Tin-mining in Spain Past and Present

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CORUNA

FONTCVCORA

Tin-Mining in Spain
Past and Present

BY

WILLIAM COPELAND BORLASE, M.A.

LONDON

Published by Effingium WtLsoN,

II ROYAL^ Bxchangb/ E.C

OREMSE

ZAHORA

<
o
<

Tin-Mining in Spain
Past and Present

BY

WILLIAM COPELAND BORLASE, M.A.

Parliamentary Secretary of the Local Governtnent Boards 1886 ;

A Deputy-Warden of the Stannaries of Cornwall; Sometime Hon, Sec.

and Member of the Council of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall ;

Author of * Historical Sketch of the Tin- Trade in Cornwall ^^

* The Dolmens of Irelandy etc,^ etc,

GENERAL MANAGER OF SEVERAL TIN- RESERVATIONS IN THE PROVINCES

OF CORUNA AND ZAMORA IN SPAIN, AND TRAS-OS-MONTES IN

PORTUGAL, MENTIONED IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES.

LONDON

PUBLISHED BY EFFINGHAM WILSON,

II ROYAL EXCHANGE, E.C

LONDON

PRINTED BY THOMAS MORING, AT THE DE LA MORE PRESS

52 HIGH HOLBORN, W.C

S ?<^o75^

APR 2 4 1911 -3^.4- TO

Robert Banks Lavery, Esquire,
whose enthusiastic

INTEREST IN THE SUBJECT HAS LED HIM

TO GIVE A

PRACTICAL STIMULUS TO THE DEVELOPMENT

OF THE TIN-INDUSTRY

IN THE IBERIAN PENINSULA, THE WRITER

INSCRIBES THE FOLLOWING

PAGES, IN TOKEN OF SINCERE REGARD.

Christmas, iSgj.

^ T/Or\ itcQ ^-

I

List of Illustrations.

Frontispiece - Zamora.

Facing Page 3. Ancient Cross near San Martinho.

Facing Page ii. Granite Gorge on the River Esla at

Ricobayo.

Facing Page 12. Two Views of the River Douro near

Almaraz.
Facing Page 16. i Church of Villadepera, with Ossuary

under the Tower.

2 Miners' Barracks at the San Finx
Tin-Mine.

Facing Page 24. Five Bronze Implements called Paalstab

Celts.

Facing Page 26. A Gallego : from Murguia's 'Galicia.'

At End - - - Geological Map of the Portion of the

Iberian Peninsula which contains the
Stanniferous Zone or Tin-Belt.

On Cover - - The Arms of Coruna, Pontevedra, Orense

and Zamora.

Ancient Cross near San Martinho.

Tin-Mining in Spain, Past and Present.

IN the year 1548, the date at which the hopes of Spain,
commercially speaking, were reaching their zenith, the
verse-maker Molina, in his metrical description of Galicia,
wrote the lines which I freely, though fairly, translate as
follows: —

"Add to Galicia's treasures here adduced,
" That year by year our Realm hath tin produced,
" So plenteous, in the Vale of Monte-Rey,
"That ores are dressed and smelted day by day;
" The metal white, of quality so rare,
" Not even England's purest can compare
"With that which holds the mart in each Medina's fair."^'>
To this effusion is appended the following expanded comment
in prose: —

" Besides other mines of many metals held in high ac-
count, which exist in this Kingdom, and in which have been
found gold, silver, and even precious stones, as for example,
fine turquoises discovered in the lands of Valdiorres,^*^ there is
tin in abundance and of excellent quality which occurs in the
Valley of Monte-Rey and the district surrounding. So con-
siderable is the quantity that in the chief fairs of Castile no
other kind is sold, and so fine is the quality that the tin which
is brought to Spain from England, Flanders, France, and
other parts, however highly reputed it may be, in no respect

excels ours, but, on the contrary, it is maintained that ours
excels all the other, a fact which is plain to every expert on
thi$ subject."

In the following century, as we learn from Boan's^^ MS.
History of Galicia^ the country adjacent to Monte-Rey and
Verin was still celebrated for its tin-mines, which were then
numerous, and their produce reckoned more valuable than the
best imported metal. " Mixed," we are told, " with bell-metal
and copper, plates of superior quality were made of it, which
the gentlemen of Castile reckoned to be as good as silver, and
from which they ate." Some interesting names and traditions
hung around this tin-bearing district, which were still extant
in the last century. It was believed that the mines had been
worked by the Knights Templar, while with regard to some in
Penouta, one league east of Viana, and nine leagues north-
east of Monte-Rey, a story was current that they had been
worked by the Carthaginians. Seiior Murguia tells us that in
the 1 6th century there stood near Ribadavia on the Minho a
tower called Torre de Osiris, a picture of which it may be sup-
posed had been preserved, since that writer says that he regards
its construction as Semitic. North-west of Monte-Rey, and
between that place and Orense lies the haunted Lake of Limia,
otherwise called Leguna de Antelas, about which the strange
tale was told that the swarms of gnats which hovered around
its shores were the enchanted army of King Arthur of Britain.^^^

In less than a century from the date when Boan wrote,
these mines of Monte-Rey, and indeed those of the Province
of Orense in general, were actually forgotten, so that, towards
the close of the eighteenth century they were spoken of as

being theq discovered. Strange as this may seem, it appears
that the reasons are not far to seek. The first was the blow
given to the home industries of Spain by the incalculable
financial disaster which resulted from the wreck of the Armada,
and the extravagant policy which had brought about its equip-
ment, and the second was the concentration of the best energies
of the nation, mental and physical, upon the golden prospects
which were opening out in the trans-Atlantic dominions which
were isuccessively being subjected to Spanish rule, and the
consequent wholesale immigration thither of those who were
engaged in developing home resources. It is not that the tin
was wanting or was poor ; but it was that gold had a glamour
which the dark metal lacked.

Comide, in a MS. account of the products of Galicia,^^
written in 1783, and preserved in the Royal Library at Madrid,
mentions two tin mines in the vicinity of Monte- Rey which
had been re-discovered and set to work in the i8th century.
The first and principal one was that of Arcucelos, two leagues
north of Monte-Rey, where fine oxide of tin, or cassiterite, was
found in quartz lodes traversing the granite. The work was
then carried on by arrangement with Don Pedro de Saura,
Minister of State for the Kingdom of Galicia, under the
direction of his two sons. The second mine was called
Villardeciervos from a village of that name situated one-and-a-
half leagues south-east of Monte-Rey, in the interior of the
mountain of Rios, half a league from the Portugese frontier.

This mine the native peasantry had been in the habit of
working for themselves, and, being jealous of interference,
carefully concealed the fact of its undoubted richness. In

about the year 1763, an Italian, having some knowledge of
chemistry, called Peronimo Argenti, drove an adit some 60
poles (varas) in length, and succeeded in extracting from it tin
described by Cornide as embedded in sand, from which, by the
use of his chemicals, as he stated to that writer, he had
obtained also some silver, an ingot of which he preserved
of the weight of an ounce. Some samples of the tin from
this mine were placed in the Royal Museum at Madrid, where
Bowles, author of the Physical Geography ofSpaini^^^ saw them,
and affirmed that the mineral closely resembled tin from Corn-
wall. The Italian ceased his operations because of the cost
of obtaining some secrets of chemistry, which he appears to
have thought would have directed him to the lode which, in
his ignorance of mining, he had lost, and because — his friends
refusing to co-operate — he got tired of the undertaking.
Subsequently this mine, as well as that of Arcucelos, was
worked by the Royal Treasury

Schulz, a German, appointed by the Spanish Govern-
ment Inspector of Mines, and who wrote, in 1835, a geological
description of Galicia,^^^ states that the oxide of tin occurs at
VillardeciervoB in narrow viens traversing micaceous amphi-
boliferous schist, of a reddish colour. These veins run p^allel
to the direction of the rock and dip, like it does, almost
perpendicularly. The matrix and accompaniments are quartz,
schorl, and yellow mica. A junction of granite and slate takes
place at the side of Villardeciervos, During the first years
of the present century works of development, on a large
scale, were set on foot at the expense of the Government
Regular ghafts of considerable depth were sunk, and tin of

superior quality was produced. In a very short time, how-
ever, they were abandoned (about 1805), **not," says Schuiz,
** because they were by any means exhausted, but because
it was impossible that any mine could be made to pay a
profit when the administration was so ostentatiously extrava-
gant, and the works so unnecessarily costly and elaborate,"
" It would not be amiss," he adds, considering the cause of
their abandonment, "to have further investigations set on foot,
and a survey prepared in order to see whether these deposits
might not be worked profitably, if proper economical methods
prevailed." The lesson taught by this mine should not be
thrown away. The fault is one which has been repeated in
the case of other tin mines in Spain in more recent times.
Schuiz clearly thought highly of the producing capabilities of
the mine, if properly treated, and of the quality and value of
the tin. The reservation is now in English hands, and it is to
be hoped that before long the advice given by the German
mining-engineer may be taken, and that economical develop-
ment may commence.

