Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1851-06-21
A NINE UNDER THE SEA.

The following description Of visit to Bottalack copper
mine, in England, is from work recently published entitled
Rambles beyond Railroads." In complete mining equip
men with candles stuck by Jumps Of clay their felt hats
the travellers have painfully descended by perpendicular lad
der and along dripping rock passages homs down into
ptchy darkness. The miner who guides them calls halt
and their exact position with reference to the surface Of the
" tenaqueous globe is thus described
"We four hundred yards out, under the bottom
of the sea, and twenty athoms, hundred and twenty
feet below the level Coastrade vessels sailing
heads Two hundred and forty feet beneath
at work. and there galleries deeper yet even below that
The extraordinary position down the face of the Cliff Of the
engines and other works the surface at Boaack Is
explained The mine not excavae like other mines,
under the land but under the sea-
Having communicated these particulars, the miner next
tells to keep strict silence and sten. We obey him, sit
ting speechess and motioness Ii the reader could only
have behed now dressed in coppercoored garments
hudded close together in cleft of subteanean rock,
with fame burning heads and darkness envelopng
our limbs he must certainly have Unsigned, without any vo
lent stretch Of fancy that he looking down upon
clave Of gnomes.
After listening for few moments distant unearthy
noise becomes family aud bea long low, mysterious moan
ing that changes that the we'll heard
by TIA sound that might proceed from some ncalcuabe dis
tance from far, invisible height sound unlike sny
thing that heard the upper ground, in the free ~ OF
heavena sound subimely mourDful and still 20 gnos
and impressive, when listened in the eceses
VI tue edItn, mat We Commune insudC iscy
if enchanted by it aud thnk not Of 70 eacn
other the strange feeling and asonisbnent which mas IN
spred in US both from the irs.
CAT last the miner speaks again. ana tells US tna WnatWe
hear is The sound Of the surf hng the rocks hundred and
twenty feet above u.s. and q the that are breaking IN
the beach beyond The AIDE at the flow, and thu sea
in no extraordinary sse of agitation the sound low
and distant Just at period But when storms are at their
height when te hurs mountain after Dountan OF
water on the Cliffs then the noise is terrific; the roaring
heard dovv- here in the mine nexpresby herce ana
awful hat the boldes at work afaid to continue
their abor All ascend the surface Breathe the upper air
ed stand the firm earhdeading, dough no catastrophe
has hsppened yet that the will break IN on them
they remain in the cavern below.
Hearing this get up to look at the rocK ABOVE US
We able to stand upright in the position we now occupy
and faing candles hhsr and thisher In the darkness
the bright copper streakng the gael Ia every
direction Lumps Of of the most us'rous green COLOR
aversed by natural network of thin red veins OF IRON, aP
pear here and there in large irregular patches over which
water is dripping slowly and necessarily in certain places
This is the salt water peIcolatng through invisible canne in
the rock On stormy days purs out fuousy In thin con-
tnuous streams. Just heads observe wooden
plug Of the thickness Of mans leg there hole here, and
The plug is all that we have to keep out the sea.
sImmense wealth Of metal is contained in the roof OF this
gallery throughout its whole length but il remains, and
will always remain untouched the miners dare not take It,
for s part asd great part, Of the rock which forms their
only protection against the and which has been 30 far
worked away here that it's thickness Is limited to average
Of three feet only between the water and the gallery In which
we now stand. No knows what might be the conse-
guence Of another days labor with the pcka1e on any part
Of it."