XX 



that this stoping is not unlike the hewing a flight of steps in a 

 rock, wliere eacli man works away tlie step above tliat wliich he 

 stands on." 



According to Mr. Carne, * " the system whicli at present gen- 

 erally prevails, is that of driving levels and stoping upwards ; by 

 this system, as soon as the shaft is sunk to a sufficient depth, . . . 

 a level is extended [on both sides of it] on the lode. If the lode 

 is rich at the commencement of the level, as the workman goes 

 forward, another is employed to slope or dig doAvn the ore above 

 the level ; and as he makes progress, a third follows him in another 

 stope ; and so they proceed until the intermediate part of the 

 lode (or as much of it as is productive of ore) is wholly taken 

 away ; meantime the shaft continues to be sunk, and [sometimes] 

 becomes deep enough for several other levels, before the ore above 

 the first is exhausted." 



The advantages of this system have been so long and so gen- 

 erally recognized, that they need no recapitulation. At present, 

 therefore, it is intended merely to enquire ivhere, tvhen, and hy 

 whom, it was introduced ; an enquiry of perhaps no great practical 

 value, yet one not without interest as regards the History of 

 Copper-Mining in Cornwall. 



The former mode of working was described by Dr. Borlase,t 

 in 1758, and by Dr. Pryce,:}: in 1778. Their sections of the Pool\\ 

 (East Wheal Crofty Mine) mine, and of Bullen Garden § (Dolcoath), 

 represent the deepest parts to have been wrought underhand, but 

 show no more than one — if indeed even a single — hack slope. 



When, sometime before 1775,^*"^ Dr. Piyce's Section § was 

 made, the works were rather more than ninety fathoms deep. In 

 1788,* * however, they had reached a depth of about one hundred 

 and eighty-five fathoms ; when, the Adventurers believing them 

 to be no longer worth prosecution, tt they were abandoned. In 



* Cormvall Geol. Trans., iii, p. 60. 



f Natural History of Cornicall, p. 168. 



I Mineralogia Cormibiensis, p. 170. 



II Natural History of Cormvall, pi. xviii. 



§ Mineralogia Cornuhiensis, pi. iv. 



^ From an original copy of the Prospectus, with a Table of Contents, in 

 Dr. Pryce's handwriting, now in my possession. 



♦ * The father of Mr. Trevithick, the inventor of the locomotive steam- 

 engine and of the cylindrical boiler, was manager of Dolcoath from 1766 to 

 1788.— Me. Francis Tkevithick, of Penzance, MS. 



f \ Captain Charles Thomas, late Manager of Dolcoath, MS. ; CormvaU 

 Geol. Trans., viii, p. 448. 



