majority of cases, the accident or incident to which the monks were indebted for their original endowments was, singularly enough, sure to occur in some goodly corner of the land where the teeming earth poured its rich treasures into the garners of the brotherhood, and where all that was beautiful or romantic in nature was, as it were, gathered together for their enjoyment. The mere fact of a monastery being planted on this rocky islet, granting that even the snuggest corner was chosen for it, says much for the truth of this particular legend. Solitary enough as a summer residence, it must have been exceedingly cold and comfortless during the winter months, cut off for weeks, as the inhabitants would frequently be, from all communication with the mainland. Moreover, and this to calculating men like the morks would be an important matter, they were completely at the mercy of all those sea rovers who so abounded in the times of our early history, and who cared not whether the spoil belonged to priest or layman, so long as it was worth the taking. We have no intention of tracing the history of this monastery through a long chain of abbots and commendators, suffice it on this point to say, that it acquired a great reputation for sanctity, and waxed exceedingly wealthy in consequence. The fame of its wealth was so great that it was repeatedly pillaged by the English, during their expeditions into Scotland, and although St Columba appears, naturally enough, to have vigorously interposed on several occasions, and compelled a restitution of the plunder, he seems ultimately to have got tired of his task, and left the monks to shift for themselves. Immediately after the unfortunate battle of Pinkie, in 1547, the island was taken possession of, and fortified by the English under Somerset. In 1580 it appears to have been utterly deserted, as we find by a passage in Moye's Memoirs that the monastery was at that date converted into a sort of lazar house for parties infected by the plague. He says, "At this time the plague was brought into Scotland in John Downie's ship, called the William of Leith, from Dantzic. The persons therein were appointed to land and remain at St Colm's Inch. There were forty persons in the ship, whereof most part died." A very considerable portion of the monastery still remains, although part of it has undergone great internal mutations. The tower of the church, which forms a prominent feature in the landscape, is in excellent preservation; on the north side it is a very little off the perpendicular, but, nevertheless, strong and massive, it seems, with time-defying front, still capable of braving the fury of very many winters. In an apartment under this tower there resided, about five and thirty years ago, or thereby, a recluse fisherman of the name of Thomas Brown. He was a married man, and had a family at Inverkeithing, of which place he was a native, but we have been unable to learn from what cause he estranged himself from them, and took up his solitary residence on this island. He never shaved or cut his hair, and consequently he very soon became a conspicuous personage when he ventured ashore at Aberdour, which he occasionally did, for the purpose, it is presumed, of disposing of his surplus stock of fish. He was kindly treated by the Earl of Moray, the proprietor of the island, and occasionally invited to Donibristle House. When he had occasion to remain all night, he would never condescend to accept accommodation within doors, but drawing up his boat on the beach, he turned it keel upwards, and passed the night under it. Brown remained on the island until it was occupied as a military post for the defence of the Firth during the last war. Finding his quiet thus rudely broken in upon, and having no wish to share the solitude of noisy artillerymen, he abandoned his hermitage, and nothing farther is known of him beyond the fact, that he ultimately "shuffled off this mortal coil," and was buried at Leith. The cloisters appear to be still as entire as when they were visited by Grose, in 1789. At present they are used as a store for straw, and a refuge for mutilated agricultural implements, and unserviceable fishing gear. The sound of the flail is heard in place of the slow and solemn tread of the monks; and the lowing of cows, or the braying of a jackass, lodged within the conserated precincts, now awake the echoes where the monks were wont to "Say the evening prayer, and sing the evening hymn." As there are abundance of out-buildings which, at little or no expense, could be converted into the necessary offices, it appears to be a piece of gratuitous mischief thus to convert the fine old ruin into barns, byres, donkey-stables, and hen-houses! There is a range of buildings close to the water, on the south side of the island, part of which seems to have been used as the kitchen, and in one of the apartments a huge pig reigns lord paramount. We have no fault to find with this,—there is a sort of poetical justice in thus installing a pig as the principal tenant in a place where, doubtless, many of his race were cooked after the most approved fashions of the times. The octagonal chapter