DESCENT INTO THE MINE. 211 
having to bring up a load of two hundred pounds, 
in a bag made of hide, fastened by two straps 
passing round the shoulders, and a broader one 
across the forehead, which mainly sustains the 
load. It was fatal work to the poor Mexicans 
who had to do it, the terrible muscular strain 
soon producing disease and death! 
On reaching the engine I am undressed and 
rigged as a miner, a costume far more loose and 
easy than becoming. Three dip-candles dangled 
from a button on my jacket by the wicks, and 
one enveloped in a knob of clay for my hand, 
completed my toilet. The next process is to be 
lowered down into the mine. Squeezing myself 
into a huge kind of bucket, and assuming as 
near as practicable the shape and position of a 
frog, my candle lighted, ‘ All right!’ says some- 
body, and I find myself rapidly descending a 
damp dismal hole, dripping with water like a 
shower. Of course I shudder, and have horrible 
ideas of an abyss, ending no one knows where; 
the candle hissed, sputtered, and went out; the 
bucket swang as the chain lengthened, and 
bumped unpleasantly against the rocks; now a 
sudden stop, and a lively consciousness of being 
dragged bodily out like a bundle of clothes, dis- 
closes the fact of my safe arrival at the bottom. 
oe 
