Rock-Cod, about two feet long ; the Afellus major faxatilis feu rubens , Jago, in Ray, page 165.

Befides others mentioned by Mr. Ray " , we have the poor or power, Afellus mollis minimus of Jago (Ray, page 163, N. 6) bearded as the Afellus major.

Of two-finned fpinous Afelti (besides the useful hake and ling), the great forked-beard is to be noted ; it is eighteen inches and a half long, Barbus major Cornubienfs cirris bifur cats (Jago, Ray, page 163), and the lefler forked-beard about five inches long, Barbus minor Cornubienfs cirris bifurcis, ibid. Ray, page 154. Thefe

11 The whiting pollack — Rawlin pollack, bib or blind-havoc — Whiting. Ray, page 53, 54, 55

two

Of Cornwall, 269

two are seldom taken on our coats, and therefore Mr. Jago reckoned them among the non-defcript.

Of fifh of the tunny kind, we have have the tunny, alias Spanifh mackerel, the Tkynnus et Orcynus Autorum : Mr. Ray law one at Penzance even feet long : It weighs sometimes one hundred pounds weight : It differs in nothing from the common mackerel, but that it is much larger, and has no spots. Ray, page 57.

The mackerel (/comber) is taken in great plenty on the southern coat of Cornwall, and not only of ufe when fresh, but is fated and pickled, and kept all the winter to the great relief of the poor.

The coloured freaks of this fifh are juftly admired when it is dead, but greatly superior in beauty when it is living. When it is fir ft caught, its colours are strong and lively ; the freaks on the back of a full, dark, blue green, the general ground of a bright willow green ; but as the fifh grows fainter, and nearer its exit, the freaks lofe their strength, grow paler, and the blue goes oft : put the fifh into a pail of fea-water it will begin to move, and, as the fifh revives, the colours recover their luftre ; take it out of the water, and the colours fade, and faint away as before. However inexplicable therefore that configuration of parts is to which colours are to be attributed, it is plain, in this cafe, that the height of the colouring is owing to the circulation of the juices in thofe fine capillary duds and membranes of which the outward covering is composed; as the blood ftagnates, the mafs settles into a state of reft, incapable of refleding the rays of light with equal vivacity : But whatever may be the cause, the varied, rich, and finished colourings of fifti are strong instances how intent Providence has always been of diverfifying her works, that they may make their way into our admiration through the eye, as well as gratify our taste. It was perhaps from the beauty Oi thele colours that Ovid took the hint of representing the goddess of beauty,

Venus, (during the general panick into which Typhseus had thrown the gods) as chufing to conceal herself under the form of a fifh.

Among the fiippery anguilli-form, we have the whistle-fifh, the sect, vil rock-ling of Jago (Ray, page 164); in Chefhire, called aSea-loche;

Muftela marina vulgaris. Its icon is published from Mr. Jago by Ray, page J 2 ' an d besides others mentioned by Mr. Ray (page 73), I found on Careg-killas, in Mount's Bay, a particular kind of fuck-fifh, of which, as very different from the common Remora of authors, two icons may be feen of the natural fize, Plate xxv. Fig. xxviii, xxix j the former fhews the back, the latter the under and fucking part : the fifh is smooth, and purple coloured.

Mr. Jago has added to Mr. Ray's Catalogue the smooth fhan, Cataphra&us Icevis Cornubknfis , Ray, page 164. " Mulgranoco feu

Z z z Bulchardo

27 o NATURAL HISTORY

Bulcharclo Cornubienfi bene convent , fed cirris bifidis differ tk Ibid, Fig. io.

Of fifh bifinned on the back with foft and flexile rays, a very rare one was taken in Mount's Bay, January 29, 1756 : It is the Dracunculus , Rondel, lib. x. chap. xn. The oddnefs of its shape, and the beauty of its colour, induced me to give two drawings of it, Plate xxvi. Fig. x. and xi. It is generally reckoned a mediterranean fifh, in which feas Mr. Ray found it ; but scarce half the flze of the Cornifh one. It is alfo different from the icon of Rondeletius : its upper mandible projected much beyond the lower ; it was sharp, bony, and bent forwards like the beak of a raven ; its eyes large, clofe together, placed in the upper part of the head ; its head large in proportion to the other parts, and somewhat comprefled ; the firfl: radius of the anterior back-fin cliff, and reaching backwards as far as the tail ; the fin high, wavy, triangular, with four radius's ; the belly-fin had the fame number ; it had four pe&oral fins, two immediately under, and two posterior to the gills; they are horizontal at their infections, from which one would imagine, that they were ufed in time of danger for flying w ; the body is round, tapering to a point at the tail, which is a fin of even rays. When it was firfl; taken, its colours were rich, yellow, pearlcolour, and blue.

Fig. in. Plate xxvi. is the Draco marinus (Rondeletii aliorumque ), in our feas scarce; it is badly designed in Willughby, who, as well as other authors who have described this fifh, has not taken notice of the deep fulcus on the back, in which, as the ingenious Mr. Dyer, who fent it me 1757, observes, this fifh can conceal the poisonous pines of his dorsal-fins when they are reclined, that he may exert them occasionally with the greater execution. I have given a drawing of it by the general scale.

sect. viii. Some fifh bifinned on the back have the former fin radiated with prickly points, among which the baffe claims the firfl; place ; its elegant shape and compact ftrudlure (equally adapted for strength and agility) inclined me to give its icon from a large well-fed specimen, Plate xxvi. Fig. xix. This is the Lupus of moft authors ; the Perea , f pecks qma. Percarum Artedi , page 69.

The mullet is generally taken with us in small nets near the whore.

Some of thefe fifh are named Cuculi by the Latins, from the found of the voice, which resembles that of the cuckoo-bird, by the Englifh called Gurnards (from their grunting like a fow, fays

w Mr. Ray, page 87, fays the fifh of the cuculine kind sometimes employ their fins to the ufe of flying, though chiefly designed for another purpose.

Ray,

(

Of Cornwall. 271

Ray (page 87) ; the voice of fome is thought to resemble that of a pipe ; it is therefore called in Cornwall a Piper. Of thefe we have the grey gurnard, the tub-fifh, the red gurnard or rocket, the piper, the Freaked gurnard (Jago, Ray, page 165); and that well- coloured fifh, and excellent meat, the furmullet. What is called in London the Horfe mackerel, the Cornifh call Scad, a fifh meanly accounted of ; not fo the doree ( quasi Deauratus , or gilded hdi, fays Ray, page 99), the faber five G alius marinus authorum. This fifh is of firm fubftance, and much coveted, but rather dry in companion of the foie and turbot

Of fishes not aculeated, single-finned on the back, we have the sect. ix, comber, (Jago, Ray page 163) the herring, and the pilchard; the two laft generally known ; but the great profit of the Pilchard (of which more in the sequel) is in a manner peculiar to Cornwall, and more particularly from the river of Fawy weft ward. Befides thefe, we have the fhad, or mother of herrings, (Ray, page 105) and the frat or fparling, of which two forts are observed in the Cornifh feas, one the offspring of the pilchard, the other of the herring, and easily to be diftinguifhed ; fome fishermen however think the fprats a distinct kind of fifh from either, the belly of the one being smooth, of the other rough x .

Of the gar-fifh, or horn-fifh, there are two forts in Cornwall, fays Mr. Ray, (page 109) one called the Girrock, the other the Skipper, a fifh which moves its upper jaw ; cc Skipper Coriiubienfium corruption vocis fkopfer rofro breviore quam Acus vulgaris , fGrfan Saurus Rcndeletii , lib. 8. chap. 5." Jago, Ray, page 165.

Of fishes fpinous, single-finned on the back, besides thofe found here by Mr. Ray, (from page 127, & c.) and thofe communicated by Mr. Jago, and published in the end of his Synopfis, (from page 163 y ) we have a fifh which, in Mr. Jago's papers, I find called the Black-fifh, and thus deferibed : " It is smooth, with very ffnall thin females, infomuch, that they will not be taken notice of without clofe infpedtion ; fifteen inches long, three quarters of an inch broad besides the fin ; head and nofe like a peal or trout, little mouth, very small teeth, a full and bright eye, only one fin on the back, beginning from the nofe, four inches and three quarters, near fix inches long, a forked tail, a large double noftril. Two taken at Loo, May 26, 1721, in the Sean, near the whore in fandy ground with small ore-weed in his pot." As this fifh appears to

w It is common on our coaffs in the pilchard y As the fea-bream, the chad or young-bream, feafon, when you may buy of the largest at Pen- the wrafle, butter-fifh, the father lafher, die p-oldzance generally for about fix pence each. finny, the cook, the corklino-.

See Hill, of Cork.

me

272 Natural History

me very rare, I have given an icon of it Plate xxvi. fig. vm. adjusted to the general Scale from a drawing of Mr. Jago.

sect. X. It mu ft not be imagined that the catalogue of fifh given nere in

Profit of this chapter contains all the fifh which are caught on the coat

fishing. of Cornwallj but mt her the moil useful, molt rare, and of remarkable properties, which have reached the knowledge of the author ; it would be a very difficult talk to make out an exad lift ; " Immenfa et fiwnme admirabilis Dei potentia clique fiolertia in rebus ccelejiibus y iifique quce in aere et terra fiunt.y maxime vero in man , in quo ta?n varice et jlupendce rerum fiormce confpiciutitur ut qu&rendi cf contempla?idi nullus unquam futures fit finis z ". Of the before-mentioned river-fifh, the salmon, trout, and eel have the preference ; of the flat fea-fiffi, the turbot, foie, and doree ; of the long, the launces, and the conger ; of the round, the cod ; to which the whiting-pollack, whiting and ling are next, tho' in taste and firmnefs inferior: the mackerel, mullet, and gurnard are well known, but for profit to the common-wealth of this county, the pilchard is deicivedly esteemed above all. This fifh comes from the nortn Seas in immense Shoals, and in the Summer months, about the middle oi July, reaches the islands of Scilly, and the Land s End of Cornwall ; not driven by fifh of the cetaceous kind ( as fome have thought), but Shifting their Situation as the feaion prompts, and their food allures them ; thus by a tour to the warm foutherly coats of Britain, they Strengthen and prepare themselves and their young ones to return to the great northern deeps, for the fake of fpawning and securing themselves during the stormy feafon. The pilchard continues off and on in the fouth chanel, principally 10111 Fawy harbour westward, and is taken fonietimes in gieac numbers at Mevagiffy, in the creeks of Falmouth and Helford harbours, in the creeks of St. Kevran, and in Mount's Bay ; fome pilchards are alfo taken in St. Ives Bay in the north chanel. With the taking this fifh by feyne-nets and drift-nets, the curing them with fait, preffing them, (fuming them being for many years laid ahde) and exporting them to foreign markets, the world is fo well acquainted , that I need only fuggeft in a summary manner the advantage wnich this fifh is of to the county of Cornwall : It employs a great number of men on the lea, training them thereby to naval affairs; employs men, women, and children, at land, in faking, preffing, washing, and cleaning, in making boats, nets, ropes, calks, and all the trades depending on their conftru£lion and fde ; the poor is fed with the offals of the captures, the land with the refuse of the

See Carew's Survey, page 33, &c.

fiffi

z Rondeletius, part 11. chap. xrv.

Of Cornwall. 273

fifh and fait, the merchant finds the gains of commiffion and honest commerce, the fisherman the gains of the fifh. Ships are often freighted hither with fait, and into foreign countries with the fifh* carrying off at the fame time part of our tin. The usual produce of this beneficial article in money, is as follows : By an exact computation of the number of hogfheads exported each year for ten years, from 1747 to 1756 inclusive, from the four ports of Fawy, Falmouth, Penzance, and St. Ives, it appears, that Fawy has exported yearly 1732 hogfheads, Falmouth 14631 hogfheads and two thirds, Penzance and Mount's Bay 12 149 hogfheads and one third,

St. Ives 1282 hogfheads; in all amounting to 29795 hogfheads: every hogfhead for ten years laft paft, together with the bounty allowed for each hogfhead exported, and the oyl made out of each hogfhead, has amounted, one year with another at an average, to the price of one pound thirteen shillings and three pence, fo that the cafh paid for pilchards exported has at a medium annually amounted to the fum of forty-nine thousand five hundred and thirtytwo pounds ten shillings.

It is ftill a matter of dispute whether fishes do hear; many sect. xi, learned men maintain the affirmative ; and certain it is, that founds wer are propagated in water. " All cetaceous fishes, fays Artedi, (ibid. ' page 19) have the auditory pafifages externally apparent, but all other fifh have none, and therefore feem not to hear. All fiih are terrified indeed at the founds of thunder, cannon, and fuch violent concuflions of the air, which have a proportionable effect on the water, and the fifh may become fenfible of this by the general fence of feeling." But to this let me add, that though the generality of fifh have no apparent auditory pafifages, yet they may have fome small secret du£ts (probably in their gills or mouth) thro' which they receive founds, though in no very acute manner. Nature (by which name I always mean the wife Difpofer of the natural and usual course of things) leflens, diverfifies, and proportions the organs of this fence of hearing to the occasions of the animal, and the medium in which founds are to move ; if that be thin and light as air is, the auditory pafifages may be large ; but if dense and turbulent as water, thofe paffes mull be small and well guarded, or they will be too violently agitated, and foon lofe their tone : thus as Mr. Ray (Creat. page 152, edit. 8) observes, the amphibious or aquatic quadrupeds, fuch as the beaver, otter, phoca or fea-calf, water-rat, and frog, have very small ears or ear-holes suited to the frequent occasions they have to be in the wary element. Again : several fifties have their names from the founds which they utter b , from which I should conclude,

b As the gurnard, &c. from grunting, the cuckoo, &c.

4 A

that

274 Natural History

that the power of emitting founds would not be given them, but for fome ufe, and for what ufe, if they could not be heard and apprehended by fifh of the fame species ? It is aflferted however by fome moderns that fifh do not hear (Philof. Tranfadfions for 1748, 486) ; and fo far the experiments mentioned there feem to prove, that fifh are not perceptible of articulate founds , and indeed it cannot be thought that their organs of hearing, formed for fo thick a medium, need be fo quick and delicate as thofe of creatures which live in the air ; I think it therefore moffc reasonable to conclude that fifh may, and likely do hear as much as is neceflary for felf-preservation, and that intercourse which is requisite to aflemble and connect individuals of the fame species.

xii. Befides the muscle, limpet, cockle, wrinkle, and crabs of all

- kinds, for better nourishment we have the long-oyster (the Locufta marina Aldro-vand. de Cruft at. chap. 2, tab. 2), and the lobfcer, or Ajiacus verus , much superior in delicacy of food to the former, and in fuch plenty on the coats of Cornwall, that Well-boats come to load, and carry them alive to London and elsewhere c .

Of the shrimp kind, great quantities are taken in Helford harbour, Mount's Bay, &c. in calm weather. Here we often find the hermit-shrimp, bernard, or cancellus , remarkable for taking poffefiion of fome empty hell, and there fixing his habitation as firmly as if it were his own native place ; when it marches, it draws the hell after it ; in danger retires wholly into it, and guards the mouth with one of its forcipated claws d . That fine shrimp, Squilla lata Rondeletii , (lib. 18, chap. 6) rubra , albo maculata , I found on Careg-killas in Mount's Bay.

Of oysters there is great plenty in Cornwall ; the belt I have heard of come from the creeks in Conftantine parish on the river Hel in Kerrier hundred ; they have them alfo in all the navigable rivers on the fouth coat, always beft tailed where there is left communication with the waters which come from mines, ftampingmills, and other places infe&ed with mundic and vitriol. This fifh has the power of closing the two parts of its hell with prodigious force by means of a firing muscle at the hinge, and Mr. Carew, (p. 31) with his wonted pleafantry, tells us of one whole hell being opened as usual at the time of flood (when thefe fishes it seems participate and enjoy the returning tide), three mice eagerly attempted to seize it, and the oyflier clapping faft its hell killed them all. It not only shuts its two valves with great flrength, but

c In the spring and summer feafon the largest i Some have erroneously imagined that this was are bought for four pence each, sometimes lefs, a young lobster. in Mount's Bay.

keeps

Of Cornwall. 275

keeps them fhut with equal force, and (as I have been informed by a clergyman of great veracity, who had the account from a creditable eye-witness to the fadt) its enemies have a Ml imparted to them to counteract this great force. As he was hilling one day, a fisherman observed a lobster to attempt an oyfler several times, but as foon as the lobster approached, the oyster fhut his hell ; at length the lobster, having waited with great attention till the oyster opened again, made a shift to throw a stone between the gaping shells, sprung upon its prey, and devoured it. The polity of fea-animals is it seems a state of nature, a continual war, where the fifh in their several ranks have as many various arts of oppreffmg and devouring their inferiors, as of securing and defending thernfelves from their more powerful antagonists ; all impreffed by their gracious Maker for their mutual and refpedfive preservation. We find not the fame universal enmity between the greater and lefs of terrestrial creatures. Some antipathies indeed, fome few carnivorous birds and beats of prey there are by land, but in the fea the eggs, the pawn, the fry, the small, the weak, are in their several degrees the common and constant prey, food, and support of the greater, older, and more powerful. Why then are fuch different appetites implanted ? Why do not the land-animals prey upon one another with equal eagernefs ? Why, there is lefs need of animalfood on the land than on the fea, because vegetable food is every where at hand on the surface of the earth, and the provident care of man can preserve in one feafon what does not grow but will be equally wanted in another ; the marine vegetables are more sparingly given, in lefs variety, at greater depths, fubjedt to the violences of their native element; the medium which fifh live in is more boyant, and consequently the life more erratic than that of land-animals ; their digestion alfo for the generality (from the coldnefs of the medium they live in) is lefs able to bear the toughness and harsh falls of marine plants ; fifh therefore muft have other supports, and the animal food is difperfed in every creek and cranny, as the rich and proper nourishment of the finny race. This occasions a vaft consumption tis true, but the provision nature has made is equal to it, the fecundity of fifh exceeding all conception.

Of the cetaceous kind there are but few fifh, and their eggs few ; in the cartilaginous betwixt fifty and one hundred eggs ; but in all oviparous fifties (of which calls moft fifh are) the eggs are scarce numerable', there being found in one cod (it is faid f ) 9,344,000 eggs.

