the highlands of Scotland, where a company
has eftablifhed a foundery, fed with
charcoal, fmall wood being plentiful near
this diftant eftabliffiment.
From Ulverfton to Connifton; near which
there is a copper mine of little confequenee,
and fome fmall mines of lead. The mountains
are chiefly of the blue argillaceous
fhiftus.
Hence to Borrowdale, in which is the
remarkable mountain containing what is
underftood by black lead, or as erroneoufly
termed by the miners black rwad\ an important
article of commerce, and which
may be faid to fupply all Europe with
the black lead pencils. This mine is fituated
on the fummit of a granite mountain, high,
and difficult of accefs j lower in the mountain
is driven a ffiort level.
The mad lies in what the miners call
locks or fmall cavities j and forms an irregular
gular kind of pipe vein, attended by och-
reous matter, calcareous fpar, quartz, and
more generally by a greenifh, fcaly, foft
micaceous earth, appearing a little like a
fpecies of ferpcntinc. This mine is only
worked once in two or three years; a method
which produces a fufficient fupply for
that fpace of time, The mine is carefully
watched, and a houfe is built over the
entrance. | I believe that it is felony
even to take fpecimens from the hillock.
Plumbago, or black lead, contains about
ninety per cent, o f carbon, combined witn
one-tenth or one-eighth part of metallic
iron.
From Borrowdale to Kendal, eight miles,
a very mountainous country. Here is^a
very fine variety of green granite-; an uncommon
fubftance, alfo found in the county
of Galway, in Ireland* It isfo me times ufed
k 3 for