Besides the tin-mines just described, the Province of
Orense contains two other districts in which the mineral
occurs more or less plentifully. The first is in the eastern
part of the province, in the hills of Penouta and Ramilo, two
leagues east of Viana, and close to the borders of the Province
of Zamora. Here, according to Schuiz, the cassiterite appears
either in small lumps {masses)y or in narrow veins. Sometimes
it is disseminated through the granite, often partially decom-
posed. Sometimes the veins traverse the micaceous schist
which is contiguous to the granite. The conditions, in short,

closely resemble those under which the mineral is found in
the neighbouring province of Zamora, and in that of Tras-
Os-Montes in Portugal, some forty miles to the south-east.
The discovery of it is said to date from the close of the last
century, and some attempts were made to develope it, but
these were abandoned at the same time and for the same
reason as those made near Monte-Rey. It has, as Schulz adds,
never received a fair trial, although in 1849, it was giving
sufficiently remunerative results to the peasantry of the sur-
rounding villages, who worked it as tributors, and dressed it
by their own crude process, on their own account.

The remaining stanniferous district in the Province of
Orense, stated by Schulz to be the principal one, lies in the
mountains of Montes and Avion on the border line of Ponte-
vedra, and partly within the limits of the latter province. The
lodes in Couso de Avion are characterised as rich. They were
discovered, or rather perhaps re-discovered, about the year
1830, and works of development upon them had commenced
in 1835. Their importance increased until more than thirty
lodes had been opened out within an area of three square
leagues. Some of the veins are of great regularity, and of
considerable richness, measuring from i to 20 centimetres in
width, and producing tin which Schulz describes as ''massive
oxide," i.e.j cassiterite. It is accompanied by white quartz and
yellowish mica. The veins traverse, as usual, the micaceous
amphiboliferous schist, close to its contact with the granite. In
1835, their development had not been suspended since their
discovery, but it had not then been allowed the full scope it
deserved, by reason of the absence of roads, the isolation of the

situation, and the low price at which English tin could then be
obtained in Spain. Roads have since been made ; the district
has been opened up, and the import duty on ingot tin from
England is so heavy that it should cause the Spanish people to
look to their home production.

In this stanniferous district, so Schulz adds, fine samples
of tungstate of lime, of wolfram, and of blende, are found
abundantly, and occasionally white emeralds.

Two leagues north of Couso de Avion is Pesqueiros, in
the Province of Pontevedra, and district of Montes, where the
geological and mineralogical conditions are similar to those
just described. Tin in considerable quantity was found here
about the year 1834. It occurs in veins and stringers in the
micaceous basaltic gneiss, at a short distance from the line of
junction of the latter with the granite. " In Presqueiras," says
Schulz, ^*an attempt was made to work these prospects, and
the undertaking paid its expenses." The work of development
was not, however, prosecuted with the energy and application
which such things require. ** Not only, however," adds this
writer, **does this prospect deserve attention, but other new
ones can be also found in the direction of the tin-belt^ which is
of great extent, as is proved both by the frequent indications
of the existence of the ore in this vicinity, and by the fact that
such rich lodes have been worked at Couso de Avion."

I have myself been shown in Alcaiiices beautiful museum-
specimens of amber-colored crystals of tin brought by miners
from Avion, and Schulz tells us that **four leagues further
south from that place, and, approximately speaking, in the same
direction, in Monte Balsidron, a quarter of a league south-east

lO

of Ribadavia, he had found excellent tin-ore mixed with wolf-
ram and schorl, in a matrix of quartz and granite, close to the
transition of the latter into gneiss. "This point" he adds,
" deserves some investigation which cannot be costly." South
of Monteforte, also on the line of junction, is the tin prospect
of Doade, which was, I believe, if it is not now, in English
hands.*

Passing now to the south-east, we find, in the Province of
Zamora,+ a considerable number of tin prospects on the borders
of the Portugese province of Tras-Os-Montes, and not a few
in the latter district itself. Among those in Zamora may be
mentioned that of Arcillera, about 4 kilometres east-south-east
of Alcanices, at a point where an upheaval of granite has taken
place in the Cambrian strata. This mine has two shafts of
considerable depth, sunk originally by a French Company. It
is at present in English hands, and in course of development.
About seven miles to the south-south-west of it, and in
Portugal, there are two tin-prospects, those of Codeso and
Raposo, near the village of San Martinho, which the same
English Company is also working. These are near a junction
of the granite with micaceous schist. To the west-north-west
of this place, in the direction of Braganfa, and also, therefore,
in that of Villardeciervos in Orense, of which I have previously
spoken, is the reservation of Coelhoso which has produced
much valuable tin and also wolfram. Returning again to the
Province of Zamora, we have tin-prospects at Brandilanes,
which are, in common with Arcillera and San Martinho, being
developed by English enterprise. These lie about 6 miles
east of San Martinho, and, like it, are near the junction of

•The localities of these and the other tin-mines in the Province of Orense
are indicated in the map at the end of these pages, and in the Table
accompanying it.

tSee also p. 19, infra.

Granite Gorge on the
River Esla at Ricobayo.

11

Cambrian rocks with micaceous schist and granite. A few
miles south-east of this is another tin-prospect at Castrola-
drones. Passing southwards from this point we arrive at the
Douro, which here runs through gorges of great depth, through
the micaceous schists traversed by granite. About 8 miles
south-east of Brandilanes, and i6 south-east of Arcillera, lie
two bold tin-prospects near the villages of Villadepera, on the
west of the river, and of Carbajosa, on the east. A few miles
east of the latter is the magnificent granite gorge of Ricobayo,
through which the river Esla delivers its tributary waters into
the Douro. Near their junction is the tin prospect of Pino
de Oro.

In 1846, Don Luis de la Escosura, a Spanish Engineer,
published a Descrtpcton de las Minus de la Provtncia de
Zamora. From this, and from the Avisos de Zatnora for
February 12th, 1876, we learn that, as long ago as the year
1566, there were discovered in Villardepera, "mines of silver,
gold, and other minerals." In 161 8, the Government granted a
concession to develope a tin-mine at Figuerela and a silver-lead
mine at Nuez. In 1634, a like concession was made for a
copper-mine at Muga. There was another silver-lead mine
between Vide and Senil. Much more recently, antimony,
manganese, iron, etc., have been worked in this district. All
the above-named prospects, as well as new ones, more recently
discovered, occur within an area of from 16 to 20 square
leagues, in a country almost entirely metalliferous, and are en-
closed within an area defined by the courses of the rivers Douro
and Esla, from Ricobayo to the north-east frontier-line of
Portugal.

12

Among the tin prospects of this district, that of Villardepera
calls, for special attention, both from the well-defined fissure-
vein which has been partly, but insufficiently developed, and
from the quality of the cassiterite which it contains. South-
east of this, on the right bank of the Douro, above its confluence
with the Esla, lie the tin properties of Almaraz, which are also
in course of development under the same English Company
which is working those at Arcillera, Brandilanes, and San
Martinho, above mentioned. The whole group bear in a
direction S.E. and N.W.

Tin-mining has been extended as far south-east as the
Province of Salamanca, where the mineral appears under
alluvial conditions, as it does also in the provinces of Beira
and Minho, and in portions of Tras-Os-Montes in Portugal.
Eschwege^^^ discovered itin the sands as well as in the granite
of Valongo, north of the Douro, and near Oporto, where
Cambrian and Silurian strata occur side by side with the
metamorphic rock and the granite. Stream-works were set
on foot here with considerable success, but the unsettled state
of the country is said to have brought the enterprise to a
standstill. The formations in which the mineral occurs in
general in the Portugese provinces are either alluvial gravels,
or stock-works in the granite, or tin-bearing veins of quartz
in the older slates.

