532 
TIN. 
as they have lately been described by an intelligent 
traveller. As soon as a shaft* has been sunk to 
some depth, a machine, called a whim , is erected, 
to bring up either rubbish or ore, which is pre- 
viously broken into convenient fragments by pick- 
axes and other instruments. The whim is com- 
posed of a perpendicular axis, on which turns a 
large hollow cylinder of timber called the cage, and 
round this a rope winds horizontally, being directed 
down the shaft by a pulley fixed perpendicularly 
over the mouth of it. In the axis a transverse 
beam is fixed, at the end of which two horses or 
oxen are fastened, that go their rounds, hauling up 
a bucket full of ore or rubbish, while an empty 
one is descending. In some mines the whim is 
worked by steam. The ore is blown out of the 
rock with gunpowder, and, when raised from the 
mine, is divided into as many shares as there are 
lords and adventurers ; and these are measured out 
by barrows, an account of which is kept by a per- 
son who notches a stick. Every mine is allowed to 
distribute its ore on the adjacent fields, and this is 
generally pounded or stamped on the spot, in the 
stamping-mill. This mill is a machine constructed 
for the purpose, and worked by water ; it pounds 
or stamps the ore previous to its being carried to a 
large vat, where it is washed from all its filth, and 
prepared for the smelting-house. The foreman, or 
principal servant, employed by a company of ad- 
* A narrow perpendicular passage into a mine. 
