The southern press. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-05-21

A MINE UNDER THE SEA-The following de-
scription of a visit to Bottaack copper mine,
in England, is from a work recently published,
entitled g Rambles beyond Railroads." Incom-
pIete mining equipment, with candles stuck by
Jumps Of clay to their felt bats, the travellers
have painfully descended by perpendicular lad
ders and along drppingwet rock passages faith
oms down into pitch dark ess. The miner who
guides them calls hall and their exact position
with reference 10 the surface of the "terrague-
Gus globe" is thus described:
We are now four hundred yards out under
The bottom of The sea, and twenty fathoms-or a
hundred and twenty feet--below the sea level
Coast-trnde vessels are sailing over our heads
Two hundred and forty feet beneath us men are
at work, and there are galleries deeper yet, even
below that The extraordinary position down
the face Of the cliff Of the engines and other
works on the surface at Bo tallack is now ex
planned The mine is not excavated like other
mines under the land, but under the sea.
Having communicated these particulars, the
miner next tells us TO keep strict silence and
listen. We obey him, sitting speechess and
motonless If the reader could only nave be-
held us now, dressed in our copper-colored gar
ments, huddled close together in mere cleft OF
subterraneous rock, with flames burning on our
he ds and darkness eDveloping our limbs, he
must certainly have imagined, without any vio-
lent stretch Of fancy, that he was looking down
upon conclavc Of gnomes.
After listening for few moments, n distant,
unearthly noise becomes fain ly audible--along,
low. mysterious moaning that never changes
that is fen on the ear as well as hard by tia
sound that might proceed from some incncpla-
bic distance--from some far, invisible height
a sound unlike anything that is heard on the
upper ground, in the free air Of heayen--a sound
so sublimely mournful, and still so ghosty and
impressive, when listened TO in the subterrnnean
recesses Of the earth, that we continue instnc-
lively TO hold our peace, as If enchanted by IT.,
and think not Of communicating TO each other
the strange feeling and astonishnen which 1t
has inspired in US both from the first.
At last the miner speaks again, and tells us
that what we hear is the sound OF the surf lash
inp the rocks hundred and twenty feet above
rs an of the waves that are breaking on the
beach beyond The tide isnowat the flow, and
the sea Is in no extraordinary state OF agitation
so the sound IN low and distant Just at this PEE
Rod. But when storms ere at their height when
the ocean hurls mouniairs after mountains OF
water on the cliffs then The noise is terrific; the
roaring heard down here 10 the mine is so mex
pressibly fierce and awful. thlt the boldest men
at work are sfraid to continne their labor--al
ascend 10 the surface 20 breathe the upper air
and stand on the firm earth--dreading, though
no catastrophe has ever happened yet, that the
sea will break in on them if they remain IN the
cavern below.
Hearing this, we pet ur TO look at the rock
above us. We are able TO stand upright In the
position we now occupy, and, flarug our candles
hither and thither'in the darkness, can see the
bright pure copper streaking the gallery in
every direction. Jumps of coze of the most
lustrous green color, traversed by natural net
work of thin red veins Of iron, appear here and
there in large, irregular patches, over which
water is dripping slowly and necessarily IN
certain places. This is the salt water percoat-
ing through invisible crannies in the rock. On
stormy days Il spurts out furiously IN thin, con-
tinuous streams. Just over our heads we OBJ
serve wooden plug Of the thickness Of a mans
leg there is hole here, and the plug s all that
we hAve 70 KEEP out No sea-