MINDEN 



Miuden, Germany. South facade of 

 the llth century cathedral 



among the German princes. In 

 1648 his principality was handed 

 over to the elector of Brandenburg, 

 and thus became part of Prussia. 



Minden, BATTLE OP. Fought 

 between the British and the French, 

 Aug. 1, 1759. Under Ferdinand of 

 Brunswick, a British and Han- 

 overian army was operating in 

 N. Germany. Defeated at Bergen 

 in April, it fell back before the 

 French, who occupied Minden in 

 July. To retire farther would have 

 been to leave Hanover to the 

 mercy of the French, so Ferdinand 

 decided to fight. 



The French army, 60,000 strong, 

 commanded by Contades, occupied 

 a strong position to the S. of 

 Minden, the Weser protecting one 

 flank, and a morass the other. The 

 British and their German allies 

 had 52,000 men, and the engage- 

 ment began when 7,000 of them 

 were sent to cut the enemy's com- 

 munications with Kassel. The 

 French met this threat by ordering 

 a general attack, which was antici- 

 pated by Ferdinand, who moved 

 more troops into the threatened 

 position, while six English, followed 

 by three Hanoverian, battalions 

 advanced to the attack. 



In two lines they marched 

 steadily across the plain, swept by 

 a cross-fire from both flanks, until 

 they were charged by the French 

 cavalry, which they routed with a 

 most destructive fire at close 

 quarters. The battle was won, and 

 the French army fell back to 

 Minden., Lord George Sackville 

 refused * to advance with his 

 cavalry, thus enabling the French 

 to retreat in fairly good order. 

 The French lost 7,000, and many 

 guns and colours. The allies lost 

 2,600, half being British, of whom 

 about 10,000 were on the field. 

 The six Minden regiments are 12th, 

 Suffolk ; 20th, Lancashire Fusiliers ; 

 23rd, Royal Welch Fusiliers ; 25th, 



King's Own Scottish Borderers ; 

 37th, Hampshire ; and 51st, York- 

 shire Light Infantry. 



Mindoro. One of the Philippine 

 Islands, ranking seventh in size. 

 Situated S. of Luzon, from which it 

 is separated by Verde Island Pas- 

 sage, 7 m. broad, it is 100 m. long 

 by 60 m. broad, and covers an area 

 of 3,850 sq. m., excluding several 

 small dependent islands. Its sur- 

 face is mountainous, rising in Mt. 

 Halcon to about 8,850 ft., and ex- 

 tensively wooded. The rivers are 

 short and commercially unim- 

 portant, and the coast is free from 

 large indentations. Calapan is the 

 capital. With the exception of 

 savage tribes there are few inhabi- 

 tants. Pop. 30,000. 



Mine. Excavation made in the 

 crust of the earth for the purpose of 

 extracting some metallic or other 

 mineral substance. A stone quarry 

 and a clay pit are particular 

 forms of mines. Also, broadly, as 



MINE 



petroleum is a mineral and the 

 rights in it underground are in- 

 cluded among mineral rights, an 

 oil well is another particular form 

 of mine. A sunk pit from which 

 rock salt is extracted is obviously 

 a mine, but so also in all essentials 

 is a brine well. * 



A mine may be a mere scratch- 

 ing on the surface of the earth, e.g. 

 a gold placer deposit on the bank 

 or in the dry bed of a stream ; an 

 open working on the side of a hill, 

 such as the hydraulic gold mines of 

 California and Nevada, some of the 

 iron mines in the Midlands of 

 England and coal mines in Spits- 

 bergen, and some other parts of the 

 world ; an immense underground 

 series of caverns, as the salt mines 

 of Wielicksza in Galicia, now part 

 of Czecho-Slovakia ; or a deep pit 

 terminating in low workings, such 

 as are the majority of the coal 

 mines of the world. See Coal ; Gold ; 

 Kimberley ; Mining. 



Mine. Pictorial diagram illustrating sectional view of the shafts of a coal 



mine, showing system of draining and pumping water, of ventilating the 



mine, and of working the tunnels 



