116 



ME. E. W. BINNEY ON A MmERAL VEIN 



action of great heat, the causes which produced the move- 

 ments having doubtless been deep-seated in the interior of 

 the earth's crust These dislocations are commonly known 

 by the name of faults, and their direction is nearly always 

 from N. and N.W. to S. and S.E., although there are a 

 few of them from N.N.E. to S.S.W. They generally con- 

 tain crystals of carbonate of lime, bisulphuret of iron, and 

 in a few instances sulphuret of lead, although the last is 

 rare. Notwithstanding these great disturbances, however, 

 the strata adjoining the faults are seldom found altered by 

 the action of heat, further than such as may have resulted 

 from great mechanical pressure caused by one side of the 

 rock rubbing against the other. 



Sulphuret -of lead has been obtained from the lower coal 

 measures at Anglezark. Many years ago, a large sum of 

 money was expended in searching for this metal in about the 

 same strata in the Birtle valley near Hey wood ; and at the 

 present time Mr. Gisborne is working a vein which inter- 

 sects the lower workable coal series (the Rochdale mines) 

 at Horridge End, near Whaley Bridge. Many of the main 

 joints of rocks, in all parts of the coal field, often have their 

 sides encrusted with crystals of carbonate of lime and 

 bisulphuret of iron, especially in the vicinity of faults. In 

 the rough rock* at Harrock Hill, and in the same rock in 

 Shuttle worth and at other places, are seen thin veins of 

 sulphate of barytes. 



In the white sandstone quarry belonging to Mr. Littler 

 at Scotch Row, near St. Helens, where the remarkable 

 fossil trees with stigmarijB roots were found, there is a main 

 joint from S.E. to N.W. filled with beautiful crystals of 

 carbonate of lime and bisulphuret of iron. Other joints of 

 the stone in this quarry afford sulphuret of lead. In this 



* For the position of the rough rock and the Rochdale coal series, see 

 paper by the author in vol. i. p. 78 of the Transactions of the Manchester 

 Geological Society. 



