Its valuable Qualities—English Copper Mines—Their comparatively recent Importance—Dreary Aspect of the Cornwall Copper Country—Botallack—Submarine Copper Mines—A Blind Miner—Swansea—Smelting Process—The Mines of Fahlun—Their Ancient Records—Alten Fjord—Drontheim—The Mines of Rivaas—The Mines of Mansfeldt—Lake Superior—Mysterious Discoveries—Burra Burra—Remarkable Instances of Good Fortune in Copper Mining.

Copper derives its name from the island of Cyprus, where it was extensively mined and smelted by the Greeks; but its first discovery is of much more ancient date, and loses itself in the darkness of the prehistoric ages. Weapons and tools of bronze—its alloy with tin—have been found both in the tumuli of extinct nations and in the lacustrine dwellings of the Swiss lakes, erected by an unknown people in unknown times. Among the Egyptians, the Greeks, and Etrurians, copper was in immemorial use, and the ancient Celtic nations fought their battles with copper or brazen swords, and felled the trees for the construction of their rude hovels with axes of the same metal.

As in many parts of the world native copper is found scattered over the surface of the earth in large lumps or masses, it naturally attracted the attention of barbarous tribes much sooner than iron, which very rarely occurs in the native state; and some fortunate chance or lucky experiment having shown that, when rendered malleable by heat, it could easily be hammered into any convenient shape, it soon became, and has ever since remained, one of the most valuable metals. Forming important compounds with tin (bronze) and zinc (brass), remarkably incorrodible as compared with iron, and nearly as tenacious in structure, but not so hard, it is recommended by its qualities for a variety of uses, and its consumption everywhere increases with the progress of civilization and the extension of commerce. Fortunately copper is of such common occurrence that a mere enumeration of the localities where it is found would swell into a long and tedious list; it is enough to state that rich copper mines exist both in the Old World and the New, and promise an inexhaustible supply to the most distant generations.

In Europe England is the chief copper-producing country. Rich mines have been discovered and worked in Anglesey, Shropshire, Cheshire, and Staffordshire, in the counties of Wicklow, Cork, and Waterford; but by far the largest quantity is supplied by Cornwall and Devon.

‘The history of Cornish copper,’ says Mr. Warner, ‘is as a mushroom of last night compared with that of tin. Lying deep below the surface of the earth, it would be concealed from the inquiries of human industry till such time as natural philosophy had made considerable progress, and the mechanical arts had reached their present state of perfection; for notwithstanding tin in Cornwall seldom runs deeper than fifty fathoms below the surface, good copper is seldom found at a less depth than that. Accordingly we do not find that any regular researches were made for copper ores in Cornwall till the latter end of the fifteenth century, when a few adventurers worked in an imperfect manner some insignificant mines. Half a century afterwards, in the reign of Elizabeth, though the product of the mines would naturally be greater than before, yet little advantage seems to have been derived to the country at large from the working of its copper. Writers hint at the mystery made of its uses by the merchants. In the next reign, however, all mystery was dispersed, the mines were inspected, their value determined, and a system was introduced of working them to greater advantage.’

Yet so wretched was the knowledge of mineralogy before 1712 that the yellow copper ore, at present so highly valued, was considered of no importance and cast aside as worthless rubbish. Since the reign of George I. there has been so much improvement that, next to iron and coal, copper is now the most important of our mineral products.

The chief Cornish copper mines are situated in the districts of Camborne, Redruth, and Gwennap, which are about the dreariest of all British wildernesses. Few trees are to be seen, few fields; furze and wild berries form the chief vegetation of the niggard soil. Blocks upon blocks of stone are scattered over these desolate moorlands, that have been excavated, dug into hillocks, disturbed and turned over and over again, sometimes by the primeval stream-works of the old men or ancient miners, sometimes by more modern labour in search of metallic wealth. Off the roads these districts are utterly impervious on wheels or on horseback, and the traveller can only walk, or rather flounder, over them by jumping from patch to patch of firmer land. Yet this scene of apparent poverty is in reality one of the very richest portions of the kingdom, and conceals more wealth beneath its sterile surface than has ever been produced by a similar extent of the fairest fields and pastures.

