THE MINERAL RESOURCES OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 491 
Hitherto the prime object of mine adventurers has been, by- 
linking their fortunes to that of a mining enterprise, to increase 
their wealth as rapidly as possible ; therefore, if a mine cut rich, 
to devise the most complete method of making it into pocketable 
form as quickly as possible, utterly regardless of the future. Any 
apparent exceptions from this rule may be easily accounted for, on 
the same principle, the secret history of directorates being known. 
Numerous mines now abandoned should have been still at work, 
had a different policy been pursued^ with manifest advantage to the 
commonwealth. 
Of course, there are absolute exceptions to the ordinary state 
of affairs, but only sufficient to be a proof of the rule. 
The problem to be solved is, then, how best to reinstate the 
character of the two counties for their mining resources. It is a 
great one, and therefore worthy a bold adventure. The history 
of ocean telegraphy shows that bolder ones have been met, and 
successfully worked out. Two millions sterling were lately raised 
with ease, and invested in a worthless foreign mine ; but suppose 
a capital of a million raised here, and spent for determining the 
question whether some one of the best of the present languishing 
deep mines may not be brought into such a working condition as 
to prove that their riches have not been exhausted, but abandoned 
for want of means to prosecute their search. 
My scheme would be this : To select a piece of mining ground 
of well-established character, either new or that has already been 
worked ; to secure a capital of a million, which, under the very 
best possible management, should be devoted to the sinking of a 
large shaft to a great depth, say 1,000 fathoms, to serve as a 
main entrance, from which levels should be driven off, for testing 
the lodes, at certain distances from each other. Supposing a 
rich deposit reached, I would not allow more than a maximum 
dividend of, say, 10 per cent, on the paid up capital to be paid 
out of profits until a reserve fund in hand were obtained equal to 
the amount of the capital fixed on at starting, so that there should 
never be any difficulty respecting the means of prosecuting explo- 
rations contemporaneously w 7 ith the extraction of the saleable ores. 
The management should be exclusively in the hands of first- 
class men, distinguished for ability in the organization of financial, 
engineering, and mining operations, the executive to consist not 
only of first-class miners, but also of skilled metallurgical agents. 
