Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 2.djvu/68

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58
Dr. Berger on the Isle of Man.

the coal-pits of Whitehaven. In the present state of affairs in the Isle of Man, any thing, I should apprehend, that would have a tendency to diminish the number of hands that may be employed in extending the culture of the land, would rather operate as a check on the farther improvement of the island itself.

IV. Simple Minerals not in Situ.

It is very doubtful whether the minerals mentioned here, do really belong to the Isle of Man. They made part of a collection that was in the possession of the late Lord Henry Murray, and were obligingly communicated to me by Mr. Wm. Scott, the Collector of the Custom-house at Douglass. Many of them had no labels affixed to them. The informations I received concerning them, I shall here communicate.

Wolfram, either in detached pieces or fragments, or adherent to quartz: supposed to have been found in loose pieces at the surface of the ground, on the slope of South Bor-roilva, two miles from the mines of Foxdale.

Tin-Stone. Great doubts may be entertained as to its occurrence in the Isle of Man.

Earthy talc. Said to have been found on Mount Murray.

Could we depend on the locality of the earthy talc here, its occurrence would rather favour the possibility of that of tin, as the two substances often accompany each other.[1]

I consider myself warranted to deduce the two following conclusions.

1. That it appears extremely probable that at some period or

  1. Jameson's Mineralogy. Vol. 1. p. 431.