It was begun about the year 1837, immediately below "the old men's workings." These proved to be remarkably extensive and searching, all the ore having been cleared out to a depth, in some places, of 160 yards. They were also found to contain many ancient mining implements, such as plank-ladders, shovels, helves, &c., all of ash, besides leather shoes and mattock heads, left behind probably when the iron furnaces of the district were suppressed in 1674. Since 1843 this mine work has been very prosperously conducted by the agents of the Dowlais Iron Company, whither most of its ore is sent to be mixed and smelted with the ore there, much to the improvement of the iron so made. Nearly 200 hands are employed at the Westbury-brook mine pit. The excavations run north and south for upwards of a mile and a half, their breadth averaging about 16 yards. They are reached by a shaft 186 yards deep, to the top of which a plunging pump raises 33 gallons of water at each stroke. For several years past this iron mine has yielded many thousands of tons yearly of the finest red hematite ore. A steam-engine of 36 horse power brings it to the surface. The _Old Sling_ iron mine, begun in 1838, on the Clearwell Mean, has long been considered one of the principal mine works on the western edge of the Forest. Its chief access is by a shaft that descends 105 yards to where the deepest workings begin. These gradually rise, in accordance with the upward slope of the mine train, until they attain an area of about 20 acres, leaving some 33 acres unwrought above them, to where "the old men's workings" are reached. Such is the case about 50 yards below the surface, after they had worked over upwards of seven acres of the mine ore. These excavations were found to contain some ancient picks and wooden shovels tipped with iron, an addition not met with elsewhere, but rendered necessary in this instance by the harder nature of the matrix of the mine ore. This iron mine has yielded for several years past 1,000 tons of red hematite ore per month, and employed nearly 100 hands. Another remunerative iron mine, opened on the western side of the forest, is the _Easter_ iron mine. It has three shafts sunk upon it, 100, 113, and 118 yards deep respectively. The first of these, and the only one in work, at which a light steam-engine of 14 horse power is used, communicates with "the old men's workings," though none of their tools have been found in them. About fifty men and boys are employed in this mine, from which upwards of 1,000 tons of ore are procured each month. The table here appended, by the kind permission of the deputy gaveller, Mr. T. F. Brown, exhibits the proceeds of each of the Dean Forest Iron Mines during the years 1864-5:-- AN ACCOUNT OF IRON ORE RAISED IN DEAN FOREST AND HUNDRED OF ST. BRIAVEL'S FROM CHRISTMAS, 1863, TO CHRISTMAS, 1865.