TRAINING. 



If no flioad-ftone or grewt of a different nature from the 

 reft be found in thefe frets or newly worn banks, the miners 

 leave the place for the prefent. For though the bed of the 

 river afford rnany metalline ftones, they never regard them, 

 the continual change of place they receive from the current 

 of the water rendering them only tokens that there is metal 

 fomewhere in the country ; but they confound and perplex 

 rather than inftrucl in the fearch after the places where 

 it is. 



If there be found indeed ftones of the Ihoad-kind, full of 

 protuberances, or having ftiarp angles, as if newly broken, 

 it mar be worth while to fee whether they are not waihed 

 out of fome part of the neighbouring banks by the late floods ; 

 as this fort of appearance is a token of their having been 

 newly taken into the bed of the river. But if they are 

 rounded and fmooth, it may be concluded they have been 

 long fubjeft to the action of the water, and brought, per- 

 haps, many miles from the places where they were origi- 

 nally lodged in the earth, and where only they could have 

 been of any ufe to the tracers of the mine. 



WTien the frets in the fides of rivers have been traced in 

 vain, the fearcher after a mine goes up to the fides of the 

 hills moft fufpefted to have mines in tiem, - and there feeks 

 for a convenience of bringing a little ftream of water to run 

 down. WTjen this is found, he cuts a trench about two feet 

 over, and as deep as the flielf. The water is turned into 

 this cut, and after two or three days running in it, all the 

 filth will be waihed away, and the loofe part of the earth 

 cleared off ; and if any (hoad-ftones are lodged within the 

 ■whole courfe of this cut, they will be found. If any fuch 

 are found, it is an unqueftionable proof that there is ore in 

 the higher parts of the hill ; this encourages the work, and 

 there is always found a mine, or at leaft a fquat, which will, 

 without much danger, repay the expence and trouble. The 

 fquats are flat parcels of the ore, lying in different and dif- 

 tincl places of the hills, and not communicating with one 

 another. 



Sometimes a great deal of this labour is faved, and the 

 Ihoad-ftones are found on the furface of the ground, either 

 turned up by the plough, or thrown up in fmall quantities 

 in mole-hills, or raifed by fome other accident, for they are 

 feldom found naturally hnng on the very furface of the 

 earth ; for the putrid remains of vegetable and animal 

 fubftances, and other adventitious matter, has raifed the 

 furface of the earth in all places, fince the time of the 

 flood, and made indeed a fort of new furface. Thefe 

 ftones were certainly laid bare on the furface of the 

 ground, at the time of their being carried down from 

 the mines ; but this adventitious matter has buried them in 

 this long tract of time, and they are generally found under 

 about a foot of a fort of vegetable moidd. If, by any of 

 thefe fearches, a flioad is found, the miners have nothing to 

 do but to follow it to its head, and there make the opening ; 

 but if no fuch direction can be had, nor anv ftioad found, 

 and there is yet fulpicion that there is a mice in the hill, 

 the method is to make an ejfaj-hatch, as it is called : this is 

 ftink near the foot or bottom of the lull, and is an openino- 

 of about Cs feet long, and four feet broad, made Lq fearch 

 of a vein as deep as the ihelf : this is a caution that mull 

 be always carefully obferved, for if thev are made lets deep 

 than this, they may mifs of the vein, though there is one. 

 And the finking thus deep is always attended with certainty, 

 for if no fiioad is found on this, it may be concluded thei« 

 is none there ; except that fometimes it is found that the 

 flioad has been waihed clean away, within two or three feet 

 from the land ; and then die lode or vein is two feet farther 

 pr thereabouts up in the hill. If any ftioad is found in the 



effay-hatch, there is a certainty of a vein of ore ; neither 

 doth it add a little toward the making of a conjefture how 

 Ligh up the hill, or how far off the vein-firing, or bonnv, is, 

 carefully to mark how deep from the furface of the e;-:'r, 

 the ihozd lies, for this is held an infalhble rule, tha: :-.■ 

 nearer the flioad hes to the ftielf, or fail ground, the nearer 

 the vein itfelf is, and i-ice 'oerfa. 



When there is no ftioad or appearance of a mine found in 

 the firft effay-hatch, if the conjechrre of a mine being in the 

 hill has any tolerable foundation, the tracing it does not end 

 here ; but they go ten or twelve fathoms up the hill, and 

 there open a fecond effay-hatch, and if no ore or fiioad-ftone 

 :5 found in this, they go as many fathoms on each hand at tic- 

 lame height with the fecond hatch, and there c^>en a third 

 and a fourth hatch, of the fame depth and dimenfions with 

 the firft : if in neither of thefe there is found any ftioad- 

 ftone, they afcend proportionably with three more hatches, 

 if the fpace of ground require, at every ten or twelve fathoms, 

 and in this manner open them three abreaft, at twelve fathoms 

 diftance up to the top of the hill. If do flioad is found in 

 any of thefe, it is concluded then that there is no tracing of 

 a mine there, and the hiH is left. 



If any flioad is found in any of thefe hatches or openings, 

 the afcending hatches from this are kept on in a direa line, 

 and the deeper the ftioad lies the nearer the vein is. The ftioad 

 grows gradually deeper from the furface, but nigher the flielf 

 as they approach the mine ; as fuppofe it to be but half a 

 foot from the ftielf, and feven feet from the furface, the vein 

 is then concluded to be within a fathom or two ; and on this 

 the firft proportion of twelve fathoms between every hatch is 

 leffened to fix, four, two, one, or even lefe than that, as the 

 vein is conjedured to be more and more near. 



It often happens, for want of a good guefs in this matter, 

 that the diggers over-ftioot the lode ; that is, they open their 

 next hatch too high up the lull, or above the lode or vein : 

 this is a miilake eafily difcovered^ and eafily re«ified. If a 

 ftioad is found lying near the ftielf in one hatch, and in the 

 hatch above there is no ftioad at all, it is a proof that the 

 batch is too high, and the remedv is only to fink a hatch at a 

 middle diftance between the lail two, which will probably 

 fall upon the very point of the lode, and finifli the work of 

 tracing. 



Sometimes it happens, that in continuing the tracing of 

 the firft ftioad, a fecond or new one is found : it is not un- 

 common for two ihoads to be thus found in one hatch, and 

 this is eafily difcovered vrithout any danger of miftake ; for 

 fuppofe in the lail hatch the ftioad which they trace lay at 

 eight feet deep, and in this it lies at ten feet, and befides this 

 there is a flioad found at two feet depth : it is very certain 

 that the flioad at ten feet deep is the fame they were before 

 tracing, and this is a new one p jinting to another vein or lode, 

 which is now firft difcovered io near the furface of the earth. 

 This has generally gravel or earth mixed with it, and is to be 

 carefully examined : when the higher hatches are opened, this 

 is continually found as well as the old lode ; and when the 

 firft is traced to the point of the vein, this fecond is to be con- 

 tinued in the fame manner, by other hatches opened at the 

 fame diftances above : it often happens, that ia tracing this 

 fecond ftioad, the hatches dug for it difcover another new 

 one, or a third flioad ; all thefe are to be traced one over 

 the other by the fame hatches, and will all be found worth 

 the feeking after. 



The old writers on mineralogy agree with us in this ob- 

 fervation, and tell us, it is not uncommon in fome places 

 to find as far as feven lodes Iving parallel to one anotitqr in 

 the fame hill. In thefe cafes, however, there is ulually one 

 maftcr-lode, or a grand vein ; the other fix, that is, three on 



