Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1851-06-12
A Mine Under the Sea.

- AAAAAV OhAAOA OAAO SO&SS
This description of visit to Bottallack
copper mine, in England, is from work
recently published, entitled " Rambles
beyond Railroads" In complete mining
equipment, with candles stuck by Jumps
OF clay to their felt hats, the travellers
have painfully descended by perpendicu>
lar ladders and along dripping wet rock
passages, fathoms down into pitchy dark
ness; the miner who guides them calls Il
halt, and their exact position with refer
ence to the surface of Lhe teyraqueous
globe" is thus described:
1--WE are now four hundred yards out
unler the bottom Of the sea and twenty
fathoms, or hundred and twenty feet
below the sea level. Coast-tradc vessels
are sailing over our heads. Two hun
cred and forty feet beneath us men are
at work, and there are galleries deeper
yet, even bslow that The extraordin>
AIRY position down the face of the cliff, of
the engines and other works on the sur.
face at Bottallack, is now explained. The
nine is not excavated like other mines
under the land, but under the sea p
Having communicated these particu.
lars, the miner next tells us to keep strict
silence and listen. We obey him, sitting
speechless and motionless. If the reader
could only have beheld US now, dressed
in our copper colored garments; huJ-
died close together in Il mere cleft of SUBJ
teranean rock, with flame burning on
our heads and darkness enveloping our
llmbs-he must certainly have imagined
without any violent stretch Of fancy, that
he was looking down upon a conclave of
gnomes.
After listening for few moments. a
distant unearthly noise became family
audible-a long, low, mysterious moan.
ing, that never changes--that is felt on
the ear as we'll as heard by tia sound
that might proceed from incalculable dis
tance-from some far invisible height
sound unlike any thing that is heard on
the upper ground, in the free air OF hea-
ven--a sound so sublime, mournful and
still, so ghostly and impressive when lis
tened to in the subterranean recesses Of
the earth, that we continue instinctively
to hold our peace, as If enchanted by it,
and think not of communicating to each
other the aStonlshment which it has in
spred 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 lashing the rocks hundred and
twenty feet above us. and of the waves
That are breaking on the beach beyond.
The tide is now at the flow, and the sea
is in no extraordinary state of agitation /;
so the sound is low and distinct just at
this period. But when storms are at
their height, when the ocean hurls noun
tain after mountain of water on the cliffs,
then the noise is terrific the roaring
heard down here in the mine is so inex>
pressibly fierce and awful that the bold>
est men at work are afraid to continue
their labor--ail ascend to tie surface to
breathe the upper air and stand on the
firm earth; dreading, though no catas>
trophe has ever happened yet, that the
sea will break in on them if they remain
in the cavern below.
Hearing this, we get up to look at the
rock above US. We are able to stand up.
right in the position we now occupy; and
daring our candles hther and thltLer in
the darkness, can see the bright, pure
copper streaking the gallery in every di-
rection. Lumps of ooze. of the most lus-
trous green color, trayersed by natural
network of thin red veins Of iron, appear
here and there in large irregular patches.
over which water is dripping slowly and
necessarily in ce, tain places. This is the
salt water percolatiDg through invisible
crannies in the rock. On stormy days it
,purts out furiously in thin. continuous
streams. Just over your heads we OBJ
serve a wooden plug of the thickness OF
mans ley there is a hole here, and
ne plug is all that we have TO keep out
the sea
Immense wealth OF metal is contained
in the roof Of this gallery, throughout its
whole length; but it remains, and will
always remain untouched; tho miners
dare not take it. for it is part, and great
part OF the rock which forms their only
protection against the sea. and which has
been SO far worked away here. that its
thickness is limited to AN average Of three
feet only between the water and the gall
lery in which we now stand. No one
knows what might be the consequence OF
another days labor with the pickaxe on
ANY part Of it, ts
EyENINn.-Theraa are two nerinds in