Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 2.djvu/132

122 extensive copper mines called Huel Unity and Cook's Kitchen, both of which were, I believe, worked for tin at first, without any suspicion of their veins being rich in copper beneath it. In both the tin was soon exhausted; but it should be noticed as an uncommon circumstance, that in the latter mine, after working to the depth of 180 fathoms, first through tin and afterwards through copper, tin was found again, and has continued down to the present depth of the mine, which is about 210 fathoms from the surface. It ought however to be noticed that some parts of that portion of the load which principally contained copper ore, had been left, on the presumption of their not yielding ore of any sort; in the phrase of the miner they were considered as deads. Some of these have since been found to produce tin, which may consequently be said to have prevailed more or less from the surface to the bottom of the present working. A considerable proportion, if not the chief part of the copper ore of this mine, was the sulphuret.

Among the favorable symptoms to which the miner is attached there is still another, which ought not to be forgotten. There are some among them credulous enough to believe that they hear, while employed under ground, another pick at work, which is immediately referred to the agency of an invisible spirit, or what they term a piskey, or small man. This is esteemed an omen of the most favorable kind, and which induces the full belief of having nearly arrived at the desired object, the discovery of ‘a good course of ore.’ It seems as though the sound which the miner hears, may reasonably be accounted for by presuming him to be at work in the immediate neighbourhood of a cavity, or as he terms it, a voog, which returns the sound of the stroke of his own pick.