BARMOUTH. 
33 
looker of tlie mine, and, after traversing a beautiful meadow on 
the mountain slope, where they were busy g'etting in the hay, 
and passing more than one working, at which operations had 
just been commenced, we suddenly found ourselves before the 
chief working or lode ; not a very imposing, but still an interest- 
ing, excavation. 
It is a small tunnel driven into the hill-side. Its height is 
about eight or ten feet, and its width barely five ; and at the 
entrance we found several heaps of the auriferous quartz. 
Entering the tunnel, we observed that the superincumbent 
rock and earth were supported by props and joists of wood ; 
and, after penetrating about twenty or thirty yards, we found 
ourselves with the miners, who were busily engaged with pick- 
axe and gunpowder, procuring the gold-charged mineral, 
which, by the light of their candles, glistens with the precious 
metal it contains. 
But it is a cold, damp burrow, this treasure-yielding vault ! 
Through the grey rock the wet trickles as in some cave of 
stalactite, and under-foot we find a pool of water. 
The miners had just finished procuring a load of the quartz, 
and were boring for a fresh blast. After watching them for a 
time, we retraced our steps, and once more emerged from the 
damp chill cavern into the genial sunshine, and feasted our 
eyes upon the glorious hills and valleys of the Mawddach. 
Arrived once more at the “ engine-house/'’ a little wooden 
shed containing the apparatus used for grinding the quartz, we 
met the enterprising owner of the mine, who described to us the 
process and machinery by which the precious metal is extracted 
from the crude mineral. 
We shall, however, refrain from employing the technical 
phraseology used by our instructor, but shall seek to convey 
the information after our own fashion. 
Just let the reader join us whilst we indulge in a stretch of 
the imagination. He must suppose that our skilful companion, 
the proprietor of the mine, who knows so well how to conjure 
up the treasures from the bosom of these hills, is also able, 
through some potent spell, to summon the presiding Genius of 
the place (one of those Welsh giants, in whom the country people 
still believe, and whose footsteps they will show you, thirty feet 
apart*), and having done so, places before him a pestle and 
mortar, of proportions suited to his strength, and by his side a 
heap of auriferous quartz, with a quantity of quicksilver, bidding 
* On the coach-road between Beddgelert and Carnarvon, the impress of one 
of the feet of a giant has been painted on the top of a rock on one side of the 
road, and that of the other foot on the opposite side, distant about thirty 
feet. 
VOL. IT. — NO. V. 
D 
