SWANSEA. This important Welch town contains groups of furnaces and other works connected with the smelting of copper, for which Swansea is celebrated. The ore is im ported from Cornwall, Devonshire, and other parts of Great Britain, and also from various foreign places besides Australia. Besides the works for smelting copper, there are works, zinc-works, tin-plate-works, yards for building and repairing ships, roperies, tanne ries, and potteries. The traffic with the country is facilitated by several canals and tram-roads. A canal about 17 miles in length runs along the valley of the Tawe into Breelc nockshire ; another connects the Neath river and canal with Swansea harbour; and a third communicates with collieries on the N.E. of the town. In 1849 the trade of Swansea was as follows :—Foreign vessels—entered inwards • with cargoes, 205, bringing 48,000 tons ; out wards, with cargoes, 438, taking 50,000 tons ; inwards, with ballast, 112 ; 9000 tons ; out wards, with ballast, 16 ; 3600 tons. Coasting
vessels—entered inwards with cargoes, 4000, bringing 203,000 tons ; outwards, with car goes, 6000, taking 355,000 tons. In addition to the above, about 100 vessels arrived in ballast, and about 200 cleared out in ballast. Eighteen out of the 205 (of a burthen of 600 tons each) entering inwards from foreign parts brought copper ore and wool from South Australia.
The copper ore bought at Swansea by the smelters during the last few years has varied from 600,000/. to 900,0001. annually in value., It is all purchased by about eight or ten large firms, whose smelting works form the most distinguishing features in the neighbour hood of Swansea. When smelted and reduced to the forms of ingot, bar, sheet, &c., it is distributed throughout every part of the United Kingdom, and indeed throughout the known world. Almost all the copper ore smelted in this country is smelted in and near Swansea. For further details on this subject, see COPPER.