XXI 



1800 operations were resumed; and it was then found* that 

 before the mine was relinquished in 1788, beside levels and winses, 

 back stores had already been opened. This is the earliest record 

 of the present system of working with which I am acquainted. 



But whilst the mines of Cornwall were still wrought on the 

 ancient system of underhand slopes, and before the works of Dr. 

 Borlase and Dr. Pryce were even contemplated, the mines of 

 Clausthal and Zellerfeld in (the Hartz) Hanover, and the works at 

 Illmenau in Saxe Weimar, had not only been wrought by aid of 

 shafts, levels, ivinzes, and hack slopes, but had also been described 

 by Brockmann and Tromler, as early as ITSO.t 



It has been shown that the ancient system prevailed as late as 

 1775-8,:}: but that the present mode, which had been adopted and 

 described in Germany in 1730, was followed at Dolcoalh before 

 1788. 



Mr. Rudolph Erich Raspe, || who was born at Hanover, in 

 1737, published several scientific works in various languages, and 

 became successively Librarian, Professor, and Curator, of the 

 Museum of Antiquities and Coins, at Cassel, having been com- 

 pelled to leave his country, was employed, I believe, as Assay- 

 master and Store-keeper at Dolcoalh, from 1782 or 1783 to 1786, 

 if not indeed until the mine was abandoned in 1788. 



This evidence — circumstantial rather than positive — seems to 

 show that the mode of working which had been practised in 

 tianover and Hesse more than thirty years earlier, was unknown 

 at Dolcoalh in 1778 ; that it was adopted there before 1788 ; and 

 that during (1782-3-6) at least a portion of the interval, Mr. 



* John Ei;le, Esq., of Parc-Brackett, Camlx^rne, at that time Surveyor 

 of Dolcoath, MS. 



f Brockmann, Magnalia Dei in Locis Subterraneis (Wolfenbiittel, 1730), 

 pi. iv, xii, pp. 172—6, 225—6. 



+ The ancient mode of working was followed at Wheal Alfred as lately 

 as 1816. — Came, Cormvall Geol. Trans., iii, p. 69. 



II " Eudolph Erich Easpe, distinguished henceforth as the first collector 

 of Baron Munchausen's Adventures, . . . was bom in Hanover in 1737, 

 studied at Gottingen and Leipzig, and held for some tiihe the position of 

 Librarian in his native town. He was afterwards a professor and curator of 

 the Cabinet of Antiquities and Coins at Cassel. Between 1764 and 1765 he 

 published several scientific treatises in Latin, German, and English, and a 

 poem called Hermin and Gimilde. . . . He also reviewed Ossian's Poems and 

 Percifs Reliques, with translations from each. His career at Cassel ended 

 [untowardly] ; but, having made his escape, he at length settled in this 

 Country, although his name was erased from the list of the Eoyal Society, 

 of which he had previously been a Foreign Member : his previous conduct 

 did not interfere, with his success as a foreigner of merit and reputation. He 

 is so described in the Catalogue of 500 celebrated Authors in Great Britain 