house is likewise in excellent condition, but it also is so packed with straw that little more than an entrance beyond the door can be effected. There are very few remains of ornamental work on the ruins; the substantial more than the ornamental, seems to have been aimed at in the erection. There are no inscriptions or dates anywhere visible. Grose mentions an inscription, of which only the words "Stultas," in black letter remained, as having existed in the room over the chapter house. We did not visit this apartment, but are assured by those who are intimately acquainted with the ruins, that no trace of even this solitary word is now to be found. Possibly, it may have been obliterated by some one who fancied there was a personality in the word. Inchcolm was for several years tenanted by an Edinburgh citizen, who effected various alterations, we cannot conscientiously say improvements, on the buildings. He caused part of the old roofs to be taken off, and substi tuted a modern slating instead, which however much it might improve the comfort of the place as a dwellinghouse, harmonised exceedingly ill with the other parts of the buildings. In several places also he introduced scraps of modern building, such as a battlemented wall on the top of a fine old semicircular arch, and similar matters utterly out of keeping with surrounding objects. The island is at present occupied by a party who farms it from the Earl of Moray, and as the apartments which were modernised are not all required by him, part of them are neglected and going to ruin; indeed they actually seem more woe-begone-like than those portions which the monks committed to that reckless custodier old time, and which man has not intermeddled with. The windows of what formed the drawing-room are broken and dirty, and it is now converted into a storeroom for sacks of barley. The kitchen, with its modern apartments, is deserted and cheerless, and the only place almost that betokens fitting occupation is the dining-room, which for some months past has been used as a painting room, by a talented Edinburgh artist, who, besides finished paintings of the monastery, and some of the most interesting scenery in the neighbourhood, has enriched his portfolio with a variety of sketches of this and the other islands in the Firth. In one of the arched apartments on the ground floor, used as a milkhouse, there is a large square stone on which are carved two ornamented funnel-shaped hollows, but we could not ascertain from what part of the ruins it had been taken. A little to the west of the monastery, on a rising ground, a stone is pointed out, said to be a Danish monument. It is about four feet long, and six inches thick, and bears considerable resemblance to the upper part of the headstones most common in our churchyard. Sibbald gives an engraving of it, in which it is represented as having a human head at each end, hut all trace of these has been long removed. The intermediate space appears also to have been carved, but no figures can now be traced, indeed, there is little more than an irregular roughness on the surface, to indicate that there has been something in relief. The stone is only a few inches above the ground. St Columba seems to have resembled St Patrick, in at least one particular-an aversion to vermin. No rats, mice, toads, or frogs, are to be found on the island. There are a few rabbits however, and blackbirds, thrushes, robins, and wrens, are tolerably plentiful, and a hawk built its nest on the south rocks for several years. The west end of the island is frequented by seals which likewise abound on the adjacent rocks. There are three wells of excellent water on Inchcolm, one of these, a very large draw-well, is close to the ruins. Those portions of the island which are under cultivation produce excellent crops of barley, and the pasturage, especially on the western part, is rich and NIGHT. BY J. B. WHITE. abundant. There is a pretty large garden to the west of the ruins, sloping towards the south, with a soil capable of being very productive, but little attention appears to be paid to it. Indeed we are compelled to say that altogether we were much struck by the apparent neglect with which this fine old ruin is treated by the proprietor. Nothing seems to be cared for unless what can be converted into money. Many landlords would delight in preserving and keeping in order such a picturesque and time-honoured ruin, but here all is left to the chapter of accidents. A little to the south-east of Inchcolm there rises a large bare rock called Gar-craig, or the Prison rock, and to this, it is said, such of the brethren as were guilty of any venial fault, were transported for a brief space. The name of this work is locally Carkarey, and some fanciful etymologists have imagined that this sounded very like Carcere, and consequently that the name was bestowed on account of the purposes to which it had been appropriated. The channel which separates the island from the mainland is called Mortimer's Deep, for which tradition assigns the following reason. The noble family of Mortimer had at one time large possessions in this part of Fife, and they