WILLIAM vSMITH : HIS MAPS AND MEMOIRS 
91 
these was George Owen of Heiillys, in Pembrokeshire.* He refers to 
geological features in the following words, and, on comparing them 
with a geological map, it will be seen that Owen's observations were 
very reliable, though made over three centuries ago :— 
In a chapter on " natural helpes, which is in the countrey to better 
the lande [' lyme' being the ' chiefest '] " he writes : First you shall 
understand, that the lymestone is a vayne of stones running his course, 
for the most part right east and west, although sometimes the same is 
found to approach to the north and south. Of this lymestone there is 
found of ancient, two veynes, the one small and of no great account, and 
not of breadth above a buttf length, or stones cast ; and therefore 
whosoever seeketh southward or northward over the bredth misseth it." 
The course of this " veyne is then traced for a considerable 
distance ; and a third veyne of lymestone " is referred to. We then 
read that For the veyne of coales which is found between these two 
vaynes of lymestone, as a benefit of Nature, without which the profit 
of the lymestone were neare lost ; betweene the sayd two vaynes from 
the beginning to the ending, there is a vayne (if not several vaynes) 
of coles, that followeth those of the lymestone. This va3'ne of coal in 
some partes joineth close to the first lymestone v^ayne, as in Pem- 
brokeshire, and Carmarthenshire ; and in some partes it is found close 
by the other vayne of lymestone, as in Glamorgan, Monmouth, and 
Somersetshire. Therefore whether I shall say that there are two 
vaynes of coles to be found betweene these two vaynes of lymestone, 
or to imagine that the cole should wreathe or turne itself, in some 
places to one, in other places to the other ; or to think that all the land 
betweene these two vaynes should be stored Avith coles, I leave to the 
judgement of the skilfnll miners, or to those which with deep knowledge 
have entered into these hidden secrettes." 
* A History of Pembrokeshire, from a manuscript by George 
Owen, Esq., of Henllys, Lord of Kernes, &c., — now first published by 
his great-grandson, Richard Fenton, Esq., Cambridge Register for 
1796, Vol. I., p. 52, London, 1799. See also Phil. Mag., Dec. 1832., 
p. 443. 
t i.e., archery butts = the length of the flight of an arrow = 100 
yards.— T.S. 
G 
