Page:Once a Week Volume V.djvu/669

 662 to knead it in his hands, and having completed this process, divided it into two lumps, and said, giving me one:

“Now put this ere round the bottom of yer candle, and then hold it altogether between yer thumb and that finger—pointing to my forefinger; but if yer want both yer hands to hold on with, then clap the lump o’ clay on the front of yer hat, it ’ul stick then, and then yer can get on without holding it.”

Determined to go through with my three hours’ journey, and to trust implicitly to Jim, I did as he directed; and having done so, ventured to inquire if we were to descend by ladder for the whole journey. I began to think that 1200 feet by this road might, apart from the danger, prove rather wearisome work.

“Yes,” said Jim, “these ere ladders are about twenty-five feet long each on ’em—you’ll see how it is, in going down, as we get on.”

Our candles were now burning, and we proceeded. Presently Jim said:

“Now, sir, we’re on the first landing;” and I found myself on a boarded platform, about four feet square, which occurred at the end of each of the ladders. After descending about six or eight of these ladders, we stood upon the solid stone. Before me—where Jim was already groping—was a narrow cavern, which looked as if it had been made by some rock-burrowing animal, rather than by human agency. The floor was most uneven, and in many places covered with pools of muddy water, which dropped slowly from the roof, the shape of which was most indefinite; in some places it ran in strange contortions to a height of ten or twelve feet; in others it was not more than four or five feet from the floor, and in such places we had to travel on all fours, with our candles on our hats, apparitions, likely I should think, to be frightful even to gorilla hunters.

Then we proceeded down many ladders, and along many of these aqueous galleries, until our appearance and condition fully justified the miner’s precautions as to change of dress. Once or twice, while on the ladders, I heard a shuffling noise below us, and presently, on one of the landings, we should find a man waiting to pass to the upper world. The only coverings these miners wore, were a pair of canvas trousers, like those I had on, and thick shoes. My companion spoke to them about the workings, which they said were going on very well; but when we had travelled for more than an hour, clambering about the rocky galleries, and feeling our way down the ladders, I had seen no signs of work, although we were now—so Jim told me—1000 feet below the surface. The heat was oppressive, and I experienced a slight difficulty in breathing. Here there were signs of great quantities of copper having been extracted. The sides of the gallery glistened in many places with ore containing large quantities of metal. The miner told me that the latent heat in the metal is so great, that a blind man might tell a good mine from a bad one by the heat he would experience in the presence of valuable ore.

Down several more ladders and we had before us a long gallery, through which we could proceed but very slowly. Stumbling over the stony floor. which was occasionally improved by a plank, where it was necessary to wheel the ore, we came presently to the main shaft of the mine. At our feet was a large hole, filled with water, the most horrible, suicidal-looking pool I ever saw; the black water seemed an infinite depth. The walls, cut into fantastic shapes, as the miners had followed the run of the ore they were digging, reflected, from the slimy surface, the glare of our candles. I kicked a piece of rock into the pool. The noise of its falling echoed throughout the mine, with a sound which made our standing place seem the middle of a vast solitude instead of what it was—a mere fissure in the rocky strata around us.

The mine had been worked much below this depth, and the water kept back by the action of a steam-engine, but the ore not proving valuable, this working had been discontinued. We proceeded along this gallery until I thought I could hear the sound of dull blows, like the noise of a distant hammer. Asking Jim what it meant, he told me we were now approaching the place where the men were at work. I soon saw two men before us, who, in the light dress I have previously described, were standing over what appeared like a well, with an ordinary drawing apparatus erected over it. Each of them had a handle, and were engaged in drawing up something seemingly heavy. A candle in a lump of the serviceable clay, stuck on the top of the well wheel, gave them light. They continued their winding, regardless of our approach, and presently a bucket appeared laden with what well might have been taken for rough gold. When the bucket was safely landed, Jim said to one of the men,

“That’s good stuff you’re bringing up here.”

“Yes,” replied the half-naked miner, adding, “Are you going down?”

Let me here perform an act of justice to the Cornish miners. I know that by many they are regarded as ferocious savages, men whom the partial loss of daylight has deprived of religion, affection, and of all humanising and spiritualising influences. No greater mistake can be made. I have been in almost every county in the kingdom; I have had much to do with the agricultural population in many of them, and I am firmly of opinion that the mining population of Cornwall is far superior to the peasantry of any other county. The miners are generally quiet, well-behaved, well-informed men, with a deep sentiment of religion,—though the latter is generally coupled with dissent from that of the Established Church,—and with a love of order which is rarely equalled among the lower classes. I have no doubt that this is largely owing to the fact that they have in most cases a pecuniary interest in the success of their work; they have a great deal of leisure, which, with good wages, they are able to employ usefully; they have also the stimulating prospect of constantly witnessing the rise of their fellow workmen by steadiness and good fortune, allied with judgment, to high positions of wealth and influence. These circumstances may or may not account for the facts I have stated.

We were examining the contents of the bucket, which was now emptied, when my companion asked me if I should like to go down to see the