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EARTHQUAKE IN THE MINES.

fifty yards. Two miners, who were employed in the drifts about sixty fathoms deep when the earthquake took place, were so terrified at the shock, that they dared not attempt to climb the shaft, which they dreaded might run in upon them, and entomb them alive. They felt themselves surrounded with danger, and as they were conversing with each other on the means of safety, and looking for a place of refuge, they were alarmed by a second shock, much more violent than the one preceding. They now ran precipitately to the interior of the mine: it was an instinctive movement that no way bettered their condition; it only changed the spot of earth where they had previously stood; but their danger and their fears were still the same. Another shock ensued, and after an awful and almost breathless interval of four or five minutes, a fourth and afterwards a fifth succeeded. Every repercussion was followed by a loud rumbling noise, which continued for about a minute; then, gradually decreasing in force, like the thunder retiring into distance, it subsided into an appalling stillness more full of terror than the sounds which had passed away, leaving the mind unoccupied by other impressions, to contemplate the mysterious nature of its danger. The whole space of time included between the first and the last shock was nearly twenty minutes. When the men had recovered a little from their trepidation, they began to examine the passages, and to endeavour to extricate themselves from their confinement. they passed along the drifts, they observed that pieces of minerals were scattered along the floor, which had been shaken from the sides and the roof, but all the shafts remained entire and uninjured.

As

SECTION VII.

Mineral District. - Haycliff Mine, Slickensides. Accident in a Mine near Hucklow.— Wardlow Mears.— Wheston Cross. -Tideswell Top.- Marble Rocks in Tideswell Dale;-Singular Stratum there.- Cotton Factories. Tideswell. The Church. -Bishop Pursglove. - Sampson Meurrills. - Tideswell Church-Yard. Conclusion,

WE had now bidden adieu to the wild and naked rocks of Middleton Dale, and to the fertile and romantic valley of the Derwent, and had entered on a track of flat country terminating on every side with gradual eminences of a greater or lesser elevation. Nothing can be more uninteresting, in a picturesque point of view, than the road from Eyam to Tideswell. Scarcely one pleasant object occurs in the tedious course of the intervening four miles, to relieve the uniform dreariness of the prospect. In such a scene the mind loses its tone, and sinks into heedlessness or apathy. Such, indeed, was the feeling I experienced in passing along this important mineral district; for, as Dr. Fuller quaintly expresses it, when speaking of the Peak of Derbyshire," though poor above, 'tis rich beneath the ground;" and the refuse dug from the openings into the mines every where encroaches upon the scanty verdure of the fields, where "it lies like marl upon a barren soil, encumbering what it cannot fertilize."

The business of mining, once a source of considerable profit, appears to be rapidly declining in this part of Derbyshire. The workmen are gradually withdrawing from an employment, the unpleasantness and the danger of which are but indifferently compensated by the scanty wages they receive; and the capital that once invigorated the industry of the miner is diverted into other channels. The mineral tithe of the Eyam estate alone has produced from eight to nine hundred pounds a year: it is now not worth more than as many shillings.

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MINERAL CALLED SLICKENSIDES.

Haycliff mine, now no longer worked, was once the grand depository of that extraordinary phenomenon in the mineral world, provincially called SLICKENSIDES. The external appearance of this curious species of Galena is well known wherever mineralogy has been studied. At the present time good specimens of it are extremely rare, and can only be met with in cabinets that have been long established. In those mines where it has most prevailed, it exhibits but little variety either in form or character. An upright pillar of limestonerock, intermixed with calcareous spar, contains this exploding ore: the surface is thinly coated over with lead, which resembles a covering of plumbago, and it is extremely smooth, bright, and even. These rocky pillars have their polished faces opposed to each other: sometimes they nearly touch, sometimes they are farther apart, the intervening space being filled up with smaller portions and fragments of spar and particles of lead ore; and a number of narrow veins of a whitish colour, and a powdery consistency, intersect and run in oblique directions amongst the mass.

The effects of this extraordinary mineral are not less singular than terrific. A blow with a hammer, a stroke or a scratch with a miner's pick, are sufficient to rend those rocks asunder with which it is united or embodied. The stroke is immediately succeeded by a crackling noise, accompanied with a sound not unlike the mingled hum of a swarm of bees: shortly afterwards, an explosion follows, so loud and appalling, that even the miners, though a hardy race of men, and little accustomed to fear, turn pale and tremble at the shock. This dangerous combination of matter must, consequently, be approached with caution. To avoid the use of the common implements of mining, a small hole is carefully bored, into which a little gunpowder is put, and exploded with a match; the workmen then withdraw to a place of safety, to wait the result of their operations. Sometimes not less than five or six successive explosions ensue at intervals of from two to ten or fifteen minutes, and occasionally they are so sublimely awful, that the earth has been violently shaken to the surface by the concussion, even when the discharge has taken place at the depth of more than one hundred fathoms.