bestowed one half of the parish of Aberdour on the monks of Inchcolm, on consideration of obtaining a place of sepulture within the monastery. A storm having arisen while the body of one of the knights of this family was being conveyed to the island, it was cast overboard in order to lighten the boat, and thence originated the name. The existing tradition on the spot is, that the parties who had charge of the boat being ignorant of the tides, which run strong in this channel, and being caught in an eddy, became alarmed, and, thinking they had a Jonah in their boat, forthwith cast the body overboard. Sibbald, original as usual, says the whole was the contrivance of certain "wicked monks," who, without any assignable motive, laid hold of the body, and "did throw the samen in a great deep.' Opposite to the island on the nearest point of land on the Fife shore, are the remains of a building, popularly termed "The Vout," which is supposed to have belonged to the monastery, and to have been used as a storehouse for provisions, &c., whence supplies were sent to the island as opportunities occurred during the winter months. Nearer the harbour of Aberdour there is a large rock named the Bell Rock, to which, according to tradition, a large bell was attached, for the purpose of summoning the people of Aberdour to Inchcolm, on special occasions. In conclusion, it may be added, that although there is no proper landing-place at Inchcolm, boats can generally be brought quite close to the rocks. The occupants of the island, so far from throwing any obstructions in the way of strangers, are exceedingly kind and attentive to all visitors. POETRY. Mysterious Night! when our first Parent knew That to such countless Orbs thou mad'st us blind? Jan. 1816. THE COLOSSAL STATUE OF OZYMANDIAS. I saw a traveller from an antique land, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read "MY NAME IS OZYMANDIAS, KING OF KINGS, LOOK ON MY WORKS, YE MIGHTY, AND DESPAIR!" Nothing besides remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.-Shelley.. THE MINES AND MINERAL WEALTH OF SCOTLAND. The mineral wealth of the southern part of Great Britain has been well known from ancient times. The voyages of the Phoenicians to the Cassiterides or tin islands of the west, notwithstanding the careful concealment of that people, so jealous of their commercial advantages, did not escape the notice of the inquisitive Greeks, and are mentioned by Aristotle, 322 B. C. This ancient celebrity of the tin mines of Cornwall arose not only from their great productiveness, but from the scarcity of this valuable metal in other countries then known. For a long time Cornwall supplied almost the whole world with it, and at present furnishes nine-tenths of that produced in Europe. No such favourable circumstance led to the early development of mining industry in Scotland. It had no such useful yet scarce mineral to boast of; and the unsettled state of the country long prevented due attention from being paid to those which it in reality possessed. In a thinly peopled country, whose inhabitants were engaged in constant feuds, even the wealth exposed on the surface was neglected, and of course still less regard paid to those treasures which the bosom of the earth might conceal. In the survey of Scotland, with which Buchanan commences his history, the occurrence of lead and other metals is mentioned only in a few places in the Western Isles and the Orkneys. This neglect must, however, be imputed rather to the unimportance of the mines then known, than to the absolute deficiency of this branch of national industry, whose rude beginnings must be placed at a still earlier period. As generally happens, it was the precious metals that first tempted the cupidity of men to search for mineral wealth. Almost in the centre of that mountain chain which traverses the south of Scotland from east to west, is a wild, bleak, and dreary region, on which cultivation has made very partial encroachments. Here, near the sources of the Tweed, Clyde, Nith, and Annan, the four largest rivers of the south of Scotland, are grouped some of its highest summits, showing the power and efficacy of the igneous forces by which they have been elevated. In one portion of this wild district, named Crawford Moor, in the end of the fifteenth century, in the reign of James IV.,a considerable quantity of gold was found scattered through the fields, and in the numerous mountain torrents that run down from the surrounding hills. This discovery led to more regular researches, the people collecting the sand and washing it. In the time of James V. rich veins of gold are reported, by Leslie, to Have been found in the same place, and some miners from Germany examined the country. They collected the earth into heaps, and seem to have procured from it some valuable ores, which they transported to their native country, probably having no means in Scotland of extracting the metal. For this privilege they are said to have paid a high price to the king, though popular tradition probably exaggerated both this and the value of the discovery. There cannot, however, be any doubt that gold to a considerable