438 Summarij Review:- t>J' ike late Invcstigaiiuits 



extended by breaking down the looser parts by the pick-axe, 

 and by rending the more solid by gunpowder. Each miner 

 has a candle, which is stuck close by him against the wall of 

 his gallery, by means of a j^iece of clay; and besides those em- 

 ployed in extending the gallery, there are generally one or 

 two boys employed in wheeling the broken ore, &c. to tlie 

 shaft. Each of these boys has also a candle affixed to his 

 wheelbarrow, by the universal subterranean candlestick, a 

 piece of clay. A certain band of men (called, however nu- 

 merous, a pair) generally undertake the work of a particular 

 gallery*. These subdivide themselves into smaller bodies, 

 which, by relieving each other at the end of every six or eight 

 hours, keep up the work uninterruptedly, except on Sunday. 

 By means of this subdivision of the j5a/r5, there is in general 

 not more than one-third of the under-ground labourers below 

 at any one time. Notwithstanding this incessant laboui', the 

 progress of the miner in excavating his gallery is in general 

 very small ; one, two, or three feet in a week, or a few inches 

 daily, is often the whole amount of the united operations of 

 20 or 30 men. In loose lodes and in killas districts they 

 often cut more than this, but often they do not cut so much. 

 It is to be recollected that the lode is very rarely so wide as 

 the gallery, so that it becomes necessary, in order to continue 

 this of the proper size, to hew through the solid rock on each 

 side, w^hich is often very hai'd, even when the lode is soft. The 

 Cornish miner never sleeps or eats under ground, but returns 

 to grass (the technical name of the surface) and to his home, 

 often many miles distant, at whatever depth he may be work- 

 ing when relieved. The mode of ascent and descent m mines 

 is by means of vertical ladders fixed in the shafts." 



" 3. Any person who calls to mind the manner, object, and 

 results of the common process of sinking wells, will be pre- 

 pared to expect the presence of water in mines. The quantity 

 of this varies very much in diftei'ent mines at the same time, and 

 in the same mines at different times. Some of the circumstances 

 that occasion this difference are very obvious ; for instance, the 

 topographical relations of the surface, the nature of the rock 

 and lode, the number and size of the lodes, cross courses, 

 &c. Many galleries both on the lode and through the counhy, 



* In a note at the en 1 oFthe paper Dr. Forbes thus corrects this state- 

 ment respecting the employment of a paii- of men : " It should have been 

 observed, that only one jniir can work in the extremity of a gallery, for 

 there are in general several pairs, stoping, or working horizontally, bot'i 

 over-head and under-foot, in each gallery." 



are 



