clothes.

The mining dress is a very simple, and often a very ragged affair. It
consists of a flannel shirt, a pair of linen trousers, a short coat of
the same, and a hat in the form of a stiff wide-awake, but made so thick
as to serve the purpose of a helmet to guard the head from the rocks,
etcetera. Clumsy ankle-boots complete the costume. As each man issued
from the house, he went to a group of wooden chests which lay scattered
about outside, and, opening his own, took from it a bag of powder, some
blasting fuse, several iron tools, which he tied to a rope so as to be
slung over his shoulder, a small wooden canteen of water, and a bunch of
tallow candles. These last he fastened to a button on his breast,
having previously affixed one of them to the front of his hat.

Thus accoutred, they proceeded to a small platform close at hand, with a
square hole in it, out of which protruded the head of a ladder. This
was the "ladder road." Through the hole these red men descended one by
one, chatting and laughing as they went, and disappeared, leaving the
moor-house and all around it a place of solitude.

Captain Dan now prepared to descend this ladder road with Oliver
Trembath.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

TELLS OF THE GREAT MINE AND OF A ROYAL DIVE UNDER THE SEA.

Botallack, to the dark depths of which we are now about to descend, is
the most celebrated mine in the great mining county of Cornwall. It
stands on the sea coast, a little more than a mile to the north of St.
Just. The region around it is somewhat bleak and almost destitute of
trees. In approaching it, the eyes of the traveller are presented with
a view of engine-houses, and piles of stones and rubbish, in the midst
of which stand a number of uncouth yet picturesque objects, composed of
boards and timber, wheels, ropes, pulleys, chains, and suchlike gear.
These last are the winding erections of the shafts which lead to the
various mines, for the whole region is undermined, and Botallack is only
one of several in St. Just parish. Wherever the eye turns, there, in
the midst of green fields, where rocks and rocky fences abound, may be
seen, rising prominently, the labouring arms, or "bobs," of the pump and
skip engines, and the other machinery required in mining operations;
while the ear is assailed by the perpetual clatter of the "stamps," or
ore-crushing machines, which never cease their din, day or night, except
on Sundays.

Botallack, like all the othe