309 



NOTES AND QTERIES. 



The CAYEE:jrs or Loch-Holes in the Alston Lead mines in Cumberland. 

 — The miners, in the prosecution of their labours, know nothing of these caverno^^s 

 vacuities until they strike into them, as they advance in their working. The caverns 

 are of various dimensions, from that of a nut to rooms large enough for three or fom' 

 men even to move about and stand in. In these caverns numerous mineral spars 

 are found crystallized into prismatic, cubic, hexagonal, or other figures ; these 

 crystals are generally transparent and beautiful, some of them are exceedingly 

 pure and polished. Caverns lined with crystals are frequently met with in hard 

 mineral veins, and such are generally called by miners " Shake -lochs," or "Loch- 

 holes." Their magnitude is generally in proportion to the size of the veins in 

 which they are fomid, and their insides frequently exhibit all the variety and 

 beauty of the most curious grotto-work. There is commonly a hard concreted 

 stony crust, called " Druse " or " Eider " by the Alston Moor and Allendale 

 miners, adhering to the inside of the cavity, out of which are shot an innumerable 

 multitude of short prismatic crystals, which sparkle like thousands of diamonds. 

 Sticking promiscuoixsly to these are patches of lead ore, " Black Jack," pyrites, 

 sulphur and spar, of regular prismatic, cubic, and other figures; besides which, 

 clusters of wildly irregular appearance often grow out of one another, until the 

 inside of the caverns are sometimes adorned with these wildly grotesque figm'es, 

 growing upon and branching out of one another, in a manner not to be de- 

 scribed, and decorated with all the gay and splendid colours of burnished gold of 

 the rainbow and of the peacock's tail. — John Jameson, Arlington-square. 



Private Geological Collections. — " Dear Sir, — Acting up to the suggestion 

 of my friend, the Rev. P. B. Brodie, of Rowington Vicarage, contained in his 

 letter published in the Geologist of last month, I beg to inform you that it will 

 afford me pleasure to show my private collection of fossils to any brother-geologist 

 who may happen to visit this neighbouihood. — Yours sincerely, Charles Pierson, 

 3 Blenheim Parade, Cheltenham." 



Geology ce Asiiby-de-la-Zouch. — To assist M. S. in his inquiry upon this 

 subject, I may observe, that Maramatt's valuable work is very dear, and, I believe, 

 out of print, A copy is kept for the use of visitors at the Bath Hotel, (Potter's). 

 " Charnwood Forest " is also out of print ; but a cheap and popular abridgment 

 of it has been published by Allen of Nottingham, at Is. 6d. ; it contains Jukes' 

 paper on the " Geology of the Forest." With respect to localities for fossils, any 

 of the coal-pit banks of Whitwick, Snibston, Peg's Green, &c., will furnish them. 

 M. S. has but to search among the dehris of the pit-banks to find (more especially 

 upon the clays and sandstones that intercalate with the coal), numerous 

 impressions of fern leaves and stems, Lepidodendrons, Calamites, and also shells of 

 Unio ; in hand specimens I have had six together. The dolomitized Mountain 

 Limestone of Bredon Hill, Cloud Hill, Barrow Hill, and Gracedieu, will furnish 

 Rumerous casts of shells of all the leading carboniferous types, especially Orthis, 

 Euomphalus, and Orthoceras ; some of the latter have been found of the size and 

 shape of a Stilton cheese, with central siphuncles. Large masses^of coral are 

 also found. There are some interesting fragments of Permian beds at Oakthorpe 

 and Meashaw. The Permian breccia at Oakthorpe contains angular and sub- 

 angular fragments of older formations, rolled fossils from the Silurian rocks 

 and Mountain Limestone, Zoophytes, and Encrinites, all embedded in the same 

 clayey matrix. In the valley adjoining the railway, near the Moira colliery, a 

 singular outlier of Permian sandstone is found, locally called the " ballast-pit " ; 

 it contains numerous large fragments of silicified trees, Endogens and Coniferse 



