ceedings, to glance at the
mining districts of the world, and to describe some of the principal
mines among them.

No country possesses, within the same area, so large an amount of varied
mineral wealth as Great Britain. Besides the seventeen coal districts
of Great Britain, we find in Scotland numerous lead mines in the clay
slate mountains on the borders of Lanarkshire and Dumfriesshire. In the
north of England, with Alston Moor as the centre, along the borders of
Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham, are extensive
veins of lead. Cumberland, the north of Wales, and the Isle of Anglesey
produce copper ore, as also mines of lead and magnesia, with many other
metals,--zinc, arsenic, cobalt, and bismuth. Iron in large quantities
is found in South Wales, South Staffordshire, and in the Scottish
coal-fields, where the ironstone appears in abundance alternating with
layers of coal and other strata, and is generally won from the same pit
as that from which the coal is extracted.

Besides coal, Ireland contains mines of copper and lead, found in the
slate and limestone ranges, contiguous to the sea coast. Crossing from
thence to Spain, we arrive in a country rich in mines, though, owing to
its distracted state, for many years greatly neglected. Here lead is
found in large quantities in the mountain chains.

Quicksilver is abundant from extensive veins of cinnabar in the province
of Mancha. In Galicia tin has been produced from very early times.
Iron ore is very abundant, and silver mines, for many centuries
abandoned, are now again being reworked. Gold was at one period
discovered in large quantities, but is supposed to be almost exhausted.

The most important coal-field of France is round Etienne, near Lyons.
Mining operations are also carried on in Brittany and the Vosges.
Although possessing less mineral wealth than England, the French were
far in advance of us in regard to the management of their mines.
Germany possessed the chief school for scientific mining. Its principal
metalliferous sites are the Hartz Mountains, on the borders of Hanover
and Prussia, and the Erzgebirge or Ore Mountains, which separate Saxony
from Bohemia. They yield silver, copper, lead, iron, tin, and cobalt.

The most prolific sites of the precious metals in Europe are possessed
by Austria. The Styrian Alps furnish a vast amount of iron. The
province of Carniola supplies quicksilver. Hungary and Transylvania,
coppe