the river. It is twenty-eight yards below the level of the old excavation. One purpose of it is to drain the old level of its water. When I was there, in the autumn of 1808, it extended about two hundred yards; and three miners were at work upon it. The only metallic substances yet found are carbonat of copper and blende. Its produce hitherto has not been sufficient to pay the expense of working, but the copper ore improves as they proceed.

The rock which the vein traverses is clayslate, of a great degree of hardness, and somewhat resembles whet-slate in its fracture, which approches to splintery in the small. It is blasted in the common way. From the frequent accidents that happen in the usual mode of blasting rocks, it would certainly be proper to try the more safe, simple, and expeditious method of covering the cartridge with sand, instead of hammering down fragments of stone to fill up the hole. This method was fully detailed in Nicholson's Journal, about three or four years ago.

All mines belong by prerogative to the Lordproprietor of the soil. They are let by him to

one company of nine or ten persons, himself being one of these; and he claims, as lessor, one eighth part of their gross produce.

The inclination of the slate increases as we go from Laxey towards Douglas, and it contains more veins of quartz. The general inclination of the strata near Laxey is about 45°, but at Clay-head it is from 70° to 75°.

Some of the slate strata are easily split into thin laminæ, well adapted for the roofs of houses, while others, composed of thicker laminæ, are well adapted for the walls.

About Clay-head and at various other places the clay-slate is often so hard as to have given plentiful sparks of fire as I broke it with my steel hammer. Sometimes I found it in detached masses; sometimes, forming a bed several inches thick, inclosed on each side by the softer slate-rock, here and there firmly adhering to it as a part of the same stone, but more often easily detached. It is not divisible into thin laminæ. It occasionally contains small cubic crystals of iron pyrites. As the quartz veins are less numerous, the slate is softer and more readily splits into thin laminæ. It is usually hardest near the veins. The slate not

unfrequently breaks into rhomboidal fragments, the consequence of its having a double cleavage. These strata form cliffs along the shore from one to two hundred and fifty feet perpendicular, till they are terminated by the sand of Douglasbay, which, near Douglas, stretches one or two hundred yards up the country. The upper strata are friable from decomposition, and have externally a light iron-brown colour, but internally are bluish-grey.

A little to the northward of Douglas is a bed of clay which has lately been used to form bricks, but they are of a very bad quality. Perhaps the clay found in the northern part of the island would afford a much better kind of brick; but the expense of coal is a great objection; and the abundance of stone, fit for building, renders this manufacture of less importance.

The pier of Douglas harbour is built of yellowish sand-stone: this is not a production of the island; but was imported from the vicinity of Runcorn in Cheshire. Mona castle is built of a very fine, white, and hard sand-stone, This was brought from the Isle of Arran.

From the facts above stated, it appears that

the Isle of Man consists of primitive clay-slate and mica-slate, probably resting upon granite; of grey wacké-slate, and of lime-stone, which seems to belong to the rocks of transition, or those which, in the Wernerian geognosy, are supposed to hold an intermediate place between primitive and flöetz rocks; of sand-stone of the earliest formation; and of sand resting upon

clay.

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CHAPTER II.

A few words on Manks Zoology."

I WISH it were in my power to give, in the first place, a complete view of the natural state of the island, and then proceed to the improve-" ments made by man. On this plan, botany and the remaining branches of natural history would form one long chapter at the least. Various talents and much time are requisite for the undertaking; and in these, alas! am I deficient. I shall say a very few words upon zoology, and then proceed to agriculture.

The birds observable upon the coasts are Larus Fuscus, white and grey, and L. Ridibundus, gulls; Pelecanus Bassanus, jannet; P. Carbo, cormorant; P. Graculus, shag; Ardea Major, heron; Corvus Cornix, Royston crow. The birds of passage that spend the breeding season upon the Calf are said to consist of eight species, among which are the Alca Arctica, puffin, and A. Torda, razor-bill. not there till September; and the rocks had been

3

I was