508 Copper Mines. 
since re-opened, and through the assistance of modern dis- 
coveries, re-worked to very considerable profit; others are, 
(particularly in Cornwall), being daily explored and made 
the subject of consideration. Some of the mines which 
have been thus abandoned, as well as others which have 
been worked beyond the memory of man, are supposed to 
have existed in very early times. A few miners pretend 
to distinguish the mines worked by the Danes, by their 
being particularly wide at the mouth, and gradually dimin- 
ishing in their descent, like an inverted cone or funnel; but 
it may be questioned whether this mode of operation was 
not in early times adopted by the miners of all nations. 
In 1835, the writer superintended the clearing of a small 
mine, which was attributed to the Danes, in an island off 
the S.W. coast of the county of Cork, and which was then 
filled with rubbish. The principal shaft, which was at the 
western extremity, was about fifteen feet square, and forty 
feet in depth; nine smaller shafts had been sunk in a line 
due E. of this principal shaft, about ten feet apart, all of 
which communicated with each other below. In one of 
these shafts was a considerable accumulation of soot, which 
led some of the workmen to believe that the ore had been 
smelted in the mine, but there was nothing found among 
the rubbish to indicate the existence of a furnace; and the 
writer, with great deference, thinks that the soot might, 
in equal probability, have proceeded from some illicit still 
for the making of whiskey. The only relic positively an- 
cient, discovered in the rubbish, was a stone hammer, used 
formerly for smashing the ores; and which instrument, 
though usually called Danish, was probably common toall 
countries. The tools commonly found in mines, do not 
throw much light in forming conclusions as to their anti- 
quity—consisting chiefly of pickaxes and crowbars, similar 
to such as are used at the present day. Near Redruth, in 
Cornwall, a mine is to this day called “The Druid’s Mine;” 
and, when it is considered that thé Druids were, according 
to tradition, extensive landowners, it is only probable that 
they were proprietors of the most valuable mines, to which 
foreigners resorted for tin and copper; and which have in 
consequence been attributed to the Carthaginians, Phoeni- 
cians and other strange people. 
Copper ore, when first exposed, is often very beautiful. 
It would be useless to specify all the names by which 
mineralogists have thought proper to distinguish its several 
varieties. The most remarkable, both for value and lustre, 
