irst of all, we repaired to the miner's ward-robe, ere, having taken leave of Mr. M, I preparfor my descent, by throwing off my own dress putting on that of the miners. It consisted of a large shirt, of very coarse materials, and made the frocks of the Connecticut farmers; then of a of large sailor trowsers, striped across with te and black, of the coarsest stuff which is ever ployed for horse blankets, and, over all was a se coat, which, like the rest of my apparel, exhid the strongest evidence that it had often been bethe surface. I wore a pair of cow-skin shoes, hout stockings, made fast by tow strings, passing ler the sole and over the instep. Over my head y drew a white cap, which they crowned with an hat without a brim.

Besides the captain I had another guide, an exienced miner who went before, while the captain lowed me : each of them carried a supply of cans tied to a button-hole, and, like them, I bore ǎ hted candle in my left hand, stuck into a mass of t clay. Although I was preparing, like Æneas, descend to the shades below, I could not boast of epic dignity, for he bore a golden branch while I, -ried only a tallow candle.

The mines of Cornwall are of inuch more difficult cess than those of Derbyshire, for instead of gog horizontally, or with only a gentle descent, into side of a mountain, we are obliged to go perpencularly down the shaft, which is a pit formed by gging and blasting, and exactly resembles a well, cept in its greater depth and varying size, which is metimes greater and sometimes smaller, according circumstances. The descent is by means of laders; at the termination of each ladder there is comonly a resting place, formed by a piece of timber - a plank fixed across, in the stones or earth, which rms the walls of the pit; this supports the ladder Dove, and from it the adventurer steps on the ladder ext below.

With each a lighted candle, so held by the thumb and fore-finger of the left hand, as to leave the other three fingers at liberty to grasp the rounds of the ladder, and with the right hand devoted wholly to the same service, we commenced our descent.

It was laborious and hazardous, but we did not stop till we had descended four hundred feet. The rounds of the ladders are constantly wet and muddy, and therefore very slippery; many of them, through length of time, are decayed and worn so very small, that they seem on the point of giving way; in descending perpendicularly with these disadvantages, the utmost caution is therefore requisite, on the part of a novice, lest he should quit his foothold before he has a firm grasp with his fingers, or lêst, in the dim twilight shed by his candle, he should make a false aim with his foot or hand, or, take an imperfect and untenable hold with either; not to mention the danger of the giving way of the rounds of the ladder, any of which accidents would send him to a place whence he would not return; for, the resting places at the feet of the ladders, as they fill only a small part of the shaft, would diminish very little, the chance of going quite to the bottom.

Having arrived at the depth of four hundred feet, we came to what the miners call, an adit, or level, that is, a passage running horizontally, or, at right angles with the shaft. This passage had been made through the solid rock, and it was high enough to allow us to pass along stooping, which we did for a considerable distance, when the sound of human voices from below, indicated our approach to the populous regions of midnight; while the rattling of mechanical instruments, employed in breaking off the ore, and the report from the explosion of gun-powder, echoed and reverberated along these narrow caverns with the sulphureous and suffocating smoke, presented a combination of circumstances which might well have give one the impression that he had arrived in a worse place than the mine of Dolgoath.

Proceeding along the adit, we came to another t, down which we descended two hundred feet e, and were then full six hundred feet from the ace. This was the principal scene of labour; at at this depth. there were great numbers of miengaged in their respective employments. Some e boring the rocks, others charging with gunder, the holes already made; others knocking the ore with hammers, or prying it with pick-axothers loading the buckets with ore to be drawn he surface; others working the windlasses, to e the rubbish from one level to another, and ulately to the top; in short, all were busy and, ough to us their enployment seems only another ne for wretchedness they appeared quite a conzed and cheerful class of people. In their mans they are gentle and uncommonly civil, and most them paid me some mark of respect as a stran

We occupied three hours in exploring the mine, 1, in this time, travelled a mile under ground, in ious directions. The employment was extremely orious. We could rarely walk erect : often we re obliged to crawl on our hands and knees, over arp, rugged stones, and frequently it was necessa. to lie down flat, and to work our way along by e points of the elbows, and extremities of the es, like seals on a beach. At one time we descend, and at another, ascended through a narrow apcure, where we could only with difficulty squeeze rselves through, and we then continued our proess by stepping on the projections of the rocks, as en do in going up or down a well. My perspiration as so violent, that streams literally run from my ose, locks, and chin, and in this state we came to e channel where the water of the mine flows off, rough which we were obliged to wade along, half g deep, for thirty rods. I was upon the whole uch gratified and instructed. I saw the ore in its atural state, imbedded in solid rocks, principally

quartz and schistus; the mine produces also some tin, cobalt, pyrites, blue vitriol, and even silver. Very little progress is made without blasting, and this destroys more lives than all the other casualties of the business put together. They exploded one blast while we were there; we of course, retired a proper distance, out of danger.

Having seen all the interesting things of the place, we began to ascend. We were drawn up a small part of the way in a bucket, worked by a windlass, but we went up principally by ladders, in a shaft quite remote from that in which we descended. It was that in which the rod of the steam-engine plays to draw up the water.

This engine is one of the greatest magnitude. The rod, which is made of pieces of timber, and, at the top, cannot be less than five or six feet in diameter, descends perpendicularly one hundred and eighty fathoms, or, one thousand and eighty feet, and motion is propagated through this whole distance, so as to raise a weight of thirty thousand pounds at every stroke, for this is the power of the engine.

The steam engine is now extensively employed in mining, not only to raise the water, but the ore; indeed, without it, the mine of Dolgoath could not be wrought; the strength of horses and of men is a useful auxiliary, but would effect, comparatively, very little alone.

At length, after a most laborious and painful ascent, less hazardous it is true, but incomparably more fatiguing than the descent, we reached the surface in safety, at a great distance from the place where we first descended. With joy, with gratitude, I beheld the returning light of heaven, and, although I could not think, that, in my case, the enterprise was rash, I should certainly dissuade any friend from gratifying mere curiosity at so much hazard. The danger is serious, even to the miners, for, by explosions, by falls, by mephitic gasses, and other causes connected with the nature of the employments,

s of the people are carried off every year and, account, Redruth and its vicinity has an unproportion of widows and orphans.

diately after coming again into day-light, we 1 possible haste to shelter ourselves from the nd, as we were afraid of the consequences of g too suddenly a very profuse perspiration; rest house was our wardrobe, to which we ately resorted, and performed a general ablum head to foot. I then resumed my proper and prepared. to return again into more comlife. Before taking leave of my conductors, ith the greatest patience, good-nature, and ence, had done every thing both for my safegratification, I offered them a small recombut, with sentiments of delicacy,' not often n any country, among people of that grade in ey declined taking any, alledging that it was ent to receive money of a stranger for a mere ivility and it was not, till after repeated solis, that I could induce them to yield the point. magnanimity, among people who are buried 7 their lives, and who seem to have a kind of › tax all those who live on the surface, was as cted as it was gratifying. It is not true, howhat the Cornish miners live permanently below ; they go up regularly every night, and down n the morning, so that they perform every their lives, the tour which seemed so formi

o me.

P