Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 2.djvu/538



the hillocks of drifted sand, which lie between the mouth of the river Irt and the sea near to Drigg, in Cumberland, hollow tubes of a vitreous substance were discovered rising above the surface perpendicularly through the sand. They were found three in number, within an area of fifteen yards, upon a single hillock, about forty feet above the level of the sea. The diameter of each was about an inch and a half. An excavation being made around one of them, it was found to descend perpendicularly through the sand about thirty feet. At the depth of about twenty-nine feet the sand was interrupted by a bed of pebbles, appearing to be the continuation of the sea-beach. The tube here came in contact with a fragment of hornstone-porphyry, glanced off from it at an angle making about 45° with the horizon, and then returned to its former vertical position. Below this fragment the tube, becoming extremely delicate, was frequently broken; and at the distance of a foot, during