Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 2.djvu/139

Rh fathoms in length and depth, and from its being narrow above and widening below, it has obtained from the miner the name of a horse. The phrase on meeting with it is, ‘the load has taken horse.’ The riches of a mine have in many instances proved the cause of great speculation, and consequent disappointment to those concerned in the mines immediately contiguous east and west, and on the same vein or veins. This has been but too unfortunately verified in the instance of East Towan Mine, which joins Huel Towan on the east; in the latter, which has during the last 10 or 12 years, from one large and unusually continuous bunch of yellow copper ore (the discovery of which was the result of a search of at least 30 years at a greater expense) yielded a very large profit. There were 50 fathoms of good ore-ground in the vein at about 66 fathoms under the adit, which adit is 42 fathoms from the surface, or in the technical language of the miner, from grass. The bunch of copper ore continued to that depth from near the adit level, and as in length it extended east towards East Towan Mine, expectations were raised that the load in passing through that mine would prove equally rich. Great speculation and expense of course ensued; but in vain. For it was found that in several of the levels in Huel Towan, the ore ceased within a very few fathoms of East Towan Mine, and in some places as suddenly as if it had been cut away by a hatchet. This was not the effect of a cross vein, but purely one of those accidental circumstances to which copper loads are very liable. The ore of Huel Towan is of a remarkably bright yellow, and generally pretty compact, but not hard.

When it has been determined to try a vein, one of the first

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