XXIV. On the Vitreous tubes found near to Dr'igg, in Cumberland, 



Compiled by the Secretaries from several Communications. 



JLN the hillocks of drifted sand, which lie between the mouth of 

 the river Irt and the sea near to Drigg, in Cumberland, hollow tubes 

 of a vitreous substance were discovered rising above the surface per- 

 pendicularly through the sand.* They were found three in num- 

 ber, within an area of fifteen yards, upon a single hillock, about 

 forty feet above the level of the sea. The diameter of each was 

 about an inch and a half. An excavation being made around one 

 of them, it was found to descend perpendicularly through the sand 

 about thirty feet. At the depth of about twenty-nine feet the sand 

 was interrupted by a bed of pebbles, appearing to be the continua- 

 tion of the sea-beach. The tube here came in contact with a frag- 

 ment of hornstone-poi-phyry, glanced off from it at an angle making 

 about 45° with the horizon, and then returned to its former vertical 

 position. Below this fragment the tube, becoming extremely deli- 

 cate, was frequently broken ; and at the distance of a foot, during 



. * The first notice of these substances was transmitted to the Society in the year IS 12 

 liy E. L. Irton, Esq. of Irton Hall, in Cumberland, and was accompanied by specimens. 

 This gentleman removed the sand from around one of the tubes to the depth of 15 feet. 

 Messrs. Grcenough and Buckland, Members of the Society, examined the sand hills in 

 company with Mr. Irton in the autumn of the year 1813, and finding the surface lowered 

 more than 15 feet by drifting since the year 1812, resumed the excavation. The obser- 

 vations of these three gentlemen are introdiiccd irto ihe present paj)or. 



