In the mine itself the explosion was afterwards found to have torn up the galleries, to have burst the vaulted roofs, and to have hurled away the stairs. But the victory was now won. The vapour gradually drew off, and after a few weeks it was possible once more to descend into the pit. Two full years, however, passed before the water was fully pumped out into the Idriza, where it poisoned all the fishes, with the exception of the eels, who, it seems, are proof against everything except roasting or boiling. Even after all the water had been removed, it was still found impossible to work in the mines, partly from the heat, but chiefly on account of the venomous fumes, which soon produced all the symptoms of mercurial disease. In order to stimulate almost superhuman exertions, an exorbitant salary was offered to all those who should venture to explore the most dangerous passages, and gather the quicksilver, which in some places had collected in considerable masses. But many paid for their greed with their lives, and for many months afterwards the air remained so noxious that the ordinary mining works could not possibly be carried on. To prevent similar accidents for the future, and also on account of the increasing scarcity of wood, the galleries have since then been walled with stone; but when we consider that the whole length of the subterranean passages amounts to no less than fifty miles, we cannot wonder that many of them are still propped with wood, and that as recently as 1846 fire raged in the mine, which was again quenched by putting part of it under water. The stone galleries are vaulted, and of a masterly construction, seven feet high and six feet broad. The cost is less than one would suppose, as the progress of the mining operations furnishes the necessary materials. The temperature in many galleries is equal to that of a conservatory; and if a floral hall, bathed in light and filled with delicious odours, is felt to be disagreeably hot, the warmth of the air is naturally far more intolerable in dismal excavations, where the workman pursues his laborious task by the weak glimmering of a lamp, and in an atmosphere full of deadly vapours. Here, as in Almaden, a premature old age is the lot of the unhappy miners, who while young tremble like old men. Yet some attain a tolerably good old age, and he who reaches his forty-fifth year with trembling limbs is said to get accustomed to the effects of the poison, and may then live, or rather vegetate, till sixty or seventy.