ON THE ETHNOGBAPHICAL SUEVEY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 633 



up of new mining fields has, of course, had most to do with bringing 

 about these new conditions. The ground in Cornwall had been mined 

 for thousands of years, and the extraction of ores from deep mines had 

 become expensive, and made it difficult to compete with new countries, 

 where operations were carried on scarcely beyond the light of day. At 

 first, a few tore themselves from home and gradually, as its necessity be- 

 came apparent, the spirit for emigration has become almost universal, so 

 that it is rare to meet with a young man who does not look forward to the 

 time when he shall have to seek a wider field in which to push his for- 

 tunes than is to be found at home. The spirit of enterprise that began 

 in the mining districts quickly extended all through, and the popula- 

 tion within the last fifty years has in many of the parishes diminished 

 considerably more than one-half. 



In the Breage mining districts it used to be a subject of remark that 

 ' the men were like trees,' tall and finely developed ; among them the 

 families of Guudry, Treglohans, Magors, Penhales, and others were well 

 known, and for many years supplied the men that made the Western 

 wrestlers the acknowledged champions of the sport. As in other places, 

 where a number of persons having similar names existed, nicknames or 

 cognomens were common : one of these, ' Bendigo,' from Breage, was that 

 of the discoverer of the famous goldfields in Australia, which promptly 

 took and retained the appellation. 



Under the ancient system of mining (Mr. Connock further observes), 

 before the introduction of the steam engine made deep naining prac- 

 ticable, the business of farming was generally combined with it, the late 

 summer and autumn, when the springs became low and the work in the 

 fields for the year nearly completed, being devoted to the mining. It is 

 possible, he thinks, that the more recent practice of continuous employ- 

 ment in deep mines may have had in some cases a deteriorating efi"ect 

 upon the race. The small area of the enclosures in "West Cornwall indi- 

 cates the way in which the fields were gradually reclaimed from the waste 

 by hand labour. 



There are faint traditions of the former existence of a race of large 

 men once living in the locality. During some repairs to the chancel of 

 the chui'ch at Wendron about 1860 two stone coffins were discovered 

 containing human remains of unusual size. 



At Breage and Germoe were the homes of the Godolphins, the revivers 

 of mining industry in Cornwall at the close of the fifteenth century ; of 

 William Lemon, the great miner and merchant of the early part of the 

 eighteenth century ; and of Edward Pellew, afterwards Yiscount Exmouth. 

 In these parishes the steam engine was first applied to mining on a large 

 scale, and afterwards the labours of Arthur Woolf and Thomas Richards 

 largely helped to bring it to its present perfection. The use of combined 

 cyUnders, which has recently effected great economy in marine naviga- 

 tion, was originated and put in practice in the Breage mines by them. 

 The Cornish miners are able mechanics, wonderfully apt at expedients to 

 meet exigencies. 



The fishing village of Porthleven contains a large and increasing 

 number of families drawing a maintenance from fisheries. They are 

 almost wholly descended from those who have been long resident in the 

 locality, though fishing, as a steady and continuous industry, is a calUng 

 of very recent growth. The seine fishery for capturing the shoals of 

 pilchards periodically visiting the coast was formerly one of the great 



