the highest grades, although men of less
education than their German brethren.

The Spanish miners are a sober and frugal race, enjoying their
cigarettes even while at work. On leaving the mine they put on their
snuff-coloured cloaks and broad-brimmed sombreros. In the southern part
of the Peninsula they wear grass sandals, cloaks of bright colours, and
handkerchiefs bound round their heads. Leading lives of toil and
hardship, their huts are wretched abodes built of stones and mud, their
beds the ground, an iron or copper kettle hung from the roof above the
fire in the centre of the cabin, a few wicker baskets, and a waterbottle
of porous clay constitute their furniture. Still, the lot of the miner
of the Sierra Morena is far superior to that of the miner of Almaden,
who, poisoned by the noxious vapours of mercury, quickly succumbs, ere
he has gained the prime of manhood.

In South America the mining operations of the inhabitants somewhat
resemble those of their Spanish ancestors, their habits and customs
being imitated by the Indians, who have, however, to perform the harder
part of the work. While Mexico and Peru were under the mother country,
the Mita or law of compulsion existed, the Indians being forced to toil
against their will in the mines, but since the emancipation of the
colonies and the abolition of that nefarious law, they have returned to
their agricultural pursuits, and are only occasionally found of their
own free will labouring in the mines.

Various modes are adopted for descending the mines. In some merely a
single rope or chain with a loop at the end in which the miner places
his foot is used, even when the depth is several hundred feet; in other
mines baskets or tubs in which three or four men can stand are employed.
While one of these is hauled up, another descends, and often fearful
accidents have occurred by the tubs striking against each other, when
their occupants have been thrown out. Occasionally the ropes and chains
have given way, and the hapless miners have been dashed to pieces.

Some few years ago, as the engineer and several men of the mine of Meons
were descending standing in a tub, each with a lamp in one hand, and
holding on to the chain above him with the other, a couple of tubs
loaded with coal unhooked theirs, which fell to the bottom.
Providentially they had not relaxed their grasp of the chain above their
heads, and at once letting go their lamps and desperately seizi