122 Mr. "William Phillips on the Veins of CornwalU 



extensive copper mines called Huel Unity and Cook's Kitchen, both 

 of which were, I believe, worked for tin at first, without any 

 suspicion of their veins being rich in copper beneath it. In both 

 the tin was soon exhausted ; but it should be noticed as an uncom- 

 mon circumstance, that in the latter mine, after working to the depth 

 of 180 fathoms, first through tin and afterwards through copper, 

 tin was found again, and has continued down to the present depth 

 of the mine, which is about 210 fathoms from the surface. It 

 ought however to be noticed that some parts of that portion of the 

 load which principally contained copper ore, had been left, on the 

 presumption of their not yielding ore of any sort ; in the phrase of 

 the miner they were considered as deads. Some of these have since 

 been found to produce tin, which may consequently be said to have 

 prevailed more or less from the surface to the bottom of the present 

 working. A considerable proportion, if not the chief part of the 

 copper ore of this mine, was the sulphuret. 



Among the favorable symptoms to which the miner is attached 

 there is still another, which ought not to be forgotten. There are 

 some among them credulous enough to believe that they hear, while 

 employed under ground, another pick at work, which is imme- 

 diately referred to the agency of an invisible spirit, or what they 

 term a piskey, or small man. This is esteemed an omen of the 

 most favorable kind, and which induces the full belief of having 

 nearly arrived at the desired object, the discovery of ' a good course 

 of ore.' It seems as though the sound which the miner hears, may 

 reasonably be accounted for by presuming him to be at work in the 

 immediate nighbourhood of a cavity, or as he terms it, a voog, 

 which returns the sound of the stroke of his own pick. 