Of shells we have great quantities, but rather more varieties than sect. xin. forts on our Cornifh coats. The finest are generally small, and in our Of shells.

Artedi de partib. Pifc. page 31. f Nat. Difpl. 8vo, page 93, vol. I.

beft

2 7 6 Natural History

beft, we cannot boat of the rich colourings which the (hells o' the Mediterranean and Indian whores afford the col ledtions of the curious. Some however we have too rare and beautiful to be palled over in ftlence ; thofe moft worthy or notice, which have fallen m the way of my observation, are the following :

Plate xxviii. Fig. i. Of the univalve kind, we have the blue-raved limpet, or the oval pellucid limpet, dotted with blue lines lengthways from the vertex to the margin ; Patella minima , leevis, ova, pellucida ceeruleis a quatuor ad novem lineohs eleg antijjime infigmta. From Falmouth Harbour and the Land's-End.

ii. The radiated beaked limpet with an oval apex ; Patella radiata , injlato spice pujlulato & albejcente. From Whitfand Bay.

hi. Rough-ridged limpet ; Patella Jlriis rugofis , afpera , spice acuminato. Mount's-Bay.

iv. The fool's-cap, of a pale bloflbm-colour, rarely found on the Englifh whores ; when taken up with the animal in it, there is a membrane at its margin by which it adheres to the (abject it chufes to fettle on. From the Land's-End and Heyl Mouth. Patella rugofa , alba , vertice admodum adunco.

v. Smooth tooth-hell, the cafe of a fea-worm ; Dent ale Leve, curvum , album. Land's-End.

vi. The wavy ftriated trochus, pearl-coloured ; Trochus acuminatus , crebris Jlriis tranfverje et undatim dijpojitis donatus. Gwythien hands.

vii. The pearl-coloured, ffriated, papillaceous top-hell ; Trochus planior , creberrimis flriis Jplendidis papillaceis donatus. Ibid.

The Nautilus is very rare in Cornwall, and the V Put a of the specimen which I have, not three quarters of an inch diameter.

The white ruddy-spotted nail with a circular mouth , Cochlea alba , Lu?iris , rufefcens fafciis maculatis diJlinEla. Ibid.

The smooth flat-twirled river-nail ; Cochlea J'emilunaris , Jpird una tantum maculatd diJlinEla. Ibid.

viii. The cornu-ammonis nail ; Cochlea cornu- ammonis .

ix. The high ftriated white cochlea, or bastard gentle-trap ; Cochlea alba , Jlriis paris admodum e7ni?ientibus exaj'perata. From the Land's-End.

N. B. The famous gentle-trap, fold lately at London for eighteen guineas, was a species of this kind but larger, and the parts lefs connected with the body.

x. The yellow canulated whelke with black furrows ; Turbo s luteuSy J'eptem fulcis parallels nigris dijlinclus. Land s-End.

The fniall red and white variegated whelke ; Turbo minimus , leevis, variegatus , albo-rubicundus . Whitfand Bay.

s Or Turben.

The

Ti.xx.vm.

i /o /f l //i am 0/i*er

az

rn/.h

\Jf t f/e//i JclAa/il//*)

(a ala/ : Jc Oxoji : If D: — FR:S. l/ia

cn /d In/

' reatecl tnaani'/i ly

Wnt . Bar/ase

Of Cornwall. 277

Small milk-white smooth whelke ; 'Turbo minimus Icevis albus.

Ibidem.

The small needle whelke ; Turbo minimus , fubfufcus , acus inflar acuminatus. Ibid.

Fig. xi. The purple-marking whelke. From Mount s-Bay and Loo. The juice which marks is in a separate bag, of a yellowish green when first drawn upon linen, grows a little ruddy afterwards, till it comes to a faint purple ; when dry, and the linen washed, it is of a good purple, and rather betters by age and frequent washing.

xii. The purple, spotted Nuns, alias course ; Concha V eneris exigua , purpurafcens Jlriis minimis tranfuerfis , tribus maculis fufcis dorfo infperfa. Heyl-Mouth.

xiii. The fmalleft Nuns without spots ; Concha V eneris minima nullis maculis infignita. Whitfand-Bay.

iv. The larger- striped Concha Veneris ; Concha Veneris major (Lifieri Hift. Conchy l . lib. 4, fetl. 9, N°. 71) Icevis, lines luteis , et albis dense dijlinEla , aperture longe incequali. Ibid.

It is very curious to observe how this hell-fifh proceeds to its maturity : it is here in its infancy, but it narrows this wide opening, and gradually buries the voluta of its apex, as it contracts its aperture, till it arrives at the state of a perfect course, when it throws all the after-thickning of its shelly-increase from its sides round to its back, where the joining of the two teftaceous apophyfes may be plainly perceived h .

Of the bivalve kind worth notice the following only have

occurred

XV. The quadrangular ftriated muscle ; Muf cuius, [aperture fere quadrangular z] friatus , fafeiis undatis fubfufeis depi&us : arias, Mufcuhts Matthioli , lib. 3, N°. 208. From the Lands-End.

xvi. A smaller, lefs-diftin6t specimen of D°. very rare in the Englifh feas, usually reckoned a Mediterranean hell.

xv n. The smooth foliaceous purple concha ; Concha hzvis, vertice folds quaf infgnito , ad marginem leviter purpurafcens . Whit-

xviii. The winged feallop ; PeEluncuhts pennatus jtrns dense

notatus , luteo-purpurafeens. Ibid.

xix. The rough echinated feallop ; PeSlunculus echinatus , [fufco-purpureus ] concha echinata Rondeletii , Gefneri Aldrovandi.

Ibid.

xx. The regularly-marked leallop PcEtwiculus lines albis luteo-rubicundis ordinatim difiinElus. Ibid.

h I am obliged to the curious his large collection.

Mr. Jof. Platt of Oxford for this and other kind communications from

4 B

278 Natural History

Fig. xxi. The purple fcallop variegated with white circular fillets ; PeEluncidus purpuraftcens vittis albis circularises variegatus. Ibid.

xxii. The purple ribbed fcallop; PeSien altis ftriis albo -pur pureis, tranftverse variegatis inftgnis. Helford Harbour.

xxiii. The light purple tellina with horizontal Jlrice , eminent, and parallel to the margin ; Concha in vzrtice leviter purpuraftcens ftriis eminentibus margin parallelis diftinBa : Tellina tertia Aldrovandi ut videtur.

xxiv. The white crooked-bill bivalve of the bernacle; Concha Icevis candidior , triangularis , vertice admodum reflex et acutninato. Whitfand-Bay.

xxv. The polished tellina ; the fillets difpofed at different dis-

tances, but of an equal breadth throughout as to themselves, with a ferrated edge ; Tellina vittis albo-luteis & purpuraftcentibus leviter ftriata , margine ferrato. Ibid.

Tellince varie radiates , ftaftciatce , vittatce , Icevigatce , aftperes , fulco - ftriatce pulcherrimce , et Cbamce parvee (ut plurimum tamen ad littora Whitfand-Bay) funt frequetiter repertce.

xxvi. The flat, smooth, small fea-egg ; Ovulum tnarinum Iceve , minimum , ftgurce compreJfee y or, Echinus marinus minimus : a the back, b the belly. Mount's-Bay.

xxvi i. The round and flat fea-egg ; Echinus marinus rotundas , ftgurce compreftfee , papillis minimis, ftpinis ftpoliatus. We have them in the Mount's-Bay from 4 1 inches high and five inches diame-

ter, down to one eighth of an inch high, and two eighths of an inch diameter.

xxvi 11. The deprefled cordate fea-egg ; Echinus marinus depreftse cordatus. Mount's-Bay.

xxix. The narrow-mouthed balanus ; Balanus ore contraElo, cinereus. Mount's-Bay. The elevation xxix, the plan xxx.

The wide-mouthed balanus ; Balanus ore hiante magnus.

xxxi. One valve of the pholas taken out of the middle of a stone at Karn-Jenny, Mount's-Bay.

xxxii. The wrinkled, notched, and high-beaked concha or cockel; Concha cinerea denfta , margine dent at 0, ftriis rugofts et e lateribus un-

dofte tuber culofts. Heyl -Mouth. C, D, are the two fliells of the jaw

of the teredo , or auger-worm, with which it eats its way into timber and stone ; they are sharp, and turned ferew-wife one over the other for boring. Found at Heyl-Mouth, 1756, in fir-timber, by the Reverend Mr. Williams of Glamorganlhire.

sect. xiv. There being fuch quantities of recent fliells on the coats of Foffil-fheiis. Cornwall, it might reasonably be expected that extraneous and

Mil-

Of Cornwall. 279

foil'll- fliell s, fuch as peSlunculi , conchites, ammonitce , and other remains of marine teftaceous animals should be found in proportionable plenty in stones, quarries, and mines; but thofe 1 who have travelled through Cornwall, have found no fuch thing : and strange this may feem to fome, if not an unaccountable deficiency ; yet in this particular we shall not find Cornwall singular, nor the fubjetft sufficiently examined. True it is, that fofiil-shells are extremely rare in Cornwall, and I have sometimes thought that the shape of our county might have contributed in a great measure to deprive us of thefe curiofities ; for being a narrow flip of land, projecting into the western ocean, the departing waters of the deluge could not retire to their usual bed without taking away great parts of the upper jlrata , as a modern author has observed k ; to which let us add, that the feas to the north and fouth of Cornwall could not leave the surface of our hills without frequent struggles, as we fee on ridges where two feas meet : they muft have produced, from their own weight and concourfe, fuch violent agitations as would not leave fuch light bodies as shells, feeds, plants, and animal exuviae to reft in the diftolved clays and foft stones of fuch a narrow ridge. But I am persuaded that this is not the reason ; for in other counties, and indeed foreign regions, where the shape of the cotjntry is quite different, and does not at all countenance fuch a theory, we find the fame want of thefe extraneous fofiils. Firft, then, let it be observed, that thefe marine exuvice are not equally difperfed in every place ; in many diftriCfs few or none are found, in many diftridts again they are found in all parts ; the reason of which is, that the teftaceous tribes do sometimes shift, retire, and disappear from fome coats, and muft be therefore accumulated in others. The murex , fo famous formerly on the coats of Tyre, has been unknown there for many ages. Foflil-shells ( fays Dr. Shaw, page 383) are very rare in the mountains near Sinai; they are ftill rarer, if Fame fays true, in many parts of Afia minor, where a celebrated Botanift of our country, notwithstanding the utmost enquiry, could not hear of any in much larger diftrifts than the county of Cornwall. Nobilijfimus Sherardus Botanicus ajferuit quod in orientalibus plagis ab ipfo 7 ?iet nulla fpreta indujlria in fojfilium difquijitione , prater fuam & aliorum expe&ationem nullum unqua?n diluvianutn monument u??i comperitd Jof. Monti Bononienfis de ?nonumento diluviano , page 24. " For as in our mountainous places

(continues the fame author) there are observed whole mountains of teftaceous exuvice stretching themselves in a straight line for many miles together, as Count Marfilli has frequently informed me ; fo

Ray, Lhuyd, Hutchinfon. k Hutchinf. vol. I. trad 2, page 90.

alfo

2 8o NATURAL HISTORY

alfo 'tis reasonable to fuppofe, that by the rapid waters of the flood, matter was carried to and fro, and deposited over large grafts of land little or nothing charged with marine bodies." This scarcity may be accounted for by very satisfactory reasons . The distribution of recent marine bodies is, and always has been unequal. Why then should foflil-bodies of like kind be difperfed with greater equality than the recent ? Where there was plenty of teflaceous animals at the time of the flood, there, or near by, plenty of foflil-ftiells deposited in clay and stone is found ; where there was a scarcity of recent hell-fifh, there few or none appear inclofed in the folds. In fome places, by a variety of concurring circumstances, the fhellfifli were, and are ftill collected and heaped together ; other places muft in proportion have been, and ftill are left naked and destitute. Either there was a deficiency of recent hell-fifh round the whores of Cornwall, or there was not : if there was a deficiency of ftiellfifh round the whores of Cornwall at the time of tne deluge, then it is no wonder that none should be found in a foftil state if there was not fuch a deficiency, then hell-fifh muft have overfpread the hills of Cornwall, as well as elsewhere, in proportion to the product of the neighbouring whores ; and the reason why they do not now appear is next to be enquired into ; and may probably be, first, because our w'aters are very sharp and corrosive, subject to much vitriol, as appears by our copper-lodes, in which there is frequently found more or lefs of copper diflolved and precipitated by vitriol. The waters of tin-lodes and workings are alfo well flocked with vitriol. Now waters impregnated with the sharp falls of vitriol, and fuch a multitude of minerals and metals as Cornwall abounds with, muft fbon have diflolved the ftiells which were deposited here by the deluge ; and I am the more inclined to believe that the corrosive quality of the Cornifh waters may have confused thofe teftaceous exuvice , because in Cornwall we have various evidences of the flood, but all of that kind and texture which are proofs against fuch fretting waters. In a cliff four miles north of Bofcaftle, there are several Jirata of white crystalline stones, about four inches diameter, infected in horizontal owes like a lift or chain of Angle pebbles fide by fide, Plate xvn. Fig. iv. a a : thefe lifts were fixed in the general Jlratwn of this country, which is a brown flat, and could be spread in this manner by no cause fo likely as the general deluge. A little to the fouth, in the fame cliff, I observed veins of different colours, from the top ol the firm rock to the foot of the cliff washed by the fea, not in a perpendicular but angular direction, and yet prcferving a parallelifm one to another in a zigzag manner, as represented Plate and Fig. ibid. G W ; a phenomenon plainly intimating the ofcillatory motion with which the

Of Cornwall. 281

forces, diffolved by the flood, was agitated in fome parts before it fettled and finally concreted : I pafs over the rhodes and pebbly strata of Porthnanvan (as already fet forth, pages 76 and 150), though equal evidences oi the deluge. Again : In other countries, where their waters are plentifully charged with fufpended fpar (usually termed petrifying waters), the shells fettling in the forces which the deluge had every where produced, and afterwards defeated, were either immured in new forming stones of lime and marble, or the nidus % they formed were filled with fines or femimetallick concretions. It could not be fo (at left fo frequent) in Cornwall where fpar is very rare ; petrifying waters few or none, and the bafe of our stone mostly quartz. There are in other parts fome figured foflils in flinty nodules, as echinites, &c. but flints are fo scarce in Cornwall, that it has been till now doubted whether there are any native in the county: there are however fome (lee page 106), but being broke I have not as yet found any marine exu'uicB in them. Again . In chalky strata many of the tendered shells (fuch as pines of the echinus s, & fc.) are preferred in great quantity, but in Cornwall we have little or no chalk. When we confider therefore the mineral impregnation of our waters, and the hard crystalline basis of our Cornifli stones, incapable of yielding to the waters of the flood, and the scarcity of fpar and chalk, we Ihall not think it strange, that fo small a diftridf as this county should have few extraneous foflils to boat of. But after all, it is very certain that we have fome marine and extraneous productions inclofed in our Cornifh stones, although they did not occur to the learned gentlemen beforementioned during their ftiort visits to this county. One caft of a hell in mundic, and fome vermicular remains, may be feen Plate xv. page 137, Fig. xm and xiv, and Plate xvi. page 141, Fig. liv, lv, and lvi. Some plant-like cats in the fame femi-metal may be feen, ibidem, from Fig. xxix to Fig. xxxm. from my own collection, and probably many other forts, vegetable as well as teftaceous, may occur to others among our minerals. The moft likely places to afford them in stone to a diligent enquirer, I take to be the northern coat near Lower St. Column and the whore of Cuthbert, Carantoc, and Piran hands, where we have alabafter, ftalaCtites, and the fand-stone, in which laft I find bits of flat : the hart s horn alfo (Plate xxvii. Fig. v.) was extracted, in the year 1752, from the middle of a rock of this Cornifh free-ftrone, at New-Kaye, in the parifti of Lower St. Columb, Cornwall, (fee page 95) which I therefore give in its natural fize as it was taken out, the letter G making the incision made by the pick-axe of the stone-cutter who found it. The fcrapings became diffolved in vinegar, which pure hart's-horn,

nut into the fame acid, would not do : the horn had loft its natural " C toughness

282 Natural History

toughness, and was become gritty, cutting short like chalk : it was hollow in the middle, the medullary pith being eaten out, and the fides of the hollow more corroded than the outside. This intimates that there is fpar fufpended in the waters of our northern coat which cemented thefe hands into stone, though indeed in that stone I can perceive no shells, after examining them minutely in the microscope. On the southern coat it is very probable that Falmouth Harbour (where there is fuch plenty of coral, a fubftance little different from the nature of fpar) may afford us fome specimens of foffil-shells ; for I have now before me a lump of fpar even inches long, three inches and a half wide and deep, with limpets, pectuncles, fea-eggs, whelkes, oysters, muscles, cockles, and fome teftaceous and coralline fragments mixed throughout in the body of the stone ; all ffnall, except the muscles, which were of several lizes : this lump was not fixed in any natural rock, but lay as a detached nodule on the ftrand near the mills betwixt Falmouth town and Pendinas castle ; it may not therefore carry all the evidence that it would have done if found farther from the fea, and in a quiefcent firatum ; but it muft be acknowledged, that it could not come from far by reason of the roughnefs of the surface ; and forafmuch as it contains no shells or fragments but what are common to this harbour, it is moft likely to have been the product of the neighbouring cliffs. At the Par, near Fawy, there is a lime-stone not very unlike the fubftance of a coarse coral ; it is much eaten by the Pholades and small worms, with the shells of several pipe-worms affixed, of a fubftance very little different from the stone itself. This stone makes a strong effervefcence with aqua forth ; and if there be not much fpar-stone in this neighbourhood, moft probably thefe wormeaten stones have been imported from other parts for making lime, and being difperfed in the hands and fea, have been seized by the pholades of this coat.

Chap. Xxiv.

