BOTALLACK MINE 175 Newfoundland dog was sole survivor of a ship's living cargo; in another a black man reached the shore through the surf, but died before he could tell the name of the vessel to which he belonged. It may truly now be said : "Cornwall, no more the barbarous wrecker hails And art and science there bright homes have made.' No headland along this part of the Cornish coast presents such a fearful, wild, and savage aspect as Botallack. The mine buildings are situated on the very edge of the sea, and are truly the most romantic ruins around the coast. The engine-houses are literally perched on rocky crags surrounded by wild, magnificent precipices and gloomy fiords. The scene is, even to the hackneyed globe-trotter, impressive. Down these almost perpendicular walls of rocks heavy machinery and building material must have been lowered for some hundreds of feet to have constructed the enginehouses. The mine was worked by an inclined shaft more than half a mile in length, on which ran a tramway. The deepest workings under the sea are 1200 feet below highwater mark, and the longest gallery runs out from the cliff under the sea one-third of a mile. This mine was originally worked as a tin mine from the year 1721 under a perpetual grant from the Boscaeven family, but was relinquished in 1885. It is not precisely known when it was first worked for copper, but about 1816 it was one of the richest tin mines in Cornwall. When the sett was relinquished in 1835 the mine became very poor, yet in the thirty-four years of its life the adventurers had made a profit of upwards of £30,000. The mine was again on the point of being abandoned in 1841, when it was determined to explore it further for a period of two months, which resulted in the discovery of a very rich copper lode, which yielded the adventurers a profit of £24,000 within twelve months. Since 1841 the mine has yielded considerable returns of tin and copper, and was worked for 2448 feet under the sea for copper until the end of 1875, when the under-sea workings were abandoned. Queen Victoria visited the Botallack Mine in the 'forties, and King Edward and Queen Alexandra (then Prince and Princess of Wales) in 1865. The mine ceased working about 1897; but a new company has been formed and the mine has been reopened in 1907. When I was there I found a scene of great activity. Buildings were being erected at some little distance back from the cliff; a new shaft was rapidly being sunk; engine-houses were being erected, and everything pushed forward as fast as possible. In August two hundred men were employed, and when the actual workings are reached many more will be employed. The ores are the oxide of tin (SnO) and also sulphides of copper. A good deal of iron ore is also present, but not in payable quantities. The marked appreciation of tin, and particularly of copper, has led to the restarting of this historic mine. The expenditure to put the mine in working order, into a money-making position, will not fall far short of £60,000. The working and lighting will be by electricity, and the whole mine run and developed in the most modern scientific fashion. At present (or when I was there in August, 1907) the old workings were full of water-not sea water, but fresh-and this has first to be pumped out. It is worthy of note to observe that the Botallack, like its immediate neighbour a mile north, the Levant Mine, is a dry mine, though worked beneath the sea. We saw the miners at the head of a wild, precipitous fiord go up and down a ladder of iron rungs to clear out the adits of the mine and free them, so that the water may be pumped out. Like a fly now and then a solitary speck may be seen ascending, and then disappearing into the surface of the precipice, or emerging almost magically from it. The headland has beneath it a large natural square arch right through it. Foaming waves dash against it in sheets of dazzling whiteness, whose brilliancy is enhanced by the black colour of the rocks. The precipices around are jagged, stern, even foreboding-looking. A sinister effect is produced on the mind as one gazes on the weird scene. No boat: molests their precincts, no human being except: these mysterious units on the long iron ladder haunts for pleasure their awful declivities. The only other sign of life I saw at this stern headland was a large hawk, which at my approach 1 |