Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/77

 nearly two miles inland, and leaving, at low water, an extensive plain of line sand.

Waters.─There is nothing approaching to the nature of a lake, nor even a natural pond, in this district; and, owing to its small extent and peninsular character, its streams are hardly of sufficient size to be entitled to the name of rivers. They make up in number, however, for what they want in size. Originating in the central ridges, they flow towards the sea on all sides, but chiefly to the north and south, and exhibit, in the rapidity of their course and purity of their waters, the life and beauty peculiar to the streams of a mountainous country. This profusion of running water is of the utmost benefit to a district wherein the operations of mining require the employment of so much machinery; and the great utility of the Cornish stream lets becomes the cause of the destruction of all their beauty and purity. The processes of pounding the ores at the mill, (stamping) and of washing the gravelly soils in search of alluvial tin, (streaming,) very frequently divert them from their natural course, and convert them into dirty puddles of a red or white colour.

This district is equally rich in numerous and copious springs of excellent and very pure water. They are found in every village, and are seen at the foot of every hill. Several of these, of unusual extent and purity, have, in former times, obtained so much renown for their healing virtues, as to be dedicated to saints; and two still are surrounded by the ruins of the chapels built for the accommodation of their visitors. These sacred springs contain no