Reptiles.

sect. i. /\F reptiles, we have the adder or viper, usually about two feet long) of which the icon may be feen Pi. xxvm. Fig. xxxm. p. 276. Its bite is attended with immediate swelling, and dangerous if fome remedy be not foon applied. Sallad-oil, taken internally, as well as externally rubbed on the wound, is reckoned a falutary method of proceeding ; but the first thing to be done, fays Dr. Mead ', upon

Of poisons, page 42.

the

Of Cornwall. 283

the bite of a viper oi any kind, is, that the patient, or fome one for him, should immediately fuck the wound, having first washed his mouth with warm oil, and holding fome of this in his mouth whilst the fudtion is performing, to prevent any inflammation of the lips and tongue from the heat of the poison, after which the faid learned author prefcribes emetics worked off with oil and warm water:" but without thefe precautions (which do not always occur to persons in hafte, and in torture), it is certainly very dangerous to fuck the poison; Matthiolus gives us an instance ,n of a person who having his finger bitten by a viper, in the agonies of death put it in his mouth, with the blood fucked in the poison, and died on the fpot. It may not be amifs therefore in this place to fuggeft a more harmless remedy, administered by a good Lady of my

neighbourhood : A man, falling asleep after mowing in the

garden, had his breast flung by an adder ; waked by the pain of the wound, he Ihook off the adder from his Ihirt, and immediately applied to the Lady of the house ; fhe ordered a young pigeon with its anus clofe to the wound to be applied ; the pigeon (whole reciprocal contraction and dilatation in thofe parts is well known) foon swelled, fickened, and died ; a second pigeon was administered to the place infected in like manner, and kept clofe to the bread: for fome time, till it grew faint, and could draw no more ; the man was entirely cured, and the second pigeon was found dead the next morning.

On the northern coat of Cornwall, about Stratton, I had a fake Snake brought me : It differs from the viper in the western parts of this county in that it is larger, of a browner colour, not fo foon incenfed, nor fo poisonous : It is very prolific, and generally lays its eggs in heaps of rotten horse-dung; out of one heap of which, as I was informed by my hoft at Kilkhampton, he had feen, at the Barton house of Lancels near Stratton, three hundred taken out at one time.

The lame person fome years since killed one fake four feet two inches long, and proportionably thick : my guide alfo from Kilkhampton affured me, that he had this year (1757) killed one about four feet long. The country people have remarked two forts of them ; one fort has a white garland round its neck, with a sharp tail like the point of a rufti ; the other fort has a yellow garland, with a shorter and more obtuse tail.

In the islands of Scilly they have neither adder, fake, or any of the serpent kind ; whether the earth is here too fait, for Pliny observes, and to him affects Dr. Plott ( Oxfordlhire, page 191), that brackilh earth is freer from vermin than any other) ; or whether the lands

Wolfg. Franzius Animal. Hift. page 519. Late Mrs. BafTet of Tehidy.

are

284 Natural History

are too cold and barren, snakes being bred out of hot, fat mould, and mud, and lurking in low, rich, shady grounds", under long grass, of which in thefe little islands there is no abundance. It is observed by fome °, that on one fide of a river there are many ferpents in summer, but on the other fide not one ; and if they are brought over, they immediately languifh, and die in a few hours." No wonder then that there are snakes in Cornwall and none in Scilly, when their choice of and aversion to particular foils is fb capricious. There are no snakes near Badminton in Glocefterfhire, and the cause aligned (Plot's Oxford, page 195) is, that it is an open country ; it wants that fade and shelter which they delight in.

We have a kind of viper which we call the Long-cripple : It is the flow-worm or deaf-adder of authors, its bite poifbnous, but not near fo invenomed as that of the viper : however, I am credibly informed, that at Mr. Powis's, in Oxfordshire, near Reading, a man about fix years since being by this creature bitten in the arm, loft his life by it. Its icon is given Plate xxvm. Fig. xxxiv. This is of the pointed-tail kind : there is another fort common about Loo and in the eastern parts of this county, obtufo at the extremity as if truncated.

Of the lizard kind we have the newt or evet, which, from its four feet, the Cornifh call padzher pou p . It is generally found in crofts of furze in the summer months : it is not venomous, nor with us found generally in or near water. Its icon may be feen Plate ibid. Fig. xxxv.

Among the quadruped reptiles we may reckon the feal or feacalf, vulgarly called in Cornwall the Soyle, in Latin the Phoca , or V it ulus marinus. It is common in the caves and on whores of Cornwall which are left frequented : it is five feet in length, sometimes even ; his head somewhat like that of a calf. Its pedtoral-fins resemble the fore-feet of quadrupeds, with five toes connected by a membrane with which, when in danger, it will throw stones very plentifully at thofe who pursue : the tail is horizontal, and

supplies the want of fins in the hinder parts. This creature is amphibious ; it cannot altogether live in the water, but requires fucceflive intervals of reft and respiration on the land. The poor people on the northern coats of this county, in times of foarcity, do sometimes eat the flesh, and indeed the flesh of the feal as well as of the porpefle in former ages was admitted among the dainties of the moft luxurious feats ', but in general the feels are killed not for their flesh, but for their lifting, useful, and spotted skins, and

Philofophical Tran factions for the years I 75 r and 1752, page 17. Leland's Colledtanea, volume the fifth. /

the

" Brit. Bacon, page 73.

0 Por.topp. part 11. page 36. p That is, four feet.

Of Cornwall. 285

tlie oil and fat which their bodies afford. It is fuppofed that the fabulous relations of mermaids and mermen might firfl: arise from observing this creature at fea in an erect human-like posture ; for whether it is delighted with muflc or any loud voice, as Mr. Carew fays, (page 35) or whether it is to alleviate the toil of swimming, it fhews itself almost wholly above water frequently, and near the whore, ibid. Add to this that the great docility of this creature (little short of that of the human fipecies J, and his being fo easily trained to be familiar with and obedient to man r , may make us with fome grounds conclude, that this is the creature to which imagination has given the shape of half-fifh half-man, a shape no where elfe to be found. The cunning of this creature to free itself from its enemy is remarkable, if what is related be true : The feels are in great plenty in the Baltic ; when the Ruffes hunt them, they surround sometimes three or four thousand together, which the feels perceiving, pile themselves up in a heap, by that exceflive weight striving to break the ice on which they have been furprized, and fo escape their enemy The manat i of the Indians, or V acca marina, (Ray's Quadrup. page 193) by Artedi (G. Pifc. page 109) called Trichechus, is only a larger fort of this kind from ten to fifteen feet long, and sometimes thirty-five feet in length

The turtle is no native of fuch northern coats as this of Cornwall ; however there were two caught on our whores in the year 1756. That exhibited here, Plate xxvn. Fig. iv. was caught by the drovers in their mackerel-nets four leagues fouth of Pendinas castle, and brought to Truro alive July 3,1756. It had even fpinous ridges in its hell, fix fins u , flefhy, without nails, flat and smooth, (not in large scales, as Rondeletius's ) of a bluifh colour without, but within (that is, on the under-part) ruddy, flesh-coloured, fpeckled with dark spots, as was alfo the under-part of its neck. It was adjudged to weigh eight hundred pounds weight. It was fix feet nine inches from the tip of the nofe to the end of its hell, ten feet four inches from the extremities of its fore-fins, extended. Its hell is like that of the 'Teftudo Coriacea , five Mercurii , of Rondeletius, page 450. There was another turtle taken at the fame time by the drovers off the Land's End, which weighed fix hundred and three quarters after it was bled to death.

Of which fee Philofophical Tranfa&ions, ib. they made the appearance as in the drawing; but page 113- the body was fo heavy, and the boat fo full, that

s See Leigh's Lancafhire, page 131. I could not get the fishermen to turn it fo as I

Phil. Tranf. for 1751—2, page 114. might observe it more particularly. N, B. Ron-

" As the fishermen informed me, and to me deletius's icon, lib. 16, chap. 4, has but four fins.

4 D

Chap.

Natural History

Chap. Xxv.

Of Quadrupeds.

sECT.L'rpHE flieep of Cornwall in ancient times were remarkably Sheep. ' small, and their fleeces fo coarse that their wool bare no better title than that of Cornifli hair, and under that name the cloth made of that wool was allowed to be exported without being fubjetft to the customary duty paid for woollen- cloth. When cul-

tivation began to take place, and the cattle to improve in flze and goodness, the Cornifli had the fame privilege w confirmed to them by grant from Edward the Black Prince (first Duke of Cornwall after the Norman conquest) in consideration of their paying four shillings for every hundred weight of white tin coined j the fame privilege of exporting cloth of Cornifli manufactm e duty-free, was confirmed to them by the twenty-first of Elizabeth . At present the eastern parts of the county finding themselves under a necefiity (from the scarcity of tin) of applying themselves to tillage and paiture, from the rivers Alan and Fawy eastward have as laige and fine-woolled fiieep as any where in England, and the common people wafli, card, and fpin their own wool, and bring their yarn to markets y . In the neighbourhood of St. Columb, in Rofland, and St. Kevern, their sheep are large, and bring a great price, but the fweeteft mutton is reckoned to be that of the fmallefl: flieep, which usually feed on the commons where the hands are scarce covered with the green-fod, and the grass exceedingly flirt ; fuch are the towns or land-hillocks in Piran-land, Gwythien, Philac, and Senan-green near the Land s-End, and elsewhere in like situations. From thefe hands come forth nails of the turbinated kind, but of different J pecks , and all files from the adult to the fmallefl; juft from the egg ; thefe spread themselves over the plains early in the morning, and whilst they are in quest of their own food among the dews, yield a moft fanning nourishment to the flieep.

In fome of the hilly, rocky diftri&s, we have goats, the kids of which fatten in their feafon without trouble, and are brought to market.

sect. ii. In coarse grounds the black-cattle are small, and live moffly y efpe- Black-cattle. dally in the summer months) upon the heath and furze; but in large tenements where the foil is improved, and the owner chufes to

w Which they had before, " from auncientie," x Camden's Annot. page 8.

fays Mr. Carew, page 24. 1 At Lancefton, Camelford, &c.

breed

Of Cornwall. 287

breed them, the Cornifh have as large cattle as elsewhere, and with thefe the markets are well supplied, particularly in the larger towns z .

The calf is fold generally too foon to the butcher to make fine veal, an inconvenience owing to the multitude of inhabitants, and the quick demand there is for the milk and butter of the dam.

To make butter, the cream is not fkimmed off raw, as it naturally rides to the surface of the milk ; but after it has rented in the veffel about twelve hours a , the milk is fcalded in an earthen pan, over a flow gentle fire, till it is as hot as a person can well bear his finger in, by which means the cream, fettling into a wrinkled furrowed pellicle about a line thick, grows hard and clouted. This method of managing the milk is peculiar to Cornwall, and fome parts of Devonfhire ; but unless much caution and neatnefs be ufed in cleaning the veflels, and ordering the fire, is very apt to give a fmoaky, earthy taste to the butter, foon perceived by and difagreeable to travellers : it muff be observed alio that the hre does not increase the quantity of butter ; for by experiment of the fame quantity of milk drawn at the fame time from the fame cows and pasture, the raw cream made ten ounces and three quarters of butter, the fcalded cream made only nine ounces and a quarter ; the raw cream therefore yielded above one seventh more of butter than the fcalded : this way of fcalding does however often and meliorate the remaining milk by evaporating, as I imagine, the acrimonious parts ; the hard cream alfo preserves the milk from pouring, of which the Cornifh common people are fo fenfible, that they will eat the fcald-milk readily, but the milk from which the cream has been fkimmed raw, they will scarce taste.

The black-cattle sometimes generate very foon ; a calf before fhe was twelve months old having produced, in 1 7 5 2 another calf at Caftlehornek, in the parish of Maddern, and no material inconveniency ensued ; fhe proved a sizeable cow, and had store of milk, which is the more extraordinary, because fuch premature conceptions usually prevent the growth, impairing the alimentary as well as generative paflages. Dr. Plot gives us instances of the like early fecundity both in Oxfordfhire and Staffbrdfhire.

Cattle have not only their unusual and early, but sometimes their monstrous productions, of which the moft remarkable, which has reached my notice, was a calf caft in the tenement of Kalleftek in Piran-fand, in the month of May 1751, by a cow of Thomas Hodge : It had two heads, conjoined ; four ears, four eyes, four nostrils, two mouths, and two back-bones on the fore-part, which

Bodman, Helfton, Penzance, &c. fore they fcald it, in order to have the more

Some keep it two days (in the winter) be- cream.

came

288 Natural History

came into one about two thirds of the back, thence continued as one to the tail ; one tail, four legs ; it had two hearts, two livers, and all the inwards double, except the price vice, from the stomach downwards, which were single. It lived four hours, and cried and lowed with two voices at the fame time. Its figure may be feen Plate xxiv. Fig. xvii.

Other anomalous productions this species of animals might afford us ; but as Nature pleases mod when fhe flicks to her own rules and proportions, her few accidental deviations, deformities, and monflrous births, have their sufficient and perhaps intended ufe, if they awaken our gratitude, and make us more attentive to her cuflomary and almost uninterrupted symmetry and gracefulnefs.

sect. nr. The Cornifh horses in general, though of no great riling, are

Horfes ' remarkably flrong-limbed ; and as our highways are for thelnoftpart rough, hard, and felony, much more ferviceable and fure-footed than thofe more-lightly ones which are brought from the eafiern counties : Formerly they were fo small in feature, that they were seized upon as unftatutable ; for, by the flatute of the 12 th of Henry VIII. every man might seize upon horses depafluring commons, if they were under a certain fize b . They are at present rather small, or but middle fired, especially in the coarfer and more hilly grounds; but they are fo much more hardy than others, that they bring a large price, and a flrong, punch, and spirited horse, is with us generally called a Gunhilly, from a wild downs of that name (firetching almost from Hellion to the Lizherd Point) anciently famous for fuch little horses.

sect. IV. In this county formerly there was fuch plenty of Deer, that besides

Deer - thofe of private gentlemen, the Duke of Cornwall had one chace or forefl, and nine parks Henry VIII. difparked four of them at once, viz. Cary-bull ock, Lifkerd, Reflormel, and Lanteglos, near Camelford c ; and at present the Duke has no deer-park. The present parks are thofe of Godolphin, belonging to the Earl of Godolphin ; Tregothnan, to Lord Vifcount Falmouth; Lanhidroc and Pinchley, both to Mrs. Hunt ; Boconek, to Tho. Pitt, Efq; Caryhayz, to William Trevanion, Efq; Pencarrow, to J. Molefworth, Efq; Trevetho, to Humphry Mackworth Praed, Efq; Place, to Humphry Prideaux, Efq; Tehidy, to Francis Baffet, Efq. A great part of Werington Park (feat of Humphry Morice, Efq;) is alfo in Cornwall.

Red deer are seldom feen in this county ; fome however make their appearance for a time on the hilly downs about Bodman,

b Car. page 24.

Doderidge, p. 118, of the Dutchy of Cornwall.

c Formerly belonging to the ancient manor of Helfton (alias Hellefbury) there.

whence

Of Cornwall. 289

whence they haunt the woods upon the moors d : they are found in greater plenty in the north betwixt Lancefton and Stratton, as if they were apprehensive of wanting room to range if they advanced into the narrow western parts.

Of badgers, otters, hares, foxes, rabbits, and other wild inferior qua- s e ct. v. drupeds, Cornwall has its share, but nothing particular : I shall only observe, that they will get rid of their wildnefs by time and gentle usage, of which tame foxes which have been trained up like fpaniels to attend their after, and rabbits ufed to chambers, frequently convince us ; but the moft remarkable instance I have met with of the force of custom in this point, is that of a hare, which had not only hook off its wildnefs, but the fearfulnefs fo natural to, and almost inseparable from this creature : It was fo familiar, that it took bread out of my hand the first time I faw it c ; it lay down under a chair in the parlour, and was in all respects as gentle, free, and eafy as a lap-dog : It went out into the garden now and then, and after regaling itself with the herbage, returned into the house as its proper habitation. The after f had an old fpaniel and a greyhound, both fo fond of hare-hunting that they would by concert go out together frequently upon the scent, and had been observed to kill many hares without the direction of huntfman or other aftiftance ; the greyhound in particular was once discovered by a neighbour following his after (who knew nothing of it) with a hare in his mouth ; with thefe two dogs, fo fond of their usual prey at other times, the tame hare spent his evenings by the fame fire, and frequently rented in their boom.

It is faid f , that even a Norway bear has for many years been known to follow the herds of cattle like a sentinel, and to stand tamely by, as the maid was milking, and that he always drove the wolf away. The fame author informs us, that the otter may be made tame, and ufed to a house, by being fed with milk, and become in time a daily fisher for his after, go out on command, and bring in one fifh after another into the kitchen

Other properties of brutes are ftill more worthy of our notice. Firft, s e ct. vi. The great variety of shape and colour observable in the quadrupeds prevents any two from being exactly alike, as much as the human of quadmfeatures diftinguifh mankind one from another. Wherefore then peds ' was this variety bellowed upon brutes? Are they at all fenfible of fuch diversity? Are they the more happy, or more useful to one

d Leland mentions them, vol. VII. page 117, f The Rev d . Mr. Newcomb, Rector of Ulogan.

about Dofmery Pool. f Pontopp. part 11. page 14.

Auguft 20, 1738, at Illogan parfonage. Ibid, page 27.

4 E

another

2 9 o NATURAL HISTORY

another for it ? No. This variety then is doubtless intended for the fake of man, to prevent confusion, and decide and ascertain his property. As our next following fubjeCt therefore is man, it may not be amifs here to recollect the connexion and dependance which all the brute creation have upon him, and observe, that they are formed and adapted both by the properties of their bodies and mind to promote the labours, the food, the cioathing, the pastime, the safety, and delight of man : A great number of them cannot fubfift in the winter, in forms and inundations, without the provident care of man ; their refpedtive excellencies, like metals in the mine, are of no benefit to the world, unless they are conducted and applied by man ; they are of little ufe or pleasure to one the other, or to themselves, but for food and increase, of which the more greedy they are, they are but the more conducive to the advantage of man. I would not be thought to intimate, that they are meer machines, or that the only intent of their creation was to be fubfervient to man : God designed them no doubt to display his glory, and to be happy in their degree, and it is cruelty in man to give them pain wantonly, to impose labour without measure, and with-hold food and jfhelter from them without compafiion ; but their several properties plainly fhew that they were designed to fill up the vacancies, if I may fay fo, of human nature. If man had the strength of an elephant or an ox, or fwiftnefs of a horse, man muft have had the limbs and shape too, the fame bones and muscles. How much better is it now ordained ? Man has not that strength and fwiftnefs in his own person, but he knows where to find it, and when and whither to direCt it : he has that reason which gives him the command not only of his own excellently constituted body, but of the superior strength and fwiftnefs for which other bodies are better prepared, though infinitely short of the endowments of the human body. How orderly and proportioned to the necefiities of human nature do the brutes come in, all in their turn, to supply what man wants ; fome by their strength and vigour s alfift him in works neceftary or ornamental, yet beyond the reach of human force without fuch aids ; fome, by their fwiftnefs as well as strength , transfer him from place to place for the fake of bufinefs, or pleasure, or devotion ; thofe remarkable for extraordinary fiercenefs 1 as well as strength (that they may not annoy and impede him in his designs), like noxious, poisonous herbs, are scarce, and far removed into spacious and scarce habitable defeats ; there they have their ufe, feeding where, and on what other creatures will not, clearing the air of the infedious fteam of carcaftes, and left tuey should mul-

h The horse, the dromedary, rain-deer, &c.

tiply

s The horse, the ox, the afs, the camel. 1 Lion, panther, leopard, ike.