The bluff promontory of Botallack, not far from Cape Cornwall, conceals in its rocky entrails a copper mine, the most singularly placed, probably, of any mine in the world, for nowhere do the triumphs of industry appear in more picturesque connection with the magnificent scenery of the ocean. The metalliferous veins running along the cliffs into the sea vainly concealed themselves beneath the swelling surge; in vain a huge barrier of rocks seemed to render them inaccessible to the miner, as soon as it became known that here, buried under the ocean, lay treasures that would amply repay the cost and labour expended, and the danger encountered in seeking for them.

To those who stand below the cliff and look up from the sea, the view is fearfully grand, and remarkable for the combination of the wonders of art with the wonders of nature. The separate parts of an enormous steam-engine had to be lowered 200 feet down the almost perpendicular precipice, and a tram-road runs right up the face of the cliff. Lofty chimneys, pouring out dense volumes of black smoke, are seen perched on the verge and even on the ledges of a tremendous precipice, and the miner has built his hut over the sea-bird’s roost. All these constructions seem at the mercy of every storm, and to the beholder from beneath they almost appear suspended in the air and tottering to their fall.

On one side of the cliff tall ladders scale the rock; but he must have strong nerves who can tread them fearlessly, the sea roaring under him and flinging its raging spray after him as he ascends, while in other parts mules and their riders may be seen trotting up and down the rocky tracks which the pedestrian visitor would scarcely dare to pass. A strange and restless life pervades a scene which nature seemed to have for ever removed far from the busy haunts of man.

A visit to this remarkable mine leaves an ineradicable impression on the mind. Descending ladder after ladder, and passing on from gallery to gallery, stepping over rough stones and awkward holes, now stooping down under masses of overhanging rock, and now climbing over stony projections beneath your feet, you are at length informed that you are vertically 120 feet below the sea-level, and horizontally 480 feet under the bottom of the ocean or beyond low-water mark, while still deeper down human beings are hewing the hard rock. The brine oozes through the metallic ceiling, and the sound of distant waters falls faintly upon the ear.

There are other submarine mines in the neighbourhood of Botallack. In Little Bounds and Wheal Cock the hardihood of the miners tempted them to follow the ore upwards, even to the sea; but the openings made were very small, and, the rock being extremely hard, a covering of wood and cement in the former, and a small plug in the latter mine, sufficed to exclude the water, and protected the workmen from the fatal consequences of their rashness. ‘In all these, and in Wheal Edward and Levant,’ says Mr. Henwood,^[47] ‘I have heard the dashing of the billows and the grating of the shingle overhead even in calm weather. I was once, however, underground in Wheal Cock during a storm. At the extremity of the level seaward, some eighty or one hundred fathoms from the shore, little could be heard of its effects, except at intervals, when the reflux of some unusually large wave projected a pebble outward, bounding and rolling over the rocky bottom. But when standing beneath the base of the cliff, and in that part of the mine where but nine feet of the rock stood between us and the ocean, the heavy roll of the large boulders, the ceaseless grinding of the pebbles, the fierce thundering of the billows, with the crackling and boiling as they rebounded, placed a tempest in its most appalling form too vividly before me ever to be forgotten. More than once, doubting the protection of our working shield, we retreated in affright, and it was only after repeated trials that we had confidence to pursue our investigations.’

It seems that at times of great storms, even the miners, accustomed for years to these submarine caverns, have been terrified by the roaring of the sea. They have heard, as it were, mountain dashing against mountain, or as if all the artillery of England was booming over their heads. Yet their roof of rock, thin as it is in some parts, has hitherto shielded them against the sea, and will no doubt continue to defend them against it. On leaving these wonderful submarine excavations, the scenery of the upper world appears doubly beautiful.

The ‘Traveller Underground’^[48] tells us a remarkable story of a blind man who once worked in Botallack, and continued his perilous toils underground for a long period, from the dread of being compelled to accept parish relief. By the fruits of his labour he supported a family of nine children, and such was his marvellous recollection of every turning and winding of the mine that he became a guide to his fellow-labourers if by any accident their lights were extinguished. On being discharged from this employment (and they must truly have had rocky hearts who did discharge him), this poor blind man soon afterwards met his death in a melancholy manner. Being engaged as attendant on some brick-layers, who were building a house at St. Ives, he had to carry the hods of mortar up to the scaffolding. Stepping too far back from a platform, he fell, and died almost immediately.

