[86] The Saxon Miners formerly regarded Cobalt in the same way. They considered it so troublesome when they found it among other ores, that a prayer was used in the German Church, that God would preserve Miners from Cobalt, and from Spirits.
[87] Lead is principally found in cross courses, or north and south veins. Pentire Glaze, near Padstow, which has lately produced the finest cabinet specimens of Carbonate of Lead, ever found in this country; and Huel Golding in Perranzabuloe, are the principal mines in which the Lead occurs in cross courses. Lately, however, East and West Lodes of Lead have been discovered in the Parish of Newlyn, by Sir C. Hawkins, in draining a marsh. They are about two feet wide. Besides the Lead and a little quartz, they consist entirely of Clay; neither Copper nor Tin have been seen in them. The Lead yields about Sixty Ounces of Silver per Ton.
[88] Cobalt. Huel Sparnon Tin and Copper Mine in the Parish of Redruth, is the only mine in the county that ever produced any considerable quantity of Cobalt; one fragment raised from it weighed 1333 lbs.
[89] Silver. In the Copper Lode of Huel Ann, there occurred a distinct vein of black and grey Silver ore, with Native Silver, from two to five inches wide with a wall of Quartz, on each side. It was however very short. See Mr. Carne's paper on the Silver Mines of Cornwall, Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, vol. i. p. 118.
[90] Only one Lode in Cornwall has, however, been found of this size, and that only for the length of 20 fathoms in Relistian. In Nangiles the lode is, in some parts, 30 feet wide.
[91] As the Counting House of Dolcoath has been determined to be 360 feet above the level of the sea, the mine extends 1050 feet below it; which is probably deeper under the sea level than any mine in the globe.
[92] Clay-slate is provincially called Killas; and Porphyry is known by the name of Elvan.
[93] For a full account of this subject, the reader must consult Mr. Carne's laborious paper, "On the Veins of Cornwall," in the 2nd Volume of the Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall.
[94] We must refer the reader to a Paper, "On the Veins of Cornwall," by W. Phillips, Esq., published in the 2nd vol. of the Transactions of the London Geological Society; and also to a Paper, "On the relative Age of Veins," by Joseph Carne, Esq. in the 2nd vol. of the Cornish Transactions.
[95] We shall pass over, as being too absurd to require any serious refutation, the former belief in the power of the Virgula Divinatoria to discover Lodes. A power less poetical but not less fabulous then the story of the Virga Fatalis that conducted Æneas to the Shades.