The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1851-05-04


The following description OF visit to Bo,tallaek cop
per mine. in England is from work recently pubIishe.
entitled Rambles beyond Railroads" In complete mi
ming equipment, with candles stuck by Jumps OF clay 10
their felt hats the travellers have painfully descended by
perpendicular ladders and along dripping rock pas
saees iathoms down into p'ehy darkness h The miner
with reference TO the surface OF The "teaqueous globe"
is thus described:
We now four hundred yards out. under The bottom
Of the and twenty fahoms-or hundred and twenty
feet-below the level Coast-trade vessels sail
ing heads Two hundred and forty feet bDeaih
At work, and there are galleries deeper yet
below that The extraordinary position down the
face OF the cliff of the engines and other works the
surface at Boltaack is explained The is not
excavated like other mines under the land but under the
Having communicated these particulars the miner mex,
tells keep strict silence and listen. We obey him,
sitting speeches and mooness II the reader could
garments hudded close together in q cleft OF sub
terranean rock. with fame burning our heads and
darkness enveoping limbs, he must certainly have
imagined whou, any voIen, stretch Of fancy. that he
was looking down upon a conclave oil Gnomes
After listening for few moments distant, unear,hly
noise becomes family aodblea long, low. mysterious
well heard by it-a sound that might proceed from
some incalculabe disiance-from some far, invisible
hegh-a sound unlike anything that 10 heard on the
upper ground. in the free air OF he.ven-a sound
sublmey mournful, and sull gbosy and impressive
when listened to IN the subteranean recesses OF the
earth, that continue insincvey TO hold peace
if enchanted by ii, and think no, OF communicating TO
each other the strange feeling and asonlshment which II
has inspired IN us both from the hrst.
Al last the miner speaks again, and tells that what
we hear 10 the aQund OF the surf flashing the rocks
hundred and twenty feet above u.s. and OF the that
are breaking on the beach beyond The tide is now at
the How and the extraordinary state of ag
taton; the sound is low and distant Just this pc
rod But when storms at their height, when the
ocean hurs mountain after mountain Of water the
cliffs then the noise IL terrific the roaring heard down
here in the mine so fierce and awful that
the bodest men al work afraid 10 continue their
abora ascend to the surface to breathe the upper air
and stand on the firm earhdreading. though no caias-
rophe has happened yet that the sea will break in
on them II they remain in the cavern below
Hearing this, we get up TO look nj the rock above
We are able to stand uprish, 10 the position we now
occupy and hang candles hher aud thiiher in the
darkness, the bright pure copper streakng the
gallery in every direction Lumps OF ooxe of the most
lustrous green color traversed by natural network OF
thin red veins OF iron, appear here and there large
irregular patches, which water is dripping slowly
and necessarily in certain Places This is the salt water
percolatng through invisible crannes in the rock On
stormy days II spurts out furiously thin continuous
streams. Just over heads observe q wooden plug
OF The thickness OF mans leg there a hole here and
the plug is all that we have to keep out the sea
Immense wealth OF metal ia contained in the roof of
this gallery, throughout ts whole lengh but II remains
and will always remain, untouched the miners dare moi
take IT, for II u part and great part. Of the rock which
forms their only protection against the sea- and which
has been far worked away here that its thickness
limited to average OF three feet only between the
water and the gallery in which stand No one
knows what might be the consequence OF another days
labor with the p'skaxe on any part Of il.