Of Cornwall. 291

tiply too faft for the safety of other animals, inciting the hunter by their precious skins, and by their mutual furioufnefs and continual war destroying one another. Again : Thofe remarkable for fwiftnefs without strength frequent thickets, holes, and wilds, where they may excite the pursuit, and promote the health and activity of the purfuer ; even the moft inconfiderable 1 are intended to awaken our diligence, and teach us attention, neatnefs, and patience. Thofe which neither are game, nor docile and domestic ", afford skins and furs for clothing ; what are bred to pasture ", afford us food and clothing, and labour too ; every one, but in a different manner, supplies fome want or convenience of man, fashioned and formed thereto as servants trained up and determined to their refpeCtive occupations : but their faculties of mind are no lefs proportioned to this Fate of fubje&ion, than the shape and properties of their bodies; they have knowledge peculiar to their several spheres, and sufficient for the under-part they are to aCt. If they had more or lefs, they would be of lefs or no service to man ; they have inftinCt to feed themselves, to continue their species , to facilitate and reconcile themselves to their labour and reft, to apply their strength and agility, and this is enough ; if they had reason, if they had a higher degree of knowledge, and could compare their ideas, feleCt and refuse by memory, and make deductions from what is paft, as well as foresee and anticipate what is to follow, they would be the plagues of mankind ; they would repine, refent, reveal, combine, rebell, and neither their strength nor fwiftnefs, neither their flesh for food, nor their skins and fleeces for clothing, would be at our difpofal ; their bodily powers enabling them to be matters, they would no longer endure their present neceffary and much happier state of fubordination.

From brutes therefore, we are direCtly lead to their lord and matter, Man.

Chap. Xxvi.

Of the Inhabitants their Number , usual Age , Cuftoms , Pajiimes , Fejlivals , Manners good and bad , Language , Tenures, Arts.

A LTHOUGH the eastern part of this county may not exceed any ordinary equal face in other counties solely addicted to hufbandry, in the number of inhabitants, yet the western half, where there is tin and fifth, is extremely populous, and may

k Hare, rabbit, fox. Sec.

1 As rats, mice, moles, vermin, and infedts.

TO Beavers, fable, ermins, Sec. n Sheep, goats, bullocks, &c.

vie

292 Natural History

vie in that refpedt with any part of England of the fame dimenftonsj where there is no great town or city.

sect. i. The inhabitants are usually of middle feature, healthy, strong, Health. and active, mining and fishing enabling them to bear watching, cold, and wet, much better than where there are no fuch occupations : the miners particularly, who escape accidents, and live temperately, generally live to a great age ; the alternate daily ufe of cold and heat, wet and dry, hardening their bodies equally against the different extremes of weather.

sect. ii. Our air, it muft be allowed, is very fait, and its influences upon Age. tender, fqualid, and neglected habits, proportionably fretting and acrimonious ; but to the natives in general it cannot be faid to be unhealthy, as many instances of long-life occurring in Cornwall perhaps, as in any part of Britain. Mr. Carew (who lived in the reign of Eliz.) observes that eighty and ninety years of age was ordinary in every place ; and among other instances of longevity, names one Polzew, who died a little while before his writing, aged one hundred and thirty years. Mr. Scawen, a gentleman of no lefs veracity, in his MS 0 tells us, that in the year 1676, died a woman in the parish of Gwythien (the narroweft, and therefore, as to the air, to be reckoned among the falteft parts of this county) one hundred and flxty-four years old, of good memory, and healthful at that age; and at the Lizherd, where (exposed as this promontory is to more fea on the eaft, weft, and fouth, than any part of Britain) the air muft be as fait as any where, there are three late instances of people living to a great age : The first is Mr. Cole, late minister of Landawidnek, (in which parish the Lizherd is) who by the parish register, A. D. 1683, appears to have been above one hundred and twenty years old p when he died q . Michael George, late sexton of the fame parish, buried the twentieth of March, ibid, was more than a hundred years old ; and being at the Lizherd with the Rev*, and worthy Dr. Lyttelton, Dean of Exeter, in the year 1752, we went to fee a venerable old man called Collins ; he was then one hundred and five years old, of a florid countenance, flood near his door leaning on his staff, talked fenfibly, was weary of life he faid, and advised us never to wifh for old-age. He died in the year 1754.

Page 61. Millet, late Vicar of St. Juft) : " Thomas Cole,

0 Pen. Car. Lyttelton, L L. D. Dean of Minifter of and at the Lizard, went one morn on

£ xo n. foot from Lizard to Penryn, whtch is at left

p " Was aged above one hundred and twenty thirteen miles, and returned again the fame day years by far." Regift. ibid. on foote to Liz 1 ', at which time he was at left

1 Of this Mr. Thomas Cole, I find the follow- one hundred and twenty-years, and was met going lowing memorandum written in my Hakewells and coming by Mr. Richard Erifey of Erifey, as Apology, page 166, signed J. M. (viz. James credible authors report."

Some

Of Cornwall. 293

Some instances of the strength, and a&ivity of body among the sect. iii. Corni/h, Mr. Carew has given us (page 63), to which I refer; but Stren g th - one instance of the strength of the human thorax I have met with, too remarkable to be paffed by in ftlence : Tuefday, March 22,

1 75 7, between twelve at noon and one o'clock, John Chilew of the parish of Ludgvan, carrier, aged forty-one years, walking by the ftde of his wain, by accident fell on his back in the way of the wheel, and before he could extricate him/elf, the wheel took on upon his left shoulder, broke his collar-bone, and went off juft below his right arm-hole : the wheels were about three inches and a half wide, £hod with iron plates, and nails proportionably. The whole weight of the wain may be moderately computed at fix hundred pounds weight : in the wain were four blocks of tin of three hundred and ten pounds each, a calk of brandy two hundred and fifty pounds, fome baskets with trifling weights reckon twenty pounds : the floor of the road on which he lay was level, fo that his breast had the full preflu re of one half at left of two thou/and one hundred and ten pounds during the paffage of the wheel. On Friday, April 1, he was well enough to come on foot to church half a mile from his own house, complained only of his breast being fore, which he attributed to the buttons of his coat being preffed inward by the run of the wheel : he has followed his calling ever since in the fame manner as he did before, without any inconveniency.

Nature is strong, and more perfectly compacted in fome fubjedts sect.iv. than in others ; but it is rare that fhe is at all defeffive in any : Defedive fome instances however there are, in which the human frame is but half formed, and that distorted. " On the flrft of June, A. D.

1634, the wife of one Richard Lower, dwelling at Hunt's-barne within the parifb of St. German's, was in the night delivered of a double birth ; the one a perfect male child, the other Jfeemed to be of the fame form and /ex, wanting a head, but the neck thereof seemed to advance itself somewhat above the shoulders, on the left ftde whereof there grew a lock of hair of somewhat lefs than an inch in length ; the upper part of the neck seemed raw and bloody, but overgrown with a perfect /kin : it likewise wanted the left arm (without any break of the /kin), and the thumb and little finger of the right hand ; the navel flood in the midst of the breast, where all the bowels lay, yet the belly thereof perfect ; the feet had the heels turning forwards, and the toes backward, and the legs lying across, of which the right had three, the left but two, and thofe conjoined together with a third ; nails likewise thereon that grew out of the flefti V'

k From a MS of the late learned John Anftis, Efq; Garter King at Arms, communicated by the Rev d . Dr. Milles, Praecentor of Exeter.

4 F The

state of even years.

294. Natural History

sect.v. The powers of the mind, together with the nervous faculties of A torpid the body, are sometimes interrupted and lufpended, and then restored : the moft remarkable instance of which happened lately in the town of Penzance to Phillis wife of Thomas Sibley, fisherman, who on the third of Auguft 1 744, aged then about forty-one years, had a male child, was well in health, nurfed the child, and had plenty of milk; but within a few weeks after ( viz. in September 1744) upon hearing a rumour that her husband was drowned in Gwavas-lake by the then violent form, took fright; this truck back her milk immediately, fhe grew low-spirited, gradually weaker, defpairedof remedy, loft her memory (but not totally), and scarcely diftinguifhed one person or thing from another : On the seventh of May, 1747* fhe had a dead child, but was fo weak that fhe was not fenfible of her having had a child ; and about fix weeks after being brought to-bed, loft her memory quite, knew no one, and loft her mouth speech. She ufed at times milk, broth ,fifh, and potatoes, as they were adminiftred, but could make no ftir to feed herself ; and in the whole taking little nourishment of any kind, was altogether emaciated, and continued without motion, speech, and apprehenfton, till Chriftmas 1753, when, on a Sunday night, fhe had several strong convulftve fits, and the family thought thefe her laft struggles ; but they were only the efforts of Nature to remove obftrudtions, and restore the fenfibility of the nervous fyftem. The fits returned the next day, and when they had ceased, fhe seemed to take a little more notice of things round her than fhe had done before ; then perceivably bettered in fences and difcernment for about half a year, when, a little before Midfummer 1754, after much struggling, fhe {poke a few words very imperfectly and like a child learning to pronounce, found her tongue very stiff, and was fome days before ftie could speak distinctly, after being even years and two weeks utterly fpeechlefs. She has the character of a serious, good woman; and when I faw her, July 27, 1757, inclinable to be corpulent.

customs.

sect. vi. Among ancient customs ftill retained by the Cornifh, may be General reckoned that of decking their doors and porches on the first of May with green boughs of fy ca more and hawthorn, and of planting trees, or rather flumps of trees, before their houses. From towns they make excursions on May eve into the country, cut down a tall elm, bring it into town with rejoicings, and having fitted a straight taper pole to the end of it, and painted it, ereCt it in the moft publick part, and upon holidays and festivals dress it with garlands of flowers, or enfigns and ftreamers. Keyfler 1 thinks that

1 Page 88 of Northern Antiquities.

" this

Of Cornwall. 295

" this custom took its rife from the earnest desire of the people to fee their king, who seldom appearing at other times, made his procefiion at this time of the year to the great aflembly of the Rates held in the open air 3 the women and men therefore, drawn by curiosity, palled their nights and days, but especially the night before the first of May, (allured by the vernal feafon) in dancing and feats in the open air and in the woods," in memory of which rural nocturnal aflemblies, early on the first of May every house has its bough or branch at the door, as if the matter was but juft returned from the woods. This is not improbable, but it is as likely that this custom is nothing more than a gratulation of the spring, and had no other foundation than to display the leaves and blofloms which begin at this time to adorn every hedge, tree, and ftirub 3 of this every house was to take notice, and by exhibiting a proper final of the spring's approach, to testify their universal joy at the revival of vegetation.

It is a general custom in Cornwall to make bonfires in every vil- sect.vii. lage on the eve of St. John Baptift s and St. Peter's day, which I Bonfires, have in another place expatiated upon m , as the remains of part of the Druid fuperftition.

Another general custom was the PLAT or interlude in the Cornifli sect.viii. tongue. Of thefe plays the fubje&s were taken from Scripture, and Pla s- the design suitably good, even that of instructing the common people in the meaning and excellency of the Holy Scriptures ", although the design, it muft be owned, is executed in a coarse and rude manner.

" There are two MSS in the Bodleian Library which 0 contain fome interludes, or, as the author calls them, Ordinalia : the first in parchment, written in the fifteenth century, exhibits three Ordinalia 3 the first treats of the creation of the world, the second of the paflion of our Lord Jefus Chrift, the third of the refurre&ion

The other M S is on paper, written by William Jordan, An. 1611.

This has only one ordinale , of the creation of the world and the deluge There is a third book written in Cornifh on vellum, which Mr. Ed. Lhuyd (late keeper of the Mufaeum at Oxford) received from John Anftis, Efq; Garter King at Arms before mentioned.

m Antiquities of Cornwall, page 130, 1 31.

" Bifhop Nicholfon's Letter to Dr. Charlett, November 14, A. D. 1700; of which fee Antiquities of Cornwall, page 196.

0 Mr. Lhuyd's account of them in a letter to

Thomas Tonkin, Efq; 1707 MS Tonkin,

page 36.

p Bib. Bodl. B. 40, Art. given by James Button, Efq; of Worcefterfhire, An. 1615.

s Mr. Hals in his M S (viz. Defer", of Cornwall) fays, that thefe plays in M S were brought into Oxford A. D. 1450 ; but this muft be a mistake (if he means all), the laft-mentioned being not written till the beginning of the laft century.

It

296 Natural History

It treats of the PASSION in metre, but not in dramatic dialogue,

entitled Mount Calvary r .

The first ordinak of the creation begins thus (God the Father speaking) :

Cornifli.

Englifhed.

En Tas a Nef ym Gylmyr Formyer pub tra a vydh gwrys Onan ha tryon yn gwyr En Tas, han Mab, han Spyrys. Ha hethyn me a thefyr Dre ou grath dalleth an Bys Y lavaraf, nef, ha Tyr Formyys orthe ou brys.

The Father of Heaven I the Maker, Former of every thing that {hall be made. One, and Three, truly.

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit,

Yes — this day it is my will Of my efpecial favour to begin the world. I have faid it — Heaven and Earth Be ye formed by my counsel.

This metre is not ill chosen or unmufical.

The scanning to be performed in the following manner :

En Tas-a Nef-ym Gyl-wyr_

Formy-er pub-tra vyth-gwrys, &c.

It is the Trochaic Heptafy liable, otherwise called the Trochaic Diameter Catale&ic s . It confifts of three trochees and a femiped. Ariftophanes was very fond of it at times In Latin, Horace adopts it,

N5n ebur neque aureum.

In Englifh, Shakefpeare frequently ufes it ; and Dryden for his tendereft numbers :

Softly sweet in Lydian measure,

Soon he foot'd his foul to pleasure.

The language suits the metre ; as the subject is sublime, the compofition is not unsuitable, as may be feen by the above and following stanza :

Yn pefwerc gwreys perfyth Then bys ol golowys glan,

Haga hynwyn y a vyth An Houl, an Lor, h'an Steryan. Me a fet a hugh an gueyth Yn crews an Ebron avan.

An Lor yn nos, Houl yn geyth May rollins y glow Splan.

In the fourth [day] I Ihall make perfect For the world all the refplendent lights.

And I will that they be called The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars.

Them will I place on high

In the midst of the firmament above.

That the Moon by night, the Sun by day, May yield their glowing fplendour.

The stanza confifts of eight verses with alternate rhymes ; sometimes this is changed for a stanza of fix, of which the first and second are of one rhyme, the fourth and fifth of another, and the third and fifth line of a third rhyme ; but the heptafyllable metre continues throughout with few deviations in this piece and all the others.

r Mr. Scawen had a copy of this book in 1678, long before Mr. Ed. Lhuyd had his copy from Mr. Anftis, and gives a literal translation of it. The MS has been mentioned before, and is in the pof-

feffion of the Reverend Dr. Lyttelton, Dean of Exeter.

5 Upton on Shakefpeare, book hi.

1 Ibid.

The

Of Cornwall. 297

The poetry is the left exceptionable part of thefe interludes: A Drama, person called the Ordinary was the chief-manager; every thing was done as he prescribed, and spoken as he prompted The persons of the drama are numerous, in this no lefs than fifty-hx in number; in the 2d, 62; in the 3d, 60; Princes, Patriarchs, Saints, Angels, (good and bad) and even the persons of the ever-blefled Trinity are introduced. Unity of time, aCtion, and place, is not at all attended to ; this full-mentioned play runs through a face of time from the creation to King Solomon's building the Temple, and incongruoufly ordaining a Bilhop to keep it w . It takes in alfo the fabulous legend of the Martyrdom of Maximilla, in which part the aCtors are a Bilhop, a Crolier-bearer, a Meffenger, four Tormentors, the Martyr, Gebal, and Amalek. The Bilhop gives to the tormentors for putting the Martyr to death, Behethlan, Bofaneth, and all Chenary King Solomon speaks the Epilogue ; the audience, with a ftriCt charge to appear early on the morrow in order to lee the PA S S I O N a died, is difmilfed in thefe words :

Cornifh.

Abarth an Tas, Menftroles a ' ras Pebourgh whare. Hag ens pub dre.

Englifhed.

In the name of the Father,

Ye Minftrels holy,

Tune your pipes.

And let every one go to his home.

This may serve to give a general notion of thefe interludes, which were all translated into Englifh by the late Mr. John Keigwyn of Moufehole, at the desire of the late Right Reverend Sir Jonathan Trelawney, Baronet, Bilhop of Winchefter, in a literal manner, for the better understanding the language, tho' to the disadvantage of the Poet, and his language too. The bell composition now extant in the Corniih tongue, is that called Mount Calvary, which is not dramatic, but narrative, and more solemn ; the incidents ( with few exceptions ) are all taken from the Golpel Hiftory of the Pallion, and the circumstances of diftrefs and suffering very affecting. It was first turned into metre (as I imagine 7 ) by the beforementioned Mr. Keigwyn at the instance of Mr. Scawen of Molinek before-mentioned ; but Mr. Scawen dilliking that translation, has placed a literal one in the Lyttelton copy. But to return to the interludes : The places where they were aCted were the Rounds , a kind of amphitheater, with benches either of stone or turf. Of the former lort that exhibited in the Antiquities of Cornwall (page 196, Plate xvi. Fig. 1.) served this purpose ; but a much larger one, of higher

" Car. page 72. and Kegyllek.

w The wages he gives to the mechanics for x Places in Cornwall,

their labour is all the field of Behethlen, all 1 See Scaweti's own account in Tonkin's M S,

Penryn-wood, Enys, and Arwinek, Tregeuler, page 96.

