even, and each man is obliged to raise at least 700 kilogrammes (about
14 cwt.) of salt per day. For that quantity they receive, or at least
_they are credited_ with, 30 per cent, of their wages, which are fixed
by tariff, and for all above 700 kilos they get half their wages. These
are reckoned at fourteen centimes per 100 kilos up to 600, and eighteen
centimes per 100 for all above. So far as the actual labour is
concerned, we have no hesitation in saying that it is not nearly so
exhaustive nor painful as that of thousands of our English colliers,
besides being free from the dangers which constantly impend over our
poor miners, but there are some serious and quite unnecessary hardships
inflicted upon the men. One of these is that they get nothing to eat
until noon, and therefore, unless they buy food with their earnings,
they must walk to and from their work and labour for several hours
upon an empty stomach; another is that the benevolent intentions of the
State in regard to the stimulus of remuneration are defeated by the
neglect or dishonesty of certain of the officials. The prisoners now
rarely work out their term. Either their sentences are shortened for
good conduct, or on some special occasions a certain number are pardoned
by royal grace, and we were informed that they rarely die in penal
servitude. And now let us descend into the mine, a proceeding which will
be facilitated in the reader's thoughts if he will kindly take before
him our little plan, which is reduced from the engineer's drawing of a
section actually in use on the spot.

[Illustration: SECTION OF THE TELEGA PENAL SALT MINE.]

The descent is effected on foot through a vertical cylindrical shaft
used for that purpose only, and divided at intervals by platforms which
communicate with one another by good broad wooden staircases. The
visitor is provided with a lighted candle attached to the end of a
stick, which serves at the same time as an excellent test of the purity
or impurity of the air in the mine, for the lower he descends, the more
frequently he will find his light to be extinguished by carbonic acid
gas, arising chiefly from the exhalations of the convicts. There are no
inflammable gases in the mine, and the men work with naked lights. As he
descends ladder or staircase after staircase, the visitor becomes
conscious of the presence of human beings in the mine, for strange
unearthly sounds greet his ear more and more plainly as he approaches