Such instances, however, of good fortune are very rare, for mining in Cornwall, as elsewhere, is much more frequently attended with disappointment and loss. Sometimes an apparently rich produce is absorbed by still greater expenses, or veins very promising when first opened fall off below, and occasion immense loss to the adventurers. A sudden fall in the price of the metal is alone sufficient to render many of the poorer mines perfectly worthless for a long time.[53] Hence nothing can be more hazardous than to invest capital in a mining concern; and if Shakespeare had foreseen the delusions of modern speculations in concerns of this kind, he could not more truly have characterised them than by saying— ‘The earth hath bubbles as the water hath, And these are of them.’ Footnote 53: Since the discovery of the rich North American and Chilian mines the price of copper has fallen about 30 per cent. The consequence has been a great diminution of our copper production. Thus Cornwall and Devonshire, which in 1856 yielded 206,177 tons of copper ore, worth 1,241,835_l._, saw their produce gradually diminish from that time, and in 1865 furnished no more than 159,409 tons, worth only 753,427_l._ In 1856 the mean average price of copper was 123_l._ per ton; in 1865 it was no more than 94_l._ 7_s._ Yet the hope of suddenly getting rich, and the very risks and daring attending all mining undertakings, have an almost magical attraction; and, in spite of numberless instances of loss or ruin, there will probably never be a want of speculators willing to embark their fortunes on this unstable foundation. CHAPTER XXVII. TIN. Tin known from the most remote antiquity—Phœnician Traders—The Cassiterides—Diodorus Siculus—His Account of the Cornish Tin Trade—The Age of Bronze—Valuable Qualities of Tin—Tin Countries—Cornish Tin Lodes—Tin Streams—Wheal Vor—A Subterranean Blacksmith—Huel Wherry, a Tin Mine under the Sea—Carclaze Tin Mine—Dressing of Tin Ores— Smelting—The Cornish Miner. Tin is one of the metals most anciently known to man. Its first discovery is hidden, like that of silver, gold, copper, and iron, in complete obscurity, for even the names of the nations which first made use of it are not known. Axes and lances, sickles and fishhooks of bronze—the well-known alloy of copper and tin—occur among the ruins of the ancient lacustrine habitations of Switzerland, and the tin of these bronze utensils could only be obtained by commerce from countries far remote, where it must, doubtless, have been known for many ages, before it found its way into the heart of Central Europe. Thus a few bronze implements picked up among other rubbish in the muddy bed of an Helvetian lake open a long vista into the obscure history of primitive man.