The chief copper ores of Cornwall are the bisulphuret (containing nearly equal parts of copper, sulphur, and iron), the sulphuret, or grey ore of the miners (containing more than 79 per cent. of copper), and the black ore, an almost pure oxide; but when extracted from the mine, these ores are generally so mixed up with impurities that their average contents do not amount to more than 2½ or 3½ per cent. They have consequently to undergo various processes of picking, crushing, sorting, and washing, before they are rendered saleable and fit for export to the smelting works of Swansea, the grand emporium for copper. The reason why they are not smelted on the spot is that the fuel needed is more bulky than the ore, and it is cheaper to bring the copper of Cornwall to the coal of South Wales than to take the coal to the copper. In Swansea—but half a century ago a mere hamlet, and now a flourishing town of 36,000 inhabitants—we find all the conditions needed for the development of a vast industry. Coal and water-power in inexhaustible abundance, excellent roads and railroads, the nearness of the sea, canals which allow vessels of considerable burden to load and unload close to the smelting huts, so that their high masts rise alongside of the towering chimneys—these are the natural and artificial advantages to which Swansea owes its rank as the first copper manufacturing town in the world.

For, not satisfied with the abundant ores of Great Britain, its smelting works seek their materials in almost every copper-producing country of the globe. The rich ores of Chili and Australia, of Cuba and North America, of Norway and Tuscany, all find their way to Swansea, which re-exports the metal to every part of the world.

Vivian’s works, the most important of the establishments of Swansea, are situated in a vale a couple of miles from the town. A maritime canal enables brigs to sail at high tide up to the smelting furnaces, whence a second canal leads to the coal-pits, ascending the hill by a succession of locks. Although in the building of this huge factory not a thought was given to grace or beauty of form, utility being the sole aim in view, still its vast extent leaves on the mind a certain impression of grandeur.

The whole smelting process is carried on in reverberatory furnaces.^[49] In order to disengage the sulphur and other volatile impurities, the ore is first roasted in at least sixteen of these powerful ovens, each of which holds forty hundredweight, and performs its office in six hours. The smoke of all these furnaces collects in a huge chimney, which, after climbing the hill for about six hundred feet, ends in a mighty column two hundred feet high. The roasted ores are then mixed with a certain proportion of fluor spar, and smelted in twenty smaller reverberatory furnaces. A ton is introduced at a time, and in each oven seven tons can be smelted in twenty-four hours. It would lead me too far were I to enter into more minute details. I will therefore briefly state that the copper is still obliged to pass four times through differently constructed furnaces before it is sufficiently pure to be rolled into sheets or to be granulated, a condition in which it is used for the fabrication of brass, as it then presents more surface to the action of the zinc, and combines with it more readily. To produce this granulation, the metal is poured into a large ladle pierced with holes, and placed above a cistern filled with water, which must be hot or cold according to the form of the grains required. When it is hot, round grains are obtained, analogous to lead shot, and the copper in this state is called bean shot. When the melted copper falls into cold water perpetually renewed, the granulations are irregular, thin, and ramified, constituting feathered shot.

The process of preparing the copper does not present the bustle and activity nor the glare and brilliancy of an ironwork. The smoke and vapour disengaged from the ore are of the most noxious and disagreeable kind, and impart to the whole neighbourhood a singularly gloomy character. The stunted vegetation is so kept down by it that there are no trees, and, instead of grass, a dry, yellow, sickly growth of chamomile barely covers the ground. When viewed from a neighbouring eminence at night, the livid glare from the chimneys, the rolling white clouds of smoke which fill up the valley beneath, the desolate-looking heaps of slag, and the pungent sulphurous vapours remind the spectator of

where Satan lay weltering after his fall from heaven.

After England, Sweden, Germany, and Russia take the lead among the copper-producing countries of Europe.

