386 Intelligence and Miscclhincous Articles. 



of ore often require time and money to reacli them. Srd, The 

 treatment of the ore in washing and dressing has been governed 

 by those rules, -derived from a more perfect knowledge of what may 

 profitably be done, obtained by correct assays and comparisons of 

 the value and the expense of acquiring it. 4th, The drainage of 

 mines has been so much improved, that not only has the steam- 

 engine removed the obstacles which prevented our pursuit of the 

 ore, but the expense of this method has been reduced from a limit 

 which only could be reached by the most productive, so that it is 

 now within the compass of most. I found lately, upon calculating the 

 expense of drawing the water by steam power in some of the deep 

 mines of Cornwall, that with the saving in the quantity of coal 

 in the last 20 years, coupled vvith the reduced price of the fuel, 

 owing to better methods of purchase and conveyance, the amount 

 is now but about l-6th of what it formerly was. Steam-engines 

 themselves aremot only also less costly to erect, but they are more 

 certain in their effect, and less liable to those hindrances which are 

 so injurious to the miner. 



In all the equipment of our engine shafts also there is a great 

 alteration for the better. Pumps, rods and pitwork of all kinds are 

 simplified and improved ; and the consequence is, that both with 

 water and steam power great expense is avoided by the wear and 

 tear that was common in former times. Complicated attempts 

 have been discarded, and difficulties are met with more judgement 

 and experience than were formerly employed. • 



5th, Ventilation is provided for by a more just consideration of 

 the circumstances required to produce it ; and this seldom fails, or 

 if it do in extraordinary cases, we have more ingenious contrivances 

 to help us than we formerly had, 



6tl), The extraction of the waste and ores from below, and their 

 transport on the surface, has been rendered more ceconomical than 

 formerly ; which, however, applies in a much greater proportion in 

 deep mines than in shallow ones. I have found, where the stuff" 

 is drawn 150 to '200 fathoms deep, that by the use of better shafts, 

 of rail-roads under ground, and upon the surface, and other well 

 organized arrangements, as much is saved in this way in propor- 

 tion, as I observed in the expense of drainage by steam-engines. 



7th, The labour of the workmen is better arranged, more space is 

 allowed to a given number, they are placed so as to be freer from 

 interruption from each other, or from other causes; and therefore 

 their labour is more effectual and less expensive in proportion to 

 what is done. 



What I am inclined to call the moral improvements in mining, 

 relate to the government of persons by whose agency they are 

 carried on : — the great principle that is to be kept in view being 

 the union of interests to one common end; to combine that of the 

 employer with that of the employed; to enlist, as it were, the ex- 

 perience and ingenuity of all to conquer difficulties and to effect a 

 common purpose. This proposition, though simple and as it were 

 self-evident, is fur from being easy of application ; and men may 



easily 



