260 C. T. Clougli — The Disappearance, or ' Famping,' 



The best locality for observing 'famp' and the accompanying 

 phenomena is at the Highfield ' hushes,' ^ above Grasshill. It is 

 there seen in clear section that the Great Limestone, the average 

 thickness of which in the neighbourhood is 55 feet, is replaced by 

 10 or 12 feet of soft siliceous, irregularly banded, ochreous clay. 

 Several veins cross the hushes, and near these veins low rambling 

 levels have been driven in search of lead ore. Such work gives 

 rather uncertain returns, for there are no straight or constant strings 

 of ore to follow, but every here and there nodular masses of ore, 

 occasionally a foot or more in breadth, are met with, which seem on 

 the whole to repay the miners. These masses often occur together 

 in groups, the centre of the larger examples being composed of 

 galena, and the outside usually of carbonate of lead, or of a mixture 

 of carbonate, phosphate, and arseniate. In the smaller, those with 

 a breadth of an inch or less, the mass is often composed throughout 

 of the three last-mentioned ores without any galena. The outlines 

 of most of the lumps are rounded, and they show no sharply 

 defined crystals of galena like those common in the ordinary veins. 

 The miners think that the famp-ore has been water-worn, and they 

 are probably right in one sense, though the carbonate and phosphate 

 of lead, etc., on the outsides of the lumps, are often in well-formed 

 crystals which cannot have undergone rolling. 



A few other minerals, associated with the lead ores in the adjacent 

 veins, are also found in the famp. Besides these, there are hard 

 round lumps, each consisting of a limestone centre and an outer 

 coat, which shows a gradual passage between limestone and famp. 

 No sandstone boulders have ever been noticed in famp. 



It is usually stated that limestones are not so much famped ' under 

 the hill ' as at the outcrops, and the sections at the head of Highfield 

 hushes seem to confirm this opinion. In the gutter made in 1876 

 to hush part of the famp, a series of small faults and local contortions 

 were seen, which bring down the ' Coal Sills,' the sandstones next 

 above the Great Limestone, to lower levels towards the south, the 

 direction in which the outcrop of limestone should occur. We know 

 that these disturbances do not affect the beds below the famp, for 

 they were not met with in the Cowby level, which is driven nearly 

 under this gutter. They seem due to the dwindling away of the 

 limestone as it comes near the surface. Famp probably replaces 

 the Great Limestone in Yad Moss level, South Lang Tae sike, 

 Blackway Hole hushes, the West Beck and Old Langdon hushes, 

 and Pikelaw hushes. It probably also occurs for most of the way 

 between Blackway Hole and South Lang Tae sike, a distance 

 measured along the outcrop of about a mile, from the Yad Moss 

 level to some distance on the north side of Crook Burn, and for 

 half a mile or more on the north side of Henrake hush. 



The areas wherein limestone has been replaced by famp are 

 sometimes sharply defined. In Pikelaw hushes, vertical walls of 



^ A hush is an artificial wash-out, made for the purpose of baring and cutting the 

 strata and the veins which cross them. In the process of hushing a reservoir is made 

 high on the hill, and the water is let out in a flood along the desired direction. 



