Following the lode. The mud and rocks filled vugh continues.

Chalcocite in Barite at The Hole In The Wall. Good session last night.

Another daft idea from Mr O'Doc was to inflate a big weather balloon to stop the draught or reduce the area it came from. We have to put up with this nonsense.

The good Mr O'Doc tried bubbles. Basically he has daft ideas but it seemed to work.

Posted today. Collapse on the Burrington Road near Cheddar.

More anon I guess though best to exclude trip references and stick to the more academic. I guess the group thought that here was too public. Maybe thats an inherant problem with the way the forum runs. Most digs are now on other media such as blogs and Facebook Groups. Nothing much here from...

Here you see the grey " Killas " and the Triassic Sandstone deads from the shaft excavation. Whilst the Sandstone near the surface and ultimately degraded to sand the deeper Sandstone is crystalline and very hard. ( exposed in fracture mid left ).

Now where was I before the interuption ? Oh yes about the copper. I knew nothing about mineral mining before this project so its been an interesting learning curve. Here we are looking for natural parts of a mine so the two sciences coincide. Hypogenic cave development and Hydrothermal mineral...

Thanks mods. Saved me from a lynching as the group did not like the trip report.

Snigger you not Mr "I would rather be at Cothelstone ". The group did not like the text report as is so I shall report myself and ask the kind mods to delete that bit.

The Hole In The Wall. Still following the lode and has encountered a mud choke seperating the lode by hypogenic solution. Some of the copper from here came in the form of grey slime as it seperated from the lode or was brought from depth by the rising fluids ( we will get to the technical bit...

Flooded base of the shaft with my ladder on the SRT line. The water can be 7m lower than this getting very close to the adit at 30m. Over stepped roof on the lode at the 20m level as left as the shaft progressed downwards. The shaft intercepting the 20m level near its termination. My lunch...

Pick marks in the coffin level. Trimming rather than digging. Small overhand stope probably work by the tributors who where pickmen paid for the ore they obtained. In this case " lode " with sulphides of copper not as a mineral. Triassic sandstone deads from the shaft in the 20m level...

Coffin level and covered wheelbarrow track. Killas wall collapse. Left Devonian Limestone right Devonian Slates the miners called Killas. Vugh in the limestone in the coffin level. Vugh and lode.

The end of the 20m level above the winze down following the lode.

The one I missed.

Bum double posted and I dont get the code to delete it. Stupid forum. Nor do I get long term edit rights for my posts.

The painter and decorator on the bridge. The lode and big stope at the bridge, As above but showing the pinned pole used to climb the capped shaft.

Brian in Heaven. The horrible self stoping roof. Two big boulders.

Do we have a match with what the miners drew c 1820 with what we see today ( left ) ? The stoping I have added in orange and if correct its buried by deads. Its been a long running discussion which way around the section runs. The two main published sources disagree.