238 Proceedings of the Boyal Physical Society. 



the ore, the latter partaking of all the crumplings the rock 

 has undergone, and no evidence of a fault, fissure, or 

 previously existing cavity, in which the ore could have been 

 deposited, is to be found. 



The Eammelsberg has a height above the sea of 2076 feet 

 (633 m.), and is seen from Goslar as a bold rounded moun- 

 tain mass which overlooks the plain from an altitude of 

 about 1200 feet. The summit is clothed with pines, but the 

 bare front of the hill is covered with long slopes of ddhris 

 from the mouths of the shafts and levels inside. The lower 

 half of the hill consists of the Goslar shale series which dips 

 S.E. at 40° to 55° ; higher up comes a thin bed of calceola 

 shales which are covered by the Spirifer Sandstone, of 

 which the top of the hill is composed. The ore deposit 

 has been disclosed to a depth of nearly 1000 feet, and a 

 longitudinal distance of 1400 yards. It sometimes reaches 

 a thickness of about ^b feet, but at one place it sends 

 off a bag-like branch produced apparently by the intense 

 lateral pressure buckling together a part of the deposit, 

 and here it has a breadth of 100 feet. (See Section 

 No. 5.) 



The copper ore of the Eammelsberg has been mined since 

 the year 968 or 972, and was supposed to be nearly ex- 

 hausted some years ago when a new portion of the deposit 

 was found, which is now being vigorously worked. The old 

 workings contain a great many secondary minerals, being 

 formed from the decomposition of the pyrites.^ These in- 

 clude (1.) Green Vitriol (FeS04 + 7 HgO) to which are related 

 Botryogen, Eoemerite, Voltaite, Misy (copeapiteor coquimbite), 

 Glockerite or Vitriolochre; (2.) Blue Vitriol (CuSO, + 5 H^O) ; 

 (3.) White Vitriol (ZnSO^ + 7 H^O) ; (4.) Gypsum (CaS04 + 

 2 HgO); (5.) Halotrichite or Haarsalz (Al^Og 3 SO3 + 18 H^O). 

 When I visited the mine I was taken to a part of the old 



1 See different accounts of the Rammelsberg ore deposit, *' Bohmer Bergm. 

 Journ.," 1793; Reichetzer, Anl. zur Geogn. u. Gebirgsk, 1812, p. 264; 

 Zimmermann, Das Harzgeb., 1. Th., 1824, p. 318; Hausmann, Ueber die Bild. 

 des Harzgeb., 1842, p. 133 ; Lossen, Zeit. d. d. geol. Ges., xxxviii., 1876, 

 p. 777; Wimmer, Zeitsch. fiir Berg-, Hiitten-, u. Salinien-Wesen, xxv., 

 1877, p. 119 ; Kbhler, Ibid., xxx., 1882, pp. 31 and 278. 



