144 Mr. William Phillips on the Veins of Cornwall. 



the hacknied practice of his predecessors, in making purchases to an 

 enormous amount on the reports of those whose skill only extends 

 to the extracting of the heaviest prill, without possessing a know- 

 ledge of chemistry sufficient to enable them to discover of what it 

 is compounded. 



Enough has been said in the preceding pages of the uncertainties 

 attending the pursuit of the miner, to amount to evidence that skill 

 and ingenuity are often exerted in vain : — all they can do is to 

 determine on, and put in practice the speediest and most ejBfectual 

 methods of ascertaining the value of a vein, at the least expense. 

 When assisted by the best experience, they are utterly unable to 

 form a conjecture, grounded on reasonable certainty, that the great 

 expenses attending the trial of a vein will be repaid. If indeed the 

 reverse of this were the case, there would not be as there now are, 

 so many skilful captains of mines who have lost money by their 

 adventures. If experience avails so little, theory cannot be ex- 

 pected to avail any thing ; and it may fairly be doubted whether all 

 that science could bestow on the practical miner, would, in this 

 branch of his occupation, be found to be of the slightest advan- 

 tage. 



The habits of the miner are those of industry and perseverance, 

 which often tempt him to exploits that excite astonishment at his 

 venturous hardihood. The very idea of a descent beneath the surface 

 of the earth has something in it of the terrible, at which those 

 shudder who are unacquainted with practical mining. But such is 

 the force of habit, that rarely does any other employment tempt a 

 miner to forsake his own. The occasional perils of his occupation 

 are scarcely noticed, or if noticed are soon forj^otten. fie walks 

 often in the middle of the night, and in all weathers, two or three 

 or more miles to the mine, undresses, and puts on his underground 



