Truro is one of the principal markets for the sale of the produce of the Cornish Mines; and, from its being situate on a navigable branch of the Fal, called the River Mopus, and about eleven miles north from Falmouth, it possesses all the advantages required for the shipment of the vast quantity of copper and other valuable ores, which this rich mineral district continues to produce.
Falmouth, situate at the mouth of this river, is a sea-port, into which, in 1824, twenty-nine British and eight Foreign vessels entered. It possesses an excellent harbour; and a fine and spacious roadstead; but it derives its chief importance from being the regular station of the packet boats, which carry Foreign mails into all parts of the world.
FORTH RIVER.
THIS noble river has its source about two miles north of Ben Lomond, (that celebrated mountain in Scotland, which rears its giant form 3,262 feet above the level of the sea,) and proceeds south-easterly, passing the Clachan of Aberfoil by a very serpentine course, through a comparatively level district, (which in Scotland is denominated Carse Lands,) to a short distance above Stirling, where it is joined by the River Teth, which flows from the Lochs Catrine, Achray, Venacher, and others situate in the wild district of the Grampians.
About midway between the above junction and Stirling, it is joined by the River Allan. From Stirling the windings of the river are singularly intricate; and, in its meanderings to Alloa, (which is but six miles in a straight line,) it takes such strange peninsulating sweeps, that its course measures nearly twenty miles. However beautiful this part may appear, it is exceedingly troublesome to the navigator; for, though vessels of from sixty to seventy tons burthen have sufficient water to Stirling, yet if they trusted to sails alone, they would require wind from every point of the compass to bring them to their destination, and that more than once; on which account, this part of the river is little used as a navigation.
