Mr, Pattinson on some Hazel Nuts found in a Lead Mine. 81 



From these circumstances it seems evident, that the Nuts have been 

 washed into the cavity by a current of water, and, it is probable at no 

 very remote period. They might have been thrown down by accident 

 on the surface, in a situation to be carried by a stream through a fissure 

 into the Limestone stratum. 



It is probable also, that the cavity itself has been formed in the Lime- 

 stone long after the formation of the vein and deposition of the ribs of 

 Lead Ore, although it is difficult to conceive that the small ribs of Ore 

 could have stood perpendicularly when deprived of the support afforded 

 them by the solid cheeks of the vein. 



That Limestone strata are acted upon and dissolved by water, in the 

 interior of the earth, there can be no doubt, and, that the sides of veins, 

 when of Limestone, are sometimes removed by solvents, having no ac- 

 tion on their metallic contents, is equally certain. The writer of this 

 paper observed a fact in Galligill Syke North Vein, about three years 

 ago, strikingly corroborative of this idea. The vein contained a rib of 

 solid Galena, six inches wide, between two sound Limestone cheeks, 

 but, in its course, it traversed a water-worn cavity of some extent, and, 

 in this situation, the rib of ore stood through the middle of the open 

 space, without support on either side, shewing that the cheeks of the 

 vein must have been removed after the rib of Ore was formed in that 

 position. 



Lowbyer, Alston, April ^0, 1830. 



VOL. I. M 



