A BLAST UNDERGROUND. 213 



paid according to the amount of ore produced ; 

 the ore averaging about thirty-six per cent, for 

 quicksilver, although some pieces that I dug 

 myself produced seventy-five per cent. Many 

 mines in Europe have been profitably worked 

 when the cinnabar has yielded only one per 

 cent. 



A shrill whistle rings through the mine ; the 

 miners from all directions rush towards the pil- 

 lars. Thinking, at least, the entire concern was 

 tumbling in, I was about to scamper off, when 

 the guide, seizing my arm, drags me behind a pro- 

 jecting mass of rock, simply saying, 'A blast!' 

 For a while there was a deathlike silence not a 

 sound save the hiss of the fusee, and the heavy 

 breathing of the men ; then the cave lighted up 

 with a lurid flash, shedding a blinding glare over 

 every object like tropical lightning. The dark 

 galleries appeared and disappeared in the twink- 

 ling of an eye, whilst the report, like countless 

 cannon, was echoed and reechoed through the 

 cavernous chamber. Showers of fragments came 

 rattling down in every direction, hurled up by 

 the force of the powder. On the smoke clearing, 

 the miners set to work to collect the scattered 

 fragments of cinnabar. If a blast has been suc- 

 cessful, often many tons of rock are loosened and 



