There is a gr, at vt,,ut of fuel in this country, Coak .,.e scarcely to be had, except at a high price, In ing ;,11 brought from a great disfance by Sea. Of wood the re it but little, and in man) places that little is non It negle( 1 ed ; though in other (plarter!, particularly in the neigh bottrhood ()I• IlalOd, considc rattle tracts or land have late ly been laid out in plantations, NIMICII pl'01111S• to be both profitable to the proprietors, and useful to the country. Various kinds of trees hat e been planted, but those %ride!) seem to thrive best are the larch and the beech. The most prevalent species of furl is peat. There are many extensive pacts producing it, such as the plain between Tregaron, and Strata Florida or Stratllour, and (hat part or the coast beyond Aberystwith which borders on the river Dory. These arc capable of great ii .prof by draining, and other means; but as the inhabitants de pend so much upon peat, such improvements might oc casion greater harm than good to a numerous class of the people, and therefore is not likely to be soon accom plished.
The mountains, especially those in the north part of the county, contain lead and other minerals in great abundance : but these are not now an object of attention, either because there is not a sufficient spirit of enter prise, or because the exp•nce and difficulty of working them would more than counterbalance the probable pro fits. Formerly, however, they were in great repute, and found to be extremely productive. In Queen Elizabeth's time, a company of Germans made a great deal by the mines of lead and silver, the ore of which often gave se venty or eighty ounces of silver in the ton of metal. In the reign of James the First, Sir Hugh Middleton, for some years, out of a single mine, cleared at the rate of 2000/. per month, one ton of lead yielding a hundred ounces of silver, and in this way accumulated that large for tune, which he afterwards employed in bringing the New River water into London. A .Mr Bushel also, who suc ceeded him, made such immense sums, that, according to one author, he presented Charles I. during the civil wars, with a regiment of horse, clothed his whole army, and lent him, besides, 40,000/. The mines wrought by these gentlemen were so much exhausted, as to become ever after of inferior importance. But the mineral pros perity of the north of Cardiganshire did not decrease. In 1690, other mines of great value were discovered on the estate of Gogerthan, belonging to Sir Carbery Price. They were so rich as to obtain the appellation of the Welsh Potosi, and have been celebrated, both in the prose records of the principality, and in the poetical strains of Yalden and Sargent. Afterwards the mine ad venturers were at considerable expellee in carrying on the works, and had proportionate success in the profits which they derived from them ; but happening to dis agree among themselves, their undertakings declined in and in Value, and have never since been re vived with advantage ; though a gentleman well versed in the subject has given it as his opinion, that with mo ney sufficient for carrying on the works in a proper manner, it was quite possible to make them produce a clear annual profit of 12,000/. The lead mines of CW111
YhtWith are situated on the sides of two mountains, to the right of the river Ystwith, in one of tt hieh the lead is obtained with ease near the surface, but in the other the earth must be penetrated to no less an extent than 300 yards. In Cardiganshire there arc also rich veins of copper, which may be Jigged without great difficul ty, but which cannot be carried with advantage through the different lo•nt tiSt S, 1 OW of 00. (A h there is not one 'cuticle to be found ilt the th.
The antiquities to be met with in (idi!'uti bile, ;ir• neither tens numerous nor important. Near in the In ighboorhood of Cardig; u, there the r( mains apparent ly or sonic uloauuic lit. con i.ting of 'Hy re is allOil/•r monumental stone in the pri h 1,Iao (;acdolor, which is of prodigious size, being half a yard thi( k, and about six-and-t‘‘ cloy feet in circunifcren«.. Not fat from this, is what o Welsh call Lhech y gas-Pres, which means the stone of a gigan tic NS 0`11111. This stone is renntrkabl) large, and sup ported by four great pillars, about the height of five or six feet. In the \ ( hurch of ',Iran Dhewi Bre is preserved the horn of nit ox, no less than 17 inches in circumference at the mot. and a; heavy as stone, being, it is probable, in a state of petrefaction. It is said to have been kept there ever since the time of St David. who lived in the beginning of the (1th At a house in the I kinity, is a place called Karr Kestilh, of the Field of Castles, where a great number of stones, have !wen occasionally found by digging, bearing in scriptions, smite of whirl] have been preserved, though most of them are lost. One of them, according to Cam den's interpretation, is, Caii Arai manibus nienK•ri.r) Ennius Primus. Straylour, or Ystrad F/'wr abbey, is situated about six miles from Llanbedcr, on the bank of the river, and was in former times a place of great note, many of the Welsh princes having been buried in it, and the records of their acts and successions having been kept in it for a long series of years. At Llanfiliangel, a parish not many miles from Aberystwith, is a stone monument, 4 feet long and 3 broad, which should seem, from its name, Gwely Taleisin, to point out the grave of Taleisin ben 13ierdh, a celebrated poet, who flourished about the year 540. Some, however, suppose that. along with many others of a similar kind, it is an old sepulchral monument, erected in heathen times. _Nmong the anti quities of Cardiganshire, may also be reckoned the cas tles of Cardigan and Aberystwith, which were anciently large edifices, though the ruins of them which remain are inconsiderable.