THE VIRTUOUS LADY MINE. 45 



here, as we purpose to make it the subject of a future 

 article, with an illustrative engraving. 



Captain J W , or, as he is usually styled, 



"Captain John," the chief, both as proprietor and 

 manager of the mine, receives visitors with all the 

 frankness and hospitality of a feudal baron ; that is, 

 provided they do not give themselves airs; for the 

 worthy and independent captain makes no secret of 

 his antipathy to coxcombry : he has been a great tra- 

 veller, and can entertain us, in his office, with accounts 

 of the strange habits and manners of the wild tribes he 

 has visited ; of the varieties of tropical landscape he 

 has surveyed, and of the adventures, dangers and pri- 

 vations he has undergone, after he has exhibited to us 

 the curious, and perhaps unique, mine, the superin- 

 tendence of which forms at once his business and his 

 amusement. 



Mines usually descend perpendicularly, or at a deep 

 angle from the surface : the virtuous lady enters hori- 

 zontally, at the foot of a precipitous rock ; the rock 

 itself is shattered by nature into three pieces, the mid- 

 dle one standing wedge-like between the other two. 

 In other mines we see the produce hauled up in buckets, 

 and the waste heaped round the pit mouth : here the 

 produce is wheeled out of the level passage upon a 

 rail road of fairy lightness, of Captain John^s own 

 construction, and the waste thrown below. In other 

 mines we descend by ladders, tediously, fathom after 

 fathom, making the knees ache on our return, and are 

 obliged to twist our bodies every here and there to ac- 

 commodate ourselves to the form of the vein, or to 

 some artificial projection: here we walk in, in many 

 parts, without even stooping ; and ladies, who do not 

 mind wet feet, and can be content without broad bon- 

 nets, or sleeves cut after the fashion of a Dutchman's 

 breeches, may enter easily and see all the interior 

 operations of a mine. It is, indeed, only when ladies 

 are present that Captain John is known m all the cor- 

 diality and attentiveness of his character. 



In other mines the vein penetrates the rock at a 

 steep obliquity, and is often narrow and damp as we 



