ut a far greater void was formed by the
old miners, whose holes occur immediately above, and in which a few
scattered tools have been discovered, left behind when operations were
abruptly stopped in 1674, but not before the men had burrowed down some
150 yards.

The natural drainage of these mines being towards the Shake-mantle pit, a
very powerful pumping engine has been put up there, capable of raising
250 gallons of water to the surface at every stroke.

As many as 250 hands are employed in working these valuable iron mines.

The _Westbury-brook_ iron mine, so called from its situation near the
head of that stream, is one of the most productive pits on the _eastern_
side of the Forest basin.

It was begun about the year 1837, immediately below "the old men's
workings." These proved to be remarkably extensive and searching, all
the ore having been cleared out to a depth, in some places, of 160 yards.
They were also found to contain many ancient mining implements, such as
plank-ladders, shovels, helves, &c., all of ash, besides leather shoes
and mattock heads, left behind probably when the iron furnaces of the
district were suppressed in 1674.

Since 1843 this mine work has been very prosperously conducted by the
agents of the Dowlais Iron Company, whither most of its ore is sent to be
mixed and smelted with the ore there, much to the improvement of the iron
so made.

Nearly 200 hands are employed at the Westbury-brook mine pit. The
excavations run north and south for upwards of a mile and a half, their
breadth averaging about 16 yards. They are reached by a shaft 186 yards
deep, to the top of which a plunging pump raises 33 gallons of water at
each stroke.

For several years past this iron mine has yielded many thousands of tons
yearly of the finest red hematite ore. A steam-engine of 36 horse power
brings it to the surface.

The _Old Sling_ iron mine, begun in 1838, on the Clearwell Mean, has long
been considered one of the principal mine works on the western edge of
the Forest. Its chief access is by a shaft that descends 105 yards to
where the deepest workings begin. These gradually rise, in accordance
with the upward slope of the mine train, until they attain an area of
about 20 acres, leaving some 33 acres unwrought above them, to where "the
old men's workings" are reached. Such is the case about 50 yards below
the surface, after they had worked over upwards of seven acres of the
mine ore. These