108 VEINS THEIR NATURE AND ORIGIN. 



continued, and it is in these that the greatest variety of veins 

 and cross-veins occur, and from these also that the greatest 

 variety of metallic ores are to be obtained. What the law 

 that has determined the greater richness of certain districts, 

 science cannot as yet give the slightest indication, any more 

 than it can tell why certain areas that were once convulsed 

 with igneous activity have long since been cold and silent. 

 All that can be done in the mean time is simply to note the 

 facts, and these, when correctly recorded, become of the 

 greatest importance to industrial operations, as they will 

 one day or other do to scientific deduction. 



The importance of correct information on all that re- 

 lates to metalliferous veins and deposits cannot be too 

 highly valued, and especially in countries like Britain, that 

 depend so much upon the metals for their mechanical, 

 manufacturing, and commercial greatness. Whether as a 

 medium of exchange, for the fabrication of implements 

 and the construction of machines, or merely for objects of 

 luxury and ornament, the metals are all-important ; and 

 whatever tends to certainty and facility in obtaining their 

 ores is deserving of a nation's encouragement. Without the 

 metals there cannot, indeed, be high and substantial pro- 

 gress in civilisation ; and in modern times a nation's place 

 may be safely indicated by the facilities she has of obtain- 

 ing them. Her hills may be bleak and barren, and little 

 fitted for the amenities of agriculture ; yet beneath that poor 

 and rugged surface may lie mines of untold wealth, and 

 the readiest means of manufacturing and commercial great- 

 ness. And such is usually the contrast that presents itself 

 in mining and metalliferous districts. Cold and retentive 

 clays, ungenial moorlands and uplands, are too often charac- 

 teristic of coal tracts, as witness those of Northumberland, 

 Durham, and Lanarkshire; while cliffs, and scars, and 

 bleak unapproachable ridges, are the common concomitants 



