THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 145 



close quarters with another, which, a moment before, was twenty-four 

 feet above it. Now you can easily see how a person, by quickly step- 

 ping from one foot-board to the other, during the momentary pause be- 

 tween the rising and sinking of the cables, and by tluis always finding 

 himself on the rising paddle^ must constantly ascend, and at the rate of 

 twelve feet for every move of the cables. After watching the operation 

 of the apparatus for some time, I handed my light to the guide and step- 

 ped upon one of the foot-boards. The one upon my right instantly 

 descended, and I rose to a level with the second on the other cable ; 

 quickly stepping over upon this one, I saw the one I had just left sink- 

 ing and I rose another twelve feet. As I mounted the third twelve, how- 

 ever, T came near being swept ofT the cable altogether. The shaft was 

 crossed by another one, and at the point of intersection a platform had 

 been thrown, through a trap-door in which the cables passed. The 

 guide had told me nothing of this ; I was standing out pretty far from 

 the cable instead of clinging closely to it, and an inch or two farther 

 would have brought my head in contact with the sleeper upon which 

 the platform rested. This so terrified me that I kept clinging to the 

 same hold, and of course descended at the next reversion of the mo- 

 tion. Taking the sinking side, in two more moves I found myself in 

 the midst of the company, and felt wonderfully relieved as I stepped off 

 and felt myself once more upon solid rock. And this was all done in 

 less than one-fourth the time it has taken to describe it. The celerity 

 of the motion is its great recommendation. It used to require two hours 

 steady climbing for the workmen to ascend from or descend to the low- 

 er parts of the mine ; now they can be elevated in half an hour, fifty or 

 sixty at a time. The cables reached, when we were there, two thousand 

 three hundred feet, and were to be extended still further down. I can- 

 not now distinctly recollect the depth of the deepest shaft, but it is some 

 hundreds more than this. 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



The study of Natural History is exceedingly attractive, and com- 

 mends itself especially to the notice of the young. Tiiey re(juire some- 

 thing that will discipline not only the mind but the body also. It will 

 not do for them to be constantly shut up in the recitation or lecture- 

 room, or within the narrow limits of their study. They require some- 

 thing to give tone and vigor to tlieir limbs, and to lead them forth into 

 the wonders of the world of nature. They must breathe the pure air 

 of the country, climb its green hills, and measure its broad fields with a 

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