dered ore, which abides with it, after all these aqueous mundifications. No other process is performed at Carclaze; but the reader will, by reference to Wheal Vor, find a description of the subsequent processes of calcining, smelting, and casting; whereby the purification of this valuable metal is consummated, and the ponderous block of glittering tin is produced. The two streams, which entered the mine by separate conduits, re-unite at the bottom, and go forth by a subterraneous drain, a quarter of a mile long, cut through a granitic rock: carrying off all the waste. This unique mine is a great curiosity, a picturesque object, and a work of untraceable antiquity. Nature has here been lavish in her gifts to the miner, and the combination of local advantages at Carclaze is rare ;-the tin lode being near the surface, the mine being higher than circumjacent localities, and a current of water flowing in from higher ground; the benefits of which are, that the mine is worked openly, saving the expense of shafts, adits, shoring, and drawing up the produce, a passage at the bottom affords drainage, and this little stream saves the expense of an engine, or of horses to work its mills. Shortly after the stream emerges from its darksome channel, it flows into a Tye (or cesspool;) and when this is, in course of time, filled with the waste which is deposited there, the course of the stream is turned into an adjoining tye. The full tye is then emptied, and the forth-coming waste, being again stamped and washed as before, produces not a little tin. After this, the waste is again similarly saved in tyes, re-stamped and re-washed. For this purpose, there are two stamping mills near the tyes, which the same stream turns; and there are a buddle and wreck, on the spot. There are employed, at this mine, ten men and twelve boys; but no females. The men earn 1s. 6d. 1s. 8d. or 2s. a day; and work from six to six in the summer,and, while it is light, in the winter. George Manner of Little Kirwallen, near Tregonissey, shewed me the works of this mine; his civility and intelligence would not have disgraced a person in a higher station. CHAPTER XVII. "And now the lark on heaven-soaring wings, ETHELBERT. HAVING Walked about one mile over a heath, to the east of Carclaze mine, I had another fine view of the sea; I also saw ranges of hill, fifteen-miles distant; the country near St. Austle, looked woody, rich and beautiful. Adders abound on the heaths of Cornwall. About two miles east of Carclaze, I quitted the heath, and passed through Trethergy, a retired place; and having walked another mile through rural lanes, I entered Prideaux Wood.-Here, towering oaks spread their ample branches, and the ash reared its lofty head; the oriental plane spread its wide leaf, and the Scotch fir displayed its red trunk and perennial foliage; the taper larch, the hornbeam, and other deciduous trees of the forest, contended, like earthly potentates, for enlargement of territory, for exaltation, and for aggrandizement. I noticed a holly twenty feet high, and a heath twelve feet high; the stem of the latter being three inches in diameter, though I measured it at the distance of a foot above ground. This wood was skirted, on the north, by a lofty hill. Sheltered from the sun, beneath the luxuriant, overhanging foliage, I walked a mile and a half, on a gentle descent, along a winding road: whilst the sound of a rushing streamlet, and the melody of the birds, dissipated the gloom of silence, and vivified the romantic scene. It was delightful; and I shall not soon forget the beautiful Wood of Prideaux. |
