CoLENso. — Memorabilia, Ancient and Modern. 315 



propriety of abandoning the concern, the workmen were within 

 2 in. or Sin. of a " bunch " of copper-ore, which in twelve 

 months yielded a profit of £24,000. 



From published reports I gather that the profit on the 

 working of Botallack from 1836 to 1865 was £102,150 in 

 actual dividends, and on Levant, from 1830 to 1865, was 

 upwards of £200,000. 



Botallack Mine had been for some time past worked 

 at a heavy loss. It is composed of seventeen hundred 

 shares, and the shareholders not long ago had been called on 

 for £1 10s. a share. This call was met ; but, notwithstand- 

 ing, the mine was still being worked at a great loss, the 

 return of tin being scanty and inferior in quality, so that the 

 directors had no desire to make another call. Lately fifty 

 men had been discharged, but these fortunately found em- 

 ploy at Levant Mine, near by ; and there were still 130 men 

 and forty-four boys employed on the mine, but all working 

 at niuch lower wages. There were also upwards of five 

 hundred children dependent on the miners of this one mine. 

 At the last adjourned meeting of the shareholders it was 

 decided to offer the mine, with all its extensive machinery, 

 for sale, or, failing that, to shut it up, which means a heavy 

 blow for West Cornwall. 



Having shown on a small summary scale the digging and 

 raising of the ore from deep in the bowels of the earth to its 

 surface, I may also briefly relate a few interesting items that 

 follow concerning its preparation for the market, having not 

 infrequently witnessed them all with much delight in my 

 youth : — 



(1.) The ore as it comes from the mine is taken to the 

 stamping-mill. This mill is composed of upright beams of 

 squared timber several feet in length, and, say, 8 in. or 9 in. 

 in diameter, each piece being strongly shod, or armed, at its 

 lower end with a heavy iron stamp or pestle. These posts or 

 beams are set up vertically close together in a row, and are 

 raised continually by water-power, and when set working 

 soon pulverise the mass of ore below. Water is continually 

 let in, and the stones, earth, and sand, reduced to small par- 

 ticles, are carried off with the tin into sloping pits and courses 

 prepared to receive them. The tin being the heaviest sinks 

 early, and is soon detained. This is taken up and " dressed " 

 — that is, put into proper heaps on flat earthen floors specially 

 prepared for its reception, where it is in due time " ticketed," 

 or assorted, according to its purity and value. 



(2.) All things being ready, the tin (in grains or sands) is 

 put up into strong, long, narrow sacks and carried off on 

 mules to the tin-smelting house, of which there were two in 

 the west of Cornwall, one being at Stable-Hobba, a village 



