Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-04-25
BORING THE EARTH.

Deep Mining Operations the Rugged
Cornwall Coast.
It is at Botal,ack, one and one-half
miles from Cape Cornwall. that the
most striking example is seen of mans
boldness in search of wealth and Of his
skill in securing it. Botallack is in it
self worth visiting, even if no mine ex-
listed in its recesses. 1t is bold head
land composed of huge masses of horn
blende, masked by walls of slate.
against which the Atlantic surgss are
continually dashing. But the persever-
ing efforts of man have at this point
been more powerful than those Of ma
turc. Gloomy precipices Of slate,
which unnumbered ages of sea storms
have been unable to Misplace. are here
cut in twain by the miner, whose COM
plicated machinery clings to the cliffs
at places where it would seem almost
impossible for an engine to be fixed.
The spectator here finds himself at
once in the midst of a busy commune
ty. Powerful steam engines, stamp
ing mill, and all the heavy machinery
required in modern mining are perched
on what at first sight seem inaccessi-
BILE situations, SO that from distance
they look as if growing out of the
crags- All is noise and hustle, which
contrast strangely with the placidity
OF the seward view. "Kibbles" de-
scend fathoms beneath the sea, and
ascend again laden with tin or copper
ore. which is wheeled away to larger
heaps, where women, boys and girls
pick and separate various qualities
with the systematic industry of work
ers in a factory. Every body and every
thing-rocks, platforms and paths
are smeared with the prevailing red
hue, derived from slight mixture of
iron with the ore, and the muddy
stream flowing from the stamping mill
to the sea has impaired to the beach,
the breakers and the foam the same
rubicund tinge.
1t ore is coming up plentifully and
OF good quality, every body is pleased,
and far down in the gloomy depths of
the mine. which Cornish legend peo-
piles with spirits, the news that a new
bunch" of copper has been struck, or
that the old lode is growing richer,
fills the workers with professional joy.
As the'visitor creeps along the passages
into which the light of day has never
entered, he hears comparatively little,
until, having become accustomed to
the darkness, barely illumined by the
flicker of lamps, he dimly distinguishes
the stalwart gnomes at work. Coming
from the upper world, amid the din of
heavy stamps, the measured gush of
pumps, the clang of machinery above
and the surge of the sea below, the
rattle of wagons on tramways, and
the crowds of men and boys climbing
up and down paths which seem too
steep for goat, the modified silence
of the levels strikes one as unnatural
In places, however, the guides may
ask the visitor to listen to a Curl
Gus sound. 1t is the booming of the
waves above, and the grating of the
stones on the sea bottom. Then he is
told. to give him courage, that in some
of the recesses of the first level the ore
has been cut away until a roof not
more than six or eight feet thick had
been left. First worked on the face
of the cliff only, the mines
descended level by level, until the ex-
cavations extended for more than
six fathoins under the sea, and
for long distances inland, while the
greatest depth to which it had been
sunk is about two thousand feet. 1t
was this persevering search after ore
which gave Botallack its celebrity and
that brought it streams of more or less
distinguished visitors.
The queen was taken there in 1916 to
see what her Cornish subjects could &C
complish. and five years later the sons
of Louis Philippe asked permission to
examine the workings; while in 1865
the Botallack miners kept holiday in
honor of visit from their duke and
duchess. whom we know more famil-
iarly as the prince and princess of
Wales.-London News.