The mines of Fahlun in Dalecarlia are no less remarkable for their picturesque appearance than the celebrated iron mines of Dannemora in the same province. A vast pit, 1,200 feet long, 600 feet broad, and above 180 feet deep, with precipitous, sometimes vertical, and occasionally even overhanging walls, opens before the spectator, who might fancy himself standing on the brink of an enormous crater. ‘The aspect of this deep chasm,’ says Professor Haussmann,^[50] ‘affords a desolate picture of ruin caused by improvidence and waste, as it owes its origin to the successive fallings in of subterranean excavations carelessly widened and left without sufficient supports. From the vast mounds of rubbish accumulated at the bottom of the pit, remnants of ancient shafts, formed of thick beams of wood, are seen protruding, but these show only a part of the devastation produced by the great falling in which took place in the year 1678. On the northern side of the pit is a broad and convenient wooden staircase, by which not only the miners, but also the horses used for working the subterranean machinery, descend to the bottom. Thence it gradually winds underground to a depth of 177 fathoms.’

As is generally the case in Sweden, the ore of Fahlun forms considerable masses, the chief being a vast reniform lump 1,200 feet long and 600 broad at its upper surface, and gradually narrowing as it descends. Near this gigantic stock are situated similar deposits, which though of smaller dimensions are still very considerable. From the copper pyrites being deposited chiefly on the circumference or the outer shell of these reniform masses, which are themselves of extremely irregular outline, the mining operations are carried on with great difficulty, and exhibit a perfect labyrinth of crooked and winding galleries, situated at various depths, and supported by pillars or sometimes by walls—a peculiarity which explains the successive fallings in that have formed the enormous pit of Fahlun. The mine has been worked from time immemorial, and is said to have been known even before the Christian era. The oldest document extant bears the date of the year 1347, and contains the privileges granted to the proprietors of the mine by King Olaus Smek; but still more ancient documents are mentioned, among others a purchase-deed of the year 1200. As the ores are poor, their abundance alone renders the working of the mine profitable; but Fahlun has seen its best days and is doomed to a gradual decline. During its greatest prosperity it is said to have yielded 5,000 tons of copper annually, but in 1866 it furnished no more that 600 tons, or about one-third of the entire production of Sweden.

In 1719 a body, preserved from corruption by the vitriolic water with which it had been saturated, was found in an abandoned part of the Fahlun mines. When it had been brought up to the surface, the whole neighbourhood flocked together to see it; but nobody could recognise a lost friend or kinsman in its young and handsome features. At length an old woman, more than 80 years of age, approached with tottering steps, and casting a glance on the corpse, uttered a piercing shriek and fell senseless on the ground. She had instantly recognised her affianced lover, who had mysteriously disappeared more than sixty years previously, but whose image she still bore in her faithful memory. As he was not employed in the mines, no search had been made for him underground at the time. Most probably he had fallen, by some accident, into one of the numerous crevices by which the surface of the mines is traversed. Thus the tottering woman, weighed down with the double burden of infirmity and age, saw once more the face of her lover as she had looked upon it in the days of her youth.

In the sister kingdom of Norway, which produces annually about 480 tons of copper, the mines of the Alten Fjord are remarkable for their high northern situation (in 70° N. Lat., beyond the Arctic Circle). A piece of copper ore found by a Lap woman in 1825 fell accidentally into the hands of Mr. Crowe, an English merchant in Hammerfest, who immediately took measures for obtaining a privilege from Government for the working of a mine. All preliminaries being arranged, he set off for London, where he founded a company with a capital of 75,000l. When Marmier visited the Alten Fjord in 1842, more than 1,100 workmen were employed in these most northerly mining works of the world; but probably the number has since decreased.

