A BLAST UNDERGROUND. 213 
paid according to the amount of ore produced ; 
the ore averaging about thirty-six per cent. for 
quicksilver, although some pieces that I dug 
myself produced seventy-five per cent. Many 
mines in Europe have been profitably worked 
when the cinnabar has yielded only one per 
cent. 
A shrill whistle rings through the mine; the 
miners from all directions rush towards the pil- 
lars. Thinking, 
tumbling in, I was about to scamper off, when 
at least, the entire concern was 
the guide, seizing my arm, drags me behind a pro- 
jecting mass of rock, simply saying, ‘A blast!’ 
For a while there was a deathlike silence—not a 
sound save the hiss of the fusee, and the heavy 
breathing of the men; then the cave lighted up 
with a lurid flash, shedding a blinding glare over 
every object like tropical lightning. The dark 
galleries appeared and disappeared in the twink- 
ling of an eye, whilst the report, like countless 
cannon, was echoed and reechoed through the 
cavernous chamber. Showers of fragments came 
rattling down in every direction, hurled up by 
the force of the powder. On the smoke clearing, 
the miners set to work to collect the scattered 
fragments of cinnabar. If a blast has been suc- 
cessful, often many tons of rock are loosened and 
