the object of working the zinc-ores on the property, in order to furnish supplies to the zinc-works at Tindale Fell. These works were originally built by Mr. James Henry Attwood, one of the brothers of a famous and very able family, of whom the best known in the north was Mr. Charles Attwood, the founder of the Weardale Iron-works.

The perception of the fact that there was a future for zinc, and the selection of the site for the works, was evidence of the acumen and remarkable judgment of Mr. Attwood. He had all Britain to choose from, and he certainly managed to make choice of the one spot in which the greatest number of favourable conditions were present. On the death of Mr. Attwood, the works passed into the hands of the company which eventually purchased the Alston mining properties of the London Lead Company.

The Nenthead and Tynedale Lead and Zine Company immediately commenced the active development and working of the deposits of blende in the Nenthead mines, with results which gave a fresh lease of life to the mining industry. The importance of this change in operations will be noted in the following figures of production. In the last year of the London Lead Company's working, the zinc-ore raised was about 1,500 tons. In the first and subsequent years of the Nenthead and Tynedale Lead and Zinc Company's operations, the quantities raised were as follows:-1883, 2,275 tons; 1884, 2,650 tons; 1885, 3,034 tons; 1886, 3,117 tons; 1887, 3,205 tons; 1888, 3,820 tons: 1889, 4,010 tons; 1890, 3,830 tons; 1891, 3,940 tons; 1892, 5,208 tons; 1893, 5,378 tons; 1894, 5,449 tons; and 1895, 5,550 tons.

At this latter date, the lease of the land on which the zinc-works were built having expired; it was found impossible to obtain a renewal of the lease on practicable terms, and the mines were sold to the Vieille Montagne Company, Liége. The ore is now conveyed to their smelting-works on the Continent, and so the very interesting and serviceable work of the manufacture of metallic zinc came to an end in the North of England. The Belgian company (the largest makers of zinc in the world) being wealthy and enterprising, have continued to develop and to extend largely the workings for zinc-ore, so that the produce of blende from the Nenthead mines for the year 1902 was about 8,000 tons. The Company have leased the mines in the adjoining valley of West

Allen, and are raising there also large quantities of zinc-ore. These mines were standing, and owe their resuscitation entirely to the blende that they contain, the lodes being for the most part the same as those on the Nenthead side of the hill. The number of persons at present employed in and about the mines by the Vieille Montagne Company is upwards of 300, and the money disbursed, about £40,000 per annum.

The utilization of the ores of zinc has, therefore, made a complete and most welcome change in the present condition of mining in the Alston district. But the question which seems by far the most interesting and the most important, both from a scientific and economic point of view, concerns the future of these mines. Mr. Nall says that "every stratum between the Grindstone Sill and the Whin Sill has been pierced by the lead-miner in his search for ore." This is no doubt, speaking generally, correct, and the problem to be solved, and on the solution of which depends the future of metalliferous mining in Alston moor, is, whether the strata below the Whin Sill, say, down to and including the Melmerby Scar Limestone, will prove to be ore-bearing or not? Looking at the section with its strong beds of limestone and hazle and comparatively small intermixture of plate, it does not seem unreasonable to expect that veins in these lower strata should be productive. It must be owned that the general opinion of mining-engineers is not, on the whole, favourable as to the results of the deeper mining. But those directing the operations in the Alston mines for the Vieille Montagne Company, hold strongly to an opposite opinion, and affirm their conviction that mines will be opened in the lower strata as rich as any that have ever been worked nearer the surface. This is the all-important, the truly vital, question for the future of this wonderful old mining field.

Up to the present, there does not appear to be sufficient authentic information on which to base an opinion which might be expressed with confidence. In but very few places in the district has work been done below the Whin Sill. A few mines have been worked with some success in the Whin Sill itself. At Rodderup, west of Alston, where the Whin Sill is 180 feet thick, there is a good mine in it. But below the Whin Sill, where some not extensive work was done, the vein proved poor. At Burtreepasture and on the Slitt vein to the east of Alston, some trials were made under the Whin Sill, with fair results at the Slitt mine and

rather poor at Burtree-pasture mine. At Greenhurth mine, in Upper Teesdale south of Alston, the Whin Sill was proved 240 feet thick, the vein carried ore all the way down; but nothing was done below the Whin Sill, as, when the bottom was reached, the water was found in such quantity as to drown the mine. At Settlingstones mine, north of Alston, and on the north of the Tyne river, the Whin Sill is 168 feet thick. The lode of carbonate of baryta carried ore through the Whin Sill. The workings are now 120 feet below the Whin Sill on the down cheek, and the lode is here as pure and productive as it has ever been in the upper strata.