Tin-mines were worked in Portugal in the time of
Agricola,^^^ and the small native blast-furnaces, in which it was
smelted are mentioned. Tin-streaming, on a small scale, is
one of the oldest industries of the country.

Two VIEWS OF THE RiVBR DOURO
NEAR ALMARAZ.

^3

Speaking of the presence of the mineral generally in
Spain and Pprtugal, it may be said to run in a broad
belt or band, passing, like an heraldic "bend" across the
Peninsula from the Province of Coruna, in the north-west, to
those of Zamora and Salamanca in the south-east. The principal
rivers which intersect this belt are the Douro, the Esla, the
Limia, the Minho, and the Tambre, all of which are fed by
streams carrying, some of them, a good head of water all the
year round, and most of them a sufficient supply to keep a
Pelton-wheel or Turbine for a crushing mill at work at from nine
to seven months out of the twelve. The mineral, as is the case
also in Cornwall, follows the junction of the granite with the
killas or schist, which is often highly micaceous. The quartz,
especially near the confluence of the Esla with the Douro,
strikes the gold-miner as singularly like gold-quartz and should
be tested as such, especially since it is known that Villardepera
was actually producing gold in the i6th century, and that the
Carthaginians, Romans and Moors successively worked gold-
mines in Spain.^'°^ The sands of the river Sil in the Province of
Leon are known to be auriferous, and gold-mines were worked
in that district in the 17th century. The curious fact was
stated to me by a gentleman resident in Spain, and who has
explored the mountains of Leon, where most primitive modes
of life prevail, and where the flocks of peasant-farmers have
still to be protected from wolves by the aid of lanterns and the
cries of the shepherds at night, that the stone-troughs, hollowed
out for the purpose of conveying water for the gold-washings
by the slaves of the Romans, have been brought into requisition

ever since, whenever a revival of the ancient industry, even
down to a few years since, has tslken place.

I have still to speak of the tin-bearing districts at the
north-western end of the belt, namely those in the Province of
Coruiia. Schulz, to whom I have several times previously
referred, stated in 1835 that he had found fine and large
crystals of tin-oxide opposite Porto Monro, on the left bank of
the Tambre, at a spot 2 J leagues from Santiago. They occur,
he says, in veins in feldspar and quartz, that is to say perhaps,
in the "gossan," or decomposed granite, which forms the super-
stratum of the hard granite below.

Pliny describes the whole district from the Pyrenees to
the Douro as full of mines of gold, silver, iron, lead, and tin.^"^
In another passage^"^ he tells us that tin is a product of
Lusitania and Galicia, and in a third, since I have referred above
to gold, I may add that he speaks of Asturia, Galicia and
Lusitania as together furnishing annually 20,000 lbs. of that
precious metal. Schulz^*^^ in a paper on a kind of stanni-
ferous-pyrites which he terms ballisterosite gives us very
curious accounts of two ancient mines in the Asturias, situated
respectively at Salabe on the Cantabrian coast, a league and a
half to the east of Ribadeo, in the district, so he thinks, of the
tribes called Artabri, from whose ports tin was exported, and
at Ablaveda, one league south of Salas and seven east of
Oviedo, on the banks of a river which he identifies with the
Nalon or Noelus of the ancients, on which lay the famous town of
Argentolea. The operations at Salabe were conducted by
means of a huge open-working, sunk, according to Schulz, on
a deposit of tin occuring in plutonic rock in the centre of clay-

IS

slate-schists belonging to the Cambrian system. The excavators
found the ore so valuable that they took it bodily out, so that not
even a trace of a lode has been left behind. More than
4,000,000 cubic metres were removed from a pit 20 metres
deep, the bottom of which is now covered by a deep bed of turf.
Three adit levels for drainage purposes were bored at various
periods through the cliff to the sea, the last and lowest being
almost on a level with the water, so that it's mouth is filled
every winter with pebbles. A tortuous aqueduct, three l^gues
in length, brought to the works the water necessary for the
treatment of the ore which was broken by manual labor on
hand-mills of quartz and the mineral subsequently melted in
a number of small furnaces enclosed in a fortified area formed
by a double vallum and ditches.

The works at Ablaneda, on the side of the mountain, in
the Devonian formation, are described as no less astonishing
than those at Salabe. Here three channels or aqueducts,
skilfully cut in very hard quartzite, from one to three leagues
in length, brought in the supply of water requisite for the
work, and here too a bed of turf forming a bog or lagoon has
accumulated at the bottom of the excavation. A vein of arsen-
ical and copper pyrites traverses the diorite which rests on the
granite a little to the south, but Schulz came to the conclusion
" from many indications geological and mineralogical," that the
primary and special object of the miners was tin.

Stanniferous pyrites is found in the middle of the argillac-
eous schists near Ribadeo and Mondonendo, and the peculiar
form of it named ballisterosite^ from Senor Lopez Ballisteros,
author of a work on the Mining Laws of Spain, was found two

i6

leagues south of the former place in the mountains of Vidal and
Trabada in argillaceous schists, mixed with ordinary pyrites, and
near the junction with the zones of plutonic rocks. • The dis-
covery of its true nature was made by a village blacksmith while
experimenting in his forge with the pyritous-schists for gold.
Perceiving that he extracted white malleable metal he at first
thought it was silver until he proved it to be tin. Whether it
could ever be made payable commercially is very doubtful.
M. Paillette^'^^ considers it the material of which certain coins
of white metal and other objects such as lamps, found in old
fortified sites near mines in Spain, were formed.

Returning to the tin-mines of Galicia pure and simple,
there are reservations, the one near Noya (probably the Noela
of Pliny,^'^^ in the country of the Celtici), the other near
Santiago to which I would call attention.

The first, which is in the Province of Coruna, is called
San Finx, or San Fix (in the Mapa General de Espana^
Madrid^ 1792, sheet 96), from a river of that name which falls
into the Bay of Noya. It is situated at an elevation of 250
metres above the sea level, near the summit of a divide in the
mountains of Barbanza, which separate the Bays of Arosa and
Noya, and terminate in the wild and rugged promontory the ex-
treme point of which is Falcoeira. That this was one of the
most ancient and notable of the tin districts of Ancient Spain
is, I think, a fact which scarcely needs demonstration. It is
to the district of the Celtici that, with far greater probability
than to any other district, we may assign the *' Celtic tin "
mentioned by the pseudo-Aristotle.^'^^ Very ancient workings,

1. Church of Villadepir\, with Ossuary
under the towkr.

Miners* Barracks at the
San Finx Tin-Mine.

17

too, consisting of open casts all along the back of the lode, exist
at San Finx. The lode itself is extremely well defined, and
developments now taking place show the quantity of tin-oxide
to be very considerable, while the quality surpasses that in
almost any stanniferous district. A sample of lo tons cut out
from the lode, in by no means a particularly rich portion of it,
gave an average of nearly 3 per cent black tin, while hand-picked
stuflE contains as much as 75 to 80 per cent of tin ready for the
smelter without need of dressing. No steam-power need be
used for dressing-plant as the water in the stream is sufficient
for the mill. A road, too, has just been completed from the
piine to Terragona on the Bay of Arosa, whence barges can
convey the black tin to the gates of the smelting-house at
Carril on the opposite side.

The other Galician tin-reservation to which I referred is
called " Tyre and Sidon," and is situated near the villages of
Fontdo and Merza, in the district of Carbia, and Province of
Pontevedra, 8 kilometres from the road from Santiago to Orensc,
and 40 from the former of these places. To the south of the
mines is the river Deza, a tributary of the UUa, which flows
into the Bay of Arosa. As in the case of San Finx, these mines
were worked by the ancients, the method being to open
up a trench or cast on the back of the lode, thus forming a pile
on either side, just as was the case in the "old men's
workings," as they are called, in Cornwall. As in the latter
country also, cavernous workings were sometimes resorted
to. From the outcrop at the river the lodes at "Tyre and
and Sidon" can be traced and worked for 3,000 feet in the
mountain side. The more modern system of operations has

r8

been to sink shallow shafts, and to make small drives or
open-cast works. Oxide of tin is plentiful, as also is wolfram,
but no miner-like attempt has ever been made to developc the
prospects by tapping the lodes in depth.

