rrence
in the mines. The danger of "holing to a house of water," is so great
and so well known that the operation is usually conducted with great
care, and accident is well guarded against.

Nevertheless, an occasional act of carelessness will now and then result
in a terrible disaster. A catastrophe, similar in all its chief
features to that which has been related in the last chapter, happened in
North Levant mine many years ago, and in the burying-ground of the
Wesleyan Chapel of St. Just may be seen a tombstone, which bears record
of the sad event as follows:--

_Sacred to the memory of_ JAMES, _aged_ 20, _and_ JOHN, _aged_ 15
_years, sons of James and Nanny Thomas of Bollowall, in this Parish,
who were drowned (with three others) by the holing to a house of water
in North Levant Mine on the first of April_ 1867.

A "house" of much larger dimensions, and containing a much greater body
of water than that which caused the latest destruction of life in North
Levant mine, was cleared of water not long ago in Botallack. The agents
knew of its existence, for, the whole region both above and below ground
being measured off and planned, they could lay their finger on the exact
spot where they knew that an old mine existed. They kept a large borer,
six feet long, going constantly before them as they cut their way
towards the point of danger. The result was that when the borer at last
pierced through to the old mine, there were six feet of solid rock
between them and the water. Through the small hole the water flowed,
and thus the mine was slowly but safely drained. In the other case, the
ground happened to be soft, and had been somewhat recklessly cut away.

Of course, there are occasions--proving the truth of the proverb that
"accidents will happen in the best regulated families"--in which neither
foresight nor precaution can prevent evil; but these are comparatively
few. Sometimes the cupidity of a miner will lead him, for the sake of
following a rich lode, to approach too near and too recklessly to
danger, despite the vigilance of captains, and cause considerable risk
to the mine as well as to themselves. Such was the case once long ago
at Botallack, when the miners below the sea cut away the rock to within
three or four feet of the water, and actually made a small hole through
so that they had to plug it up with a piece of wood.

This is a fact which we can vouch for, having seen the plug, and heard