Mr. William Phillips on the Veins of Cornwall. 113 



numerous and well-informed men, who are immediately concerned 

 in mines, to gratify the increasing interest which is felt on geolo- 

 gical subjects, by giving to the world occasional details of the many 

 curious facts that almost daily occur in practical mining. 



Almost every mine of any considerable depth or extent, is de- 

 serving of the notice of the geologist, because each has its peculi- 

 arities : — for when two or more mines are on the same vein or veins 

 there is frequently but little else that is common to each ; and even 

 in the same mine, situated beneath a few superficial acres, there is 

 often a strange variety in the dimension, contents, and direction of 

 its veins, and in the country * through which these run. 



Direction and Length of Veins. 



It has already been remarked that the regular or metalliferous 

 veins generally take the direction of about East and West ; there 

 are others both in the same and in different directions, most of 

 which are very rarely found to produce any metallic substance; 

 the nature and peculiarities of these will be noticed hereafter. The 

 regular veins are almost uniformly of considerable length ; some 

 are known to extend two or three miles, having several mines on 

 their run ; and though the idea of their extending the whole length 

 of the county may be judged to be hypothetical, it ought to be 

 noticed that the most experienced miner never satisfactorily wit- 

 nessed the termination of a vein either on the East or West. Many 



* I have used the word Country in tlie sense in which it is employed by the miner, 

 and shall hereafter so use it, conceiving it to be well adapted, if not better than any 

 other I have been able to find, to convey the intended idea. If a miner be driving an 

 adit North and South, or in any other direction than that of the Load, he says h« 

 is " driving through the country." 



Vol. II. P 