4 G mound,

2g8 NATURAL HISTORY

mound, foffed on the outside, and very regular is the amphitheater in the parifti of Piran-fand, which, as it has home peculiarities, 1 have here planned, PI. xxix. Fig. m. with the following references: Piran-round. A, the area of the amphitheater, perfeflly level, about one hundred and thirty feet diameter ; B, the benches, even m number ot turf riding eight feet from the area ; C, the top ol the rampart, even feet wide; D, the outer Hope of the rampart ; E, the o s; F, the dope of the fofs ; G, the level of the hill on which the work is formed; H, a circular pit, in diameter thirteen feet, deep three feet, the Tides doping, and half way down a bench o turf, fo formed as to reduce the area of the bottom to an elliplis , T a {hallow trench, running from the pit H nearly eaft, four ieet hx inches wide, and one foot deep, till it reaches the undergo bench of the amphitheater A, where it is terminated by a iemioval cavity K, eleven feet from north , to fouth, and nine feet from eaft to weft, which makes a breach in the benches

Fig. iv. fhews the profile of the whole work ; a a, the area ; benches; c, rampart; the fofs; h , the pit; z, the trench; ,

This is a curious and regular work, and is formed with the exactnefs of a fortification, but the visible benches within, the pit, the trench, and cavity, and the fofs having no efplanade beyond it, determine it in its present figure to the ufes of an amphitheater. The greatest difficulty is to account for the pit H, and the trench and cavity I K, which are appendixes to it. Now it muft be observed, that the fcenary part of thefe performances was mucn worse than the compofition ; that the fubjed being taken from Scnpture- Hiftory, the persons of the Deity brought upon the stage from above, and the infernal spirits from below they thought it neceffary to appropriate peculiar places to adore of fuch different charades; accordingly I find by their interludes that they had a place m their Rounds which they called Heaven, and I infer from thence that they had another called Hell ; and from thefe two places the different beings were to proceed when they came to ad, and withdraw to, when their parts were finished : I conjedure therefore, that as might reprefent the upper regions, fo the pit H might be allotted to the infernal. In the interlude of the refurredion alfo, the pit H might serve for the grave ; the trench, and the cavity nug it be designed to exhibit the afcenfion into Heaven. How proper thele wild expedients were to raise the admiration, affedions, and piety of the beholders, the judicious reader will easily guess, and lament the age of ignorance, when by mutual content of Laity and Clergy, ( for without both they could not take place ) t e people were to have every truth fet before their eyes by memo-

C'T'fo f /trurto/t/fr jf/fNv/trtM //t.i c /Zt/r of ZZ/tZ/yt/t/fej, {/(rfc/csvZ <(r.

3 tn r.

or/?/w?A

t,i ;ri// q/rti/ t ruu n ki<

- - / Wj

r

Wlkv'lase.

.

'

1 ;

fa

t

' !

Of Cornwall. 299

rials, scenes, and symbols, though the moil incoherent, unedifying, and absurd.

Thefe interludes obtained not only in Cornwall (where they were called Guare-mir , or Miracle Plays, and the place of aCting plan an guare but elsewhere, and lifted sometimes more than one day, and were attended not only by the vulgar, but by people of the highest condition, and were remembered, fays Bifhop Nicholfon by the laft generation. In the late edition of Stow's Survey, vol. I. page 247, is the following account : " But London for the shows upon theatres and comical paftimes, hath holy plays, representations of miracles which holy confeilors have wrought, or representations of torments wherein the conftancy of martyrs appeared." And again : "Thefe or the like exercises have been continued till our time, namely, in stage-plays, whereof we may read in the year 1394 (seventeenth of Richard II.) a play to be played by the parish clerks of London at the Skinner's- Well, besides Smith-Field, which play continued three days together, the King, Queen, and Nobles of the Realm being present; and of another played in the year 1409, (tenth of Henry IV.) which lifted eight days, and was of matter from the Creation of the world, whereat was present molt part of the Nobility and Gentry of England V' Some faint remains of the fame custom I have often feen in the weft of Cornwall during the Chriftmas feafon, when at the family-feats of gentlemen, the Chriftmas Plays were admitted, and fome of the moft learned among the vulgar (after leave obtained) entered in difguife, and before the gentry, who were properly feated, perforated characters, and carryed on miserable dialogues on Scripture-fubjeCts ; when their memory could go no farther, they filled up the reft of the entertainment with more puerile representations, the combats of puppets, the final vi&ory of the hero of the drama, and death of his antagonist.

Among the general customs, we muft not forget the manly ex- sect. ix. ercifes of wrestling and hurling, the former more generally pra&ifed Wreftling. in this county than in any part of England, the latter peculiar to it. The Cornifh have been remarkable for their expertnefs in Athletary contentions for many ages, as if they inherited the kill and strength of their fabulous first Duke Corinaeus, whole fame confifts chiefly in the reputation he won by wrestling with, and overcoming the giant Gogmagog, and that fable perhaps founded five hundred years since upon the then acknowledged and universal reputation of the people of this county for wrestling. But to leave fables j what should have implanted this custom in fuch a corner of

z Letter, ib. ut supra. a From Fitz Stephen.

Britain,

That is, the plain for plays.

Sect.

Hurling.

300 Natural History

Britain, and preferred it hitherto in its full vigour, when either never affe&ed at all, or with indifference in other parts of the iffand, we cannot fay ; certain it is the Grecians, who traded hither for tin, and hither only, had the highest esteem for this exercise. The arts of the Palceftra were chiefly cultivated by the Lacedemonians, and yet Plato himself among the Athenians was fo far from difapproving the exercise, that he recommends it to the prattife of old as well as young women, and thinks it proper for them oftentimes to wrestle with men, that thereby they might become more patient of labour, and learn to struggle with the difficulties incident to a warlike state. The ardour for this exercise fo prevailed at laft, that all Greece devoted their time and inclinations to the Gymnafia and Palceftra , and chose rather to be accounted the moft expert wreftlers, than to be celebrated as the moft: knowing and valiant commanders b . Whether the Cornifh borrowed this custom from the Grecians, or whatever elfe was the cause, you shall hardly any where (as Mr. Carew observes, page 76) meet with a party of boys who will not readily entertain you with a specimen of their kill in this profeflion.

Hurling is a trial of kill and activity between two parties of twenty, forty, or any indeterminate number; sometimes betwixt two or more parishes, but more usually, and indeed pra&ifed in a more friendly manner, betwixt thofe of the fame pariffi ; for the better understanding which diftin&ion, it muff be premifed, that betwixt thofe of the fame parish there is a natural connexion fiippofed, from which ( cceteris paribus ) no one member can depart without forfeiting all esteem. As this unites the inhabitants of a parish, each parish looks upon itself as obliged to contend for its own fame, and oppose the pretentions, and superiority of its neighbours.

It is fo termed from throwing or hurling a ball, which is a round piece of timber, (about three inches diameter) covered with plated silver, sometimes gilt. It has usually a motto in the Cornifh tongue alluding to the pastime, as Guare wheat , yw Guare teagj that is, fair play is good play. Upon catching this ball dexteroufly when it is dealt , and carrying it off expeditioufly notwithstanding all the opposition of the adverse party, fuccefs depends. This exercise requires force and nimblenefs of hand, a quick eye, fwiftnefs of foot, kill in wrestling, strength and breath to perfevere in running, address to deceive and evade the enemy, and judgment to deliver the ball into proper hands, as occasion shall offer : in short, a pastime that kindles emulation in the youngest breast, and like this requires fo general

Alex, ab Alexandro, lib. n. vol. I. page 4.94.

an

Of Cornwall. , Oj

an exertion of all the faculties of the body, cannot but be of great ufe to fupple, flrengthen, and particularly tend to prepare it for all the exercises of the camp.

Thefe two customs of wrestling and hurling were formerly much more ufed than at present, and 'tis great pity that frolicking and drinking immoderately ( if what is faid be true ) at the parish festivals should take place of fuch ancient, and (under a few regulations) fuch laudable and manly recreations. The particular rules and customs by which thefe two paftimes are directed, and the different manners in which they are practiced, cannot be more diftin&ly related than the reader (who desires to be acquainted with them more minutely) will find in Mr. Carew's Survey of Cornwall (Edit. i. page 74). There is no stated time for hurling and wreftlings, but they are generally part of their festival entertainments. Every parish has its annual feast, and at fuch time (however poor at other times of the year) every one will make a shift to entertain his friends and relations on the Sunday ; on the Monday and Tuefday all bufinefs is fufpended, and the young men aflemble and hurl or wrestle, or both, in fome part of their parish of the moft public refort.

Thefe feats inflituted in memory of the dedication of their sect. xi. parochial Church, were of great esteem among the primitive Parifh feats. Chriftians, and originally kept on that Saint's day to whole memory the Church was dedicated : the munificence of the founder, and endower of the church, was at the fame time celebrated, and a particular service composed for the occasion c . On the eve of that day there were prayers all night in the Church, and hymns fung in memory of the Saint, and the dedication made to him. From thefe watching, the festivals were called Wakes, and the name ftill continues in many parts of England, though the cuflom whence it arose has been long abolished. The inconveniency of observing thefe festivals on the Saint's day being fenfibly felt (especially in harvest time), they were by the special authority of the Bifhop transferred to the next following Sunday, and this innovation occafioned the injunction of the twenty-eighth of Henry VIII. that the feast of the dedication of churches should be celebrated in all places of this realm on the first Sunday in October for ever, and upon no other day. This injunction was complied with in fome places, but never universally admitted, custom in this cafe prevailing against Law. Thefe feats are much exclaimed against by thofe who diftinguifh not, as they ought, between the institution,

c See Durandus Rationale Divin. lib. vn. fol. 251, and Dugdale's Warwickshire.

4 H

and

302 Natural History

and the degenerate disorderly observation of it, and the judges of the aflize, Walter and Denham , made an order at Exeter, A. D. 1627, to fupprefs all fuch feats : the fame was done in Somerfetfhire A. D. 1631; but upon Bifhop Laud's complaint, fays my author", the laft order was reversed ; the Lord Bifhop of that diocese c , with seventy-two of the moll: orthodox and able of his Clergy, having certified under their hands, that on thefe feast days, which generally fell on Sundays, the service of God was more solemnly performed, and the Church much better frequented, both in the forenoon and afternoon, than on any other Sunday in the year ; that the people very much defined the continuance of them, and that the Minifters did in moll places do the like for thefe reasons, viz. for preserving the memorial of the dedication of their several Churches, for civilizing the people, for composing differences by the mediation and meeting of friends, for increase of love and unity by thefe feats of charity, and for the relief and comfort of the poor."

The tinners hold fome holidays peculiar to themselves, particularly the Thurfday, one clear week before Chriftmas-day, which they call Jeu-whydn , or White Thurfday, in commemoration (as constant tradition fays) of black tin being first melted in thefe parts and turned into white tin, it being the custom anciently, as it seems, to export into other parts the tin-ore unmelted, or carry it to the engroffer's melting-house however distant.

The tinners alfo hold St. Piran's day on the fifth of March, cease from all labour, and ( in all considerable mines ) are allowed money to make merry withal in honour of St. Piran, who is recorded to have given them fome very profitable informations relating to the tin-manufa&ure.

sect. xii. A very singular manner of curing madness is that mentioned by

Local cuf- Mr. Carew (page 123) in the parish of Altarnun in this county.

Bouffening. It was the custom to place the difordered in mind on the brink of a square pool, filled with water which came from St. Nun's well f . The patient having no intimation of what was intended, was, by a sudden blow in the breast, tumbled into the pool, where he was toffed up and down by fome persons of superior strength, till being quite debilitated, his fury forfook him ; he was then carried to the Church, and certain maffes fung over him ; if he was not cured at once, the immersion was repeated. This custom was pra&ifed probably in fome other parts of this county as well as at Altarnun ; lor at the foot of St. Agnes's holy well (a place formerly of great refort) I

d Dugdale's Warwicklhire, laft Edition, page f Nun or Nunne being the patronefs Saint, 682. ° from whole altar (famous I conjecture for fome

e Bath and Wells. miracles) this parish had its name.

think

Of C O R N ¥/ A L L. 303

think the remains of fuch a pool are Fill to be dilcovercd, though the fea has demolished the walls. The Cornifh call this immersion, BouJJening , from Beuzi or Bidhyzi , in the Cornu- british and Armoric, ftgnifying to dip, or drown. Belgice Buy fan (lays Lye's Junius m BowfeJ unde Anglice Bowie pot are , largiter bib ere. This may feem to the generality fo very impotent a remedy, that people might easily be persuaded to look upon any cure that ensued as the miraculous effect of the holy water, and the interpolation of St.

Nun ; but if we recollect that madness is no other than a raging fever that interrupts for a while, and diftipates all congruity betwixt ideas and things, we may foon satisfy ourfeives, that without any miracle, fo violent an exercise of the body in cold water was no contemptible prescription, something very like this method in parallel cafes having been approved of and pradtifed by the greatest physicians E .

Among the punishments inftidted in Cornwall of old time was Cockingthat of the cocking-fool h , a feat of infamy where trumpets and ftooL folds, with bare foot and head, were condemned to abide the derilion of thofe that palled by, for fuch time as the bailiffs of manors, which had the privilege of fuch jurifdidlion, did appoint. " This jurifdidtion was granted, fays Hals 1 , [or rather at an inquilicion declared to belong] to the manor of Cotford Farlo, in the parish of St. Wenn, Cornwall, in thofe words, lately to be feen in the records of the Exchequer : £U Maner . de Cotford-carlo , alias Lancorla in St. Wenn-moody temp. Hen. 3. Quia per objurgatrices et meretrices mult a mala in Maner io oriuntur, lites , pune , diffamationes et alie multe inquiet ationes per earum putejias k ; igitur utimur de eifde?n quod cum cape fuerint , habeant judicium de Cocking-Jloof et ibi jlabunt nudis pedibuSy et fuis crinibus pendentibus ddfperfis tanto tempore ut afpici pojjint ab omnibus per viam tranfeuntibus fecundum voluntatem Balivorum nofirorum capitaliumH

An ancient annual proceffion there was formerly at Loftwythyel a proceffion which retained fome traces of the royalties anciently belonging to the little kingdom of Cornwall : It was but of late years difeontinued, fays Mr. Carew, (page 138) who there gives us the following account of it : " Upon Little Eafter Sunday, the freeholders of the town and manor did there affemble, amongst whom one (as it fell to his lot by turn) bravely apparelled, gallantly mounted, with a crown on his head, a feepter in his hand, a word born before him, and dutifully attended by all the reft alfo on horseback, rode thro' the principal street to the Church ; there the Curate in his beft

2 See Sir J. Floyer of cold bathing. 1 M S Hiftory of Cornwall.

h Redtius f. Coquine, anciently cockaigne, fig- k That is, Putagia , acts of fornication, Spelm.

nifying an idle jade, a bafe woman. Hickesinjun. Glofiar.

befeene

3 04 Natural History

befeene solemnly received him at the Church-yard style, and conducted him to hear Divine Service, after which he repaired with the fame pomp to a house fore-provided for that purpose, made a feast to his attendance, kept the table's end himself, and was served with kneeling, allay, and all other rites due to the estate of a Prince : with dinner the ceremony ended, and every man returned home again. The cause and author out-reach remembrance howbeit thefe circumstances offer a conjecture that it should betoken the royalties appertaining to the honour of Cornwall."

sect. xiii. As to the manners of the inhabitants, they are generally allowed Manners. t Q be civilized and courteous to strangers, and this is no novel character, but Hands recorded as anciently as the times of Auguftus Casfar, and is attributed by Diod. Siculus 1 to that frequent intercourse with merchants of foreign countries, which the traffic for their tin could not but occasion. Trjc yxg Brawjrfif xxlx to axpalfyiov to kcO, xpevov BsA sgtov ol mloLxSvls? <pth6%evoi ts foxtyegov las sicn, n fox tjjv twv %svwv sprowy i-Kiiuixv rot; xyuyx$. The gentry have the

reputation of keeping up hospitality in their country, and though fo remote from Court {hewed formerly (and it is hoped do Hill ffiew) fuch an aptnefs as well as capacity for the bufinefs of the Hate, that Queen Elizabeth ufed to fay, " that the Corniffi gentlemen were all born courtiers with a becoming confidence m ."

Surrounded (almost) as they are by the fea, and reckoning themselves as it were of another and different nation from the Englilh, in military expeditions they have generally kept themselves more unmixed from the reft of the army they roll with, than the inhabitants of other counties ; they therefore held fome privileges peculiar to themselves. In Egbert's time they are faid to have challenged the honour of leading the van in the day of battle, an honour which Michael Cornubienfis fays, they enjoyed in the time of King Arthur. In Canute's reign, whether the danger was greater in the rear upon fome remarkable retreat of his army, or whether the Dane piqued himself upon inverting all the Saxon order of battle, we find the Cornifh brought up the rear, which by Sarifburienfis is attributed to their diftinguifhed valour Humphry Lhuyd in his breviary (page 3) calls them the ftouteft of all Britifh nations, and fays they were accounted to that time (1568) the moft valiant in warlike affairs.

The usual exercises of hurling and wrestling which prevailed formerly (and even in the remembrance of the present age) not only among the vulgar, but among the gentry alfo, who promoted thofe trials of strength and agility, headed their several parties, dealt the

1 Lib. iv. page 301, Edit. Hanov. 1604. page 469.

m See Floyd's Memoirs of the Civil Wars, " Carew, page 83.

ball,

Of Cornwall. 305

ball, and rewarded the vidtors) contributed surely from all antiquity to make them active, and boldly face their adversaries ; moreover the occupation of miners hardens the constitution fas has been observed before), and renders it more patient of thofe excel'es to which the life of a soldier is fo frequently exposed ; thefe perhaps were the reasons why the Cornifh gentlemen and their forces, as well without, as within their own county, won immortal honour by their behaviour in the civil wars during the reign of Charles the first : of their bravery and loyalty that King was equally fenfible, and diftinguifhed them from the reft of his fubjedls by the following letter, which he ordered to be read and preferred in every Church and Chapel throughout the County.

G. R.

To the Inhabitants of the County of Cornwall.

