DESCENT INTO THE MINE. 211 



having to bring up a load of two hundred pounds, 

 in a bag made of hide, fastened by two straps 

 passing round the shoulders, and' a broader one 

 across the forehead, which mainly sustains the 

 load. It was fatal work to the poor Mexicans 

 who had to do it, the terrible muscular strain 

 soon producing disease and death ! 



On reaching the engine I am undressed and 

 rigged as a miner, a costume far more loose and 

 easy than becoming. Three dip-candles dangled 

 from a button on my jacket by the wicks, and 

 one enveloped in a knob of clay for my hand, 

 completed my toilet. The next process is to be 

 lowered down into the mine. Squeezing myself 

 into a huge kind of bucket, and assuming as 

 near as practicable the shape and position of a 

 frog, my candle lighted, ' All right ! ' says some- 

 body, and I find myself rapidly descending a 

 damp dismal hole, dripping with water like a 

 shower. Of course I shudder, and have horrible 

 ideas of an abyss, ending no one knows where ; 

 the candle hissed, sputtered, and went out; the 

 bucket swang as the chain lengthened, and 

 bumped unpleasantly against the rocks ; now a 

 sudden stop, and a lively consciousness of being 

 dragged bodily out like a bundle of clothes, dis- 

 closes the fact of iny safe arrival at the bottom. 



p 2 



