1218 Analyses of Books. [March, 



Article XV. 



Analyses of Books. ^ 



A Treatise on a Section of the Strata from Newcastle -upon Tune 

 to Cross Fell, in Cumberland, with Remarks on Mineral Veins 

 in general, Ss'c. S^c. To which is added a Treatise on the Disco^ 

 ^ert/, the Opening, and the IVorking of Lead Mines, with the 

 Dressing and Smelting of Lead Ores, By Weslgarth Forster. 

 Second Edition. 1821. 



No country in the world has carried the art of minino- so far 

 as England has done. Foreigners who have of late years visited 

 our ni J ling counties are struck with our efforts, the successful 

 application of mechanism, and with the regularity of system that 

 prevails in some districts ; and yet when they inquire for an 

 English book in which they may find these things explained^ 

 and see their history traced, they are surprised to learn that 

 their inquiry is in vain, and that except some obsolete treatise, 

 or detached paper in a journal, or in a Society's Transactions, 

 nothing of the kind exists. 



t The title of the work now before us, which we have somewlxat 

 abbreviated, would lead us Co expect that for a particular and 

 for an important district, something had now been done; and 

 though we may think that those whose experience is confined 

 to one country, should not attempt an account of mineral veins 

 in general, yet we readily admit that nothing would be more 

 desirable than a record of the observations of practical men 

 relative to those situations with which their knowledge is 

 greatest. We wish, therefore, Mr. Forster had been guided 

 more b}^ such a rule, and we think that he mi^ht have avoided 

 some errors, and have made a more useful book. 



The part of the country under consideration is a curious one, 

 and is singular for the number, extent, and regularity, of the 

 beds, into which its stratification is divided, differing indeed 

 most widely, though Mr. Forster does not seem willing to think 

 -so, from most other mining countries, which set at defiance the 

 accurate sections which are such good guides to a Cumberland 

 miner. 



The upper series of these beds contain the coal of Newcastle, 

 and in the lower series which basset out from under the coal 

 measures, are found the valuable lead mining fields of Derwent 

 and Allendale, in the county of Northumberland; Weardale, and 

 Teasdale, in Durham ; and Alston Moor, Nanthead, and Cross 

 Fell, in Cumberland. 



It is stated ** that the general rise or acclivity of the strata, 

 which is pretty well known to he in this part of our island to the 