amount was found, which was coined into money, named Bonnet-pieces. There is a tradition that the king, when hunting with some foreigners in this bleak region, after dinner presented to them, as a dessert, dishes containing several of these pieces, saying that such were the fruits yielded by his barren mountains. Three hundred men are reported to have been employed for some summers, who colleeted L.100,000 sterling worth of gold. Another tradition ascribes this speculation in gold-gathering to Sir Bevis Bulmer, master of the mint to Queen Elizabeth; and it was not improbably several times repeated, and only discontinued when found to be unprofitable. This, it is related, took place when a man's daily wages rose to fourpence. Grains of gold are still occasionally collected by the shepherds in this neighbourhood, though of small dimensions. One piece, but impure or mixed with vein stones, is said to have been found, weighing thirty ounces; others of five ounces are mentioned; and Lord Hopetoun is stated to have a piece weighing an ounce and a half in his possession. This most valuable of the metals appears to have been discovered about the same time in some other of the valleys of the same mountain range, as in the river near Langholm and in Meggat in Peebleshire. The laird of Merchiston is also reported to have procured gold from the Pentland hills, where it was probably connected with another geological formation, or the claystone porphyries of that group. Even lately we have heard of grains of gold picked up in the sand of the North Esk, which has its sources among these hills. No veins containing gold are now known in any part of Scotland, and there is no reason to believe that it would repay the labour to wash the sand for it in those places where it formerly was collected. Silver has very seldom been mined on its own account in Scotland. One of the richest veins appears to have been that in the parish of Alva, in Stirlingshire, among the Ochil Hills. This mine was first wrought by Sir John Erskine, of Alva, in 1710, and some portions of the ore were so rich that fourteen ounces of it produced twelve ounces of pure silver. It was also so abundant, that in one week L.4000 sterling worth was procured; and during the time it was open, it is reported to have produced more than ten times that amount of silver. The veins were, however, soon lost or exhausted, and the mine was shut up. In 1759 it was again opened,—the proprietor and some of his friends having formed a company for working it. The veins were pursued both horizontally into the hill, for a considerable space beyond the old workings, and also by pits for a short distance lower. In forming a level to drain the latter, a mass of cobalt ore was found, and on searching the refuse of the old workings more of this metal. In the vein itself, however, only small strings of ore, insufficient to defray the expense, appeared, and the workings were discontinued. Of some remains of the ore in the possession of Lord Alva, a pair of communion cups were formed in 1767, and presented to the church of Alva. In a survey of the surrounding country, silver, cobalt, lead, iron, and copper ores, were found in fourteen or fifteen places in this range of hills. Some veins have been mined near Castle Campbell, on the east, and, as we shall afterwards notice, near Airthrey, on the north of the hills. From all these circumstances we consider this as a mining field well worthy of attention. The hills consist in a great part of those felspar and porphyry rocks, in which these metals occur in other regions of the earth. It is also evident that in a pastoral district, where the surface of the ground is seldom disturbed, mines are not likely to be discovered by accident, but must be sought for intentionally. At a still earlier period in the reign of James VI., silver was wrought in a mine discovered near Cairn Naple, about three miles south of Linlithgow, by one Alexander Mund, a coaller. The quarry, still named the Silver Mine, is in a limestone rock, of remarkable thickness, in which a few metallic veins occasionally appear. The silver was extracted from a red-coloured stone, and was coined into groats at Linlithgow, where the court then sometimes resided. Lead ore was afterwards found, and each ton of this metal yielded seventeen ounces of silver. The mine, however, was soon exhausted, and all recent attempts to find metal having proved unsuccessful, it is now wrought only as a limestone quarry. On the south side of the Pentlands, near Linton, a lead mine very rich in silver has also been wrought in former times. Its discovery is placed in the time before the union of the crowns; and Mary of Guise, according to popular tradition, got all tho silver from it, with which she paid her troops during her regency. The mine is now deserted, though still retaining the name of Leadlaw and Silver Holes, whilst veins of lead ore may be seen in the porphyry rock thrown out in forming the shaft. These are the only places we know of where silver has been wrought in Scotland, though veins of its ores have been discovered in a few other places, as in Essie parish in Forfar, and near