LUPTON : GOLD, SLATE, A^'D SALT MINES IX GREAT BRITAIN. 249 
all day that the mine should be pleasaut and seem clear. In some 
mines the shafts are only 4 feet in diameter ; the salt is drawn in 
round barrels. The red marls are overlaid with boulder clay and sand, 
and the shafts are tubbed with iron-tubes through the sand. The 
salt mines are perfectly dry. 
To describe the process of preparing rock salt for the market and 
evaporating brine would unduly lengthen this paper : and therefore, 
in conclusion, attention is called to the statistics of minerals taken 
from the government returns given in the appendix. The minerals 
therein-named are found abounding in this country, in scenes which 
but for them would be the untroubled domain of the shepherd and 
the ploughman ; they are treasures that for countless ages have been 
hidden, held fast within the earth and trebly locked ; for nature's 
locks cannot be picked, they yield indeed only to three keys, which 
have been named industry, knowledge, and enterprise ; with these 
(like the open sesame" of the fairy tale) the subterranean gates fly 
open, and through those portals we can pass, indeed have passed, 
like Proserpine, or like the hero of Arabian Tales, and reach to wealth, 
and in the products of that wealth to active enjoyment and know- 
ledge of the world, exceeding by far all the records of history, and 
casting into greater obscurity alike the fabled palace of Plutus and 
the caves of an Eastern fancy. 
APPENDIX. 
MINERAL PRODUCE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, 1887. 
Weight 
Tons. 
Value 
Alum, Clay (Bauxite) 
Alum, Shale .. 
Arsenic 
Arsenical Pyrites 
Barytes 
Bog Iron Ore 
Clays (excepting ordinary ciay) 
Coal 
Cobalt and Jsickel Ore 
Copper Ore 
Copper Precipitate ... 
Fluor Spar 
Gold Ore 
Gypsum 
Iron Ore 
... cwt. 
2,413,693 
162,119,812 
4,169 
2,586 
4.618 
4,364 
24,813 
9,273 
154 
9,079 
280 
283 
32,458 
3,205 
26,619 
4,636 
590,412 
39,092,830 
900 
20,982 
48,293 
3,235,355 
3,075 
385 
209 
1,040 
323 
