TO BE LOCATED?

accommodation for 1500 men students. It transpires that on no occasion have the committee of the Science and Art Schools in Swansea sought the use of this laboratory from the Corporation, or even suggested its adaptability for prosecuting the study of advanced science; and with the exception of two or three private pupils, the advantages offered by the laboratory, and the trained chemist who presides over it, have not been taken up. From the returns published by the Science and Art Department, it may be seen that the instruction imparted in the elementary branches of science-for advanced is little taught has been of a fitful character. It follows that Swansea-by reason of its various works has many trained scientists, and some of these have at times taught subjects in classes affiliated with the Science and Art Department-possibly under the impression. that the grant upon the results obtained would prove remunerative, but finding that this was not the case, abandoned them. From whatever cause it arose, however, the number of students taught in the various schools-for there are several branches affiliated with the Science and Art Department-has been reduced to one-half nearly during the past two years.

Cardiff has neither possessed a College giving tuition in advanced science, nor a public laboratory, and the consequence has been that the study of metallurgy, chemistry and mining, has been neglected in years gone by. Two years ago the longfelt want was partially supplied, and chemistry and metallurgy taught. That the accommodation was limited, soon became apparent, and this induced the committee of the Cardiff Schools to provide a commodious laboratory in the new Science Schools now approaching completion. The returns of the Science and Art Department indicate that the number of students in science at Cardiff is rapidly increasing, and far exceeded that at Swansea in the session 1880-1. Mechanical science has always been well represented in the Cardiff Science and Art Schools.

Having noticed, cursorily, the provisions already existing for giving scientific instruction in Swansea and Cardiff, the specific claim of the former to the proposed University upon the score of its various industries calls for some consideration. Swansea and its neighbourhood possess silver, lead, zinc, sulphur and arsenic works, not one of which is represented at Cardiff. These employ a very insignificant number of hands compared with the copper and steel industries, and, moreover, special processes are used, some of which-in the details of their working-are kept as secret as possible; and a good knowledge of the science bearing upon the reduction of the ores of lead and zinc can only be obtained by practice in the works. The rule is that those assayers who are connected with the lead, silver, and tin works, have not been trained in science colleges but in the laboratories

TO BE LOCATED?

of the respective works. Furthermore, it is proverbial that the assayers and valuers of ores purchased and sold to these works have such conservative scientific notions, that they will not recognise the results of any assay unless it has been done by one of their own company (limited). The advantages offered in Swansea for the acquirement of a knowledge of practical chemistry and metallurgy have not been by any means meagre or limited, nevertheless, with all the various industries, the advantages referred to have not been appreciated, proving that the organizations of the respective works have felt themselves competent to teach and train their own assayers and assistants. With regard to sulphur and arsenic works, these are chiefly adjuncts to the copper industry, and it is the bane rather than the good fortune of Swansea to possess them, for whilst those employed in them can put forward no plausible claim to the necessity of University training-from a scientific point of view-it is the poisonous effects of these elements and their products evolved into the atmosphere that adds to the death-rate and impairs the salubrity of Swansea. Copper smelting is carried on in Cardiff, and the ingenius process there adopted for working up ores containing less copper than would pay to extract by the old process used in Swansea, has no rival in South Wales.

So far as iron and steel works and coal-mines are concerned and these are the staple industries of the district-East Glamorgan and Monmouthshire are thickly studded with them and no one will question the fact that three-fourths of the production is brought nearer to Cardiff than Swansea. Although it is admitted frankly that there has been, and still is, a tendency to the home training of chemists and assistants in iron and steel works, nevertheless much more demand has existed for trained chemists in iron and steel works than in any of the local industries noted above, and a considerable proportion of the large number of men, employed in the iron and steel industry, would be greatly benefited by a knowledge of the science bearing upon the subject. The coal-mining industry differs from the metallurgical in one important feature bearing upon scientific knowledge. In steel works and other metallurgical processes carried on in a large scale, skilled scientists are employed because assaying and analytical processes are involved, and in many instances these works are complete in themselves, and do not require scientific aid from without. In coal-mining, however, no such organisation exists and while practical mining is taught and underground engineering, both in its theoretical and practical bearing is well represented in many collieries, a knowledge of such sciences as physics, geology, mineralogy and chemistry must be obtained outside the circle

TO BE LOCATED?

of practical operations. There can be little doubt expressed that the claims of mining to scientific instruction such as that which will be afforded by the proposed University are very much weightier than those of the metallurgical interests combined. The dangers and risks involved in coal-mining have no parallel in the other industries, and a more widespread and extended knowledge of the sciences bearing upon the subject not only among those who get the coal, but also among those who ship it cannot fail to prove of great benefit in promoting the welfare of the population engaged; as well as tend to minimise the number of explosions both in coal-mines and on board ship. The advantages for the study of geology are incomparably greater at Cardiff than at Swansea, for in no part of the coalfield is there such a section of the outcrop as exists near Caerphilly, whilst the varied character of the strata south of the coal-field is such as can rarely be met with in any neighbourhood.

The geological map of Glamorganshire in the vicinity of Cardiff appears like a patchwork of many colours, so numerous and irregular are the geological periods represented.

J. W THOMAS.

In Captain Smyth, a member of an old Cowbridge family, we have to lament one of the last of the Peninsular heroes. He died at Swansea, at the advanced age of ninety-two. Captain Smyth was the father of Mr. Walter Smyth, Merthyr. He entered the Yeomanry in Ireland when a young man, but passed from that branch of the service into the Wiltshire Militia, from which he volunteered into the 31st Foot.

The "Coal Riches of South Wales" will form the text of a future article in the Red Dragon. The subject is a very important one, and we hope to enlist the best pen of Glamorgan in its treatment. At present we commend the healthy moral given in a daily contemporary:-" It is early yet to flag in the race, and there is every incentive to build new docks, enlarge others, form new streets, and press on with new industries and new institutions." Still we remember the time, forty years ago, when the coal industry of Aberdare was in its youth, and now it is said that in twenty years, perhaps less, the four feet seam will have been worked out. The lower seams of course are pretty well intact, and Wayne used to extol the six and nine feet above the four feet.

Roman roads are yet to be traced in Glamorgan, though collieries, ironworks, and extended agricultural operations have in many places brushed them away. At Gellygaer there are many indications of Roman times. A field near the vicarage is well worthy of examination, having only been partially excavated in the times of the Rev. D. Noel and the Rev. Gilbert Harris. In the walls of the cottages fragments of Roman bricks are common, though I have not been able to find one bearing the legionary number as is a common find at Caerleon.

From Gellygaer, facing Breconshire, the Roman road is well defined. Part of it is known as Heol Adam, evidently a local reference to its great age, and from the termination of this road on towards a point a mile or so from Dowlais, indications. are given, especially in spring by the greater verdure of the track. On the side of the road, traces of a large encampment yet remain; in the local legends it is ascribed to a chapel, but the characteristics of a camp are very clear.

Formerly, so the late Mr. Thomas Stephens told me, a stone, bearing the arms of Frontinus was visible. The stone is still there now, looking more like a maen hir than a milestone, but the inscription is gone, and old tourists record that it was broken off by a drunken mason. The road from Gellygaer to a camp near the Beacons was known as Sarn Hir, and Pontsarn at Vaynor is evidently derived from this. In very dry weather I have seen traces of the Ford at Pontsarn, but the quarrymen on one side and farmers on the other, have long obliterated the signs on the banks. One portion, however, and that well preserved, can be seen in the fieldway from Vaynor Church to Ponstickyll.