Mr. William Phillips on the Feins of Cornwall. 123 



Discovery of Veins* 



The discovery of metalliferous veins is effected In various ways. 

 Amongst the foremost of these, Pryce places that of the Virgula 

 Divinatoria ; but, after a long account of the mode of cutting, tying 

 and using the rod, interspersed with observations on the great dif- 

 ference existing in the discriminating faculties of constitutions and 

 persons in its use, altogether rejects it, because * Cornwall is so 

 plentifully stored with tin and copper lodes, that some accident 

 every week discovers to us a fresh vein,' and because * a grain of 

 metal attracts the rod as strongly as a pound,' for which reason * it 

 has been found to dip equally to a poor as to a rich lode.* These, 

 it must be acknowledged, are substantial reasons for the neglect and 

 disuse into which the rod has fallen. There are not however 

 wanting even now, in Cornwall, some who maintain the value of 

 it. I am acquainted with one person who has repeatedly declared 

 to me that, while using it in his own shop in the town of Redruth, 

 he discovered a vein which has since formed a part of the workings 

 of Pednandrae mine for tin. On the other hand, an intimate friend 

 well conversant with mining concerns was present in Somersetshire 

 with some noblemen and gentlemen, the proprietors of land in that 

 county, anxious for the discovery and working of veins supposed 

 to run through their estates, when a person who professed the 

 skilful use of the divining rod assured them he could effect their 

 wish. During one of his attempts, my friend, as though by ac- 

 cident, took his station immediately facing the professor of the rod, 

 who advanced with the rod dipping as he declared to the run of a 

 vein ; my friend retreated, and in his retreat made a circuit, which 

 as he had in some degree caught the attention of the person hold-- 



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