1876.] Japanese Mines. 435 
They haul their loads up the incline, holding with their 
hands and feet to the ladder before mentioned. The mine is 
lighted with common open oil-lamps, and no precautions are 
taken against fire-damp (which, owing to surface coal only 
being worked, does not seem to be troublesome in Japanese 
mines) ; its ventilation below is described as atrocious, 
and the means forgetting rid of water are primitive in the 
extreme, so much so that Mr. Plunkett’s account of them 
deserves to be quoted. The working galleries being only 
about 70 feet below the surface, just above these a large 
square well is dug to a depth of about 50 feet, and the water 
from below is pumped into this by small hand bamboo 
pumps, capable of lifting about as much water as an ordi- 
nary garden syringe. On the surface, close to one side of 
this well, stands a high post, on which works a long walking 
beam, at one end of which, fastened to a thick bamboo, is a 
large tub ; the bamboo is long enough to allow the tub to 
reach the bottom of the well ; at the other end of the 
walking beam are attached four ropes. Inside the well, 
about 10 feet down, is a small platform, on which a man 
stands to receive the tub as it comes up. Suppose the tub 
to be at the bottom of the well, four men, holding the ropes 
at the end of the walking beam, run down the side of a 
small mound, thereby lifting the tub to the level of the 
platform, where the man, seizing it, turns the water over 
into a small channel made to carry it out into the valley, 
which is a few feet below, and where there is a small stream 
communicating with the river further down. The four men 
then walk up the hill again, thereby letting the tub fall to 
the bottom of the well to be refilled, and so on till the water 
is reduced to a proper level. The coal is taken from the 
pit’s mouth to the river-side in small carts, which merit a 
few words in passing. They are of two kinds ; one being a 
bamboo basket placed on low wheels, and fitted at each end 
with semicircular shafts bending downwards, so that the 
hind shafts can be made to scrape along the ground, and 
thus a 6 t as a drag ; and the other a narrow wooden box, 
mounted on two high wheels, and fitted with a pair of 
shafts about 7 feet long, joined together at the end. Both 
these conveyances carry from 2 to 3 cwts. of coal, and are 
equally clumsy ; the only difference between them is that, 
whereas the baskets are dragged, the boxes are pushed, and, 
as a rule, men are employed to work the latter and women 
the former. 
Copper, which ranks next in importance among the mine- 
rals of Japan, is lound in numberless parts of the country, 
