y in hand labor; indeed, much is lost in time and expense by it.
For this reason steam has been introduced into the larger and more
important mines. The machinery employed is a hoisting apparatus, with
a drum, around which a coil is wound, with the object of hoisting and
lowering trucks in vertical shafts. Steam pumps serve to extract the
water. The force of the hoisting apparatus varies from 15 to 50 horse
power. The fuel consumed is English and French coal, the former being
preferred, as it engenders greater heat. The cost of a ton of coal at
the wharf is $4.40, whereas in the interior of the island it costs
about $10. The shafts or pits are made in the ordinary way, great care
being taken in lining them with masonry in order to guard against land
slides. In level portions of the country vertical shafts are
preferred, but where the mine is situated upon a hill a debouch may
often be found below the sulphur seam, when an inclined plane is
preferred, the ore being placed in trucks and allowed to run down the
plane on rails until it reaches the exterior of the mine, where it
suddenly and violently stops, and as a result the trucks are emptied
of their load, when they are drawn up the plane to be refilled; and
thus the process goes on indefinitely. In these mines a gutter is made
in the inclined plane which carries off the water, thus dispensing
with the necessity of a pump and the requisites to operate it. The
galleries and inclined shafts are lined with beams of pine or larch,
which are brought hither from Sardinia, as Sicily possesses very
little timber. The mines are illuminated by means of iron oil lamps,
the wicks of which are exposed. The lamps are imported from Germany.
In certain cases an earthenware lamp, made on the island, and said to
be a facsimile of those used by the Phoenicians, is employed. This
lamp is made in the shape of a small bowl. It is filled with oil and a
wick inserted, which hangs or extends outward, and is thus ignited,
the flame being exposed to the air. Safety lamps are unknown, and
those described are generally secure. Few explosions take place--only
when confined carbonic hydrogen is met with in considerable
quantities, and when the ventilation is not good. In this case the
mine is easily ignited, and once on fire may burn for years. The only
practical expedient for extinguishing the fire is to close all inlets
and outlets in order to shut off the air. This, however, is difficult
and takes