522 
IRON. 
which is remarkable for its numerous vertical and 
parallel veins of metal, and the mine of Danemora, 
of which Mr. Coxe has given the following descrip- 
tion in his Northern Tour: 
“ After dinner we walked to the mines, which 
seem to differ from all others, inasmuch as they 
have no subterraneous galleries, but are worked in 
the open air. The pits are deep excavations, like 
gravel-pits, and form so many abysses or gulfs. The 
descent is not, therefore, as usual in mines, down a 
narrow subterraneous shaft. Here I stepped into 
a bucket, and hung suspended in the open air, in 
the same manner as if a person was placed in a 
basket at the top of Salisbury spire, and gradually 
let down by a rope and pulley. The inspector ac- 
companied me to the bottom, and, while I was 
placed at my ease in the inside on a chair, seated 
himself on the rim of the bucket, with his legs ex- 
tended to maintain the equilibrium; with a stick he 
gently touched the sides of the rock and the rope 
of the ascending bucket, to prevent our bucket from 
swerving against them, which would have infallibly 
overset us. 
While I hung suspended in mid air, and so 
giddy that I could not venture to look down, I ob- 
served three girls standing on the edge of the 
ascending bucket, and knitting, with as much un- 
concern as if on terra firma ; such is the effect of 
custom! We employed five minutes in descending, 
and the depth which we reached before I stepped 
out of my aerial seat was five hundred feet. Not 