U TX 7 " are hi g% f en fi e °f t e extraordinary merit of our ' county of Cornwall, of their zeal for the defence of our person, and the juft rights of our Crown, in a time when we could contribute fo little to our own defence or to their aftiftance ; in a time when not only no reward appeared, but great and probable dangers were threatened to obedience and loyalty ; of their great and eminent courage and patience in their indefatigable prosecution of their great work against fo potent an enemy, backed with fo strong, rich, and populous cities, and fo plentifully furnished and supplied with men, arms, money, ammunition, and provision of all kinds, and of the wonderful fuccels with which it pleased Almighty God ( though with the lofs of fome moft eminent persons who shall never be forgotten by us) to reward their loyalty and patience by many strange victories over their and our enemies, in defpight of all human probability, and all imaginable difad vantages, that as we cannot be forgetful of fo great defeat, fo we cannot but deftre to publish it to all the world, and perpetuate to all time the memory of their merits, and of our acceptance of the fame ; and to that end we do hereby render our royal thanks to that our County in the moft publick and lifting manner we can device, commanding copies hereof to be printed and published, and one of them to be read in every Church and Chapel therein, and to be kept for ever as a record in the fame, that as long as the hiftory of thefe times, and of this nation shall continue, the memory of how much that county hath merited from us, and our crown, may be derived with it to pofterity."

Given at our Camp at Sudely Cattle, the 10th of September, 1643.

+ 1

The

306 - Natural History

The whole progress of the faithful Cornifh in the King's Service may be feen in the Earl of Clarendon's Hiftory of the Great Rebellion, much to the credit of this county ; but of all their adions, the battle at Lanfdown near Bath does them moft honour. Of their gallantry here Mr. Scawen °, being himself a cavalier, produces not his own, but the evidence of their enemies, that is, of the Parliament-forces : " The enemy themselves have fufflciently given testimony thereto, looking upon it with admiration, acknowledging it fuch a service they never faw the like : Amongft others by Sir Ralph Knight, a Cromwellian, I have heard it magnified in more particulars than we ourselves could think fit to write. In memory of this battle p , George late V. Lanfdown eroded a handsome monument on the field of dion, on the north fide of which is engraved the following description of Sir Bevil Granville, Baronet, of Stow in this county, general of the Cornifh forces, who fell there :

" Conqueft or death was all his thought, fo fire Either o'ercomes or does itself expire.

His courage work'd like flames, caff heat about,

Here, there, on this, on that fide none gave out,

i Nor any pike in that renowned stand

But took new force from his inspiring hand ;

Soldier encouraged soldier, man urg'd man r ,

And he urg'd all, fo much example can ;

Hurt upon hurt, wound upon wound did call He was the mark, the butt, the aim of all ;

His foul this while retir'd from cell to cell,

At laft flew up from all, and then he fell.

But the devoted stand enrag'd the more From that his fate, ply'd hotter than before,

And proud to fall with him, worn not to yield,

Each fought an honour'd grave, and won the field :

Thus he being fall'n, his dion fought anew,

And the dead conquer'd, whilst the living flew." Gart u

Thus flain thy valiant 5 ancestor did lye,

When his one bark a navy did defy,

When now encompass'd round the victor flood,

And bath'd his pinnace in his conquering blood,

"MS, page 28. r Hseret pede pes, denfufque viro vir.

P Defcribed particularly in Clarendon. .dEn. x. ver. 36 r.

a The poet had certainly in view the celebrated 8 Sir Richard Granville, Vice-admiral in the

reign of Queen Elizabeth against the Spaniards.

1 The Revenge.

Till

Of Cornwall. 30;

Till all the purple current dry'd and spent,

He fell, and made the waves his monument.

Where shall the next fam'd Granville's ashes stand ?

Thy Grandfire fills the fea, and thou the land. MmmLeweilyn,

I make no apology for inferring thefe verses ; it is sufficient that the noble founder of this monument, whole poetical abilities will not be disputed, chose to infcribe them on marble rather than any of his own compofition.

To a6t impartially, I muff turn the difagreeable fide of mysECT.xiv. countrymen as well as the honourable to the reader, it being no m manners, more my design to conceal than to juffify their failings. The lower fort of people is reckoned litigious u ; the truth is, that in mining as well as fishing there are very numerous and minute fubdivifions of property, every working-tinner, though little or nothing worth, shall have oftentimes or and sometimes a lefs share of the adventure ; thefe persons, if the adventure proves a losing one, as is frequently the cafe, prove the more unwilling the lefs they are able to pay the coffs incurred. Again : Thofe little adventures do oftentimes shift hands, are bought and fold, and bought again : this produces wranglings, and frequent application to the law-courts. Again : The number of materials necefTary to mining and fishing, is fo great, that it entangles the people with a great diversity of fellers of ropes, candles, powder, iron, timber, fait, flax, hemp, line, and the mechanics who work them up ; the more bargains the more disputes, fbme ill-designing persons being always ready to inflame and exaggerate rather than to appease the numerous diffentions to which fuch an intricate commerce is perpetually liable. A second reason of litigioufnefs in Cornwall, is, that we have as many forts of law-courts here, as in any part of England. Befides the Courts of Aflize and Ecclefiaftical Courts, there is the Lord Warden's Court, from which there is a farther appeal to the Duke of Cornwall in Council ; the Vice-Warden's Court held every month, and the Stannary-Courts held every three weeks for tin-causes. Here are alfo Court-leets of the Duke of Cornwall, and other Lords of Manors, for debts and disputes relating to property. By means of all thefe there is too open and eafy access to lawcontentions for the advantage of private families. Litigioufnefs is therefore partly the fault of the inhabitants, and in part the result of their polity and that multifarious trade to which their mining and flfhery unavoidably exposes them; whereas in counties where hufbandry is the chief or foie employ, bufinefs is in fewer hands, bargains plain and easily adjusted, and the gains not fo great as to prompt thofe of a middle rank immediately to go to law.

" Car. page 67.

Another

3 o8 NATURAL HISTORY

Another and no inconflderable corruption to which our inhabitants of the lower clafs are fubjeCt, may in part be attributed to the fame cause (I mean their occupation), but can neither be justified by that, or any other plea; that is, spending much time and money in publickhoufes, which defrauds the matter of the labour he pays for, deprives the family of that fubttftence which is their natural right ; but above all, prompts the tipler to cheat and overcharge, not to fay deal, in order to pay for the excettes he has been guilty of. If thefe extravagancies were only committed by thofe who had wherewithal to pay for them, the vice of excettive drinking would not be altogether fo shameful ; but the misfortune is, that the poorest working-tinner shall be credited by the ale-drawer till his account becomes conflderable, then perfected by bailiffs till he pays cotts as well as scores. There is no part of England which has more reason to complain of this kind of debauchery than Cornwall, and I have heard it hinted, with fome Shew of reason, that since the present laws against drinking to excess are ineffectual, and the nature of a tinner's employ fecretes him from his matter's eye, 'tis great pity that fome farther restraints should not be laid upon the keepers of publick-houses, and retailers of fpirituous liquors, who might deservedly be restrained by law from fuing any man, who had neither freehold or leave estate, for any fum exceeding one or two {killings, and not be at liberty even to Sue for that but before a justice of the peace, or after the Space of fix months from the contraction of the debt. This would prevent the idle from {pending what they have not ; for if they had no credit, the ready-money they get comes in Seldom, and mutt go in neceflaries, and consequently would not be Sufficient for the purposes of idlenefs. However that may be, this is certain, that to credit a poor labourer for Superfluities, much more for excettive drinking, is to encourage and tempt him to negleCt and tranfgrefs every Serious duty of life.

Nor does this low luxury and great evil prevail only in the mining part of the county, but in towns and villages, which Surely is to be attributed to the present too general ( but it is to be hoped Shortlived ) corruption of our boroughs at the electing Members of Parliament. This fatal, infamous traffic begins with intemperance and riot; thefe diffipate every generous Sentiment of freedom, love of our country, and inclination to industry : Venality naturally Succeeds, and is followed by extravagance and idlenefs ; thefe by poverty, and poverty ( Such is the round ! ) by abandoning themselves to intemperance again on the first opportunity, and repeating the bafeft prostitution of the highest privilege. A corruption this both of principle and practice, of patriotism and morality, infefting more counties than one ; but lo much the more to be lamented in

Cornwall,

Of Cornwall. 309

Cornwall, as this County has fo much a greater number of boroughs than any in Great Britain, and fends as many almost as the kingdom of Scotland itself w . However, the whole disgrace of this iniquity cannot reft upon my Countrymen. It is the much to be lamented vice of the nation, and not confined to the vulgar ; the part of the corrupted is indeed moft shameful, (for fo the world will have it) but that of the corrupter is at left equally guilty and ought to share our deteftation.

And now I am engaged in this fubjedt, it will not be foreign to sect. xv. the Hiftory of Cornwall, to enquire into the original of this fo why Commuch envied privilege, or lending a great number or representatives man y memo the Houfe of Commons, from fo small a county, and from bo- par roughs mostly fo inconfiderable as to trade, inhabitants, and every thing that can entitle places to diftindfion ; whilst several towns in England, much superior in all refpedfs x , have never been admitted to the fame honour.

This pre-eminence of our county is not ancient. From the 23d of Edward I. five boroughs only, (viz. Lancefton, Lifkerd, Truro, Bodman, and Helfton) fent two members each, and the county two. Loftwythyel has held the fame privilege from the 4th of Edward II. and fent two members once before, viz. in the 33d of Edward I r . Thefe are our only fix ancient boroughs, and the number was neither diminished nor increased, till the 6th of Edward VI. excepting only in one instance, which shall be taken notice of in the sequel.

At this time (viz. in the latter end of the reign of Edward VI.) even other boroughs, viz. Saltajh , Camelford , TVeJl-Loo, Gra? 2 p 07 it ,

! Tmdagel , Michel , and Newport , were permitted to fend up two members each.

In the first of Mary, Penryii, and in the fourth and fifth of the fame reign, St. Ives had the like privilege.

In the first of Elizabeth Ti~egeny was admitted ; in the fifth St.

Germaii s and St. Maw's, in the 13 th Eajl-Loo and Fawy , and in the 27th of that reign Callington , making up the number of twenty one boroughs, which with the county return to parliament forty four members.

The reason of this modern addition to the boroughs of this county, may I think beft appear from considering that the dutchy of Cornwall, (then in the crown and oftner fo than separated from

w Cornwall fends forty four members to parliament, and Scotland forty five.

Sherborne, Manchefter, Birmingham, Ely,

Burton upon Trent, Leeds and others.

y Not. Parliamentary, by Dr. Willis, page

37, &c.

4 K

from

310 Natural History

from it") yields in tin and lands an hereditary revenue, much superior to what the crown has in any county in England, and that eight of thefe boroughs 1 had either an immediate or remote connection with the demefne lands of this dutchy, a link formerly of much ftriCter union and higher command than at present. Four other boroughs depended on, or wholly belonged to religious houses which fell to the crown at the difiolution of Monafteries, in the reign of Henry VIII. For instance, Newport rofe with Lancefton priory b , and with it fell to the crown. Penryn depended much on the rich college of Glafney and its lands ; the manor alfo was alienated by Edward VI but restored by Queen Mary, and the town privileged by her. St. Germans was (after Bodman) the chief priory in Cornwall, and the borough of Fawy fell to the crown with the priory of Trewardraith, to which it belonged.

The other boroughs remain to be taken notice of. Michel belonged to the rich and highly allied family of the Arundel s of Lanhearne, and St. Ives and Callington to the family of Pawlet (Marquis of Winchefter, now Duke of Bolton) by marrying the heiress of Willughby Lord Brook, fome time of Newton-ferrers in this county d . Now thefe leveral connexions of the additional boroughs may point out to us the rife of this privilege.

Henry VII. reduced the power of the ancient Lords, and consequently advanced that of the Commons : Henry VIII. enriched many of the Commons with Church-lands ; and in the latter end of the reign of Edward VI. the Duke of Northumberland could not but perceive of what consequence it was to his ambitious schemes to have a majority in the house of Commons ; and Cornwall seems to have been pitched upon as the moft proper scene for this stretch of the prerogative, because of the large property e , and consequently influence of the Dutchy : Six towns therefore depending on the Dutchy and Church-lands, and one borough of a powerful family were indulged to fend fourteen members. The ministry of thole days were not fo defective in artifice as not to oblige powerful Lords now and then with the fame indulgence which they granted to thefe boroughs, thereby endeavouring either to reconcile them to their administration, or to make this guilty increase of the prerogative

z Whenever the Sovereign has no elded fon, the Dutchy of Cornwall is in the Crown.

a Saltafh, Camelford, Weft- Loo, Granpont, T indagcl, Tregeny, St. Maws, and Weft-Loo.

b The religious of St. Stephen's Collegiate Church beino; removed from the brow of the hill into a lower situation, contiguous to the walls of Lancefton, about three hundred years before, the town of Newport was built on the ground adjoining.

e Not. Parliamentary, vol. II. page 109.

J Of which family one Lord was buried in the Church of Callington, where his tomb is ftill to be feen.

c In the fifteenth of Henry VIII. the revenues of the Dutchy of Cornwall, with its dependant rights and' manors, was reckoned, fays Sir. J. Doderidge, at ten thousand and ninty-five pounds eleven {hillings and nine pence, which property became greatly increased by the fall of religious houses in the end of the reign of Henry the eighth.

lefs

Of Cornwall. 311

lefs invidious. Queen Mary in her Ihort reign (probably from the fame motives) admitted two more, and Queen Elizabeth, who never rejected any political precedent which might confirm her power, (though always, it mull be owned, exerting that power for the prosperity of her people, as well as her own glory) admitted fix other boroughs.

The only instances which could give the lead: colour of justice to thefe proceedings, were few, and weak. The borough ol Tregeny fent burgefles, indeed twice, viz. in the twenty-third and thirty-fifth of Edward I. but no more till the first of Elizabeth. Eaft-Loo and Fawy fent one and the fame merchant, then called a Ship-owner, to a council at Weftminfter (not to Parliament) in the fourteenth of Edward III f . Of thefe, however, Queen Elizabeth laid hold for the more fpecious promoting her designs : In her first year fhe revived the claims of Tregeny ; in the fifth of her reign % a Burgefles being returned for St. Jermyne's and St. Maws in Cornwall, Mr. Speaker declared in the Houfe, that the Lord Steward agreed they should refort unto the Houfe, and with convenient feed to fhew their Letters-Patents why they be returned in this Parliament " But they were no farther questioned (lays Dr. Willis, ib. page 168), the Queen's inclinations being well understood. '

In the thirteenth of Elizabeth both Eaft-Loo and Fawy elected two members, which being taken notice of and examined into, Report was made by the Houfe of the validity of the Burgefles, and it was ordered by the Attorney-general's aflent, that the Burgefles shall remain according to their returns ; for that the validity of the charters is elsewhere to be examined, if cause be h " By which means, fays Dr. Willis, (ib. page 102) little or no dispute being made against the Queen's power, the house became greatly increased with representatives, especially by the fending of Burgefles from thofe boroughs."

Nor was it any objection, I imagine, to their fending up members, that thefe boroughs had little trade, few inhabitants, and thofe poor and of no eminence ; thefe circumstances in all likelihood did rather promote than prevent their being privileged, as rendering them more tradable and dependant than if they had been large and opulent towns, inhabited by persons of trade, rank, and difcernment.

It is true indeed, thefe places fo summoned were old boroughs (in the legal acceptation of the word), that is, had immunities granted them by their Princes or Lords, exemptions from services in other

f See the original writ, Pryn. Brev. Parliament. to, flaying, and returning from Weftminfter, four vol. IV. page 186, 187, where J. Shakelok was pounds twelve {hillings, returned at the fame time for Polruan only, and s Pryn. Brev. Pari. vol. IV. page 1170.

thefe Members allowed for forty-four days in going h Pryn. Pari. Regifter, part xv. page 1179.

courts,

312 Natural History

courts, privileges of exercising trades, of electing officers within their own diftricft, and inverted with the property of lands, mills, fairs, &c. paying annually a certain chief or fee-farm rent ; moft of them alfo were parts of the ancient demefnes of the Crown, and had been either in the Crown or in the Royal Blood from the Norman conquest 1 , and by parting to and from the Crown often, and their privileges constantly referred and confirmed at every transfer, thefe towns had acquired a kind of nominal dignity, but were in every other light inconfiderable, aud no ways entitled to the power of fending members to Parliament, much lefs in preference to fo many more populous communities in the other parts of England.

sect. xvi. The chief trade in Cornwall confifts in exporting tin, copper, and

Trade. fiffi, and the principal imports are timber, iron, hemp, and fuch other neceffaries as mining and fishing require. The Cornifh had a privilege granted by Charles the first, for their steady attachment to the royal cause, of trading to all parts of the world k ; a privilege of more credit than profit, since trade has been fettered and fo confined to exclusive companies ; this however can be no excuse for that dangerous abuse of trade, called smuggling. The common people on the fea-coat are, it muft be owned, too much addi&ed to carry off our bullion to France, and bring us back nothing but brandy, tea, and fome other luxuries of life ; nothing can be more pernicious to the interest of this county, as well as the kingdom in general, or to the constitutions of the inhabitants : the infection is spread below the rank of birth and fortune ; there is not the poorest family in any parish which has not its tea, its snuff, and tobacco, and (when they have money or credit) brandy, and it is greatly to be feared that this deftru£tive trade will not cease as long as the duties are fo high, and consequently the profit of clandeftinely importing foreign uncuftomed goods fo great and tempting.

sect.xvii. The Cornifh tenants usually chute not to hold lands at a rack

Cornifh te- or yearly rent, but to pay a fine, and take lands of the Lord of the

revenues. Soil, for the term of ninety -nine years determinable with the lives of three persons named in the grant or leave. This method of taking, they feem to have been inclined to, first, because their general turn being to mining, farmers is not fo well understood here as in other parts ; secondly, because the profits of mines and fishing come by starts, and after a lucky year, the owner not knowing well the management of cafh, chufes to have fome certain

' Once only excepted, when Pierce Gavefton for a short time, was by the favour of Edward II. Earl of Cornwall k Camden, Annot. page 8.

income

Of Cornwall. 313

income for it ; and leaf! it should waste in an improper chanel, he deposits it with his landlord, and either takes a new leave or renews his old one ; thirdly, the numbers of people on the fea-coat, and in the tinning parts constantly increasing, occasion the dividing and splitting large tenements, equally to the advantage of the Lord, and the convenience of his tenants, every one being willing to have a small share of house and land for his own life, and that of his nearest dependants in proportion to his ability. For a leave of three lives, the taker usually pays fourteen years value of the real annual profit of the estate, fo that if the estate is worth ten pounds per annum , the tenant will not fcruple to give one hundred and forty pounds fine, besides the conventionary rent of one filling per pound, viz. ten {hillings referred annually to the Lord ; but this usage admits of fome abatements if in a neighbourhood thinly inhabited, and wells into a considerable increase, where the people are numerous, and trade and employ brick ; fo that in fome tinparifhes moll tenements bring twenty years value for a leave of three lives, instead of fourteen. Other tenures there are, both of the Dutchy,

Bifhop's lands, and private Gentlemens Manors, which are conformable to the particular customs of each manor, as in other parts of England. Of the Ecclefiaftical revenues, I find the following calculation in Mr. Hals's MS; but whether juft or otherwise, I am not sufficiently informed to decide: " The yearly revenues of the parochial Churches of Cornwall, were computed (fays Mr. Hals) by Edward Herle of Prideaux, Efq; in the year 1602, at fifteen thousand fix hundred and twenty pounds ; the lay impropriations annually at eight thousand two hundred pounds. The Lord Bilhop of this diocese is Lord of several manors and lands in Cornwall, worth annually, if they were not leafed, twelve thousand pounds ; the lands which formerly belonged to religious houses, it not leafed, are worth annually twenty thousand pounds. In this computation, chanteries, oratories, and hospitals are not included."

