SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 221 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



Geological Society. 



AT a meeting of this Society, on January I, 1813, (the 

 president in the chair) the reading of Mr. Philips's 

 paper " on the Veins of Cornwall" was concluded. 



The metalliferous veins of the Herland and Drannack mines 

 run E b N and W b S, and the cross courses run N b W and 

 S b E. The rock or country which they traverse is Schist, in 

 some places so hard as to require being blasted. The width °f 

 most of the metalliferous veins varies from two inches to six 

 inches : whenever exceeding this latter measure, they have 

 been found soon after to divide and pass away in mere strings. 

 A contre or oblique vein traverses - these mines in a direction 

 WbN and E b S, varying in width from one to three feet. 

 Near the surface it was found to abound in blende and iron 

 pyrites, but lower down afforded large quantities of copper ore. 

 Whenever it intersected the metalliferous veins, the place of 

 junction formed one lode for about eight fathoms in length, 

 and three or four in width. The contre was heaved by the 

 cross courses, and these latter, at the place of intersection, are 

 found to be not only enlarged but impregnated with ore. The 

 contents of the cross courses are clay, quartz, or a mixture of 

 both. It was in one of these cross courses, at the place of its 

 junction with one of these metalliferous veins, that the cele- 

 brated deposit of silver was found mingled with galena, with 

 iron pyrites, with bismuth, cobalt, and wolfram ; and these 

 substances were also found in those parts of the vein adjacent 

 to the cross course. 



Huel Alfred is in immediate contact with the mines just 

 mentioned, and is at present one of the richest and most pro- 

 fitable copper mines that Cornwall can boast of. The great 

 deposit of ore is contained in a contre from nine to twenty-four 

 feet wide, which is considered as the continuation of that in 

 Herland mine. The contre traverses a regular east and west 

 vein, and it is remarkable that the ore, abundant as it is, has 

 hitherto been found only in one mass at the depth of 117 fa- 

 thoms 