Although Drontheim or Tronyem is renowned in Norse history as the seat of many kings, yet the town seems as if built but yesterday. Repeated conflagrations have often reduced its wooden houses to ashes. The choir of the ancient cathedral, the finest edifice ever built in so high a latitude, is the only remaining memorial of old Tronyem; but the modern city is remarkably clean and well built, and gives evidence, by its outward appearance, of the prosperity of its citizens, which is partly owing to the fish-trade and partly to the neighbouring copper-mines of RÖraas. The tall chimneys of the smelting huts and other manufactories founded on the mineral riches of the country show that the spirit of trade is perfectly awake in the old capital of Saint Olaus, and that the abode of the ancient sea-kings is none the worse for having abandoned piracy for the more homely pursuits of modern commerce. The copper ores, which were first discovered in 1644, occur in the RÖraas Mountains in extensive veins. The entrance, which resembles the mouth of a cave and leads into the mine by a gradual descent, is so broad that carts laden with ore and drawn by horses can freely pass in and out. When Professor Haussmann, of GÖttingen, visited the mine, long stalactites of ice hung from the roof of the entrance and covered its rugged walls with crystal drapery. The lights of the numerous workmen who opened the march made the ice glitter with all the colours of the rainbow, and then, as they went onward, illuminated the broad galleries, propped by mighty pillars, and branching into gloomy recesses. At length they halted, and all at once, on a given signal, the brilliant illumination was changed into the deepest darkness. A deathlike stillness now reigned in the vault, when suddenly a flash of lightning blazed through the gloom, a loud clap of thunder instantly followed, and, with crash on crash, the explosions of many charges of blasting powder shook the walls of the neighbouring galleries. After the last shot was fired, the torches were relit, and joyously exchanging the usual salutation of German miners: ‘GlÜck auf!’^[51] the company moved on. ‘I cannot find words,’ says the Professor, in whose honour the impressive scene had been arranged, ‘to express the pleasure I felt at this cordial reception given me in the high north by men unknown to me a few days since. It confirmed the experience I had already so often made before, that probably no profession so soon produces a friendly and intimate connexion between strangers as that of the miner.’

The copper production of Germany is about equal in amount to that of the Scandinavian kingdoms. The Rammelsberg,[B] near Goslar in the Hartz, which has been worked ever since the year 968, is probably the oldest mine in Europe. The famous copper mines of the county of Mansfeldt in Prussia afford a striking example of the success obtainable in mining operations by perseverance and a wise economy. The whole thickness of the cupriferous bed of bituminous shale is no more than from eight to sixteen inches; but as the ore, though poor, contains a small quantity of silver, this circumstance, assisted by good management and the application of science, has not only rendered it possible to work the mines for many centuries, but to render them so flourishing that in 1852 they produced 1,350 tons of copper and 31,800 marks of silver, leaving a net profit of more than 20,000l. The hewers are obliged to perform their labour in galleries not more than twenty-two or twenty-eight inches high, the narrowest limits within which a man can possibly move and work. The boys who transport the ore slide or creep with a truly wonderful rapidity along the floor, dragging after them, by means of a sling attached to their foot, a waggon loaded with as much as five hundredweight of ore. The hewer’s wages for seven hours of this hard work are no more than two shillings; yet the miners look very healthy and cheerful, a remarkable proof of the wonderful effects of habit.

The vast empire of Russia produces about 5,000 tons of copper annually, chiefly from the mines of the Ural, belonging to Prince Demidoff; but a large proportion is furnished by the Asiatic mines of the AltaÏ and of Nertschinsk in Transbaikalia. New deposits have lately been discovered in the land of the Kirghise, near the Irtysch; and, as the ores are exceedingly rich, and coal is found near them, they will, no doubt, become valuable in time.

During the last twenty years America has far exceeded Europe in the production of copper. The inexhaustible mines of Chili extend along the whole coast of the republic, and are generally situated within a convenient distance from the sea and near the best ports of the Pacific, such as Caldera, Coquimbo, and Valparaiso. Originally the ores were all sent to Europe to be smelted; but since 1865 the discovery of coal near various parts of the coast has encouraged the establishment of numerous smelting furnaces, so that Chili now exports no less than from 40,000 to 45,000 tons of metallic copper, besides furnishing large quantities of ore to the smelting works of Swansea.

After Chili no country has made such rapid strides in copper-mining as the United States. The primeval forests of Northern Michigan and Wisconsin would probably still be the undisputed domain of the Indian hunter if the mineral treasures of the soil had not been a prize too valuable to escape the notice of our wealth-seeking age. Soon after the first settlement of the French in Canada some bold adventurers had indeed penetrated as far as the distant shores of Lake Superior, and given wonderful accounts of the large masses of copper which they had seen scattered over the country; but the want of all means of communication hindered for a long time the advance of the miner.