The Vieille Montagne Company are engaged in proving the lower beds by an important sinking which they are making on Rampgill vein. They are already about 300 feet below what has hitherto been known as Rampgill low-level. At their last proof, by cross-cutting from the shaft at the Three-yards Limestone, the vein carried good lead-ore. A certain importance is attached to this trial, as it is immediately below the very heavy plate known as the Eleven-fathoms Plate. There was no ore whatever in the lode in the plate; in the Natrassgill Hazle, above the plate, zincore was present, and in the limestone, below the plate, galena was found alone. It is intended to sink down to and prove all the strata to the Melmerby Scar Limestone.

The Rev. W. NALL said that the lead-industry of Alston-if he might apply the term "industry" to the process of picking out pieces of lead-ore from the bed of the Tyne and its tributary streams was probably as old as the Roman occupation of that district. Lead-mining appeared to have been in a prosperous condition under the Plantagenet and Tudor kings of England, but it declined under the Stuarts. It revived in the reign of George I., and was very prosperous throughout the reigns of the four succeeding kings and the first decade of the reign of Queen Victoria. Speculation upon the future of lead-mining in Alston moor or in any of their northern dales would be an unprofitable exercise. The mineral-resources of the world were being rapidly developed; lead-ore was now being obtained from foreign countries in large quantities and at low rates. The carriage of lead from over-sea to Newcastle cost little more than the carriage from Alston, Teesdale or Weardale. But, while it was well to recognize these

facts, we should not despair of making further discoveries in the unexplored portions of our mineral-veins, and we might reckon among the possibilities of the future the utilization of the contents of the Great Sulphur vein. Let us hope that in the meantime the demand for blende, limestone, and crow coal might not only be maintained, but increased. Why should we not indulge the hope that, as in the past, a long period of depression was followed by a period of great prosperity, so in the future-near or remotethe present depression would be succeeded by a revival in the staple industry of the northern dales.

The PRESIDENT (Sir Lindsay Wood, Bart.) said there was no doubt that the fall in the price of lead was one of the greatest drawbacks to the working of lead-mines in this country. Spanish and other mines were worked entirely for silver, lead being a bye-product, and being sent over to this country practically as ballast. He had pleasure in moving a vote of thanks to Mr. Nall for his interesting paper.

Mr. M. WALTON BROWN Seconded the resolution, which was cordially approved.

A paper was read by Mr. H. HUMPHRIS on the "Driving of an Inclined Tunnel 496 yards long and a Tunnel 842 yards long, and a Description of a New Method of Slate-quarrying in North Wales."

The PRESIDENT (Sir Lindsay Wood, Bart.) moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Humphris for his paper.

The resolution was cordially approved.

Mr. LOUIS P. BOWLER'S "Notes on the Gold Coast of West Africa" were read as follows:

NOTES ON THE GOLD COAST OF WEST AFRICA.

BY LOUIS P. BOWLER.

The writer's investigations have extended over an area, 60 miles inland and 100 miles along the coast, taking the town of Axim as a centre, and as far north as Bonsa river and Tumento, thence in a line to Essuasu on the Tarkwa-Sekondi railway, thence to Mansu and the Disc Cove district as the eastern portion, and Appollonia, Tano river and the Ivory Coast as the western portion.

The country is dotted with shallow shafts and native pits, and of the latter there are thousands, some old and some modern. The old workings are shown in the indents, or basin-shaped hollows, carrying trees of large girth and great age. The modern shafts are indicated by the absence of overgrowth and weatherwornness; and, of the latter, it must not be thought that all these workings are for gold, or indicate the existence of gold-reefs. The wily native requires no teaching how to salt a mine, or how to make a glowing statement by emphasizing the fact that his property possesses old native workings. Cunning to the utmost, he knows that by dotting his property with small holes, they pass as native workings, and add to the value of his estate.

But apart from these latter-day holes there are, without doubt, indelible signs of the vast industry of the ancient gold-workers, whose diligence was boundless, and whose knowledge of the value of the numerous outcrops was unrivalled.

The general formation of the country lends itself to primitive methods of mining, and to the easy extraction of the gold from oxidized bands of quartz lying in a clay-slate formation, and from alluvial deposits in the valleys and rivers.

The surface of the country is entirely covered with alluvial or drift-deposits, principally derived from the fractured and weatherworn quartz-veins and lodes that intersect the strata.

An examination of the outcrops of the lodes show that a large proportion have been tilted at various angles from what was