th wood and cement.

On returning from the mine, the travellers, having doffed their miners'
dresses, inspected the outward machinery employed in crushing the ore on
the landing-place in the side of the cliff, and drawing it up the
precipitous tram, which leads to the summit, where it is stamped and
prepared for exportation. It is mostly carried to Swansea, which, in
consequence of the abundance of fuel in the neighbourhood, owing to its
nearness to the sea, to its canals and railroads, has, in the course of
half-a-century, from a mere fishing village become a town containing
fully 40,000 inhabitants.

The Cornish mines are not the only ones which run under the sea. On the
Irish and some parts of the English coasts there are several coal mines
which are worked beneath the ocean bed to a great distance.

Another remarkable mine, that of Huelwherry, existed for many years on
the Cornish coast. A rocky spot at about 120 fathoms from the beach was
left dry at low-water, on which small veins of tin ore were discovered
crossing each other in every direction. Although the surface was
covered for about ten months in the year, and had at spring-tides
nineteen feet of water over it, while a heavy surf often broke on the
shore, a poor miner, named Thomas Curtis, about a century ago determined
to attempt winning the ore. The work could only be carried on during
the short time the rock appeared above water. Three summers were spent
in sinking the pump-shaft, which had every tide to be emptied of water.

A frame of boards, raised to a sufficient height above the spring-tides,
and rendered water-tight by pitch and oakum, was placed above the mouth
of the shaft. Its sides were supported by stout props in an inclined
direction. At the top of this wooden construction, which was twenty
feet in height, a platform of boards was secured, on which a windlass
was placed. The water was now pumped out of the mine and the machinery
set to work; but the sea penetrated through the fissures of the rock,
and greatly added to the labour of the workmen, while during the winter
months, on account of the swell, it was impossible to convey the tin ore
to the beach. Notwithstanding all these difficulties, the persevering
projector was rewarded by obtaining many thousand pounds worth of tin.
At length, during a gale, an American vessel broke from her moorings,
and demolished the machinery by striking against the stage, when the
water rushing in