TKANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 4^7 



Account of the Depths of Mines. By John Taylor, F.R.S., 



%c. 



Mr. Taylor exhibited a section, showing the depths of shafts 

 of the deepest mines in the world, and their position in relation 

 to the level of the sea. 



The absolute depths of the principal ones were : 



Feet 



1. The shaft called Roehrobichel, at the Kitspiihl mine 



in the Tyrol 2764 



2. At the Sampson mine, at Andreasberg in the Harz 2230 



3. At the Valenciana mine, at Guanaxuato, Mexico 1770 



4. Pearce's shaft, at the Consolidated mines, Cornwall 1464 



5. At Wheal Abraham mine, Cornwall 1452 



6. At Dolcoath mine, Cornwall 1410 



7. At Ecton mine, Staffordshire 1380 



8. Woolf's shaft, at the Consolidated mines . . . 1350 

 These mines are, however, very differently situated with re- 

 gard to their distance from the centre of the earth, as the last 

 on the list, Woolf's shaft, at the Consolidated mines, has 1230 

 feet of its depth below the surface of the sea, while the bottom 

 of the shaft of Valenciana in Mexico is near 6000 feet in absoi- 

 lute height above the tops of the shafts in Cornwall. The bot- 

 tom of the shaft at the Sampson mine in the Harz is but a few 

 fathoms under the level of the ocean ; and this and the deep 

 mine of Kitspiihl form, therefore, intermediate links between 

 those of Mexico and Cornwall. 



Mr. Taylor stated, that taking the diameter of the earth at 

 8000 miles, and the greatest depth under the surface of the sea 

 being 1230 feet, or about ^th of a mile, it follows that we 

 have only penetrated to the extent of yg ooo P^'^* of the earth's 

 diameter. 



Some account was then given of the mines to which the shafts 

 referred to belong. 



Of the deepest, at Kitspiihl, as it has long ceased to work, 

 we do not know much. Villefosse, in his great work on the 

 Richesse Minerale de V Europe, states that this was a copper 

 mine, which passed for being the deepest in Europe ; and that 

 in 1759, it was reported on, amongst other mines, by MM. Jars 

 and Duhamel, and it was then proposed to abandon the work- 

 ing, the water having been already suffered to rise near 200 

 fathoms. 



The Sampson mine in the Harz is one of the most celebrated 

 in that district : it has been working since the middle of the 



