in Botallack, for the men were all above ground to have
their "pitches" for the next month fixed, and to receive their wages--
setting-day being also pay day.

Some time before the business of the day commenced, the miners began to
assemble in considerable numbers in the neighbourhood of the
account-house. Very different was their appearance on that occasion
from the rusty-red fellows who were wont to toil in the dark chambers
far down in the depths below the spot where they stood. Their
underground dresses were laid aside, and they now appeared in the
costume of well-off tradesmen. There was a free-and-easy swing about
the movements of most of these men that must have been the result of
their occupation, which brings every muscle of the body into play, and
does not--as is too much the case in some trades--over-tax the powers of
a certain set of muscles to the detriment of others.

Some there were, however, even among the young men, whose hollow cheeks
and bloodless lips, accompanied with a short cough, told of evil
resulting from bad air and frequent chills; while, on the other hand, a
few old men were to be seen with bright eyes and ruddy cheeks which
indicated constitutions of iron. Not a few were mere lads, whose broad
shoulders and deep chests and resolute wills enabled them to claim the
title, and do the work, of men.

There were some among them, both young and old, who showed traces of
having suffered in their dangerous employment. Several were minus an
eye, and one or two were nearly blind, owing to blast-holes exploding in
their faces. One man in particular, a tall and very powerful fellow,
had a visage which was quite blue, and one of his eyes was closed--the
blue colour resulting from unburnt grains of powder having been blown
into his flesh. He had been tattooed, in fact, by a summary and
effective process. This man's family history was peculiar. His father,
also a miner, had lived in a lonely cottage on a moor near St. Just, and
worked in Balaswidden Mine. One night he was carried home and laid at
his wife's feet, dead--almost dashed to pieces by a fall. Not long
afterwards the son was carried to the same cottage with his right eye
destroyed. Some time later a brother dislocated his foot twice within
the year in the mine; and a few months after that another brother fell
from a beam, descended about twenty-four feet perpendicularly, where he
struck the side of the mine with his head, and had si