290 ' A TOUR ROUND NORTH WALES. 



them to get away, that is, of length fuf- 

 ficient before it burns through and lights 

 the powder, to fuffer them to efcape out of 

 the danger attendant upon the explofion. 



Several of the fhafts which have been 

 formed for taking off the water, are dri- 

 ven very deep : one that I faw, was up- 

 wards of a hundred and fixty feet below 

 the open bottom of the mine. I got the 

 miner who attended me to fix a candle on 

 the edge of one of the buckets by which 

 they draw the water up, and it was really 

 curious to watch it in it's dark and con- 

 fined defcent, till it became a mere fpeck 

 of light, and then immerfing in the water 

 was loft. 



Since the firft forming of thefe mines, 

 they have been the graves of many unfor- 

 tunate perfons, either from the roofs fal- 

 ling in, the ftages giving way, or the ropes 

 breaking. But a few weeks before I was 



there, 