It is, seemingly, to these " Tyre and Sidon " mines, that
Sf . Daniel de Cort^ar^'^^ refers when he says that the tin-zone,
so far as he knew it, commenced in the township of Merza in
the northern limit of the Province of Pontevedra, and, crossing
that of Orense by the watershed of the mountain Testeiro and
the Sierra de Suido, where the most important deposits occur
in the districts of Beariz and Abion (Avion), thence deflected
eastwards by Ribadavia, Freas de Eiras, Monte-Rey, and
Villardeciervos to the frontier line of Portugal. Speaking
of the Province of Orense this writer says that the tin occurs
there under two distinct conditions. Either small particles of
cassiterite, in company with arsenical pyrites, are found distri-
buted through the granite, which latter has the appearance and
characteristic structure of gneiss, or the mineral shows itself in
larger bunches in quartz lodes accompanied by wolfram, the
which lodes at times pass out of the granite and across into the
micaceous and talcose schist, without, however, suffering any
sensible change either in their direction or composition. Schori
and yellow mica almost invariably accompany the oxide of tin.

Works which are described as "important" were carried on
in this province down to a date shortly before Cortazar wrote
(1873) by an English Company styled the Medina United Tin
Mines, who, for a period of ten years, exploited an area of ten
pertinencias in the districts of Gomesende and Freas de Eiras.
Their energies were principally concentrated on two mines

19

called San Guillermo and San Pedro, where they cut five
vertical quartz lodes, not exceeding 50 centimetres in width,
bearing N.E. and S.W., all impregnated with tin and arsenical
pyrites, and variable in value. These Ipdes are in the granite,
passing into the schist which adjoins it on the northern side.
Other quartz lodes run transversely to them, that is, in a
direction E. and W., but these are unproductive.

The methods employed in the development of these pros-
pects, as well as in dressing the ore seem to have combined the
native Spanish ones with those more modern and approved.
Thus a shaft was sunk, 80 metres deep, and levels driven, but,
when these failed in results, trenches were dug and open casts
made upon the backs of the lodes. The ore, after being crushed,
was hand-sorted, and washed in sieves, and in cases where it
was accompanied by arsenical pyrites, it was calcined. It was
finally caught on fixed tables, the product obtained from which
is stated to have been 46 per cent of black tin which was ex-
ported to England to be smelted. The mines were abaindoned
in 1 87 1, and were taken over by a Spanish Company. The
rest of the tin reservations in the district were worked at
irregular intervals by unauthorised persons — peasant fosseckers,
who pilfered the tin.

I may here quote what the same writer tells us of the
mines in the adjacent province of Zamora. In 1844, he says,
according to Senor Ezquerra, the tin-mines of Carbajosa, Pino
de Oro, and Villardepera were exploited, as well as the anti-
mony mines of Losacio. The tin is described as occuring in
lodes of white quartz, semi-transparent, and analogous to some
between Mombuey and Asturianso, at a junction of highly

20

micaceous gneiss with granite. They bear in a direction N.E.
and S.W., and are vertical. They form an extensive parallel
series, more than six kilometres in length, and are plainly to be
seen in the two rugged banks of the river Douro.

The richest deposits have been found to be those of
Villardepera. The oxide of tin is disseminated through the
quartz irregularly though abundantly, but owing, as we have
seen, to the unintelligent modes of working, it has not as yet
been made to produce the important results which true miner-
like methods should certainly achieve.

In 1863, according to the mining statistics of the province,
besides the reservations just mentioned, those of Almaraz and
Arcillera had been set to work, but during that year only two
mines in the distnct are quoted as producing tin. The black
tin was at that time smelted in a small Spanish furnace from
which was obtained 11 J cwt. of metal which was sold and
used in the province. In the following year there were three
reservations in the same country on which prospecting work
for tin was being carried out.

Having had occasion several times to allude to the anti-
quity of tin-mining in the Peninsula, I can scarcely omit to add
a word or two on the subject of the claims of that country to be
considered the producer of the tin in use, for bronze especially,
in the Mediterranean in the earliest ages of commerce, and
also to have been, as some have contended, the veritable
Cassiterides, or " tin-islands " mentioned in the most ancient
writers, and vaguely located somewhere in the ocean beyond
the Straits of Gibraltar.

21

The question of the whereabouts of the Cassiterides has
furnished almost a literature of its own, the controversial point
being whether Britain, t.e.y Cornwall with the Islands of Scilly,
was the locality indicated, or whether it was the western and
northern districts of the Peninsula. Into the details of this I
need not enter. It will be sufficient to say that among the ad-
vocates of the British theory were Camden, Borlase, Sir C.
Hawkins, and Dr. George Smith of Camborne, and that on the
Spanish side we have had Cornide, Perez Quintero, and, more
recently, Murguia, while Florez, like Harduin, did not believe
that such islands existed. Certainly, if they were indeed islands,
there is not now nor ever was a sufficient quantity of tin in
Scilly to justify the application of the name tin-islands to that
little group, and the same fact applies equally to the islands under
Corribedo and in the Bays south of Finisterre, namely Salbora
Arosa, Cartagada, Grove, and the Cies, Scias, Cicas or Bayona
Isles. In the Island of 0ns alone, near the mouth of the river
of Pontevedra, or Lerez, on the banks of which the Cileni^®^ of
Pliny are supposed to have been settled, some indications of
tin-quartz were found, so Cornide tells us ; and he adds also
that he had surveyed the neighbouring coast and observed a
substratum of ferruginous sand very similar to that in which
the tin of Monte-Rey occurs. Murguia has connected the name
of the three islands at the mouth of the Bay of Arosa, namely
the Cies or Cicas (supposing an n to be introduced, making it
CincaSy as in Finx for Fix^ above mentioned, and many more
place names), ivith the ancient word for tin found in the
German Ziriy Polish CynUy &c. He points also to the name
Cinca applied to a valley where tin is found, and aUo to the

22

name of the city of Cinania, the Citania of Briteiros, near
Guimaraes, recently explored by Sefior Martins Sarmento, as
derived from the same source. Such etymologies, however,
are very doubtful, and I lay no stress on them, although that
of the Ctcas is worth noting, particularly in connection with the
statement of Cornide and Murguia that in a MS. at Oviedo,
called Itacio^ containing what purports to be a copy of a division
of Bishoprics by Wamba, but which was regarded as a forgery
in the 12th century, the district assigned to the See of Cale is
'' from Albia as far as Losala and from Olmos to the Islas
Casiterides'' I have not been able to consult the original of
this, but in Loaysa's edition, in which that writer, like Florez,
seems to follow a copy by Morales, the name Sola stands in
place of "Casiterides."^*^^ In any case, all that could be derived
from such a statement would be the supposition that, at the
date when the MS. was written, a notion existed in the writer's
mind that these islands in the Bay of Arosa were the tin-
islands of the classic authors. Similarly, in old maps of Galicia
the Cicas are marked Insulae Deorutn^ the "Isles of the
Gods." Murguia^^^ notices also that the island of Cortegada, in
the Bay of Arosa, which is accessible on foot from Carril at
spring-tides, contains shafts and other evidences of ancient
mining, which he believes was for tin. At the foot of the
neighbouring Cordillera of the Barbanza, however, iron is found,
so that possibly that was the mineral sought for. This author
does not seem aware of the existence of the tin-mines of San
Finx in the upper part of this same range. A certain locality,
he goes on to say, between Carreira and Corrubedo preserves
the significant name of Campo das Minas. Don P. Sarmiento

23

described it as covered with mamoas^ that is, sepulchral tumtiliy
which enclosed cinerary urns, found in such great number that
the spot obtained the name of the "place of pots" (o/erios).
Some held that it was the cemetery of a city said to have existed
near Carragal. In fact all the coast around the islands of Cies
presents traces of the existence in former times of a large
population, and of a considerable mining industry, in which
certainly tin bore a great part. What applies to the Bay of
Arosa applies equally to that of Pontevedra. In the estuary
near the last-named town there are traces of the existence of
lacustrine habitations. At Puente Caldelas fine deposits of tin
were found. Don P. Sarmiento states that three leagues from
Pontevedra, in Gayolas, Cerdon, and Murados, in the parish of
Antas, mines of tin were also discovered. The name Antas
naturally strikes Murguia as curious, since it is the word in-
variably applied in Portugal to those huge megalithic chambers
called dolmens — the cromlechs of the antiquarians of the last
century. On one of the highest ridges of the Barbanza range,
about eight or nine miles west of San Finx, there is, at a place
called La Grana, a group of seven of these structures, partly
buried in tumuli. I was informed that they are in Galicia
(where they are called gar etas or antis), invariably composed of
eleven stones, ten of which form the walls of the cell or vault,
while the eleventh, a flat one, and often a stone of very large
size, (from nine to twelve feet square), forms the roof. The
chamber is usually of horse-shoe shape, or, rather, ovate in
ground plan, with flattened ends. I was informed that gold
beads had been occasionally found in them, of which I hope
to obtain a specimen. Structures, similar in detail, occur in the

