xist in, on upper earth!

On re-entering the counting-house, we were greeted by the welcome
appearance of two large tubs of water, with soap and flannel placed
invitingly by their sides. Copious ablutions and clean clothes are
potent restorers of muscular energy. These, and a half hour of repose,
enabled us to resume our knapsacks as briskly as ever, and walk on
fifteen miles to the town of St. Ives--our resting place for the night.

* * * * *

While we were sitting in the counting-house, we had some talk with our
good-humoured and intelligent guide, on the subject of miners and mining
at Botallack. Some of the local information that he gave us, may
interest the reader--to whom I do not pretend to offer more here than a
simple record of a half hour's gossip. I could only write elaborately
about the Cornish mines, by swelling my pages with extracts on the
subject from Encyclopaedias and Itineraries which are within easy reach
of every one, and on the province of which, it is neither my business
nor my desire to intrude.

Botallack mine is a copper mine; but tin, and occasionally iron, are
found in it as well. It is situated at the western extremity of the
great strata of copper, tin, and lead, running eastward through
Cornwall, as far as the Dartmoor Hills. According to the statement of my
informant in the counting-house, it has been worked for more than a
century. In former times, it produced enormous profits to the
speculators; but now the case is altered. The price of copper has fallen
of late years; the lodes have proved neither so rich nor so extensive,
as at past periods; and the mine, when we visited Cornwall, had failed
to pay the expenses of working it.

The organization of labour at Botallack, and in all other mines
throughout the county, is thus managed:--The men work eight hours
underground, out of the twenty-four; taking their turn of night duty
(for labour proceeds in the mines by night as well as by day), in
regular rotation. The different methods on which their work is
undertaken, and the rates of remuneration that they receive, have been
already touched on, in the chapter on the "Cornish People." It will be
found that ordinary wages for mine labour, are there stated as ranging
from forty to fifty shillings a month--mention being made at the same
time, of the larger remuneration which may be obtained by working "on
tribute," or, in other words, by agreeing to excavate t