When the Haycliff mine was open, a person of the name of Higginbottom, who was unused to the working of Slickensides, and not much apprehensive of danger, was repeatedly cautioned not to use his pick in the getting of the ore. Unfortunately

EXPLOSION OF SLICKENSIDES.

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for himself, he paid little attention to the admonitions of his fellow-miners. He struck the fatal stroke, that by an apparently electrical communication set the whole mass instantaneously in motion, shook the surrounding earth to its foundation, and with a noise as tremendous as thunder, scattered the rocky fragments in every direction, through the whole vacuity of Haycliff mine. Thick boards of ash, at the distance of twenty or thirty paces, were perforated by pieces of rock six inches diameter. The poor miner was dreadfully cut and lacerated, yet he escaped with life. The impression made on his mind by this incident determined him, on his recovery, to discontinue the dangerous trade of mining. He now resides at Manchester, still bearing the marks of his temerity about him.

Some attempts have been made to account for the wonderful properties of this fulminating ore, but hitherto with little success. A very intelligent miner, with whom I have conversed on the subject, supposes the exploding power to reside in the white powdery veins which fill up the fissures of the rocky substance that produces Slickensides; a suggestion that may probably assist in the developement of the strange qualities of this mineral phenomenon.

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The loudest explosion remembered to have taken place in Haycliff mine has been mentioned by Whitehurst, in his Theory of the Formation of the Earth." It occurred in the year 1738, and he affirms that "the quantity of two hundred barrels of materials were blown out at one blast, each barrel being supposed to contain from three to four hundred pounds weight. During the explosion," he adds, "the ground was observed to shake as if by an earthquake." The accuracy of this statement can hardly be questioned; and, if correct, what an idea it conveys of the immense force required to dissever, from a solid mass of internal rock, so formidable a weight!

The miner, in the pursuit of his daily occupation, is so frequently exposed to danger, that his life may be said to be in continual jeopardy; and yet but few fatal accidents occur: an interesting circumstance "of hair-breadth 'scapes i'th' imminent deadly breach" sometimes takes place. At Hucklow, a little village on our right, in the winter of 1815, a man of the name of Frost, who was engaged in one of the mines, had a miraculous escape from a very perilous situation, in which he was involved by the falling in of the earth where he was at work. His voice was heard from beneath the ground in which he was entombed, and it was ascertained that his head and his body remained

unhurt, the principal weight having fallen upon and bruised his thighs and legs. Great care was required to accomplish his release, and some of the most experienced miners were employed. A mass of earth was strangely, and almost miraculously, suspended over his head, where it hung like an avalanche, ready at the slightest touch to crush him to pieces with its fall. The miners, aware that his situation was one of infinite peril, durst not attempt the attainment of their object by the most direct and expeditious means: slower operations were, in their opinion, essential, even though they dreaded the consequences that might attend their protracted efforts. Had that impetuosity of feeling, which, however honourable to our nature, sometimes defeats its most benevolent purposes, been alone consulted on this occasion, the poor man must inevitably have perished. They therefore proceeded with great caution, and the most unwearied perseverance, from Monday, the day when the accident took place, until the evening of the following Thursday, at which time they had the satisfaction of witnessing the complete success of their exertions, and the restoration of a fellow-creature to his family and the world. The man was extricated from his dreadful situation with only a few slight bruises and a broken leg, after a temporary burial of upwards of seventy-five hours. A drop of water that fell near his head, which he contrived to catch in the hollow of his hand, allayed his thirst, that otherwise would, probably, have become excessive: this fortunate occurrence, no doubt, contributed to the preservation of his existence.

He was a Wesleyan Methodist, and his strong religious feeling supplied him with fortitude. Neither pain nor apprehension destroyed his composure, and he employed many of the hours of his premature interment in singing those psalms and hymns he was previously acquainted with. Under any circumstances,

this man would have been a hero.

As we passed along the road to Tideswell, Brosterfield, formerly the residence of Captain Carleill, and the little villages of Wardlow and Litton, lay on our left, and the two Hucklows occupied a part of the foot of the high chain of mountains on our right. One would suppose that there was but little on these bleak hills and plains to excite the cupidity of the robber, or to induce the commission of the crime of murder, particularly amongst a people whose wants are necessarily as circumscribed as their means; but even here, at a little distance on the left of the road, we observed a man