Basque Provinces, as for example at Eguilaz in Alava/"^ A
most remarkable feature about them is that, while they bear a
family likeness to the series of megalithic structures of the
dolmen class in general, they have their exaci counterpart
both in the number and arrangement of the stones, which is in
itself peculiar, in a monument at Cloverhill, near the great pre-
historic cemetery of Carrowmore in the country of Sligo,^**^ in
Ireland, a structure which, judging from sculpturings on the
interior faces of some of the stones of the chamber, we may
probably assign to the latter period of the Bronze Age (say
B.C. 500).

But the points for comparison which Archaeology and
Ethnology hold out to us between West Britain and Ireland on
the one hand, and Galicia on the other, are not confined to the
megalithic remains. No object of antiquity is better known to
the antiquary than the bronze paalstab celt. In its simple
form, or with a single loop, it may be said to be found every-
where throughout the north, west, and centre of Europe.
There is, however, an extremely rare and peculiar form of it,
namely with two loops, and that has been found exclusively in
Cornwall and Devon (in the mining districts especially), in
Ireland, and in the western and north-western portion of the
Iberian Peninsula. \^See illustration for examplesJ]

In my work on the "Dolmens of Ireland "^^^ I have given
five examples of these implements, taken respectively from
Cornwall, Devon, Ireland, and Montalegre and Alemteyo in
Portugal. Where, however, particular and peculiar types of
bronze implements occur, which are not common to other
countries, but are, nevertheless, so closely similar that they

Five Bronze Implements called Paalstab Celts.
1. Ireland : 3. Cornwall : 8. Devon : 4. Portugal : 6. Portugal.

25

might almost have come out of the same mould, a proof is
a£Forded, as reasonable as we can ever hope to attain, that the
inhabitants of the two respective districts, in which they are
found, were in communication during the period when the
implements were in use. Now, that bronze celts were manu-
factured in West Cornwall I have evidence to show, and that
they were also manufactured in the Peninsula I see no reason
to doubt. My proof as to Cornwall consists in the fact that
rough lumps of smelted tin, locally known as "Jews Tin,'* and
also of copper, which latter bore the form of the stone-bowl into
which it had been run, were found side by side with spoiled
paalstabs and socket-celts in the embankment of a cliff-castle
at Cape Cornwall near the Land's End.

Bronze celts of this class belong, according to the eminent
Swedish archaeologist Montelius,^**^ to the best period of the
Bronze Age in Northern Europe, the approximate date of which
he estimates at from 1250 to 1050 B.C. At that period then —
the very period to which has been assigned the foundation of
Gades by the Phoenician merchants — Cornwall and the Western
coast of Spain were already in communication with each other,
and both were producing the mineral, and from that the metal,
necessary for the formation of implements, the original locality
of the prototype of which it would be foreign to our present
purpose to attempt to discover.

It is not, however. Archaeology alone which leads us to the
conclusion that, in remote ages, there was intercourse between
the tin-bearing portions of Britain and the Peninsula. The
likeness of certain Galician ethnic types to certain Irish types
has often been commented on; but the likeness of Galician

?6

faces to Cornish faces, in the Land's End district especially, is
even more marked, and is indeed unmistakeable. In going from
Terragona into the Barbanza range I passed, near the coast of
Arosa Bay, a small village, and sitting down to have my meal
of cakes and red wine in a large grocery-store, where there
were many buyers, I could have declared, had it not been for
the Gallego patois and certain differences in costume, that I
was once more at home in a Cornish village. On the other
hand I could point out Cornish miners now employed in Spain
who would pass for native Gallegos. In the case of the
women, oddly enough, the likeness is more marked than in
that of the men, but the resemblance is not confined to one
or two examples, but is almost universal. Into the detailed
characteristics of the types space does not permit me here to
enter. The short dark type, known in Ireland as a Kerry type,
with sharp twinkling grey eyes, splay noses and nostrils mark-
edly in evidence, low forehead and swarthy face, is distinctly
recognisable, as are others also. It is enough to say that they
are types totally distinct from those ordinarily met with in the
villages of other parts of Spain and Portugal, although they may
be observed here and there in the larger towns to which
Gallegos often go as servants. One trait in their character at
east these people possess in common with the Irish and
Cornish, namely their intense love for their little holdings and
their desire to save money to purchase the freeholds. The
legends of Galicia, too, especially those connected with Jakes,
the people of that district share with the Irish, as well as
spuerstitions in regard to witches and the like.

A Gallbgo;

FROM MuRGUIA'S * GaLICIA.'

27

We will now consider for a moment whether all these
indications of early intercommunication between the two great
tin-bearing districts of Western Europe do not help us to solve
the problem of the Cassiterides. The more we attempt to give
these so-called islands a geographical position, the more they
fade into the fabulous regions of the hazy sun-down. Those
Mediterranean peoples to whom Phoenician merchants sold
their tin knew no more than we do where it came from. There
were stories current of islands out beyond the Pillars of Her-
cules, Atlantis, — the Isles of the Blessed, or the kles of the
Gods, the Oestrymnides, and others.^*^^ What would be more
natural than for merchants, from the very first, to have taken
advantage of such beliefs as a convenient method of pre-
serving their secret by wrapping it up in legend, and coining
for their purposes yet another group, "The Cassiterides?"
That the Carthaginians continued to keep secret the source
whence they derived their tin, we know from the tale told oi
the ship's captain who ran his ship ashore rather than reveal
the passage to the Romans.

From its closer proximity to Gades it may be naturally
supposed that northern and western Spain would be the first
to supply the Mediterranean markets with tin. But even^ as
we have seen, from the earliest period to which the traffic can
be assigned, that vaguer land beyond the sea, namely Cornwall,
had seemingly been brought into relation with the Spanish
coast. Both districts were alike producing tin in the Bronze
Age, and together they represented the '* Cassiterides " of the
merchants.

28

Being unaware that tin had ever been raised in any appre-
ciable quantity in the Peninsula, I followed the lead of Dr.
William Smith, of Camborne, and, in a brochure printed more
than twenty years since, entitled An Historical Sketch of
the Tin- Trade in Cornwall^"^^ I used an exhaustive argument to
show that Cornwall alone could have supplied the commodity
to the merchants from the days of the Phoenicians onward A
study of the mines along the tin-belt in the Iberian Peninsula,
pursued with the aid of such works as have been published oa
the mineralogical features of north-western Spain and of MS.
authorities at Madrid, has, however, I freely admit, completely
altered my views.

The ancient tin-workings of Galicia alone prove to be of
enormous extent, while the actual ore which remains in situ
and unworked is not only plentiful in quantity, and easily
attainable, but in quality unrivalled, and, whatever Cornwall
may have produced in the past, superior to the average of the
mineral at present raised in that county.

That it was from the bays and estuaries of Ferrol, Noya,
Arosa, Pontevedra, and Vigo, as well as possibly from an island
or two along that coast, that tin first found its way into the
Mediterranean I feel no doubt, when women on the coasts
which lay over against the Artabri,^*^^ or the predecessors of
that tribe, were probably washing it in wicker baskets, cen-
turies before a Roman writer spoke of the process, in much
the same fashion in which I have watched them washing it at
the present day, only that little birch brooms are now
employed to brush the ore, after it has been hand-broken
between two rough stones, as it is carried dowiv over the

2g

bed-rocks of some stream into shallow artificial basins scooped
in the surface of the stone, by water which is allowed to
escape gradually from little dams of turf drawn across the
course.

