account Of The Iron Mines Of Presberg
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Account ofthe Iron Mines of Presberg.
JUST PUBLIsHED--BY DIR. CLARKE.


For grandeur of effect, filling the mind
Iof the spectator with degree of wonder
which amounts to awe, there is no place
where human labour is exhibited under
circumstances more tremendously strik.
ing. AS we drew near to the wide and
open abyss, vast and sudden prospect Of
yawning caverns and prodigious machine.
Try prepared us for the descent. We ap.
preached the edge of the dreadful gulph
whence the ore is raised, and ventured to
look down, standing upon the verge of a
Isort of platform, constructed over it IN
such manner as to command view Of
the great opening as far as the eye could
penetrate amidst its gloomy depths for,
to the sight, ii is bottomless. Immense
buckets, suspended by rafting chains,
were passing up and down; and we could
perceive ladders scaling all the inward
precipices. upon which the work-people,
(reduced by their distance to pigmies in
size) were ascending and descending.
Far below the utmost of these figures, a
deep and gaping gulph-the mouth Of
the lowermost pit was, its darkness, rem
dered impervious to the view. From the
spot where we stood, down to the place
where the buckets are filled, the distance
might be about seventy-five fathoms; and
as soon as any of these buckets emerged
from the gloomy cavity we have mention
ed, or until they entered it in their des-
cent; they were visible, but below this
point they were hid in darkness. The
clanking of the chains, the groanng of the
pumps, the halooing of the miners, the
cracking of the blocks and wheels, the
|tramplng of the horses, and the beating
of the hammers, and the loutand frequent
|subterraneous thunder, from the blasting
of the rocks by gunpowder, in the midst
Of all this scene of excavation and uproar,
produced an effect which no stranger can
behold unmoved.


We descended with two of the miners
and our interpreter in this abyss. The
ladders, instead of being placed like those
in our cornish mines upon series OF plat
forms, as so many landing places, are LASH
ed together in one unbroken line, extend
ing many fathoms and, being warped to|
suit the inclination or curvature of the
sides of the precipces they are not al 4
ways perpendicular. but hang over in such
a manner, that even if person held fast
by his hands, and if his feet should hap
pen to slip they would fly off from the
rock, and leave him suspended over the
gulph. Yet such ladders are the only
means of access to the works below; and
as the labourers are not accustomed tO
receiving strangers, they neither use the
precautions nor offer the assistance usual
y afforded in more frequented mines. InI
the principal tin-mines of Cornwall, thel
slaves of the ladders are alternate bars of
wood and iron; here they are of wood
only, and in some parts rotten and broken
making us often wish, during our descent,
that we had never undertaken an exploit
so hazardous.


In addition to the danger to be appre-
hended from the damaged state OF the lad


