378 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



running parallel, traversed at irregular intervals by verti- 

 cal shafts, and all communicating together, either directly 

 or indirectly. 



In mines where many hundreds of men are employed 

 under ground, more than three or four men are seldom 

 to be met with in one gallery at a time ; there they are 

 seen pursuing the common operations of digging or bor- 

 ing the rock, in the inner extremity of the gallery, by 

 the feeble glimmering of a small candle, with very little 

 noise, or much latitude for bodily movement. Very 

 seldom are they within the sound of each other's opera- 

 tions, except when occasionally they hear the dull report 

 of the explosions. In the vicinity of the main shaft of 

 the mine, indeed, the incessant action of the huge chain 

 of pumps, produces a constant, but not very loud noise : 

 while the occasional rattling of the metallic buckets (for 

 conveying the ore) against the walls of the shaft, as they 

 ascend and descend, relieves the monotony both of the 

 silence and the sound. Still every thing is dreary, dull 

 and cheerless ; and one unacquainted with the details of 

 mining, could be with difficulty persuaded, even when 

 below in the richest and most populous mines, that he 

 was in the centre of such extensive and important ope- 

 rations. 



The extreme darkness of che galleries adds greatly to 

 the impression of tameness. There is no light whatever, 

 but that aiforded by the candle of the workmen ; while 

 the universal presence of water, soaking through the 

 crevices of the galleries, and intermixing with the dust 

 find rubbish, keeps up a constant succession of dirty 

 puddles, through which one must pass in inspecting a 

 mine, besides being frequently obliged to crawl on all 

 fours through passages too low to admit him in any other 

 manner. The galleries are extended, by breaking down 

 the looser parts by the pick-axe, and by rending the 

 more solid by gunpowder. 



