NOTES ON CRICH HILL. 5 1 



It is about two years since I paid my visit to the Wakebridge 

 mine. Last summer, the workings in the toadstone were closed 

 because the miners were getting near the top of the bed, and 

 were afraid of water making its way into the mine if they 

 proceeded further. 



I am told that the ore in the toadstone was as good as 

 that in the adjacent limestone. Other occurrences of ore in 

 toadstone have been noted, but I am not aware that any 

 microscopical examination has been made of the rock sup- 

 posed to be toadstone. As I have stated above, the rock in 

 which the ore was found looked very much like an altered 

 limestone, and a microscopical analysis was necessary in order 

 to determine that it was toadstone. 



I must here express my thanks to Mr. Spencer and his son 

 for their kindness in giving me information and the opportunity 

 of visiting the mine. 



The common popular belief is that Crich Hill owes its present 

 shape to some violent " convulsions of nature," thus " explaining 

 the unknown by the still more unknown." Whereas science, 

 proceeding from the known to the unknown, leads us to the 

 opinion that the agencies which we now see at work around 

 us are the same that have been operating during the ages long 

 gone by. The occurrence of an igneous rock in the interior 

 of the hill might seem to corroborate the popular opinion, but 

 this bed of toadstone is not intrusive.* It lies between two 

 beds of limestone, and is bent with them. This is shown by 

 the fact that the horizontal workings pass through the toadstone 

 to the beds of limestone underneath it, and then again into the 

 same bed of toadstone. The latter, therefore, must have flowed 

 as a lava stream over a bed of limestone, and was, in its turn, 

 covered by a deposit of limestone. The whole series of beds 

 were afterwards bent into their present form. 



Reasons for this belief will be given in a future volume. 



