DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0088
79
EXPLOSION OF IRON MINES.
sat employed in boring-holes for the admission of pow-„
tier,with the utmost unconcern,though the least dizziness,
or even a failure in preserving their equilibrium, must
have made them lose their seat, and dashed them to
pieces against the ragged surface 6f the rock beneath.—
The fragments torn up by the explosion previous to'rhv
descent lay in vast heaps on all sides, and the whole
scene was calculated to inspire a gloomy admiration.
I remained three quarters of an hour in these gloomy
and frightful caverns, and traversed every part of them
which was accessible, conducted by my guides. The
weather above was very warm, but here the ice covered
the whole surface of the - ground, and I found myself
surrounded with the colds of the most rigorous winter,
amid darkness and caves of iron. In one of these, which
ran a considerable wav under the rock, were eight
wretches warming themselves round a charcoal lire, and
eating the little scanty subsistence produced from their
miserable occupation. They rose with surprise at seeing
so unexpected a guest among them, and I was not a little
pleased to dry my feet, wet with treacling on the melted
ice, at their fire.
There are no less than or* thousand eight hundred of
these men, constantly employed in these mines, and their
pav is onlv a copper dollar, or three-pence English, per
dav. They were first opened about 1580, under the
reign of John Ill. but have been worked constantly since
that time. After having gratified my curiosity 'with
ii full view of these subterraneous apartments, I made
Mie signal to be drawn up, and felt so little terror while
rc-asce-nding, compared with that of being let down, that
I am co-nvincetl that in live or six times, I should have
been perfectly indifferent to it. So strong, is the effect
of custom on the human mind, and so contemptible docs
danger or horror become, when familituized by continual
repetition. 'Ike
EXPLOSION OF IRON MINES.
sat employed in boring-holes for the admission of pow-„
tier,with the utmost unconcern,though the least dizziness,
or even a failure in preserving their equilibrium, must
have made them lose their seat, and dashed them to
pieces against the ragged surface 6f the rock beneath.—
The fragments torn up by the explosion previous to'rhv
descent lay in vast heaps on all sides, and the whole
scene was calculated to inspire a gloomy admiration.
I remained three quarters of an hour in these gloomy
and frightful caverns, and traversed every part of them
which was accessible, conducted by my guides. The
weather above was very warm, but here the ice covered
the whole surface of the - ground, and I found myself
surrounded with the colds of the most rigorous winter,
amid darkness and caves of iron. In one of these, which
ran a considerable wav under the rock, were eight
wretches warming themselves round a charcoal lire, and
eating the little scanty subsistence produced from their
miserable occupation. They rose with surprise at seeing
so unexpected a guest among them, and I was not a little
pleased to dry my feet, wet with treacling on the melted
ice, at their fire.
There are no less than or* thousand eight hundred of
these men, constantly employed in these mines, and their
pav is onlv a copper dollar, or three-pence English, per
dav. They were first opened about 1580, under the
reign of John Ill. but have been worked constantly since
that time. After having gratified my curiosity 'with
ii full view of these subterraneous apartments, I made
Mie signal to be drawn up, and felt so little terror while
rc-asce-nding, compared with that of being let down, that
I am co-nvincetl that in live or six times, I should have
been perfectly indifferent to it. So strong, is the effect
of custom on the human mind, and so contemptible docs
danger or horror become, when familituized by continual
repetition. 'Ike