Cornwall^ we may be sure, was not far behind Spain in
point of time in contributing her proportion of the metal to
augment the supply, a fact which may be inferred from con-
siderations of navigation, but especially from the archaeological
proofs, to which I have above referred, of inter-communication
having existed between the two districts at a period coeval
with, if not antenor to, the foundation of Gades.

As to the " Tin-Islands," the " Cassiterides," they never,
geographically speaking, had a fixed position. Like the
mysterious floating islands of turf on certain Irish lakes they
were heard of now on one shore, now on another. Their
name was a delusion and a myth, and a very convenient one,
in which as in a web of gossamer, the merchant princes and
ship's-captains could envelope each and every stanniferous
country, as they discovered them one after the other, along
the shores of western Europe from the Douro to the Tambre,
(the latter in the country of the Tamarini), and from the Tamar
in Britain round to the Seveme Sea.

Looking forward now to the days in which we live from
these ancient times when Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks,
Romans, Moors, and Goths and Vandals were successively at-
tracted to Spain, in no small measure by her mineral wealth,
the questions naturally present themselves: ''Will the ancient
prestige of this country in this respect never again return ? : ''
^'is the sapply exhausted?:" ''If it is not, and, it Spaniards

3<^

will not develope these resources themselves, are there no
enterprising strangers, who, like the Tyrians of old, will find
means to work the mines^ as a commercial speculation, with
sufficient prospect of fair returns?"

The mining industry in the Peninsula seems indeed to
have shown unmistakable signs of rejuvenescence of late years.
Iron at Bilbao, copper at Rio Tinto have re-asserted their long
dormant claims to consideration, with results which speak for
themselves. Why should tin be left behind ? My answer is,
and I speak from personal experience of some of the principal
mines upon the belt which I have inspected and the adminis-
tration of which is committed to my charge, that the mineral
has not had fair play. In past times the operations have
been carried on both extravagantly and unintelligently ;
extravagantly — firstly by persons connected with the Mining
Department at Madrid early in the present century, and
secondly by Companies, French, Dutch and English, generally
over-capitalized, at various periods since: unintelligently—
often indeed by the parties just named, and invariably so by
the farmers, winebuyers, and peasantry who have contented
themselves with surface scratchings and small open cuts at
points where the outcrop of a lode seemed encouraging. Were
fully equipped Companies to attempt to work according to these
methods it would cost them, as has been proved by experience,
fully 40/- for every 20/- worth of tin produced. The process
of dressing the ore, too, adopted by the peasant tributers
involves a loss of certainly considerably over a third of the
black tin. It may be said, indeed, that none of those simple
rules of good-mining which are household words amoog

31

Cornish miners, have ever been known to, much less put in
practice by those who, unfortunately for the industry, have
conducted the operations in Spain.

In the case of the Companies, costly, intricate, and un-
suitable machinery has been set up at vast expense for dressing
the ore before the prospects have been adequately developed.
To put the matter metaphorically, a general's uniform has
been bought for the infant, before the infant has been born.
Where this is the course pursued in mining, the only persons
who can possibly look confidently to a profit are those who
supply the machinery. Water-power, where it might have
been utilized, has been neglected in favor of steam, involving
an outlay for fuel, in some districts very costly. This has
naturally had the effect of restricting the paying-ore to such
alone as has contained an abnormally heavy percentage of
tin, the result being that tons of good general milling ore
have been left untreated, which might have been profitably
treated, together with the richer stuff, had the process been
simple and inexpensive. Experience having pointed out such
errors, there can now be no excuse for their repetition. If
only miner-like methods, and proper and reasonable economy
be employed, there is no reason why a large proportion of
the prospects along the tin-belt should not be made handsomely^
remunerative. There are, at the present moment no fewer
than seven distinct prospects between Coruiia and Zamora,
including two in Portugal, in course of development by
English Companies, while several others are about to be
started. In the case of four out of the seven the indications
of a good return are excellent, while in that of the othera

32

a sufficient depth has not been attained to justify a forecast of
their worth.

The statement, sometimes made, that ^'tin does not go
deep in Spain/' is an error which carries on its face its own
confutation. Not only is there no reason why the conditions
under which the mineral occurs here should differ from those
which obtain in other stanniferous districts, but in the deep
gorges of the Douro, as I have myself had occasion to observe,
it occurs both on the tops of the hills and close down to the
water*s edge, some 500 feet below, while what may lie below
the level of the river beds, the most likely depth, be it remem-
bered, at which to find true fissure veins, is still an unknown
quantity since no shafts, sunk so deep, exist.^**^

Tin there is, then, in quantity, and she offers herself to
the intelligent miner under the most favorable conditions,
being, in general, exceptionally free from those impurities,
which make the processes .of dressing and smelting difficult
and costly. Wages are exceedingly low, — 2 pesetas, i.e. 1/6,
per man per diem. Contracts for sinking and driving can be
entered into at most advantageous rates. At the risk of bur-
dening these pages with details from my experience I will give
the following as an example: To deepen a shaft on a reservation
in the Province of Tras-Os-Montes in Portugal, of the approved
dimensions of 9 feet by 6, through tough schistose rock tra-
versed by quartz veins cost on contract less than £^ per fathom.
A depth of 30 feet was sunk by hand labor alone within 11
days. This is good working, and it is a fact worth mentioning
in proof that the native Spaniard is a good miner. The offer
of a small bonus, if he completes his contract quickly, naturally

33

makes him a better one. What is essential, however, is that
he should be guided by firm and intelligent supervision.

As to the kind of dressing-plant to be employed on these
Spanish mines I speak diffidently, though with confidence.
Having shown a sufficient quantity of ore "at grass" to justify
the commencement of operations, I would venture to advise,
not that an elaborate mill, warranted to save a// the tin, dealing
exhaustively with the slimes, and costing perhaps ;^30,ooo
should be set up, but that a simple process for coarse con-
centration should be considered sufficient at first, leaving the
slimes alone, and costing say ;^3,ooo, including the freightage,
ground-levelling, and the structure containing the machinery,
but not including the Pelton Wheel or Turbine, (for it should
be worked by water-power), nor, of course, the over-head rope-
way which might be required to bring the ore down to the
requisite level. For these extra items, according to calcula-
tions before me, another ;^i,ooo would be quite enough to
add. A dressing plant, obtained as such an one could be, at
this comparatively low figure, would be capable of dealing with
50 tons in twenty-four hours, and it could be at any time added
to as occasion might require, until the results justified the
erection of California stamps, and the treatment of the slimes.
We should, in short, proceed from small endeavours to great,
and never take another forward step until the one on which we
stood was rendered firm and sure.

With far greater diffidence, though I have worked the
problem out with care, I now proceed to give very briefly my
idea of what the cost should be of developing a given tin-
reservation in the Peninsula, and the prospect of its making

34

a good return if handled on the strictly economical methods I
have described, and which, as has been pointed out, may be so
sharply contrasted with those which have been previously in
vogue. A sum of, say, ;^6,ooo or ;^7,ooo would, according to
calculations I have made, sufficiently cover not merely the cost
of general development for a period of six months, but of the
small dressing-plant, supposing water-power to be employed,
which might then be requisite to deal with the ore brought to
the surface.

Supposing, then, the initial stages to have been gone
through, and the mine to have been placed in the position of a
** going concern," with a continuous supply of ore in readiness,
and the dressing-plant in place, what profit, it will be asked,
can be expected with confidence from the sale of the black
tin ? Say that the cost of mining and milling the 50 tons of
ore which, as above mentioned, the mill could treat per diem,
worked out at 7/- per ton: Add to this establishment charges,
salaries, insurance, ore bags, and the freightage from the mine
to England, for the i J ton of black tin which (allowing that

*I here show that ore yielding 2^ per cent of black tin would pay and pay
well. The average yield, however, in many known reservations is fair
above this. I take the San Martinho prospects as an example: —

To July 7th, 1897, the tonnage raised at Codeso showed the following
results: —

First class ore (picked stu£F) 7 tons; estimated value about 50 per cent
' Second „ ^ ,» ; n n » 6 „

Third „ 20 „ ; „ „ „ i^ „

This would show an average of 14 per cent The tonnage raised on
both Codeso and Raposo to December 1897, shows together an aver-
age of from 14 to 15 per cent. This estimate is, as I freely admit, far
above the general average, and is phenominal; but, — given several
reservations taken together, — I do not think that 4 per cent would be
too high an average.

