IQOI-1902.] A Winter in Cornwall. 359 
familiar minerals in smaller quantities. By the way, there is 
a very fine collection of specimens of these in the Truro 
Museum well worth inspecting. Nowadays, while it cannot 
be said that this source of wealth is dried up, yet the industry 
is a mere shadow of its former self. About Camborne and 
Redruth district several mines, notably Dolcoath, are still 
working, also in the Carradon neighbourhood; but towards 
St Just only one mine, the Levant, is in use. The workings 
of this last run a long way below the sea, as did those of the 
famous Botallack mine in the immediate vicinity. No more 
saddening spectacle can be seen anywhere than in different 
directions presents itself to the eye——emblems of ruin in the 
shape of broken-down masonry, rotting machinery, tumble- 
down chimney-stalks, and shafts filled with water, speaking to 
a vast amount of capital sunk, and to a wage-earning com- 
munity deprived of their daily bread, and forced to scatter to 
the four winds of heaven. Many of the old miners emigrated 
to Johannesburg, and were doing well until the war in South 
Africa compelled them to become refugees. It is satisfactory 
to know, however, that many are now returning to the sphere 
of their former labours. In the district north of Liskeard the 
ruinous condition of things was markedly noticeable. Where, 
not so long ago, hundreds found employment, not a soul was 
to be seen—nothing but disused workings, and huge heaps of 
refuse cast up from the mines upon which practically no 
vegetation grew. The evening I passed through was calculated 
to increase the depressing appearance, as a thick mist was 
drifting along the hill-sides, accompanied by, at intervals, 
blinding showers of rain, the whole prospect forcibly reminding 
one of some of Gustave Doré’s masterpieces. Apropos of this 
subject, tradition says that the oldest mine is that known as 
the “ Ding-Dong,” which is supposed to have been worked before 
the birth of our Saviour. This statement is only given for 
what it is worth, to prove such an assertion not being an easy 
matter. Whether the Cornish mines may ever be resuscitated, 
so as to defy foreign competition, is a problem that need not 
be here discussed. 
It is a trite remark that when one industry dies, another 
Springs up to take its place, and this is providentially the case 
in Cornwall. China or white clay—the kaolin of commerce— 
VOL. IV. 20 
