I n the year 1863 a working miner picked up a piece of black-looking stuff in a small ravine above Cwmgwynen farm-house, five miles west of the town of Llanfyllin, in North Wales. His discovery excited his curiosity, and led him to make some trial-holes in the ravine, in the hope that he might find the substance in bulk. He was successful in this; but the newly found substance perplexed both himself and his mining friends. It was strange to them all, except that some of them pronounced it manganese, and others rotten sulphur. At last, through the late Mr. Hope Jones, of Hooton, Cheshire, the mineral found its way into the hands of Dr. Voelcker, for analysis. Dr. Voelcker found that the best samples submitted to him yielded over 60 per cent. of phosphate of lime, and the most impure over 40 per cent. At the meeting of the British Association, in Birmingham, in 1864, Dr. Voelcker called attention to the discovery, and rightly estimated the quantity of phosphate, in the property to which his attention had been directed, at over two million tons. Meanwhile preparations were being made for mining the newly discovered substance, and bringing it into the market. Searches, too, were made for the mineral on adjoining properties, which resulted in its discovery at Penygarnedd, to the N.E., and Pwllywrach, to the S.W. of Cwmgwynen, under similar conditions. The district was one well known to me previously; and I had occasion to visit the new workings repeatedly.