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HISTORY OF

of a dim taper: some digging the jetty ore out of the bowels of the earth ;some again loading it into little waggons made for the purpose; othersdrawing the waggons to the boats.

As fast as the coal is got, the space is cleared and arched for a road,on which the coal is conveyed in four-wheeled waggons containingabout ten cwt. and is pushed along by a man, the road being laid forthat purpose. When the waggon arrives over a well funk from theroad through the arch of the tunnel, and under which the boats arefixed, it is stopped, on a frame work of wood, which turns on pivots, anddischarges the contents of the waggon in a boat below: this is done in-stantly, and the waggon returns for a fresh cargo. But as the roads,through the mine in many places cross each other, and it would be im-practicable for a man to push so great a weight round a turning ; to over-come this difficulty, the square of floor in the cross of the roads is all ofwood, and turns upon a central pivot of iron, so that the man stopping,when the waggon comes exactly on to the square, and turning it till itfaces the road he is to go, he then pushes on without the least inter-ruption.

The coals that arise in tire branches of the mine below the tunnel, aredrawn up through wells into those above, and then conveyed like the restin waggons to the boats.

To a superficial observer such scenes serve only to amuse the eye bytheir novelty, but to a reflecting mind they afford ample matter of instruc-tion. When we behold a part of our species deprived of sun-ffiine, thecommon inheritance of mankind, and buried in a dismal and confinedcavern, in which they can scarcely stand upright, our feelings prompt usto commiserate their condition : but when we observe the lively rayof cheerfulness break forth in this scene of darkness and distress ; whenwe behold the glow of health in the midst of damps and suffocation,we then cease to pity them, and begin to examine ourselves; we then

discover