Alum and sulphate of iron, or green vitriol, are also prepared in small quantities at these •orl-ss. As the pro cess is kept secret, no writer has attempted to explain whence or how they arc procured. We conceive, how ever, that neither their sources nor the mode of their manufacture are very mysterious. The sides of the Parys mountain are covered with an aluminous slate, and the ore must therefore contain some portion of alu mina. Alum is consequently formed during the process of roasting, and dissolved by the water in which the ore is washed. The quantity of alum must be further increased by its continuing six months in the pits, which are. lined with clay; and this salt may be procured by nearly the common processes, from the water which re mains after the precipitation of the copper and ochre; from the same water green vitriol may be got, by im mersing in it pieces of iron.
In the stratum of earth which covers the copper ore, and at three feet distance from the surface, sulphate of lead is found, which yields from 6 to 10 cwt. from the ton of ore. It is very rich in silver, containing 57 omices of silver in the ton of lead; but the difficulty of reducing this ore has hitherto made the profit from working it very trifling.
The mines in the Parys mountain belong to two pro prietors; that which is called the Mona mine, being the property of lord Uxbridge, and that called Parys mine, belonging to lord Uxbridge and Mr Hughes. The num ber of workmen which these mines employ, as well as their produce, are nearly equal. The two together em ploy 1300 miners and smelters.
The produce of these mines is shipped at the port of Anilwch, which was originally a mere chasm between two rocks, but which the mining companies have, by cutting into the rock, rendered capable of containing 30 vessels, of 200 tons burden each. At this port a vil lage has sprung up, dependent on the mines, and con taining about 5000 inhabitants. See AMLWCH.
Mines, both of lead and copper, seem to have been wrought in Anglesea at a remote period ; for, at the Parys mountain, an ancient smelting hearth, with several pieces of lead, was discovered ; and at some miles dis tance, a cake of copper was found, weighing fifty pounds. It is, however, probable, that the present copper mines were unknown, till they were discovered in the year 1763, by Messrs Roe St Co. of Macclesfield. Some years bciore that period, sir Nicholas Bayley, having 'made abortive attempts to work copper mines in the Parys mountain, obliged these gentlemen to take part of the mountain in lease along with his Caernarvonshire mines, and to construct the necessary shafts and levels. Their
first trials having been made in an improper place, the produce of the mines was insufficient to defray the ex pense of working them, and the undertaking was about to be abandoned in despair: As a last effort, the over seer of the works divided his men into small parties, giving them directions to sink several shafts near a spring which gave indications of issuing from a quantity of copper ore. The experiment had a fortunate result, for, on the second clay, the miners discovered the pre sent Parys mine. The Rev. Mr Hughes, encouraged by this success, soon after opened the mines in his part of the mountain.
Though the narrow limits of a county must in general present few materials for the historian, yet some events in the history of Anglesea are too interesting to be pass ed over in total silence.
Previous to the conquest of Britain by the Romans, Anglesca seems to have been selected by the Druids as their chief residence. Here, in the deep recesses of thick woods, they trained their pupils to the contempla tion of' divine things; and, under the seal of the most inviolable secrecy, communicated to them the sublimer mysteries of their religion. In this retreat the Druids were attacked, A. D. 59, by the Roman commander Suetonius Paulinus. His cavalry swam across the Menai, and his infantry were conveyed over in boats. A numer ous army of Britons was drawn up on the shore, to dis pute the possession of this sacred island. Women, with elishcvelled hair, ran &bout among their ranks carrying torches, and the Druids stood around, pouring forth im precations against the foe.
The Romans, appalled by this strange sight, remain ed some time inactive, exposed to their enemies ; but, animated by the exhortations of the general, they at tacked and defeated the Britons, and threw the Druids into the fire which they had prepared for their captives. The Romans then destroyed the sacred groves, in whose gloom the Druids were wont to perform the in human rites of a most cruel superstition.
An insurrection in England obliging Suetonius to withdraw his troops from Anglesca, the inhabitants again recovered their independence ; but were a second time conquered by Julius Agricola, and continned un der the Roman yoke while that people remained in Britain.