42, SWABEY DIARY. 
crawled on our hands and knees. The whole sight of a copper mine 
consists in these passages, there being no large excavations as in coal 
and other mines. From three adits! in various places there are holes to 
the surface of the ground, through which whims or windlasses, worked 
by two horses, lower alternately two baskets capable of containing each 
3 cwt. of ore, which is thus got rid of when dry. The deepest adit of 
the mine is 140 fathoms, and extends, from a centre about a mile, every 
way. ‘The engine raises a hogshead of water at every second or vibra- 
tion. In the adits, and in the descent by the steam-engine, the damp 
drops on you like rain, and in several places you have to walk through 
channels that convey the water, which runs very rapidly and is up to 
your knees, from different parts to the engine. Owing to this perpetual 
damp and the stagnation of air, miners are consumptive, and, as they told 
me with great coolness, few live to more than 40 years old ; occasionally 
the damp? strikes and immediately kills them, if it does not actually do 
So, it incapacitates the person from holding on to the pump-rods? in the 
descents, when they fall to the bottom, and their fate is inevitable 
death. I had been led to suppose that miners were the most uncouth 
wretches on earth: these were not so, and in general the Cornish 
tongue appeared to have less of the provincial than is usual in distant 
counties. The namesare certainly original. The great curiosity of the 
mine was the steam-engine, which is certainly one of the most wonder- 
ful products of mechanical knowledge, in the rest I was disappointed. 
The mine is called the “ United Mine,” and was worked constantly 
for 80 years, then closed for nine, and was re-opened two years ago. 
Its return is £5000 per month; much money is sunk however, in clear- 
ing the water; till that is effected it cannot be so profitable. It 
employs 3800 people; when the water is gone they tell you it will 
employ 5000. ‘The men work only six hours a day, that being as much 
as the constitution can bear. 
We had excellent hacks from Falmouth. The party consisted of the 
two Lyon’s, Taylor, and myself, and the day passed pleasantly enough ; 
indeed, it was a sort of release from prison. We got to Falmouth for 
supper at 10 o’clock. The time passed so quickly at the mines that, 
though intending to be back to dinner, we stayed there till half-past 
eight ; we all brought specimens of the different ores. ‘Tin is likewise 
found. ‘The metal is not prepared here, but sent by land to some place, 
of which I forget the name, in South Wales. 
[When we left Hampshire a gentleman, about my own age, attached 
himself to us as a volunteer. Alas! poor fellow. Having run through 
a handsome fortune, he has been long dead. He was a gallant spirit ; 
his father used to say that there was nothing by day or by night that 
1 Adit, the opening by which a mine is entered, or by which water or ore is carried away.— 
EALW=s 
2 The carbonic acid gas which is present in all mines.—F'.A.WV. 
3 The pump-rods in Cornwall are fitted with standing boards, and_a man going down steps off 
the pump-rod at the bottom of the stroke on to a fixed stage, where he stands till the up-stroke is 
completed, he then steps on to the rod and descends with it to the next stage, and so on till he 
reaches the bottom ; it will be understood that if the damp or gas does not suffocate, it may render 
a man incapable of maintaining his hold, when he falls to the bottom and is killed.—F.4.W. 