Kingussie in Inverness. The latter is interesting, as being situated in the primary formations, which in Norway contain many rich mines. The geological connection of the Scandinavian mountains with the Scottish Highlands, renders it not improbable that the latter may yet exhibit veins of more value than any now known. We already noticed copper as associated with the ores of silver in the Ochil Hills, and as formerly mined at Airthrey, in Logie parish. It was wrought in the seventeenth century by an ancestor of the Hopetoun family, who seems to have been engaged in most of the Scottish mines open at that period. Sibbald informs us that green, blue, and violet-coloured ores were extracted, which produced fifty per cent. of metal. In 1761-64, the mine was again opened by an English company, who procured about L.300 worth of silver and copper ore, but their agent having failed, the workings were discontinued. The vein was in a dark coloured tufa or claystone rock, which also gives rise to the mineral spring for which the place is now celebrated. Another vein of copper about eighteen inches wide, was mined about the close of the last century, in the mill glen near Tillicoultry, but likewise proved unprofitable. In the middle of the eighteenth century, an unsuccessful attempt was made to open a copper mine in Kilsyth parish. Indications of this mineral have also occurred in other parts of the country. In the old red sandstone of Berwickshire, it has been found in the parishes of Lauder, Longformacus, and Buncle, and also in connection with the greywacke and felspar porphyries forming the northern part of that county. The red sandstone on the Clyde, near Gourock, contains copper ore; and many veins of this metal have been observed in the same rock, on the coast of Caithness, in some of which, near the old castle of Wick, mines were for a short time open. In Yell, and others of the Zetlands, copper ores have been found; and in the beginning of the present century, 472 tons of ore were taken from the Fair Isle to Swansea, in England, but the mine was discontinued. Attempts to open copper mines in Scotland have again been recently made. In the spring of last year (1845), some veins near Loch Kishorn, in Applecross, long ago pointed out by Williams, as containing some of the best copper ore he ever saw, were begun to be wrought, but with what success we have not heard. The ore there is of a reddish grey colour, and of high specific gravity. Veins of iron ore are found in the same hill, which is composed of limestone. Still more recently it has been announced (August 1845), that a company from Cornwall have rented the mines at Cally, near Gatehouse, in Galloway, for twenty-one years, and mean to expend L.40,000 in giving them a fair trial. Further east a copper mine is wrought on Heston Island, in Auchencairn Bay, the ore being sent to Swansea. On the same coast near Colvend, south of the granite of Criffel, mineral veins have been long known. In 1662, the king, Charles II., granted liberty to William Lord Parbroth, and to Lindsay of Wauchope, to search out and work all mines and minerals in the parish of Southwick and Colvend; and this grant was ratified next year by the parliament. With what success this undertaking was attended does not appear, except from the fact that it was soon discontinued. In 1770, a century later, the mines were again begun, but soon left off, either from want of profit or patience. Williams, in his History of the Min eral Kingdom, a work of very great merit for the time when it was produced, says of this place, that “it is a noble mining field for an able, skilful, prudent company to engage in; and I am persuaded, that some time or other, when the best veins shall be properly opened and pursued, this will prove one of the best, and most extensive copper-mining fields in Britain, if not in Europe." As Williams was a man of very considerable knowledge and practical experience, this opinion of his ought not to be neglected, and is well deserving of the attention of the proprietors of the district. Antimony only occurs in a few places in Scotland. It has been found along with copper ore at Dalmore, in Stair parish. A mine of antimony was discovered in 1760, at Glendinning, in Westerkirk parish, and forty men employed in extracting the ore, which was manufactured into sulphuret of antimony. It was most productive in 1793 to 1798, in which time an hundred tons of the sulphuret of antimony, worth L.8400, were procured from it. The ore yielded fifty per cent. of metal, and was contained in a vein twenty inches thick, along with quartz, calc spar, and blende. Antimony has also been found near Keith, Banffshire, on the property of the Earl of Fife. Tin ore has not, so far as we are aware, been discovered in any part of this country. Manganese occurs in small quantities in Dumfriesshire, and along with iron ores in the hills south of Lamancha, Peeblesshire; but in neither place has it been wrought. A vein of grey manganese ore has been mined at Grandholme, on the Don, near Aberdeen, but with no great success. Quicksilver is reported to have been found in the alluvial clays near Berwick, the