INDUSTRIES
was first made a coinage town in 1663,1 and in 1778, according to Pryce, coined more tin each quarter than all the towns of Liskeard, Lostwithiel, and Helston for a whole year, 2 and the shifting of tinning toward the west even more recently is shown by the fact that in 1892, while the output for West Cornwall was 7,751 tons, that of East Cornwall was but 628 tons, while Devon produced only ninety-six. 3
For detailed accounts of former methods of prospecting we cannot go behind the seventeenth century. But it must be constantly borne in mind that the mining customs and practices of Cornwall, even to-day, antedate, in many cases, all printed records, and that we shall therefore not be far wrong in ascribing the primitive methods in use in the seventeenth century to the Middle Ages, or even earlier.
If we omit from consideration the use of the divining-rod, 4 dreams, 6 and other popular superstitions, as guides to the deposits of tin, we shall find that the tinner's first aim was to discover 'shodes,' or tin-stones. 6 An anonymous Cornishman writing in 1671 states:
'Where we suspect any mines to be, we diligently search that hill and countrey, its situation, the earth or grewt, its colour, and nature, and what sort of stones it yields; the reason thereof being only this, that we may the better know the grewt and stones when we meet with them at a distance, in the neighbouring valley; for mineral stones may be found 2, 3, 4, 5 miles distant from the hills or loads they belong unto.
'After any great land flood (in which it is supposed there are some new frets made in the sides of the banks), we go and diligently observe such frets ... to see if, happily, we can discover any metallic stones in the sides or bottoms thereof . . . which is a great help to direct us which side or hill to search into. Neither will it be much amiss in this place to subjoyn the few but sure characters of mineral stones, by which we know the kind of metal, and how much it yields. The first is, by its ponderousness, which easily informs us whether it be metal or no. The second is its porosity, for most tin-stones are porous, not unlike great bones, almost thoroughly calcined; yet tin sometimes lies in the firmest stones. The third is by water, which we term vanning, and that is performed by pulverizing the stone, or clay, or what else may be suspected to contain any mineral body, and placing it on a vanning shovel; the gravel remains in the hinder part and the metal at the point of the shovel, whereby the kind, nature, and quantity of the ore is guessed at; and indeed, most commonly without any great deception, especially if the vanner have any judgement at all.
'But if no shoad may be found in such frets, . . . then we go to the sides of those hills most suspected to have any loads in them, where there may be a conveniency of bringing a little stream of water . . . and cut a leat or trench, about 2 foot over, and as deep as the shelf, in which we turn the water to run two or three dayes; by which time the water, by washing away the filth from the stones and the loose parts of the earth, will easily discover what shoad is there. If we find any, we have a certainty of a load. . . . Sometimes shoad may be found upon the open surface of the ground, as being thrust up by moles in their hillock, or turned up by the plow, or by some other accident; for it is seldom found on the open surface of the ground unless brought there by an accident. . . .
'When all these ways have been attempted for finding shoad, if we find any, it makes us proceed with the greater confidence, having an assurance of load; but in case we find not any, then we must go by guess. ... In the next place we sink down about the foot or bottom of the hill an Essay hatch (an orifice made for the search of a vein, about 6 foot long and 4 foot broad) as deep as the shelf. And it is observable they are always to be as deep as the shelf, for this reason, that otherwise you may come short of the shoad. But if we meet with none before, or when we come to the shelf or fast countrey there is none to be expected; yet sometimes the shoad is washed away clean, when you come within 2 or 3 foot from the load, and then the load is a foot or two farther up the hill. If we find any shoad in this first Essay hatch, our certainty is either increased, if any shoad were found before, or begun. Neither doth it add a little to make a right conjecture, how high up the hill or how far off the load ... is, carefully to mark how deep from the surface of the earth our shoad lies; for this is held an infallible rule, that the nigher the shoad lies to the shelf, the nigher the load is at hand, and vice versa.
'Albeit we finde no shoad in this first hatch, having found some before by the ways aforementioned, or having found none, we are not . . . altogether discouraged; but ascend commonly about 12 fathom and sink a second hatch, as the former. And in case none appear in this, we go then as many fathom on each hand, at the same height, and sink there as before, and so ascend proportionally with three or more hatches (if the space of ground requires) as it were on brest, till we come to the top of the hill, and if we find none in any of these hatches then farewell to that hill.
'But if we find any shoad . . . we keep our ascending hatches in a direct line ; and as we draw nearer the load the deeper the shoad is from the surface, but the nigher the shelf. . . .
'Sometimes it falls out that we may overshoot a load, that is, get the upper side of it, and so we loose it; for which we have another . . . rule, viz., that finding shoad lying near the shelf
1 Pearce, Laws and Customs of the Stannaries, 103.
- Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis, 293.
3 'The Tin Trade of Cornwall in the Reigns of Elizabeth and James,' by Sir John Maclean, Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. iv, 189 ; xiii, pt. iv, p. 432. 4 ' Mineral Observations on the Mines of Cornwall and Devon,' Philosoph. Trans, vi, 2101. 5 Childrey, Britannia, p. 6. 6 Carew, Survey of Cornwall (ed. 18 1 1), pp. 8, 9 ; ' Mineral Observations on the Mines of Cornwall
and Devon,' Philosoph. Trans, vi, 2097-2098.
543