The Cornifti tongue is a dialed: of that language which, till the s e ct. Saxons came in, was common to all Britain, and more anciently to 0f ™ 0 rn;m Ireland and Gaul ; but the inhabitants of this ifiand being dif- idiom, proverbs, perfed before thofe conquerors, and driven into Wales and Cornwall, and and thence into Bretagne in France, the fame language (as in like cafos will always happen), for want of more frequent intercourse, became differently pronounced, spoke, and written, and in different degrees mixed with different languages : Hence came different dialers, one called the Welfh, the other the Cornifti, the laft the Armoric. The radicals are fo much alike in all, that they are known and admitted by the inhabitants of either country ; but their

4 L Grammar

3 i4 NATURAL HISTORY

Grammar has fo varied, that they cannot converge The Cornifh is reckoned more pleaflng in found because lefs guttural than the Welfh, and indeed than the other dialed. Thus, for infiance, the Welfh fay Lech or Llech , a flat stone, the Cornifli, Leh. For Lhwch , (in Welfh a lake) the Cornifh lay Luh , &c. u The Cornifh, fays Mr. Scawen, (M S, page 5) is not gutturally to be pronounced as the Welfh, nor mutteringly as the Armoric, nor whyningly as the Irilh ; ill qualities contracted by the two latter from their lervitudes and much fubjeCtion, but the Cornifli is manly and lively spoken, and like thofe other primitive tongues," viz. Celtic and Phenician. Again : £t It is a tongue, as uled in Cornwall, moft like the Phenician," ibid m . and this intermixture of the Punic is the reason that the idiom of a poem written in Cornifh, and called the Paflion n , is not easily understood by the Welfh 0 . It has alfo the character of being elegant and manly p , pure, short, and expreflive

The moft material Angularities in this tongue are, that the fubftantive is placed generally before the adjeCtive ; the prepofltion. comes sometimes after the cafe governed ; the nominative, and governed cafe, and pronouns, are oftentimes incorporated with the verb; letters are changed in the beginning, middle, or end of a word, or syllable ; fome omitted, fome infected ; and ( much to the commendation of this tongue) of several words one is compounded (as in the Greek) for the fake of brevity, found, and expreflion r . There was nothing printed in this language till the learned Lhuyd published his Cornifli Grammar. The MS S in the Bodleian Library have been already mentioned ' , to which I muff add, that in the Cotton Library there is a Cornifli Vocabulary 1 ; there are alfo several proverbs ftill remaining in the ancient Cornifh, all favouring of truth, fome of pointed wit, fome of deep wisdom.

Neb 77 a gare y g way 71 coll rejloua ; He that heeds not gain, muff expeCt lofs.

Neb na gare y gy , an gwra deveeder ; He that regards not his dog, will make him a choak-sheep.

Guel yw guetha vel goofen ; It is better to keep than to beg.

Gura da , rag ta honan te yn gura ; Do good, for thy felf thou doft it.

Many proverbs relate to caution in speaking, as Tau tavas , be Alent, tongue.

1 Scawen, M S, page 3. m t Ibid ; P. a S e from Boxhornius and others.

See before, page 297, called Mount Calvarv .

0 lb. Scawen, ib. page 5. p Ib. page 27.

% Jk. page 51, and in preface to the Paflion,

Ibid.

r Of which fee Lhuyd's Archaeoloeia, case 225, &c. 6 5

Page 295.

' Printed in the Vocab. at the end of the Antiquities of Cornwall.

Cows

OF CORNWALL. 3 i 5

Cows nebas , cows da, ha da veth cowfas arta ; Speak little, speak. well, and well will be spoken again.

Of talking of Rate-affairs, there are fome remarkable cautions : Cows nebas , cows da, nebas an severn yw an gwella ; Speak little, speak well, little of public matters is beft.

The danger of talking against the government is excellently represented in the following proverb :

Nyn ges gun heb lags, na kei heb fcovern ; There is no downs without eye, nor hedge without ears.

l his language was spoke fo generally in Cornwall down to the reign of Henry VIII. that Dr. John Moreman Vicar of Menhynnet (alias Mynhinet) in Cornwall, in the latter part of that King's time is laid to have been the first who taught his parishioners the Lord s Prayer, Creed, and Ten Commandments, in the Englifh tongue. When the Liturgy, at the Reformation, was appointed by authority to take place of the mafs, the Cornifh defined w that it should be in the Englifh language, being apprehensive that it might be injoined them in their mother tongue, as it was with regard to the Welfh. By this means, and the gentry's mixing gradually with the Englifh, the Corniih language loft ground in proportion as it lay nearer to Devon. In the parish of Pheoke the Cornifh tongue refilled the fcythe of time fo long, that about the year 1640, Mr. William Jackman, then Vicar thereof, was forced to administer the Sacrament to the communicants in the Cornifh, because the aged people did not understand the Englifh tongue After the Reftoration we find the Cornifh surviving only in the more western parts, where the Rev d . Mr. F. Robinfon, Recftor of Landawidnek, is the laft that I have met with, who, not long before the year 1678, preached a Sermon in the Cornifh language only k About fifty years since it was generally spoken in the parishes of Paul and St. Juft, the fishermen and market-women in the former, and the tinners in the latter, converting one with the other for the moftpart in the Cornifh tongue. A little before this time (viz. in 1700) Mr. Ed. Lhuyd before-mentioned (to acquaint himself with the Natural Hiftory and Monuments, but principally with the language, in order to perfect his Archasologia) came into Cornwall, and by the hints which he colle&ed, and the efpecial aftiftance of Mr. John Keigvvyn (a gentleman well versed in the learned languages, as well as his own) composed his Cornifh Grammar. This he afterwards published in 1707, and being by that time thoroughly acquainted with the other diale&s of the Britifh tongue, was able

" Native of South-hole in Cornwall, that is, w Scawen, ib. page 49.

f. Southill, alias Suthull, (as in the Lincoln Vifi- 1 " As he often told me," fays Mr. Hals,

tation) in Cornwall. r See Scawen's M S, ib. ut fup. page 49.

to

3 i6 NATURAL HISTORY

to corredl the errors of the modern Cornifh, who, in many particulars, had greatly degenerated from the orthography of their forefathers, and wanted a reformer of fuch capacity to chaften and reduce their speech to the true radical original elements. His Grammar will preserve the rudiments of this language as long as his works remain, which will be as long as any regard for etymology and the ancient hiftory of thefe kingdoms fubfifts. It lays a foundation alfo for correcting the M S S we have in this tongue, and by diligently examining, collating, and making proper extracts from the cleared: parts of them, for perfecting a Cornu-Englifh and an Anglo-Cornifh Vocabulary.

That we may attend it to the grave, This language is now altogether ceased, fo as not to be spoken any where in conversation ; but as our ancient towns, castles, rivers, mountains, manors, feats, and families, have their names from the Cornifh tongue, and as moffc of the technical names of mining, hufbandry, fishing, and indeed fome terminations of lands are in Cornifh z , it will in all ages be entertaining, and upon many occasions useful and inftruCtive for this county to have as correct and copious a Vocabulary of its ancient language, as can be procured from the materials now extant.

sect. xix. i n difcourfing of the arts now practiced in this county, I intend

fete of e ?rts not to display their perfections, and applaud their late advances, in this coun- but to point out their deficiencies, and hint at their improvement.

About fifty years since the principles and powers of mechanics were but little known among the Cornifh : they generally drew the water from their mines by dint of human labour, which was extremely expensive, tedious, and impotent. Within thefe thirty years, their hydraulics are greatly improved, their horse-engines, water-wheels, and fire-engines are ftill growing more numerous, moft of them now built by the natives, and gradually prevailing against inveterate customs, which are not to be got the better of all at once. Thefe engines are ftill capable of farther improvement, particularly the horse-engine, called the Whim, whole cylinder, vulgarly called the Cage, which winds and unwinds the rope, I have observed in moft places of too small a diameter, fo that it has not the power it is capable of with equal labour : this whole machine alfo wants a proper check, fo as that it might be easily controlled, or ftop itself (as the fire-engine will do when the motion becomes too violent), for want of which many fatal accidents happen to men as well as horses. A thorough knowledge of me-* chanics is indeed fo neceftary to mining, that one would wonder how they could carry on mines here formerly with fo small a

Antiquities of Cornwall, page 374.

share

Of Cornwall. 317

{hare of it : at present the Cornifh are very fenfible of this, and there is fuch a constant call at one mine or other, that no man who is indufhious, and understands mechanics, can fail of a handsome livelihood.

Our hufbandry would doubtless admit of several improvements, Tillage, but two more obvious than the reft ; as, first, ploughing and harrowing with large horses, instead of the present much flower progress of our oxen; secondly, of introducing the wheel-plough in many plain and even parts of the county, whereby the weight would be much diminished, and the work accelerated.

The wheel-carriages for timber and heavy loads may alfo be im- Carriages proved ; for our butts and wains have only two wheels, and thofe of small diameter : the four-wheel waggons, for carrying hay and corn, are more capacious, and as the wheels support the burden and leave no dead weight on the cattle, are much to be preferred : the lighter carts alfo for expedition muft much exceed our butts, and will carry more, but are not fo much in ufo as might be wiftied : however, as the highways in moft parts of the county have been of late years much widened, levelled, and repaired, it is to be hoped that the fame method of carriage which experience has recommended to the moft knowing and bufy parts of the kingdom, will alfo foon take place here. It has been already hinted how eaftly our water-carriage may be extended, by making our rivers navigable either by least and canals, or by locks, and the advantages accruing from thence to hufbandry, and every other employ, are too apparent to be farther particularized.

Our fences, especially in the northern and western parts, might Fences, be bettered, that is, more commonly planted, which would make the partitions of our fields more lifting, as well as more lightly ; and if tenants were encouraged, and obliged by covenant with their Lords to plant every new hedge they made, not only with quickfet, but with young failings of oak, alb, elm, or fycamore, the defolate nakednefs of stone and meer turf hedges in fo mild a climate, would foon be at an end, and sufficient compensation made to the planters in fuel and shelter. We have many lands partly over-run with fea-hands, which hands, especially on the north coat, are of a very shelly, prolific kind 1 ; perhaps saffron might be cultivated in fome of the moft fandy foils to great advantage.

We have plenty of wool in moft parts of this county ; but this wool, wool has been generally fold to chapmen, who travel on purpose to buy and carry it off, and 'tis neither carded, fpun, or weaved, but in very few places. This being observed by fome publick-spirited gentle-

" See hands, page 83.

4 M

men,

Flax and nets.

Meafure of grain.

318 Natural History

men, they undertook (for which they are greatly to be commended) to fet up a woollen-manufaCtory in the town of Penryn, fituated in Falmouth Harbour. This attempt hath succeeded (though now scarce pad; its infancy) according to expectation, and in its different branches already employs fix hundred people. " The goods they make for fale, and which by repeated trials they find they can fend to foreign markets as good in quality and on equal terms with other parts of the kingdom, are thofe which follow b : Coarfe broadcloths, druggets, duffles of all kinds, bays's, barragans figured and plain, watered grograms, corded and figured everlaftings, figured and plain duroys, pluflhes, durant, and fhalloons, besides fome other particulars not deemed Handing articles. By fuch a variety of articles, they are at liberty to shift their hands in general from one kind of looms to another, till the majority of their workmen become capable of almost every different kind of weaving : this enables them to execute any extraordinary orders much sooner, and upon decline of fales abroad for any one fortment, transfer their labourers to another branch; by this means they need not difeharge any of their servants, and alfo work up the different forts of wool which the country produces, to the great relief of the induftrious poor ; whereas moft part of the natural produce of the sheep was before, either fent into other counties to be manufactured, or into France in exchange for tea and brandy, to the inconceivable advantage of our rival nation, and of the moft pernicious consequence to our own." It is to be hoped that no person, who is able to lend the leaf!: support to fo useful an attempt, will suffer it to decline for want of it. Again : We have the flax and thread for our pilchard-nets mostly from Bridport in Dorfetfhire, nay even the nets are orten made there ; but it would be far more to the advantage of the Cornifh, if the materials for netting W'ere railed on the fpot, and women and children employed in breeding nets, when the fishery is out of feafon, and bad weather fets in. Our common measure of grain is lingular, and not fo fettled and uniform as it should be, the bulhel varying in different parts of the county from fifteen to twenty-rour gallons. 1 he bufhel in the eastern parts contains betwixt eighteen and twenty-four gallons, in the weft is reckoned always to contain three Winchefters, or twenty- four gallons, and lome will unjuftly increase even this by a gallon or more, for the fake of railing the price of what they fell at home without the additional gallon, or in concert with the bakers, endeavouring to raise the market price, and thereby countenancing the making bread or Ihort weight, conformable to that exorbitant price.

h Letter dated Auguft 27, 1757, from Mr. Richard Williams, Surgeon, of Falmouth, to whole alhduity and direction the present faccefs ot this undertaking is chiefly to be attributed.

In

Of C O R N W A L L. 319

In Cornwall the customary perch for land-measure is alfo eigh- Landteen feet, though of late years moft gentlemen comply with the measure ' statute- perch of fifteen feet and a half ; but the moft extraordinary measure of all, is the Cornifh acre, which, according to Mr. Carew,

(page 36, and Norden, page 26) contained two hundred and seventy statute-acres, which kind of account, fays Norden, (who was furveyor to Henry Prince of Wales, and Duke of Cornwall, temp.

Jac. 1.) is not elsewhere in England. " Commonly, fays Mr. Carew c , thirty acres make a farthing land , nine farthings a Cornifh acre, and four Cornifh acres a Knight's fee ; but this rule is overruled to a greater or lefs quantity, according to the fruitfulnefs or barrennefs of the foil." Mr. Carew, it is not to be doubted, had his authority, though not cited ; but whatever it was, the Cornifh acre certainly varied much in different times and places from this aftigned standard ; for in the register of Lacy (Bifhop of Exeter,

A. D. 1420, page 419), the Cornifh acre contained four feelings [alias farthings ], each feeling conftfting of thirty acres ftatutemeafure, each Cornifh acre being deemed a tetiure , and containing no more than one hundred and twenty statute acres, as appears by the following recital : " Item idem Thomas Abbas de Tavijloke xvi tenuras, & dim . confuetudmare prefati Manerii in libertatejn demijit , quarum quelibet continent in J'e unam Cornubicam terras, et quelibet Cornubica continent in fe nn ferlingas, et quelibet ferlinga xxx acras but even this measure was not always precise and invariable, for in the fame register (pages 450 and 451) the several closes contained in a ferlinga or farthing-land make up thirty-two acres, consequently a tenure or Cornifh acre of four fuch ferlinga s makes one hundred and twenty-eight acres. Neither was the ferlinga always uniform ; for sometimes it confifted only of ten acres f .

Certain it is that acres were anciently of different extent in different places, and in general of greater extent than they are by the present computation ; the Irifh acre continued even to the laft century to contain three of the Englifh, but what were the precise contents of an acre among the Anglo-Saxons is uncertain s . The present dimensions of an acre, viz. one hundred and fifty square perch of fifteen feet and a half, were fettled by the 3 1 oi Edw. I h , and in the succeeding reign eight hundred fuch acres made a Knight's fee, but in Cornwall at that time four Cornifh acres, containing one thousand and eighty statute-acres, were required to make up one Knight's fee 1 .

What should be the reason that our fore-fathers fo much exceeded the reft of this island in their land-measure, I do not presume to

Ibid. d As to the Knight's fee. page 212.

° Alias ferlingus, Spelman, page 212. ® Spelm. in voce acra.

f Decem acre terre f daunt fecundum antiquam h Ibid, confuetudinem unam ferdellam, &c. Spelm. Glofl'. ' Carew, ibid.

determine ;

Earths,

Salt.

Vitriol.

320 Natural History

determine ; I conjecture, that the inhabitants having their resources for the neceflaries of life from the bowels, and not from the surface of the earth, neglected the latter out of too constant an attention to the former. The foil and the surface therefore being uncultivated till the laft ages inclines me to think that a greater quantity of land was requisite to make up an acre, and entitle a man to the honour of knighthood in Cornwall than elsewhere. Let it be considered in the next place, that the word acre did not always signify a determinate quantity of ground, but latiwi quantumvis agrum l£ ," that is, a field or tenement of any face ; that whilst the lands lay in this coarse condition there were no divisions but thofe of tenements, which were usually granted by the Lords of the Soil in fuch dimensions as contained many of our ffatute-acres, and in any quantity which was thought at that time sufficient for the purposes of tillage and pasture ; hence arose the term of the Cornifh 'acre, meaning no more than a Cornifh holding or tenement hide or tenure , including more or lefs 1 , according to the degree of cultivation m .