only instance, we believe, where this mineral has occurred native in Great Britain. The most important Scottish minerals by far are those of lead and iron. The former has been discover. ed in more or less abundance in almost every part of the kingdom, and in all its various formations. This metal was dug at an early period in Islay and other of the Western Isles, and in five or six places in the Orkneys, probably by the Northmen who long possessed these parts of the country, and who would be acquainted with the principles of mining practised in their native land. The mines at Leadhills, in Lanarkshire, were also early discovered, and till very recently were the most produc tive in Scotland. As already noticed, gold was found here, in the reign of James IV., and it was probably when searching for this more precious metal that Martin Templeton discovered lead ore in the bed of a small rivulet in 1513. These mines were first wrought by Douglas of Parkhead. The connected veins in the county of Dumfries seem to have been discovered about the same time, as in 1529 one Ninian Crichtoun obtained a license from the king to work in the mine of lead within the barony of Sanquhar for three years. The latter mines were subsequently the property of the Queensberry family, from which they passed to that of Buccleuch. The former at Leadhills were, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, the property of one James Foulis, whose daughter having married Thomas Hope, the King's Advocate, the mines came into the possession of the Hopetoun family, by which they are still retained. The whole of these mines lie in a circle of hardly three miles in diameter. The surrounding country is bleak and mountainous, and it is only the subterranean wealth which has attracted population to this lofty district, 1500 feet above the sea. Some time ago the village of Leadhills was inhabited by nearly 1200 people, and Wanlockhead by about 1000, distinguished for their steady, industrious, and temperate habits. In the middle of last century, they had a very different character, and many classes of the workmen were much addicted to the use of spirituous liquors. At that time most of the smelters died either madmen or idiots; but by improve * Vol. I., p 133, 436. ment in the construction of the furnaces, and by refraining from drinking any thing except water when working, they now live as long and rationally as other people. Even then, however, instances of extreme longevity were not unknown among the miners; and one of them, named John Taylor, died, in 1770, at the age of 132 years, having wrought in the mines till he was 112, and retained his faculties till the last, so as never to require to use spectacles. Leadhills is remarkable as the place where perhaps the oldest public library in Scotland, at least among the working classes, was established. This happened in 1741, the project originating entirely among the miners, who still jealously maintain its character as a miner's library, and will not permit the neighbouring population to partake of its benefits. Allan Ramsay, a native of the village, was one of its early benefactors; and in 1841, a century after its origin, it numbered 1800 volumes. Wanlockhead has a similar library, of 1300 volumes, but regulated on less exclusive principles. In both villages the parents are anxious to give their children a good religious and intellectual education; and often endure many privations in order to accomplish this end. The result may be best stated in the words of the Government Commissioner:-" The children of the poor labourers of Leadhills are under as good, or, perhaps, under a better system of intellectual culture than even the middle-class children of South Britain generally;" and display a far higher degree of intelligence than is to be found in similar classes in other parts of the island. It is however to be regretted that symptoms of a decline from their ancient high character have recently been observed in this district, ascribed partly to defective education, to the introduction of strangers in consequence of a strike, and to bad example in the higher classes. The population had also diminished of late, about eighty men having left in 1841 for the mines at Carsphairn, so that the population of the two villages would not exceed seventeen or eighteen hundred. At Leadhills, the health of the smelters has been greatly promo. ted by carrying the chimneys of the furnaces some hundred yards along the sides of the hills, the expense of construction being more than defrayed by the lead deposited in them, amounting to ten per cent. "on the produce of the whole ores smelted. At Wanlockhead, three veins are wrought, and at Leadhills four, varying from the width of a few inches to nine or ten feet. The Sussanah vein at the latter, in one place, contained a thickness of fourteen feet of pure ore, and has been wrought to a depth of 840 feet. In general, however, the veins become less rich below fifty or sixty fathoms, and the workings are not carried deeper than a hundred. Along with various ores of lead, those of other metals-iron, copper, zinc, manganese, and arsenic, with several