30 DAVENPORT VCADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



had been left at short intervals as supports to the rock above. The 

 opening to the mine began at a point about twenty feet below the 

 summit of the hill, and extended from thence diagonally downward for 

 a distance of forty feet. A superficial examination convinced me that 

 iron tools had not been employed in the removal of the rock, and hence 

 it seemed exceedingly improbable that the opening before me was the 

 result of European labor. Believing the discovery to be of some im- 

 portance from an archaeological point of view, I proceeded to make a 

 thorough examination of the excavation, a task rendered comparatively 

 easy, as the greater part of the debris had been removed a short time 

 prior to my visit by a person who was in search of silver ores.* Pro- 

 vided with a candle and a slender pole, I descended into the opening, 

 which is about two feet in width, and found that for a depth of eight 

 feet no effort had been made to enlarge the opening by the removal of 

 either of the adjacent strata, both of which are exceedingly hard and 

 quartz-like in structure. The miners, at this point, had ceased to drift 

 upward along the strata, and had commenced the sinking of a narrow 

 shaft. After removing the rubbish from this shaft, its depth was found 

 to be less than five feet. Evidently, the intention of the miners, in 

 sinking this shallow shaft, had been the formation of a face or breast in 

 the rock, to serve as a starting-point from which they might tunnel in 

 an opposite direction to that pursued in the drift above, for, opening 

 out from the bottom of this shaft, was a low passage leading down and 

 under the mountain. After carefully exploring as much of this passage 

 as was within reach of my pole, I proceeded to enter, but, in order to 

 do so, was obliged to go upon all fours. Crawling in this manner for 

 some four or five feet, the passage was found to increase in height to 

 such an extent that an upright position would have been possible, had 

 it not been for the incline of the strata and the narrowness of the pass- 

 age. The descent here was at a sharp incline, and had been accom- 

 plished by means of shelf-like offsets cut into the rock. Traces of fire 

 were plainly visible in and upon the rock at the entrance to the tunnel, 

 and the smoke-blackened walls were so seamed and checked by cracks 

 and crevices as to demonstrate the alternate use, by the miners, of both 

 fire and water in their efforts at breaking down the rock. A further 

 search revealed the mineral desiderata of the miners. The soft, friable 

 sandstone, to the removal of which the miners had confined their efforts, 



♦The alterations effected by that individual, in the appearance of the mine, were of no im- 

 portance, inasmuch as they were confined to the surface and related entirely to the removal and 

 replacement of a part of the stone supports by others of wood. 



