188 Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology. 
[P.223]thick, lieing at a considerable depth from the surface; and 
on my asking, which were the beds in which they usually 
found Shells ; one of them successively struck the point of 
his pick into the floor of stone, on which we were standing, 
in places that at first sight presented no unusual appearance, 
and thereby turned up several plano-convex lenses of large 
size and very regular form, out of the stone floor, which 
lenticular masses, he called shells and skelps : on examina= 
tion, they proved to be almost entirely composed of cornu- 
ammonii, (curiously covered by branching spar, which ap- 
peared compressed), and of other shells : but what occasions 
my mentioning the same here, is, the appearance of nu- 
merous fibres, exactly like small roots, crossing each other 
in the manner of a net, which lined the bottom of all these 
lenticular cavities in the Limestone. 
It might be important, for those who have the oppor- 
tunity of repeating these observations, to ascertain, whether 
these fibres are of vegetable or of animal origin: it seemed 
very unlikely to me, that they could have recently originated 
from plants on the surface; but this ought to be well exa- 
mined, at the time of removing the stratified clay (called 
Rummel carf) and other matters, from off this bed of stone. 
The Roots of Coltsfoot, Sainfoin and some other plants, are 
said to descend very deep into the fissures of Limestone and 
other Rocks: but not through strata of solid Clay, I should 
think. 
1.5, by the shrinking+.—+ Rep. i. 246. The zealous 
disciple of M. Werner, who in 1809 translated his ‘“‘ New 
theory of Veins,” with Notes of his own, did not seem to 
be aware, nor has it since been stated, I believe, that the 
other causes, so principally insisted on for the opening o 
veins, have been withdrawn by M. Werner, and this only, 
the “ shrinking of the materials,”’ fixed on ; which had been 
only casually, and indeed improbably hinted at, as connected 
with drying and with earthquakes, as I have mentioned, 
Rep. i. 74, Note; see my Notes on pages 209 and 217. 
A very recent writer, who under the signature of F. in 
Nicholson’s Journal, vol. xxxvi., gives a general view of the 
Geological System of M. Werner; at p. 161, thus men- 
tions that Geognost’s ideas, of the manner in which ‘rup- 
tures of the strata and fissures were occasioned, viz. “ by the 
unequal accuniulation of rocky matter, at the time of deposi- 
tion, by the loss of support, owing to the diminution of the 
Waters,” &c. 
1. 12, repugnant to facts t.—t Rep. i. 246, P. M. xxxix. 
. 428, 
J P.224, 