35

the ore yielded 2J per cent*), is what the 50 tons treated per
diem would represent, the total expenditure per diem would
work out at £24 17 6. There would be received for this
I J ton of black tin, at ;^35 o o per ton, the sum of £^$ 15 o,
which would leave a profit per diem of ;^i8 17 o on each ij
ton of black tin if sent to England.

But the black tin produced in the mines of the Peninsula
need not and should not, under existing conditions, be sent to
England at all. It should be smelted in Spain and sold in
Spain, where there would be a sufficient market for all that
could be produced, and where an English Company already
possesses a well-equipped smelting-house. By selling in Spain
the import duty on the white tin coming into that country
would be saved, as also the insurance, and freightage to Eng-
land, and an additional ;^8 per ton, according to several inde-
pendent computations which I have before me, would thereby
be added to the profit account, bringing it up to at least
£26 17 6 per diem, on the i\ ton of black tin, which would
be the product, as above stated, of the daily dressing.

Allowing for the numerous Feast-Days and holidays, a
working year in Spain averages 260 days, so that the annual
profit, supposing the mill to be receiving a continuous supply,
would amount to ;^6,987 10 o. If instead of 50 tons, 100
tons of ore, carrying 2\ per cent, were passed through the
mill per diem, as might well be expected in some cases, this
sum would not only be doubled but more than doubled, as the
ratio of cost of milling would decrease in a proportion to the
quantity dealt with. In about six months hence I hope to be
able to speak from established data on these points, — the only

36

reason that I cannot do so now, and that I have to submit my
conclusions tentatively and from paper calculations, — is that,
practically speaking, and from the true economic standpoint,
there never has been mining and milling, worthy of the name,
in existence in Spain* Tin, as I said above, has never had the
fair trial it deserves.

As to what should be done in the future, it appears to me
that small parent syndicates should be formed, the capital of
each one of which need not be large, for the purpose of proving
and developing each respective reservation. These should
not be wholly out of touch with each other, but under one
, central and uniform system of management, from which might
result the formation of a Tin Corporation for Spain with
sufficient capital to work the entire tin-belt I have described,
and since Cornish managers, underground captains, pitmen,
and tin-dressers would be largely in requisition, it would follow
that the two great tin-bearing districts of the Atlantic would
once more be brought into contact, as I have shown that they
were in days that are long gone by.

In fine, I feel sure, that tin in Spain is a product well
worthy of the most favorable attention of the commercial world,
and that if only the ordinary rules of economy and good mining,
which I have been accustomed to see practised in Cornwall,
are applied in the Peninsula also, tin-mining can be made in
the latter country not only to pay expenses, but to produce to
those who are engaged in it, eminently satisfactory results.

— FINIS. —

NOTES.

(i) The two Afedimas : I suppose that Medina de Rioseco and Medina del Campo, both in
the Province of Valladolid, and at each of which fairs were held, are intended. The
verses occur in Descripeion dtl Reyno de Gahcia by the Licenciado Molina ; edit. i|
Madrid, 1551, fol. xxiv.

(2) Valdioms: £1 Barco de Valdeorras is in the north-eastern part of the Province of
Orense.

(3) The MS. of Boan, or Bohan, is quoted by Murguia in his Historia dt GaKcia, p. 56 seq.

(4) TJU ktamUd laU of Limia . For this see the work of SF. Villa Amil y Castro, *' Galida,"
Antiguedades^ Lugo, p. 75, and the writer's Dolmens of Ireland^ vol. ii, p. 595.

(5) Comidis MS. Of this I have had a copy made. It is entitled Memoria soire ks Minos de
Gahcia y o&as producciones del reyno mineral^ dirigada al Sr. D. Miguel Btmuehs^ su Iniendente
General: Firmadapor D. Joseph Comidey fechada en Mondego d 28 de Agosio de 178J. It is
a folio MS. of 18 pages, leg. 39, in the Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia
(Madrid).

(6) William Bowles : Of the work of this indefatigable naturalist, who was a native of Cork,
but who wrote in Spanish, several translations have been made. The ones I have
before me are the 3rd edition of the original! Spanish work printed at Madrid in 1789,
and the Italian translation printed at Parma tn 1783, containing a biographical notice
of the author. The Spanish edition bears the title "Introduccion a la Historia Natural
y a la Geografia Pisica de Espai^." See 3rd edit. p. 35.

(7) Sckukf Don GniUermo : Descripicion geognisHca de Retno de Galicia^ acompanada de un mapa
petrograpkko de esta pals ^por Don GuUlermo Schuh^ inspector de minas por S.M., indiduo de
varias Sodedades cientificas: publicada de real 6rden; Madrid: imprenta de los
herederos de Collado; 1835,- 4to vi.,— 52 pp; 2 hojas grandes plegadas con una Tabla
de algunos terminos geognosticos usuales en la mineria, y un Catalogo de la coleccion
geogn6stica de Galicia. See Don Jose Villa- Amil y Castro's Catalogo sistem&ticoy crUico
de algunos UAros que tratan de Gaticia, Madrid, 1875. See note 13, below.

(8) Esckwege : Karsten's ArcAsv, 1835, P- 221.

(9) PkiU^yJ. Arthur, F.R.S.; A Treatise on Ore Deposits, 2nd edition, re- written and greatly
enlarged by Henry Louis, M.A., London 1896, p. 516.

(10) Gold-mining in the Peninsula under Phamicians, Romans, 6rc.; Prescott (Ferdinand and
Isabella, edit. 5, vol. i, p. 338) says:— "Before the discovery of America, Spain was to
the rest of Europe what her colonies have since become, the great source of mineral
wealth. The Carthaginians, and the Romans afterwards, regularly drew from her large
masses of the precious metals. Pliny, who resided some time in the country, relates
(Mat. Hist. Bk. zxxiii, chap. 21,) that three of her provinces (Asturia, Gallaeda, and
Lositania) were said to have annually yielded the incredible quantity of sixty-thousand
pounds of gold. (Prescott here appears to fall into an error. Pliny does not say that
each province yielded twenty-thousand, which would make the sixty-thousand, but
that the three together yielded twenty-thousand pounds' weight, the produce of Asturia
forming the nu^or part.) The Arabs, with their usual activity, penetrated into those
arcana of wealth. Abundant traces of their labours are still to be met with along the
iKuren ridge of mountains that covers the north of Andalusia; and the diligent Bowles
has enumerated no less than five thousand of thdr excavations in the kingdom or dis-
trict of Jaen. (Introd. ^ THistoire Naturelle de I'Espagne, Paris, 1776, p. 411)."

38

It has been observed that the principal reason why the Suevi came to Galicia was
its mineral wealth, in gold, silver and other metals.

(11) Pliny ^ Nat. Hist.^ Bk. iv, chap. 34.

(12) Id, id. Bk. xxxiv, chap. 47.

(^3) Schulz^ GuilUrmo; La Ballesterosita ; Memoria sobre el reciente descubrimento deuna
pirita estanif era, que se encuentra en los esquistos arcillosas de las cercanias de Rivadeo
y de Mondoi^edo, por D. Guillermo Schulz y D. Adriano Pallete. (Bol. de la Sodedad
Geologica, vol. viii, 2nd series, Paris, 1849, P- 16). Schulz was the Inspector of mines
in the Asturias and Galicia; Adrian Pallete or Paillete was a Mining-Engineer. In a
letter addressed by Schulz to the Sodete Geologique de France, May 30th, 1834, that
writer gives the best account I have met with of the geology of Galida. * *Three quarters
of the surface of the kingdom, that is all the western portion, are composed of primary
rocks, the fourtli part, lying to the east, presenting intermediary deposits. The valleys
and some of the plains are covered with alluvial deposits, andent and modem, and
there is a small number of tertiary basins. With the exception of a single vein of
basalt, there are no volcanic rocks.

*'The primary formations consist of granite, gneiss, mica-schist, itacolumite, talcose*
schisti chlorite-schist, amphibolic and serpentine rocks in great variety, in addition to
some masses of eurite, and small quantities of diorite.

" The granite is sometimes porphyritic, and, in that case, the suriace is covered
with blocks which at once attract the eye, — ^a feature which occurs prindpally in
eastern Galicia.

''The gneiss is very varied. It often passes into granitoide rock, and very fre-
quently into mica-schist This latter formation passes in turn into talcose-sdust and
chlorite-schist.

