“In digging a mine,” says _Dr. Maton_, “the three material points to be considered, are the removal of the barren rocks or rubbish, the discharge of water, (which abounds more or less in every mine,) and the rising of the ore. Difficulties of course increase with depth, and the utmost aid of all the mechanical powers is sometimes ineffectual, when the workings are deep and numerous. Mountains and hills are the most convenient for working, because drains and adits are then easily cut to convey the water away into the neighbouring valleys. These adits are sometimes driven (as the miners term it) to the distance of one, or even two miles; and though the expense is enormous, these are found a cheaper mode of getting rid of the water than by raising it to the top, especially when there is a great influx, and the mine very deep. It seldom happens, however, that a level can be found near enough for an adit to be made to it from the bottom of a mine; recourse must be had then to a _steam engine_, by which the water is brought up to the adit, be the weight of it what it may. As soon as a shaft is sunk to some depth, a machine, called a _whim_, is erected, to bring up either rubbish or ore, which is previously broken into convenient fragments, by pickaxes and other instruments. The whim is composed of a perpendicular axis, on which turns a large hollow cylinder of timber, (called the _cage_) and round this a rope winds horizontally, being directed down the shaft by a pulley fixed perpendicularly over the mouth of it. In the axis a transverse beam is fixed, at the end of which two horses or oxen are fastened; and go their rounds, hauling up a bucket or _kibbul_, full of ore or rubbish, while an empty one is descending. The ore is blown out of the rock by means of gunpowder, and when raised from the mine, is divided into as many shares or _doles_ as there are lords and adventurers, and these are measured out by barrows, an account of which is kept by a person who notches a stick for that purpose. Every mine enjoys the privilege of having the ore distributed on the adjacent fields. It is generally pounded or stamped on the spot, in the stamping mill. If full of slime, it is thrown into a pit called the _buddle_, to render the stamping more free, without choaking the grates, (thin plates of iron full of small holes.) If free from slime, the ore is shovelled into a kind of sloping canal of timber, called the _pass_, whence it slides, by its own weight, and the assistance of a small stream of water, into the box, where the _lifters_ work. The lifters are raised by a water wheel, and are armed at the bottom with large masses of iron, about one hundred and a half in weight, which pound or stamp the ore small enough for its passage through the holes of an iron grate, fixed in one end of the box. To assist its attrition, a rill of water keeps it constantly wet, and it is carried by a small gutter into the _fore pit_,