72 C. E. DeBance — Mineral Veins in the Norih-uest Country. 



form of the ground than an actual roll of the strata), a line running 

 with the Brennand Lode across the mine. This lode has a direction 

 W. N. W., and is a downthrow of seven yards to the N. E. It is 

 worked for lead in the mine (of the Whitewell Mining Company), 

 which consists of -an engine-shaft and air-levels, from the fifth of 

 which an adit-level, half a mile in length, connects the mine with 

 the lower part of the valley. The hade or inclination of the lode is 

 on an average 65° from the horizontal ; but I found it in some parts 

 of the mine, in soft shale, to be 38°, and in hard limestone to 

 be as high as 84°, being especially steep between levels 4 and 5. 

 Level 1 is carried right through the axis, the bed commencing and 

 ending in the Eed Bed Limestone, with a boss of lower shaly 

 limestone in the centre. Up to the present time the lode has only 

 been worked on the western side of the axis, the western end of the 

 levels being driven up to the " Bolland Shales," passing through 

 shaley limestones, lower post limestones, and very productive red- 

 beds, with an intercalated unproductive shale-bed in its upper part, 

 locally called " Little North Shale." The shift of this shale in the 

 various levels enabled me to calculate the throw of the fault. 



When the lode passes through shale-beds it is much squeezed, and 

 indeed almost invisible ; with shale on one "cheek," and limestone on 

 the other, the lode is invariably poor. With limestone to limestone, the 

 lode is well defined, filled with lead and other foreign matter, often 

 with spaces or hollows (locally called "loughs"), the sides of which 

 are covered in No. 5 South, with brilliant crystals of carbonate of lime, 

 facing towards the hollow, resting on a " foot- wall " of iron-pyrites, 

 beautifully indented with slickenside. The beds here are dark and 

 compact, occasionally iron-stained, and contain both in levels 5 and 6 

 a great quantity of blende in large masses. With Eed Bed Lime- 

 stone on both cheeks the lode is productive of galena, as much 

 as five tons having been taken from one spot. The Chert beds which 

 are productive of lead at Sykes have not yet been reached in this 

 mine. The limestones associated with the cherts on this horizon 

 appear to a great extent peculiar to the district, and unlike the 

 12-fathom limestone which persists through West Yorkshire, (upper- 

 most of the " Scar " and " Cam " limestones, " Main " limestone, 82 

 feet of Swaledale),^ into Alston Moor, on the Cumberland and 

 Durham borders. 



The Eed Bed Limestone is seen in Swine Clough, on the west side 

 of the valley, and is there traversed by a lode which slightly faults 

 the rocks, and runs under the barn, where it throws out a copious 

 spring of water, and probably continues across the river in an 



^ In Swaledale, above the Main limestone, is the main chert, black beds, plate, red 

 beds (15 feet), plate, and 60 feet of white grit. The grits and the cherts are lead- 

 bearing, and the white grit is spoken of by Professor Phillips (Geology of Yorkshire) 

 as the probable equivalent to the " Bearing Grit " of Nidderdale, and the fire-stone 

 of Alston Moor. In Stonesdale the corresponding beds are known as the Lower 

 Chert series, containing more plate than limestone, throughout the whole of northern 

 Yorkshire, one or more horizons of Chert occur above the 12-fathom limestone. In 

 Northern Yorkshire and Westmoreland, and in Cumberland, shale is called " plate," 

 and sandstone " hazel," solid compact beds of limestone or sandstone "posts." 



