REPORT ON MINERAL VEINS. V 



have happened to various parts of the earth before, at, and 

 after the Flood, from inundations, earthquakes, and the dis- 

 solvent powers of subterranean fire and ivater, which variety of 

 causes and circumstances must infalUbly have produced many 

 irregularities in the disposition and situation of circumjacent 

 strata and lodes *. 



He describes twelve kinds of lodes or veins in Cornwall, 

 naming them from their chief contents. But the most remark- 

 able observation of Dr. Pryce is respecting the relative age of 

 veins, of which he seems to have given the first intimation. 

 Werner, long after, states this as a discovery of his own, and 

 as an essential part of his theory. His translator, however, 

 (Dr. Anderson,) does Pryce justice, and remarks that his ob- 

 servations must have been unknown to Werner, who showed 

 much anxiety in all cases to confer on every writer the merit 

 which was due to him. 



Dr. Anderson quotes the passage as one of much importance. 



" Because the cross gossans or cross flookans run through 

 all veins of opposite directions, without the least interruption 

 from them, but, on the contrary, do apparently disjoint and 

 dislocate all of them, it seems reasonable to conclude, that the 

 east and west veins were antecedent to cross veins, and that 

 some great event, long after the Creation, occasioned those 

 transverse clefts and openings. But how or when this should 

 come to pass, we cannot presume to form any adequate ideaf ." 



Kirwan supports the doctrine that some veins were originally 

 open, as appears from the rounded stones and petrifactions 

 found in them. Thus, in the granitic mountain of Pangel in 

 Silesia there is a vein filled with globular basalt. So also in 

 veins of wacken, in Joachimstahl in Bohemia, trees and their 

 branches have been found. 



But he deems it improbable that all veins were originally 

 open to day, and filled from above. He inclines to the theory 

 of veins being filled by the percolation of solutions of the me- 

 tals and earths. 



Having now taken a cursory view of the opinions held before 

 Werner published his Theory of Veins, and seen something of 

 the state of knowledge relating to this subject, we may bear 

 in mind the materials which he had to work with, and take 

 into account his well-known views as to the origin of rocks from 

 aqueous deposition, and we shall comprehend the system which 

 he developed, with respect to veins, in the only work, I believe, 

 which proceeded from his own hand, and which was published 



* ' Lode ' is the term used in Cornwall for a metalliferous vein. 



+ Miiwialoffia Cornubicnsis, ji. 101. '' 



