EECEEATIVE SCIENCE. 



291 



The first objects whicli attract attention 

 at the moutli of our lead-mine, are a very- 

 large water-wlieel, turned by the mountain 

 stream, which rushes down the ravine in 

 front, and several immense heaps of what 

 appears to be fine white gravel, but which is 

 really the delris of the mine. Further on, 

 we come upon several men busily engaged 

 with hammers upon a huge heap of glisten- 

 ing stone, which it is not difficult to tell is 

 the lead ore. But to see everything, and not 

 bring away merely a confused idea of the 

 whole, we must begin at the beginning. 



A visit to the mine itself, however, would 

 hardly repay us for the trouble and incon- 

 venience of getting there ; we should only 

 see the miners with their pickaxes, cutting 

 away the lead, containing quartz, from the 

 solid rock, and selecting such pieces to be 

 conveyed above ground as are sufiiciently 

 rich in metal to be worth working. For, by 

 a very judicious arrangement, the miner is 

 not remunerated for the time he works, nor 

 even for a certain quantity of ore brought to 

 the surface, but the Company purchase from 

 him the dressed ore, in a condition fit for 

 smelting, at a price which of course varies 

 with the market value of lead, debiting him, 

 meanwhile, with all implements used, and 

 with the cost of dressing. !N"othing can be 

 more just or more to the advantage of all 

 parties than this. The Company are not pay- 

 ing for unremunerative labour, and the miner 

 shares equally with the Company in the pro- 

 fits of the speculation. Of course this prin- 

 ciple is only carried out when the mine is in 

 full operation, for the expense of prelimi- 

 nary operations and the chances of the mine 

 proving profitable all fall upon the Company. 



First of-all, then, the galena, which in this, 

 as in most other cases, occurs in a quartz 

 formation, after having been dug out, is 

 placed in trucks, two of which are attached 

 to either end of a long chain, which passes 

 over a pulley. The trucks run upon two 

 parallel lines of railway down the side of the 



hill, in such a manner that the two descend- 

 ing trucks laden with ore shall draw up to 

 the entrance, or " level," of the mine, the 

 two others which had been relieved of their 

 load. Down they come, with a speed which 

 every moment increases until the level 

 ground is reached, and even then they 

 have sufficient inertia to propel them right 

 up to the shed in which is situated the 

 crushing-machine. A terrible engine is this, 

 unrelenting, remorseless, crushing the tough 

 galena into fragments, with as little difficulty 

 as a grocer's mill grinds cofiee-beans. And 

 now the ore, separated, as completely as is 

 possible from the quartz which has so long 

 borne it company, has arrived at an impor- 

 tant crisis in its history, and we will see how 

 it fares. The building which contains the 

 crushing-machine is two-storied, and it is 

 into the upper story that the ore-laden 

 trucks are made to pass. We now know 

 the secret of the water-wheel, for entering 

 down stairs we see two inflexible iron cylin- 

 ders moving, by a cunning arrangement of 

 cogged wheels, in opposite directions. 



These cylinders, which are "case har- 

 dened," or superficially converted into steel, 

 are so close together, that an ordinary pencil 

 passed between them would emerge beneath 

 as a flat band, and this contiguity is kept up 

 by means of a heavy weight, or "bob,"attached 

 to the extremity of a lever, which bears upon 

 one of them. The ore supplied from above, 

 through a hopper, comes down in a steady, 

 gradual stream, falling fairly between the 

 cylinders, and is soon reduced to fragments. 

 But with such hard work to do, it is not to 

 be expected that it should be performed very 

 rapidly. The crushed ore falls into a tubular 

 sieve, which, being gently inclined, allows 

 those fragments which do not pass through 

 its meshes to slide into a bucket placed to 

 receive them. The finer portions — almost 

 dust now — pass through, and are swept by 

 an attendant boy into a wooden gutter or 

 channel. When the bucket is fuU of the im- 



