The Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa) 1841-185?, 1851-07-10
A MINE UNDER TIE SEA.

The following description Of visit to
BotaIlsck Copper Mine, in England, is from
work recently published, entitled ''Ram.
bIes beyo Railroads" In complete min
ing equipment, with candles stuck by Jumps
Of clay TO their felt hats, the travellers have
painfully descended, by perpendicular lad
ders and along dripping wet rock passages.
falhoms down into pitchy darkness; the
miner who guides them calls a halt, and
their exact position with reference to the
surface Of the "terraqueous globe" is thus
described:
ave are now four hundred yards out,
under The bottom of the sea! and twenty
fathoms, or a hundred and twenty feet be-
low the sea level. Coast.trade vessels are
sailing over our heads. Two hundred and
forty feet beneath rs men arc at work, and
there are galleries deeper yet, even be-
low that! The extraordinary position
down tie surface Of the cliff, Of the engines
and other works on the surface, Mt Botal
lack, is now explained. The mine is not
eycavated like other mines, under the land,
but under the sea!
Having communicated these particulars,
the miner next tells us tokeep strict silence
and listen. We obey him sitting speechess
and motonless. Ifthe reader could only
have beheld us now, dressed in our copper
colored garments, huddled close together il
a mere cleft Of subterranean rock, with
flame burning on our heads and darkness
developing our lmbs-he must certainly
have imagined, without violent stretch of
fancy, that he was looking downupon con-
clave of gnomes.
| After listening for few moments, dis
tant, unearthly noise becomes family audi.
ble--a long, low, mysterious moaning, that
never changes--,hat is felt on the ear as
well as heard by it--a sound that might pro.
ceed from some incalculable distance from
some invisible height sound unlike any.
hing that is heard on the upper ground IL
The free air Of IIeaven-a sound SO sublime.
| " mournful and still, so ghostly and impress
i've, when listened to in the subterranean
recesses of the earth, that we continue in.
stinciively TO hold our peace, as if enchant-
ed by it, and think not Of communicating
TO each other the strange feeling and aston
ishment which il 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 lashing the rocks a hundred and TWEEN
ty feet above US, and Of the waves that are
breaking on the beach beyond. The tids
is now at the flow, and the sea is in no OK.
,raordinary state of agitation; so the sound
is low and distant just at this period. Bat
when storms are at their height, when the
ocean hurls mountain after mountain Of
water on the cliffs, then the noise is terrific,
The roaring heard down here in the mine is
50 nexpressibly fierce and awful, that the
boldest men at work are afraid to continue
their labor--all ascend to the surface to
breathe the upper air and stand on the
firm earth dfeading, though no catastrophe
has ever happened yet, that the sea will
break in on them if they remain in the cav
ern 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
nAring our candles hi,her and thithcr in the
darkness, can sec the bright, pure copper
streuking the gallery in every direction.
Lumps of ore Of the most Iustrous green
color, trayersed by a natural network Of
thin red veins Of iron, appear here and
there in large, Irregular patches, over
which water is dripping slowly and inces-
sanity in certain places. This is the salt
water percoating through invisible Gran.
nes in the rock. On stormy days it spurts
out fnrously in thin, continuous streams.
inst over our heads we observe wooden
plug Of the thickness Of mans leg; there
is hole here, and the plug is all that we
have to keep out the sea!
Immense wealth Of metal is contained in
the roof Of this gallery, throughout it's whole
| length; but it remains, and will always re-
| main, untouched; the miners dare not take
it, for j, 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 gallery in which we now
stand. No ono knows what might be the
consequence Of another days labor, with the
pickaxe on any part of it,"
New METHOD OF PRESERVING BUTrER.-
A physician who has travelled through
Switzerland, describes process Of preserv-
ing butter as adopted in that country, and
which he states to be far preferable to the
English plan of sailing. The process is as
lolows:-lnto clean copper pan (be,ter,
no doubt, tinned) put any quantity Of but,
ter, say from twenty to forty pounds, and
place it over gentle fire, so that it may
mel, slowly, aud let the heat be SO gradua-
ted, that the melted mass does not come to
the boil in less than about two hours. Du-
ring all this time tho butter must be tre-
quentIy stirred, say onca in about five or
ten minutes, so that the whole mass may
be thoroughly intermixed, aud the top and
bottom change places from time to time.
When the melted mass bols, the fire is to
be so regulated as TO keep the butter at
gentle BOIL for about two hours more, the
stirring being continued, but not necessarl-
ly SO frequen, as before. The vessel is
then to be removed from the fire and set
aside to cool and settle, still gradually; this
process of cooling is supposed 10 require