Conflagration of the Quicksilver Mines of Idria. 211 



day it produced no effect. In the course of the second day, 

 whether it was that steam, generated by the meeting of the 

 fire and water, was struggling for escape, or that an inflamma- 

 ble air had been produced and kindled by the glowing fossils, 

 of a sudden a subterraneous explosion shook the mountain 

 with the noise and violence of an earthquake. The huts of 

 the miners situated near the entrance were rent ; houses far- 

 ther off, but standing on the slope or near the skirts of the 

 hill, started from their foundations ; and the panic-struck 

 inhabitants were flying in dismay from the ruin that seemed 

 to threaten their valley. The whole thing must have been 

 splendid ; accidental as it was, art could go no farther in imi- 

 tating nature. In the mine itself, as was afterwards found, 

 the explosion had rent the galleries, thrown down the arched 

 roofs, and torn up the stairs. But the victory was gained ; 

 the vapours began to diminish, and at the end of some weeks 

 it was possible to venture into the mine. It cost two years to 

 prepare an apparatus and pump out the water. It was carried 

 off into the Idria, and was found to contain only a small quan- 

 tity of mercury, but a large proportion of vitriolic acid, and 

 so much iron, that the bed and banks of the river were 

 encrusted with iron ochre throughout its whole course, from 

 Idria to where it falls into the Lisonzo. At the same time, 

 every fish disappeared from the stream except the eel, which 

 seems to bid defiance to every thing except actual broiling or 

 roasting. 



Even when the galleries had been cleared of the water, it 

 was impossible to work in them, partly from the heat which 

 they still retained, but still more from the fumes of sublimated 

 mercury, which produced in the miners a violent salivation, 

 accompanied with convulsions and trembling of the limbs. 

 To produce an almost inhuman zeal, high wages were offered 

 to such as would venture into places reckoned the most dan- 

 gerous, to explore the consequences of the disaster, and collect 

 the quicksilver which had been deposited in large quantities 

 in the galleries. Many purchased this additional pittance 

 with their lives ; and altogether the atmosphere, which con- 

 tinued for months to infect the mine, was so baneful, that it 



