^^94- SOME NEW BOOKS. 217 



'MoNGST Mines and Miners; or Underground Scenes by Flashlight: a 

 series of photographs with explanatory letterpress, illustrating methods of 

 working in Cornish mines. By J. C. Burrows and William Thomas. 4to. Pp.32, 

 27 photographs, and vertical plan of workings of the Dolcoath Mine. London : 

 Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1893. Price 21s. 



This book is most interesting. Apart from its peculiar value as a 

 faithful record of the method of working a mine, it gives the reader a 

 good idea of the difficulties to be overcome in winning metals. Mr. 

 Burrows has spent a twelvemonth in producing the twenty-seven 

 excellent photographs contained in the book, and gives a lively 

 picture of the patience necessary to enable one to become a successful 

 photographer of underground mining scenery. The apparatus used 

 was a Zeiss' Anastigmat lens, series iii. (Ross & Co.), and the artist 

 enthusiastically terms it " a perfect gem." Of the many plates used, 

 none equalled the Cadett lightning plates, which proved so satisfac- 

 tory that in some cases every miner was taken in his working position 

 with his light in its usual place. For illumination, limelights at their 

 maximum intensity had to be employed simultaneously with powerful 

 flash magnesium lamps and ribbons. For close subjects two triple- 

 flash magnesium lamps were generally used, but in large areas more 

 lamps were brought into requisition. The mines chosen for illustra- 

 tion in this work are the Dolcoath, Cook's Kitchen, East Pool, and 

 Blue Hills. The photographs themselves, which are described by 

 Mr. Thomas, include viev/s of the man-engine at Cook's Kitchen and 

 Dolcoath ; the balance box and gig at Dolcoath ; the 355 and 406 

 stopes at Cook's Kitchen ; the 180 at East Pool ; the 375 and the 412 at 

 Dolcoath, and the 66 at Blue Hills ; the 70 tram-road and the bridge. 

 East Pool ; engine shaft at Cook's Kitchen ; the heave at Blue Hills ; 

 rock-drilling, milling, overhand and underhand stoping, and a group 

 of miners at " croust," or afternoon meal. 



The photographs are excellent, and most detailed ; in those cases, 

 too, where the men are holding candles the flame is seen to be 

 perfectly distinctly outlined. We congratulate both artist and 

 author on the results of their patient but enthusiastic labour. 



The Oxford Museum. By Henry W. Acland, M.D., and John Ruskin, M.A. 

 8vo. Pp. xxxvi., 112, two plates, and folding plan. From original edition, 

 1859. With additions in 1893. London and Orpington : George Allen, 1S93. 



To all Oxford men, to all scientific men, to all artists, architects 

 and craftsmen, to all who have any sympathy with either nature or 

 art, this book comes fraught with stirring and pathetic interest. The 

 book itself is professedly an address delivered by Sir Henry Acland, 

 in 1858, to certain Architectural Societies, on the building of the 

 Oxford Museum. But admirable though this address is, it is, we 

 venture to think, in that wliich has grown around it, in the letters of 

 Mr. Ruskin, in the notes and in Sir Henry's preface to the present 

 edition, that the chief interest of the book will now be found. We 

 have here a double story : the story of the revival of Gothic archi- 

 tecture, and the story of the progress of scientific education in an old 

 university ; and the two stories are bound together by the impressive 

 personality of John Ruskin. How the Museum gradually came to be, 

 and how it rose beneath the enthusiastic hands of an artistic band of 

 Irish craftsmen, is a tale delightfully told in this volume. Then with 

 wonderful delicacy and tact Sir Henry relates the causes that led to 

 Mr. Ruskin's resignation of his professorship when Convocation voted 



