Generally speaking, those spots where the ore lay exposed to view, would be apt to secure the notice of the earlier miners, and become the site of their more ancient workings. Not until they were pretty nearly exhausted would the severer labour involved in the lower diggings be resorted to. The shallower but more capacious mine holes appear with greater frequency on the south and west sides of the Forest, where, too, they were nearer to the water carriage of the Severn and the Wye. In most instances they are locally termed "scowles," a corruption, perhaps, of the British word "crowll," meaning cave. Occasionally they are found adorned with beautiful incrustations of the purest white, formed by springs of carbonate of lime, originating in the rocky walls of limestone around. Sometimes, after proceeding for a considerable distance closely confined in height and width, they suddenly open out into spacious vaults, fifteen feet each way, the site, probably, of some valuable "pocket" or "churn" of ore; and then again, where the supply was less abundant, narrowing into a width hardly sufficient to admit the human body. Now and then, the passage divides and unites again, or abruptly stops, turning off at a sharp angle, or, changing its level, shows rude steps cut in the rock, by which the old miners ascended or descended. [Picture: Ancient Miners' Ladder] In some of these places, ladders, made out of hewn oak planks, with holes chopped through them for the feet, have been discovered. Mattocks, such as masons use, have likewise been met with, as well as oak shovels for collecting the ore. Shoe prints, and even shoe-leathers have also been found, although the latter are supposed to have been seldom used, judging from the more frequent occurrence of naked foot marks. Long immersion in the chalybeate water of the mine has blackened the oak, and corroded the iron; nevertheless, these relics are surprisingly perfect. The new road over the Plump Hill exposed in its formation, in 1841, an ancient mine hole, in which was found a heap of half-consumed embers, and the skull of what appeared, from its tusks, to be that of a wild boar; the remains, perhaps, of a feast given by our Forest ancestors. Similar vestiges have been met with in other spots. [Picture: Sole and Upper Leather of an old Shoe] [Picture: Oaken Shovel] [Picture: Iron Mattock head] The earliest historical allusions to these underground works is made by Camden, who records that a gigantic skeleton was found in a cave on the Great Doward Hill, now called "King Arthur's Hall," being evidently the entrance to an ancient iron mine. The next refers to the period of the great rebellion, when the terrified inhabitants of the district are said to have fled to them for safety, when pursued by the troops with which the Forest was infested. [Picture: King Arthur's Hall on the Great Doward]