minerals, as quartz, calcareous spar, heavy spar, mountain cork, are met with in the veins. The lead contains about eight or ten ounces of silver in the ton, but this does not pay the expense of extracting it. In the seventeenth century most of it was exported to Holland for this purpose. The produce of the mines varies much in different years. Those of Wanlockhead in the fifty years preceding 1835, yielded 47,420 tons, or nearly 950 tons per annum. In recent times, the quantity seems to be much diminished, as in 1829 and 1830 the average was little more than half this amount. At Leadhills a similar diminution has taken place, the produce having fallen from 1562 tons in 1809, to about 700 tons a few years ago. In the beginning of this century the average annual produce of both districts was estimated at 60,000 bars, or 3800 tons, the value of which, owing to the high price of lead, was about L.126,000. From the diminished produce, and the fall in the price of lead, the annual value of late has been only about L.15,000. Even this smaller produce has been, we understand, much decreased in the last year or two, by the miners leaving the district for other quarters, where new mines offer greater prospects of encouragement. Lead ore is found in many other parts of this chain of hills, principally in the vicinity of the igneous felsparporphyry veins. At Minnigaff in Galloway, a vein was discovered in 1763, when forming a road. Its produce varied from thirty to four hundred tons of ore annually, but is now abandoned. In the parish of Kells, in a line towards the Leadhills, other veins have been observed, whence some persons have been inclined to conjecture a connection of all these veins with each other. A mine promising to become of more importance, has lately been discovered in making a farm-road, near Carsphairn, in Galloway. The vein of pure ore was in some places two and a-half-feet thick, and nests of it weighing about a hundred-weight occur. Its present produce is not known to us. Other veins have been discovered in this vicinity, at Afton, near New Cumnock, and also in other parts of Ayrshire and Galloway. In the eastern part of the southern mountain group, lead ore has been found near Langholm, in some parts of Roxburghshire, and at Grieston, in Peebleshire. In none of these places, however, has it been so abundant as to encourage the establishment of mines. The principal lead mines in the central district of Scotland have been already noticed, as producing either silver or copper, and none of them seem now in operation. Besides these, it has been observed in many other places, as in the Lomond Hills, and in Kemback parish, in Fife; but as the amount does not appear sufficient to justify mining, and its occurence is not otherwise interesting, we need not notice these further. Among the metamorphic rocks in the north of Scotland, veins of lead ore frequently occur. On the mainland, mines have been several times opened at Tyndrum, in Breadalbane, but as often abandoned for want of success. The vein has been traced for about ten miles in length, and when recently examined, was found to contain also ores of cobalt and silver in considerable quantity, which had been formerly neglected from ignorance of their value. Several other veins with ores of lead, copper, iron, arsenic, and other metals also appeared in a recent survey of this Highland district, and it seems not improbable that some of them may be wrought with a profit. At Strontian in Sunart, and at Lurg in a neighbouring glen, lead mines also containing copper ores have been in operation for a considerable number of years, and when most successful the former are reported to have yielded about L.4000 worth of lead annually. In other parts of Argyle and in Invernesshires, lead ore has been discovered, as near the head of Lochfine in Lochgoil parish, where it was remarkable for the great amount of silver it contained. Lead ore likewise occurs near Ballater, in Aberdeenshire. A lead vein in limestone, at Stotfield, Morayshire, was wrought nearly a century ago, but was found unproductive. It has also been discovered in the Duke of Richmond's property in Strathdon, Banffshire; in several places in Caithness --but presenting no points of particular interest. In the Western Isles lead mines have been long open in the island of Islay, where their occurrence is noticed by Buchanan the historian. They appear never to have been of great importance, and we believe are now neglected. Lead mines have also been attempted in Coll and Lismore but with no greater success. In Hoy, Stromness, and Stronsay, in the Orkneys, lead ore has also been found, but not in such abundance as to be wrought with profit. In concluding this notice of lead mines in Scotland, it will be seen that most of them have proved failures. This will appear less wonderful when it is considered that they have in almost every case been begun and carried on by persons wholly ignorant both of the theory and practice of mining. In many respects this is much to be regretted, as the same expenditure of money and labour properly directed, might have led to very opposite results, and produced |