OF CORNWALL. I+7 
leaving fiffures between them ; and yet the very fiffures are as necef- 
fary and ufeful, as the Jirata through which they pafs. 
Flrft ’ thef * e are th e drains which carry off the redundant moifture 
from the earth, which, but for them, would be too full of fens 
and bogs for animal to live or plants to thrive on. 
Through thcfe fiffures the rain, which finks beneath the chanels of 
rivers, not having the advantage of that conveyance above ground, re- 
turns into the fea, bringing the fait and mineral juices of the earth into 
the ocean, enabling it thereby to fupply the firmament with proper 
and fufficient moifture, and preferving that vaft body of water the 
fea, wholefome, fit foi fifh to live in, and failors to navigate. 
In thefe fiffures, the feveral ingredients, which form the richeft 
lodes, by the continual paffing of waters, and the menjlrua of me- 
tals, are educed out of the adjacent Jirata , collected, and conveni- 
ently lodged in a narrow chanel, much to the advantage of thofe who 
fearch for and purfue them ; for if metals and minerals were more 
difperfed, and fcattered thinly in the body of the Jirata, the trouble 
of finding and getting at metals (thofe neceffary inftruments of art 
and commerce, and the ornaments of life] would be endlefs, and 
the expence of procuring exceed the value of the acquifition. 
.Laftly, without thefe failures we could never make drains to our 
mines and quarries, and confequently neither metals nor marbles, 
neither falts nor earths, nor ftones, could be fo eafily, or in fuch 
pienty provided as is neceffary for the ufe of man. 
CHAP. XIV. 
Of Lodes', their Properties, Parts , and Inclinations , &c. 
F ROM the fiffures, let us proceed to that which they contain, sect.i. 
and whatever fills them, whether clay, ftone, mineral, or 
metal, we call in Cornwall a Lode, and not improperly \ for a lode 
is very feldom rich, or equally impregnated ; metals are local, dis- 
tributed fparingly, not befiowed without referve, found in fome, 
llot p ar t s °1 the lode ; but, where the lode is barren, it may 
feive to lead us to what is rich, whence the name lode of the fame 
fignification as the Englifh word, lead, or led \ 
Firft, let it be obferved, that if the general run of the neigh- sect.ii. 
bouring Jirata be of any particular colour, be lax or compact, be Properties of 
of a fpar or cryflal cement, be of flat, granite, or any other ftone, the lodc ' 
* From an old Anglofaxon word, lode, idem ac lead j fo lode-ftone quafi leading-ftone. See Lye’s 
«-uit. of Junius ad verbum. & J 
fo 