" The itacolumite and taloose quartzite is very well characterised, and occurs in
the north of Galida. It is dther whitish or yellowish in colour.

**The amphibolitic rocks are distributed in four large patches, one of which is near
Santiago, and another at Cape Ortegal. They are in places considerably mixed with
quartz, feldspath, chlorite, garnets, &c., and form numerous junctions, more especially
with chloritic rocks and gneiss.

** Serpentine, capable of bdng worked, accompanies in many places, the rocks just
mentioned, and is associated with beautiful varieties of steatite.

" Euphotite is of great rariety.

"Eurite, partially porphyritic, occurs among the primary and intermediary rocks-
formations which contain also small portions of diorite.

"Sienite is scarce, and not well characterised. To the south of Cape Ortegal, a
serpentine hill contains a vein of close-grained white marble.

"A vein of t>asalt occurs in porphyritic gneiss to the east of Santiago, in the centre
of Galida. It holds its course without rising into a peak, but the formation is readily
distinguished by crystals of peridote and pyroxene. The remarkable cone of the Pico-
Sagro, with its elongated crest, measuring a mile and a half in length, and traversed by
the river Ulla, is composed of white semi-crystalline quartz, and quartz-hyalin.

"The argillaceous schist is subordinate to the primary rock, and cannot be
distinguished from schists in transition.

?9

** The crystalline schists and the gneiss of Galicia have, generally speaking, a north
and south strike, with a very marked dip to the west. They are found both under and
over the granite.

" The intermediary formation of the eastern part of Galicia is composed of argilla-
ceous schist, greenish or blackish in colour, of stratified quartz, of grauwacke in small
quantity, and of ridges of chalk or of marble in considerable numbers. The strike of
the intermediary deposits is north and south, and their dip marked but variable.*'

With regard to the tertiary rocks, the writer states that he had not, when he wrote
finished his researches. "In two large basins belonging to the potamographic system
of the Cabe, there is an horizontal deposit of variegated marl, which closely resembles
the Keuper, and is superimposed upon a sandy deposit either roseate or greenish in
hue. It is partly a marly arkose disaggregated, and partly a green argillaceous marl,
covered by ancient alluvial deposits. The upper portion of this bed occurs also in
many other places in Galida, sometimes lying under the alluvial deposits, and some-
times uncovered.

" In the valley of Sarria these deposits are more calcareous, and form in general a
white chalky marl. " Schulz adds that he had never been able to discover any trace of
fossils in them. [See Barrois, Zes Terrains de la GaHce^ Soc. Geol. du Nord: Lille^
vol. I.] Speaking mineralogically, he notes that the inferior portion resembles the
Keuper deposits, while the upper looks like green sand, but he comes to the con-
clusion that they are teriiaries bearing some affinity perhaps to certain recognised
tertiary t)eds at the southern foot of the eastern Pyrenees.

" In other places in Galicia there are sands and tertiary clays, containing consider-
able quantities of lignite, but gypsum has not been found in them.

"There are numerous ancient alluvial deposits in the valleys and on the plains. In
the western portion of the district they come into contact with the intermediary for-
mation. In these places it was that the Romans had their gold-washings. Alternating
with the alluvial deposits, it is curious to find so many sandy beaches with sides sharply
escarped, and, on some rivers, not far from the sea and liable to be covered by the
tides, immense deposits of mud. The impulse of the great ciu-rent of the Atlantic and
of the Bay of Biscay should doubtless t>e connected with the producing cause of such
deposits.

" On the Sil there are very rich auriferous deposits. In the transitional formation
there occur extensive and extremely rich outcrops of iron-hydrate, as well as some
veins of argentiferous galena. The primary rocks, and especially the micaceous gneiss
and the granite are traversed by rich veins, and stringers of massive oxide of tin."

The conuntmication to the French Society, from which I have translated the above

embodies all the important points in Herr Schulz's Spanish paper, mentioned in note 7.

(t4) M, PaUUtU: mentioned in the previous note. He wrote several works, or rather

assisted others in writing them, on the carboniferous strata of the Asturias, the iron

mines in the same district. &c., &c.

(15) FUMy, Nat, Hist.^ Bk. iv., chap. 34.

(16) Aristotle, "Celtic Tin," De Mirab. Ausc. chap. 50.

(17) CortdMar, Daniel de See his two articles Datos Geologico-Mineros de la Pro-

vindas de Zamora y Orense, (P. 6 under Zamoray and p. 14 under Orense), in vol. i of
the Boletin de la Comision del Mapa Geologico de Espana.

40

(i8) Plmy, Nat. Hist, Bk. iv., chap. 34.

(19) Itacio : I have taken the greatest pains to discover any copy either published or in MS.
of the original in which Comide found the name fslas CasUerides as that of one of the
boundaries of the diocese of Cale [i.«. Portu-cale], in the spurious document attributed
to Wamba whose date was 704. Itacio is the title of a MS. in a book called Oveiense at
Oviedo. It appears that it professed to be a continuation of the Chronicle of Idatius
with which, however, it has no connection but in name. (See Florez, Esp. Sacr. vol.
iv, pp. 195-210). Morales had fully described it in a MS., which MS. Plorez used. Loayas
(Coll. Condll. Hisp., p. 135, seq), who seems to have followed Morales (See Esp. Sacr.
vol. iv, p. 197) gives the Divisio Sedium attributed to Wamba, but in this I do not find
the name CasiUrides. The passage reads "Portucale hsec tenet: de Ibdia usque Losolam :
de Olmos usque Solam."

20) Murguia, Manuel : See his Historia de GaUcia, vols. I and 2, Lugo, 1865-8; and his
Garcia, one of the volumes of Espafla sus monumentos y artes, Barcelona, 1888.

(21) Eguiku: See Introduc^ao a Archeologia de Pen. Iberica, Lisbon, 1878; by Sr A. F.
Simoes, p. 92: also my "Dolmens of Ireland," vol. ii., p. 647.

(22) See Wood Martin's " Rude Stone Monuments of Ireland," and my " Dolmens of Ire-
land," vol. i, p. 141. Both at Eguilaz and Carrowmore the stone which closed the
entrance and made the eleventh, is absent

(23) Celts: See Cartaillac, "Ages prehist. de TEspagne"; "Evans's Bronze Age," and my
" Dolmens of Ireland," vol. ii., p. 673.

(24) MotUeUus : See my " Dolmens of Ireland," vol. ii., p. 523-526.

(25) Islands: For Atlantis, see Plato "Timaeus" and "Critias": for the Islands of the
Blessed (Gods) see Homer, Od. iv, 563 seq : for the Oestrymnides see Festus Avienus.

(26) Historical Sketch of the Tin Trade in Cornwall; Pl3rmouth, Brendon, 1874.

(27) Artabri; Strabo, lib. ii., edit Falc. vol. i., p. 159.

(28) Depth of Shafts: The deepest shafts iknown to me are those of Arcillera (330 feet), and
some in the Province of Orense said to be between 200 and 300 feet deep. According
to the Revista Minera, there were in January 1892, three principal Companies working
tin-concessions in the Province of Orense, viz.: The San Francisco at Avion; the Tin- Vise
Company, Limited; and the Galida Tin Maatschappij, the properties of which latter
were at Pentes near Guaditia which should be placed in my map a little to the south-
east of the letters L and M (= Penouta and Ramilo). In the Province of Salamanca, two
Companies were then mining for tin. — the Salamanca Tin-Mining Company Limited;
and the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Bergbau in Spanien. In 1890, according to the
Manuel de la Ugislacion de Afinas, by D. J. Abella, there were 15 tin concessions at work,
representing a total area of 532 hectars, employing 272 workpeople, with an output of 48
tons, valued at 43,099 pesetas.

In addition to the works r* >ve quoted there are at least two which I have not been
able to obtain, both of which treat of tin-mining in Spain: (i) Descripcum de ks minas de
la Frovincia de Zamora, 1846, by D. Luis de la Escosura; (2) Memoria sobre hs Minas de
estdko situadas en las Provincias de Pontevedray Orense, Madrid, by F. Cutali.

A full list of all works relating to the geology and mineralogy of Galida will be
found in M. Chas. Barrois' Terrains ^anciens des Asturias et de la GaHce, which forms vol.
II. of the Memories de la Soc Geol. du Nord, Lille, 1882.

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