119 



any great importance are met with. Without doubt such deposits 

 will hereafter be found in Edenside when the district shall be 

 explored under the guidance of competent persons having that 

 special object in view. In all the parts of the Carboniferou.s 

 Limestone Series whence the Red Rocks have been, geologically 

 speaking, lately denuded. Haematite may be looked for with some 

 prospect of success. 



In form our ore varies from earthy ruddle, through the mammil- 

 lated aggregations with a more or less radiating fibrous structure, 

 to the beautifully crystalline varieties known as Specular Iron. 

 Many of these, although lacking some of the exquisitely beautiful 

 iridescence observable on the specimens of the same kind of ore 

 from Elba and elsewhere, are yet of very great beauty ; and there 

 are Cumberland specimens in the British Museum, the Collection 

 of Minerals at the Museum of Practical Geology, and the fine 

 private collection of the late Professor Harkness that, for lustre 

 and beautiful play of colours, will bear favourable comparison with 

 specimens from any part of the world. 



1,491,440 tons of this ore, worth ;^i, 154,6 13 were raised in 

 Cumberland alone in the year 1880. 



Another ore of iron very commonly distributed throughout our 

 district, and yet differing from haematite inasmuch as it never occurs 

 in any considerable quantity, is Ilmenite, Titanic Iron, or Ferric 

 Titanate. Unlike the other metallic ores, this rarely occurs here in 

 the form of veins; but it is found as a constituent of our crystalline 

 rocks ; most commonly in the rocks of an igneous origin. The best 

 example of its occurrence I am acquainted with is that of the 

 Hypersthenite of Carrick, wherein it occurs in the form of irregular 

 granular masses of a silvery-steel lustre and colour, "and generally 

 more or less of a black tarnish, amongst the crystals of Hypersthene 

 or Diallage and of plagioclase felspar that constitute the bulk of 

 that rock. The Gabbro found at Walla Crag, Hawes Water, and 

 that of Cuns Fell, near Melmerby, also yield the same mineral. 



Similar remarks apply to Magnetite; for although this ore 

 occurs abroad in lodes and large masses in quantities sufificient to 



