The application of capital and scientific labour to mining operations, during the last ten years, has given to the district an active and business-like character, and brought with it a large increase to the working population. At Llanymynech Hill, in addition to mining operations, there are annually raised about 60,000 tons of limestone, which is chiefly used for farming purposes in Montgomeryshire and Shropshire. At Porth-y-Waen rocks, in the same range, there is nearly the same quantity of limestone raised. The united quantities hewn and blasted from these vast limestone rocks produce about 70,000 tons of burnt lime, thus showing the extended use now made of limestone in the cultivation of farm lands in the immediate district. The manufacture of iron is most extensively carried on in Ruabon parish, principally by the New British Iron Company, the quantity of good bar iron made amounting on the average to 350 tons per week. These works give employment to about 2,500 people, men and boys. The Company works its own collieries, and consumes nearly all the coal its numerous pits produce. In the same parish there are two extensive manufactories, for the conversion of the ores of calamine and black jack (carbonate and sulphuret of zinc) into zinc or spelter, and at each of these places from twenty to thirty tons of these metals are made. The coals raised from the coal-fields in and around Oswestry, worked by Messrs. Croxon and others, amount to about 40,000 tons per annum; whilst nearly 250,000 tons are raised in the Ruabon district, and a much larger quantity at Brymbo. At Minera a powerful Company is actively engaged in working the old mines that produced so much ore during the former operations upon them. These mines were closed from the influx of water, and the inadequacy of the machinery then employed to carry it off. The present Company have, with an enterprising spirit, adopted the highest class of machinery, and employed the best mining talent that could be procured. By these means, which have called forth the application of at least £50,000 to this gigantic undertaking, the Company has fortunately succeeded in discovering rich veins of lead-ore, which produce from 100 to 150 tons per month. Other mining companies are also largely engaged in the district, some of which are producing large quantities of lead-ore. Biography.