Finally, a vena profunda has a "beginning" (origo), an "end" (finis), a "head" (caput), and a "tail" (cauda). That part whence it takes its rise is said to be its "beginning," that in which it terminates the "end." Its "head" [1]is that part which emerges into daylight; its "tail" that part which is hidden in the earth. But miners have no need to seek the "beginning" of veins, as formerly the kings of Egypt sought for the source of the Nile, but it is enough for them to discover some other part of the vein and to recognise ito direction, for seldom can either the "beginning" or the "end" be found. The direction in which the head of the vein comes into the light, or the direction toward which the tail extends, is indicated by its footwall and hangingwall. The latter is said to hang, and the former to lie. The vein rests on the footwall, and the hangingwall overhangs it; thus, when we descend a shaft, the part to which we turn the face is the footwall and seat of the vein, that to which we turn the back is the hangingwall. Also in another way, the head accords with the footwall and the tail with the hangingwall, for if the footwall is toward the south, the vein extends its head into the light toward the south; and the hangingwall, because it is always opposite to the footwall, is then toward the north. Consequently the vein extends its tail toward the north if it is an inclined vena profunda. Similarly, we can determine with regard to east and west and the subordinate and their intermediate directions. A vena profunda which descends into the earth may be either vertical, inclined, or crooked the footwall of an inclined vein is easily distinguished from the hangingwall, but it is not so with a vertical vein; and again, the footwall of a crooked vein is inverted and changed into the hangingwall, and contrariwise the hangingwall is twisted into the footwall, but very many of these crooked veins may be turned back to vertical or inclined ones.
- ↑ It might be considered that the term "outcrop" could be used for "head," but it will be noticed that a vena dilatata would thus be stated to have no outcrop.
