22 AGÆICUL TURAL SURVEY

Fas

yard of the ſurface, and ſeldom worked lens than thirty fathoms. Between four and five hundred miners are con- ftantly employed in this buſineſs, and the average price 1s about five pounds per ton.“ In the pariſhes of Compton- Martin and FEaſt-Harptry are alſo many mines of a ſimilar nature, and a confiderable number of men are conſtantly employed. therein.*

The general method of diſcovering the ſituation and di- rection of theſe ſeams of ore(which lie at various depths,

from veto twenty fathoms, in a chaſm between two benches

of ſolid rock) is, by the help of the divining-rod, vulgarly as E and a variety of ſtrong teſtimonies are adduced in ſupport of this doRrine. Moſt vaóna people, however, give but little credit to it, and conſider the whole as.a- tric&. Should the fa& be allowed, it is difficult to account for it; and the influence of the mines on the haſel-rod ſeems to partake ſo much of the marvellous, as almofît entirely to ex- clude the operation of known and natural agents. So con- fident, however, are the common miners of its efficacy, that they ſcarce ever fink a ſhaft but by its dire&ion; and thoſe who are dexterous in the uſe of it, will mark on the ſurface As 1 h

M I Lrendth anf+ R SA e TSP N the courſe and breadth of the vein; and after that, with the

TF oinnad iIndioatins Ss 7 N 7; A “e are marks-and indications of calamine from theſe pariſhes

reſt, through the whole tral of Mendip to Mells at the eaſtern

EN t Merchant’s-hill, in the pariſh of Bi negar, ſeveral tons WW[i rears ago. It was of very good quality, and more would have beeh landed, had not the influx of the water put a ſtop to

ks. At the ſame time a large quantity was raiſed at Mells, re- rkably pure, îree from heterogeneous mixture, and of excel Ile nt tx Tt tyret e Tt

ne-fſtone rocks, but was found in large maſſes or hulks, lying hori-

n ELAN d1d not tN

here deſcend, in regular courſes, between the

zontally, at about four or five feet from the furface, on a thin ſcale of free-ſtone which covered the rock; and it is highly probable that much more remains to be diſcovered. R. P.

aſſiſtance