IN THE HARZ. 143 



were ushered into a large hall, hung round with the queerest array of 

 clumsily constructed and mud-bespattered garments, that we had ever 

 laid eyes upon. Our sad misgivings were too soon realized. "Gentle- 

 men, the mines are wet, and you must sometimes crawl and creep. — 

 Here are plenty of dresses, you can suit yourselves." We were in for 

 it, and there was no use at being scared at a trifle. But what a figure 

 we did cut in our new erjvelopements ! 



We descended by means of ladders an almost vertical shaft. About 

 one hundred and fifty feet from the surface, if I remember rightly, we 

 reached the first horizontal opening. This was a shaft of the usual size, 

 about six feet high, by two and a half or three wide. We here stopped 

 to rest and have the mode of operation in this mine explained to us by 

 the guide. The veins of the precious metal strike through the succes- 

 sive strata nearly vertically. One can most easily form a correct con- 

 ception of their position and appearance, by supposing a mountain to 

 have been rent by deep narrow fissures, parallel with each other, and 

 nearly at right angles with its base. These, afterwards filled by a de- 

 posit of lime, as a gang for various ores, form the veins which it is 

 the miner's business to follow and rob of their mineral treasures. — 

 These crevices are seldom more than a few inches in width, but they 

 often extend more than a thousand feet downward and along the side 

 or into the heart of the mountain. 



A shaft is first sunk vertically, along the course of one of those 

 veins. Upon reaching the end of it below, or such a depth as the miner 

 chooses at first to go, a horizontal shaft is opened also along the course 

 of the vein, thus removing it entirely, for the space of six feet, together 

 with a foot and a half of the surrounding rock, on both sides, to allow 

 the workman room. After this horizontal shaft has been carried for- 

 ward as far as profitable or convenient, another is opened immediately 

 above it^ removing six feet more of the vein. The refuse is now thrown 

 into the useless shaft below, whilst the metalliferous rock is carefully 

 raised to the surface. In this way, by beginning at a great depth and 

 working upward, the vein can be entirely exhausted, and yet no more 

 of the rock removed to the surface of the ground than that which con- 

 tains the ore. 



Some of the .shafts were almost filled up with heaps of ore over 

 wliich we had to scramble, sometimes barely squeezing through be- 

 tween them and the roof of the shaft. Several of the lights were at 

 different times extinguished by the water dripping from the rocks over- 

 head. I was curious to know what became of all this water. Before 

 the guide answered any question, he raised my curiosity still higher by 



