VI. On the Veins of Cornwall, 

 By William Piiillips^ Member of the Geological Society. 



jf5L Visit to the county of Cornwall in the year 1800, the induce** 

 ments to which were the objects of mining and mineralogical inquiry, 

 afforded me many opportunities of conversing with practical miners. 

 The subject was new to me ; and it was with considerable pleasure 

 that I listened to the many striking and interesting facts detailed by 

 men ever ready to communicate the information they possess, and 

 whose minds, as repeated visits to the County have since confirmed 

 to be their characteristic, are habitually disposed to industrious Inge- 

 nuity. It may well be supposed that the foremost of these subjects 

 was the nature and peculiarities of veins, or as they are technically 

 termed, loads, or courses.* Having learned that the run, or direc- 



* I hare been at some pains to discover the original meaning of the term lode, or load* 

 as the technical appellation of the cast and west, or mcfailiforous veins of Cornwall^ 

 Borlasc in his natural history of the coiint)" treats at page; 1-J6 of the Fissure, and th» 

 next chapter begins thus: ' From the Fissures let iis proceed to that which they contain, 

 ■whatever fills them, wc call a lead ;' making a distinction between the fissure or vein and 

 the substances it contains. lie says in the same chapser ' where the load is barren, it may- 

 serve to lead us to what is rich;' and in a note, concludes the term lode to be an old 

 Anglo-Saxon word, meaning lead; thus /oa(/-stone, meaning /caf//»°--stone,' and refers to 

 Lye's Junius ad vcrbiim. Without going so far back for an authority which nevertheless 

 may be correct, I am induced to believe the term lode, though thus spelt by Borlasc and 

 Price, originally meant the burthen or load of tiie metalliferous vein. Carcw, whoss 