For making porcelain, as well as preparing ochres and other painting-earths for the artist, a great many clays and mineral-earths may be found in Cornwall n ; water-mills may easily be procured, fuel cheap, and water-carriage to London and Briftol Jlo convenient on either fide the county, that a sufficient undertaker might ac lean; find as many encouraging circumstances to fet up fuch manufactures in Cornwall as any where in England.

Sea-falt may be made here as well as in French Britany, for the materials are the fame, and in equal plenty in both countries, and the difference of climate inconfiderable, " it being found by experience, fays a modern author 0 , that bay-falt made in Hampfhire (farther within chanel than Cornwall) is not inferior to the bay-falt of Britany but fuppofing we could make in Cornwall but two thirds of the fea-falt which the Bretons make, this, if I am rightly informed, would very well answer. There is a place in the parish of Senan, about half a mile north of the Land's-End, in which the traces of falt-works, carried on in the laft age, are ftill to be feen ; and tradition fays, that the manufacture mifearried not through any deficiency of materials, or incongruity of situation, but through the negleCt and difhonefty of the persons employed.

About the year 1 747, a curious foreigner " fet up a vitriol manufacture near Reddruth. The water was collected from places where tin was burnt in order to difeharge its mundic, and copper-

See page 84. k Spelman, ibid.

1 In Lacy s Regifter one hundred and twenty, in Spelman one hundred and fifty, in Carew two hundred and seventy statute-acres.

m See page before, " Item idem abbas," &c. " See clays, page 63, &c.

Nat. Hifl: of Cork, vol. II. page 25c. p Dr. John James Rouby, now at Plymouth.

ores

Of Cornwall. 321

ores were mofl: usually walked. This water, strongly impregnated with the vitriolic particles which thefe ores abound with, was first put into a large lead ciftern, where it rented till the sediment fubfided, and the water was clear : it was then conveyed into a boiler of the fame metal, where it was kept constantly boiling by a gentle fire for even or eight days, and when they found it ready, that is, by evaporation reduced to a proper pellicle (which they diftinguifh by the colour) it was drawn off through a cock at the bottom of the boiler, and fet in leaden cifterns to cryftallize, the falls {hooting round the fides of the veffel, and fixing upon pieces of timber thrown in on purpose to colled: them. The time required for cryftaliization was either three or five days, according to the weaker or stronger impregnation of the water ; about eight tons of which, well impregnated with the vitriolic quality, would give a ton of blue, fine vitriol, each ton worth eighty pounds, or near it, and the expence of making each ton not exceeding fifty pounds, as I have been informed. The materials for making this vitriol are fo cheap, and in fuch plenty, that the whole kingdom might be supplied with this fait from Cornwall alone, if neceffary.

But of all arts, that which concerns moft nearly the gentlemen Art of aflayof this county to cultivate, is that of affaying metals, an art which inS should be much more generally known and pradifed, than it is at present, in a county fo fertile in foflils.

The value of tin-ore is well known, of lead not fo thoroughly, and the agents of the copper-companies are almost the only persons who afiay copper-ore : here therefore ends all our docimaftic knowledge, and we are not only obliged to take the word of the buyer (which may naturally be fuppofed somewhat in favour of himself ) as to our lead and copper, but our cobalt, bifmuth, fpeltre, manganefe, and the like, lie utterly unknown and negleded :

Great pity it is that fo many gentlemen of fortune and inheritance as the mine-diftrids in this county may boat of, can find no link to afiociate themselves in fo useful a design as that of employing a proper person, and ereding one or more affay-ofhces whereto every man at a small expence might have access for information, as to the value of his ore, and the nature of any new foffil which

occurs.

In fome counties publick premiums, exhibited at the expence or

a fubfcribing society, have had the defined defied in furthering improvements of publick benefit; perhaps something of the fame kind would be of ufe in this county, and greatly promote the inclofing commons, planting fruit and forest-trees, making the mofl: and beft-finished highways, improving the powers, or retrenching the expence of any hydraulic engine, discovering new and more

D jq effedual

Urns.

322 Natural History

effectual fluxes for metals ; manuring with Cornifti marie, improving the pottery-ware, or even introducing the porcelain or dellmanufadture ; a design of this nature, animated by a few people of rank, from its own apparent and neceflary consequences, would foon make its way into the approbation and patronage of every man of opulency and publick spirit, and would be a fure method of making the people more induftrious, flourishing, and happy. But to encourage and promote arts moft effectually in a country at fuch a distance as Cornwall is from the great centre of power and riches, nothing can contribute more, than that gentlemen of fortune and rank generally reflde at their paternal feats, build, plant, and improve barren grounds, enforce justice, stimulate industry, excite emulation, reconcile disputes, and lead forth now and then into the reach of favour and reward latent merit ; fuch occupations as theSe might well become the time and attention of thofe of the highest rank, and the moft affluent fortune ; they are rational and generous, diffufive of plenty and happiness, in the place which has the first right (the right of birth) to our affections; they endear and hold faft the dependants of the gentry, preserve and advance their patrimonies, and need not in the left claSh with or interrupt their more solemn duties to the Church and to the State.

Chap. Xxvii.

Antiquities which have occurred in Cornwall since the year 1753*

P LAT E xxix. Fig. 1. page 298, is part of a curious urn; the anfa solid ; the clay fine, well burnt ; neatly ornamented, with double, Straight lifts round the edge and handle, and wavy lifts on the fides; colour cinerous; the Shell three eighths of an inch thick. It was found under a large barrow or heap of stones, at Karn, in the parifti of Morvah, 1754.

Fig. 11. ibid. A plain urn, inclofing human bones, found in Mr. T. Smith's garden in Newfort, in the ifle of St. Mary's, Scilly : it flood upon the natural clay, inclofed in a vault four feet fix inches long, two feet three inches wide, about one foot three inches deep ; the fides of the vault were faced with stone, its covering, flat stones ; the run of the vault N. N. E. This is infected as the only one yet discovered in the files of Scilly, to Shew that theSe Iflanders had the fame way of burning the dead, and preserving what the fire left unconSumed, as other ancient nations.

Fig. v. and vi. are two gold-coins found at Karn-breh in the year 1749, with thoSe published in the Antiquities of Cornwall,

page

Coins.

Of Cornwall. 323

page 242 ; they feem both of the fame die and value, but the impreffion differently corroded by time and ufe, may, by being exhibited in both, tend to their explanation. I can fay nothing decisive as to the symbols, but I cone&ure that on the convex fide there is the rude figure of a fhip with two mails, and the fails spread ; on the convex seems a representation of the terraqueous globe, encompaffed in the middle with a zone wavy , which divides the upper from the under hemisphere. In the upper hemisphere are placed the fun and moon, in the under the leffer luminaries.

Fig. vii. and viii. ibid, are two different heads from any already published in Plate xix. of the Antiquities of Cornwall, page 242 : the faces are bold, and not inexpreffive, turned different ways ; the reverses are charged with horses and wheels in the fame lyle as moft of thofe already published.

Fig. ix. ibid, is not an ill fancied head ; the diadem and its clap very diftind and uniformly fet, and the robing of the shoulder plain and indifputable. In the reverse, the body of the horse is remarkably {lender, the engraver, as I apprehend, being more intent to express the expedition and fwiftnefs, than the natural shape and proportion of the creature. The coins are of their real fize and Ihape. I have only to observe, that Bouteroue's coins of the ancient Gauls have neither the weight nor true shape expreffed, because either worn with ufe, or covered or eaten with ruF (fays he, ibid. Introd. page 40). All published by him of this kind have plain legends, except B, page 55, which however on the reverse has something like the letters m a They can give little aid therefore towards explaining this treasure of Britifh antiquity found in Cornwall but if one can make any certain conclusion from coins printed in fuch a manner, it mull; be that they were Fruck by a people well acquainted with the Greeks or Romans ; they favour nothing of the antiquity, rudenefs, and simplicity of thofe of Karnbreh.

Fig. x. ibid, is the little peteril or Form-finch which was drawn by the late Mr. {ago before-mentioned, Chaplain of Loo. Of this bird, rarely found on the Englifh coaFs, Mr. Catefby in the Appendix to his Nat.HiF. of Carolina, & ?c. (page and tab. 14) gives us the following account : The Form-finch or pittrel, is about the fize of a chaffinch; the whole bird, except the rump, (which is white) is of a dufky, brown colour, the back being somewhat darker than the belly ; the bill is half an inch long, Fender, darkbrown, and crooked at the end : by opening the head of one of thefe birds, I found that the noFrils confiFed of two parallel tubes, proceeding from within the head, and running half way along the upper mandible of the bill, forming thereon a protuberance ; the

The bird mentioned before, page 247, and referred to the explanation of this plate.

Roman roads in Cornwall.

324 Natural History

wings extended an inch beyond the tail ; the legs were slender ; the feet were webbed, with a small claw on each heel without a toe : they rove all over the Atlantic Ocean, and are feen on the coats of America, as well as on thole of Europe, and many hundred leagues from each whore. Their appearance is generally believed by mariners to prognofticate a form or bad weather, and I mull confess I never faw them but in a troubled fea : they ufe their wings and feet with furprifing celerity ; their wings are long, and resemble thole oi swallows, with which they are equally Ivvift, but ut makin & angles, or short turns in their flight, as swallows do, but flie in a direct line. Though their feet are formed for swimming, they are likewise fo for running, which ufe they feem moft to put them to, being ofteneft in the action of running swiftly on the surface of the waves in their greatest agitation, but with the afliftance of their wings." To thefe observations Mr. Catelby adds its name from Clulius. The ingenious Mr. George Edwards (to whom the Natural Hillory of Birds is lo much indebted) juftly observes (page 90) that t£ it is strange lo Imall a bird should be able to fubfift in fuch open feas, where they cannot reft but on the water, which is always pretty rough. Thofe I have feen were continually on the wing ; they appear not but in tempeftuous weather, near ships or land. Thele I law lereened themselves out of the wind under the stern of the veflel I was aboard of; they even leek shelter lometimes in the deepest hollows that are formed between the high waves of the fea, and wonderfully keep their stations there, though the waves run very swiftly ; they flutter fo near the surface of the water, that they feem to walk on it ; for which reason, Mr. Albin lays, they are called Peterils, because they imitate Peter s walking on the lea." Edwards of Birds, page 90 q .

In the Antiquities of Cornwall, book iv. chap. v. page 301, several evidences of the Romans being in Cornwall, and having made publick roads here are produced, and many more will probably appear upon farther search, attention, and enquiry, of which the following notes may be a corroborating testimony : It is fuggefted, (Antiquities of Cornwall, page 305) that one Roman road at leaf: palled from the eallern parts through or near Truro; to confirm which, I find a tenement called Caerfos (alias Caerfofou) that is, the castle or encampment on the Dyk or Fofs, by which names the ancient ways are too frequently called to need farther proof ; this tenement lies about a mile weft of Granpont, adjoining to the present high road to Truro which is about five miles distant.

1 Albins Hiftory 0 f Birds, vol. III. page 87, table 92. Dampier's Voyages, vol. III.

Crtvc Q7.

" There

Of Cornwall. 325

u There are the remains of a caufey between Lifkerd and Looe, near Polgover, the feat of Mr. Mayow, which, as well as the cross road from Dulo to Heafenford, vulgar tradition makes to be Roman r ." That the Romans had ways in thefe eastern parts of the county about Loo and Loftwythyel, the following ancient work, fhewn me by the Reverend Mr. Howel, Redtor of Lanreath, (June 25 and 26, 1756) will abundantly confirm : It is called the Giant's Giant's Hedge ; a large mound which reaches from the valley in which hed s e °- the two boroughs of Eaft and Weft Loo are fituated, to Leryn, on the river Fawy It is first visible on Weft-Loo down, about two hundred paces above the mills, whence it runs to Kilmaenarth woods ; from and through them to Trelaun wood, about three hundred paces above Trelaun mills ; then through little Larnic to the Barton of Hall, in which there are two circular encampments about four hundred paces to the north of it ; thence quite through the faid Barton, making the northern boundary of a field on the glebe of Pelynt Vicarage, called Furz Park ; then cross the Barton of Tregaric, and thence through the north grounds of Trefaffon and Polventon to the glebe lands of the Redtory of Lanreath, where I measured it even feet high and twenty feet wide at a medium ; thence it stretches through the tenement of Wyllacomb to Trebant water, whence it proceeds through the Barton of Langunnet and Ibme smaller tenements to Leryn, from which there is a fair dry down, called St. Winnow Down, leading north along to Loftwythyel. This Rilbank, or mound, ranges up-hill and down-hill indifferently ; has no visible ditch continued on any brow of a hill, as intrenchments always have ; there is no hollow or fofs on one fide more than the other ; it is above even miles long, and tends straight from Loo to Leryn creek, in the direct line from Loo to Loftwythyel. By all thefe properties, its height and breadth, its wanting the Ioffes of fortification, its ftraightnefs and length, the grandeur of the design, and the labour of execution, I judge, that it can be nothing lefs than a Roman work ; in this fuppofition I am the more confirmed, first, because several Roman coins have been found on the banks of Fawy river, (as fee Antiquities of Cornwall, page 282) and as I have been informed alfo in the run of this notable work ; secondly, by its tendency to the first ford over the navigable river of Fawy ; for it muft be observed that the Romans thoroughly fenfible of the delays and hazards of crofting firths and arms of the fea, and the danger of bridges getting into the poffeftion of the natives, were equally adverse both to bridges

r Letter, April 25, 1755, from J. Trehawk, to the Geography of the County.

Efq; to whole kind communications the preceding Alias Fowey.

fleets are much indebted, especially with regard Letter from the forementioned gentleman.

4 Q ancf

326 Natural History

and pafling large rivers; they had therefore in constant view the nearest and moft commodious fords of rivers, and directed their roads accordingly ; now near Leryn creek, where this work ends, there is a ford, and no where below is the river Fawy fordable, which plainly accounts for their carrying this road fo high up in the country, that it might at once convey their troops towards their station at Loftwythyel, and afford them a fafe paflage over the river Fawy into the western parts, through Granpont and Truro.

Thus, my Countrymen, you have my observations on the moft important points of the Natural Hiftory of Cornwall, and if from the want of any thing within your reach here fuggefted, ye attend to the improvement and cultivation of science, and from the great plenty of all things neceflary to life, as well as of things in their own nature rich and peculiar to your Country here exhibited, ye learn to praise and adore the Gracious Giver; the Author has his ends, and is content with having pursued thofe ends to the beft of his power : he takes his leave therefore secure of the candid allowances which will be made for a work fo various and on fubje&s fo undecided, ftill opening more and more to the inquifitive Naturalift, yet in many particulars ftill retiring from full and adequate conviction ; known only enough to fhew beyond contradiction the goodness, power, and wisdom of God ; and yet sufficiently known, as being equally intended to exercise the patience, gratitude, devotion, and humility of man.

F I N I

S.

T A

E R R A

N. signifies NOTES. Other Errata are in the TEX T.

Page line for read

Catagogue Catalogue

that this

Fauwy Fawy

in Note f dele insert " from, in time to the end in Note 1 .

Dacanatus Decanatus

Tracks Traits

Vapours, ufed for exhalations in general. Dele colour at the bottom of the page.

vin

ib.

ib. 40

ib.

ib.

Occafioned occasion

Poffitively positively

Difcernable difcernible

Naphtha naphta

Iron being Iron is

Dele Here is a stone bridge of 15 arches.

Dele N. c repeated

N. J. Frehawk, ) T

Efq; $ J- Trehawk, Efq,

Carelew Carclew

N.Xi 754 1757 .

The wind wasfrelhThe wind fresh Mountians Mountains

Dele, the

near four miles full four miles

which Grew dele and insert it below at aire, line 41

N - E ;r p " ab

Standard-water, dele the hyphen in the inland nan inland country

country J

phamomina phenomena

N. B. The numbers applied to the different samples of Pebbles, Porphyry, Talc, Arbeflos, and J. mall gems in the 10th Chapter, refer to the marks in the Author's collation, all 'which Jpecimens are intended to be deposited in the Mufeum Afhmoleanum, Oxford, for the Jatisfaflion of the curious.

insert a comma at have, forms form

diamond, fubftance Diamond-fubftance

Page line for read

1 4 a paflage repeated by mistake from page 96. 25 single-diapers'd single and diapers'd terminating

'95

ib.

termimng

1 1 more plenty 26 a Pyrites 36 are equally 14 Dele ( )

in more plenty Pyrites both equally

Dele between thongh though

fubtraflion fubftra&ion

Infert ) after shaft Waft waste

N. x Rofwarn Rofwarne

26 Xiv Xvi

38 ocre ochre

N. q fee above See before

23 County Country

20 Infert w the mark of reference to N. w

''wep° eS en does not ripen well

14 dele ( )

20 pluck'd this 13 Pedunculi ib. Peduncule

fame 9 Fig. x

2 1 dele not 6 enabling them 12 its, it,

35 or other 19 lanquid

258 20 tencles

259 24 mammillae

36 ocre 21 famefize 3 5 Aredi

1 dele (

27 thePhoca 31 Maddem 3 the moft

pluck'd branches of this

pediculi

pedicule

fame Gentleman Fig. vm

3°S

enabling thefe birds her, Ihe,

or other like infect languid

tentacles

mamillae

ochre

natural fize Artedi

Phoca Madera a moft

38 r inverted in merited

Directions

For Placing the PLATES.

N°.

Plate.

Page.

Whole Iheet map, —

— —

Loo, — — —

—

Wadebridge, —

— —

Place, — —

— —

Reneggy, — —

— —

Trelowarren, — - -

—

Enys, — —

— —

Nanfwhydn, — —

— —

Anthony, —

— —

Tehidy, — —

— —

Carclew, — —

— —

Godolphin, — —

— —

Figured crystals, —

— —

Pendarves, — —

—

Figured mundics, —

— —

J 3 7

Figured mundics, —

—

Strata and lodes, —

—

Pool-mine, — —

—

Fire-engine, — —

—

Figured tins, &c. —

—

Figured copper, —

— —

Clowance, — —

— —

Trewithen, — —

— —

Corals and corallines, &c.

Sea-infefts, — —

—

Sea-fi£h, — —

— —

Large fifh, &c. —

— —

Shells and reptiles, —

— —

Piran round coins, &c. —

— —

)

A i/fi.