The Chippeways, who for centuries had occupied the banks of the lake, where, like all other Indian tribes, they spent their time in hunting and fishing, never thought of availing themselves of the mineral riches of their territory. They indeed picked up now and then some pieces of copper, and sold them as curiosities to the fur-dealers with whom they traded; but they were still far too uncivilized to seek in the neighbouring hills for deposits of the valuable metal. Their traditions give no account of their first settlement in the country; they believed themselves to be aboriginals. Thus, when at length the land came to be geologically surveyed, the discovery of extensive prehistoric mining works created no small astonishment. These relics of an unknown people, whose existence and disappearance is one of the most interesting enigmas of ancient American history, are chiefly situated on the hill-crests of Isle Royale and in the Ontanagon district, where they may be traced for miles. Trees, many hundred years old, now grow in the hollows laboriously excavated by that extinct race in the hard rock with tools of stone or copper. Shafts, twenty or thirty feet deep, sunk in the hardest greenstone, have been discovered after felling the trees and removing the rubbish which, in the course of time, had been accumulated in the cavities. In many the old tools were found which served to excavate them—stone hammers of various sizes, or chisels of artificially hardened copper. On the hill behind the Minnesota Pit a mass of copper several tons in weight was found placed on wooden rollers, which proved that those unknown miners must have possessed a considerable mechanical knowledge, without which it would have been impossible to remove such heavy masses. In some galleries copper blocks were discovered from which pieces had been chiselled off, and the whole of the works gave proofs of a skill and persevering industry quite foreign to the unsettled habits of the wild and indolent race of hunters which, as far as memory reached, had occupied these distant regions.

Although the expeditions of General Cass in 1819 and of Major Long in 1823 had drawn public attention to the copper of Lake Superior, still twenty years more passed before they became the object of mining speculations, which at once rose to a feverish height. Numerous companies were started in 1843, and mines were opened in many hundred places at once. The natural consequence of this copper mania was disappointment in most cases, and in 1847 the greater number of the mines, which had been opened with the most extravagant expectations, were abandoned. A few companies only withstood the crisis, and ultimately proved so remarkably successful as fully to retrieve the lost credit of the copper country, the annual yield of which at the present time is about 10,000 tons, and consequently nearly equals that of Cornwall.

The copper occurs in the native state in veins intersecting the trap and sandstone, but also in scattered superficial masses along the chain of hills which extends from the western to the north-eastern extremity of Lake Superior. In no known locality have such large masses of copper been found. An enormous block was discovered in February 1857 in the Minnesota mine. It was forty-five feet in length, twenty-two feet at the greatest width, and the thickest part was more than eight feet. It contained over ninety per cent. of copper, and weighed about 420 tons. A still more prodigious mass, sixty-five feet long, thirty-two feet broad, and four feet thick, was found in 1869. This king of copper nuggets weighed no less than 1,000 tons, and was worth 80,000l., or more than the greatest lump of gold that ever came to light in Australia or California.

Rich copper mines have likewise been discovered in the States of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York, but chiefly in California, where since 1861 the small town of Copperopolis^[52] has risen into importance. More than 30,000 tons of Californian copper ores (chiefly sulphurets) are now annually exported to the smelting-houses of the bay of Boston, which are likewise supplied by the ores of Chili and Canada, and form a new Swansea on the opposite shore of the Atlantic. The whole annual production of the United States at present exceeds 20,000 tons of metallic copper, mostly consumed in the country.

The mines of Cuba, which were very important, have latterly fallen off; but in 1866 the exportation to Swansea still amounted to 11,254 tons of ore.

Among the rich copper countries of the world I have finally to mention South Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria. The most extraordinary copper mine of modern times for produce is that of Burra-Burra in South Australia. It was started in September 1845, with a capital of 12,000l., subscribed by a few merchants and traders of Adelaide, and in the following five years yielded no less than 56,428 tons of ore, worth 738,108l. The gold discoveries momentarily put a stop to its prosperity; but of late years the works have been resumed, and other rich mines have been opened, so that copper will long remain one of the staple productions of Australia.

The history of some of our copper mines affords examples of good fortune no less remarkable than those which we find mentioned in the annals of the Mexican silver-mining.

Tresavean Copper Mine, within a walk of Redruth, had once or twice been abandoned as a failure. At length it was taken up by parties who persevered in exploring it, and succeeded in discovering its wealth by an outlay of little more than 1,000l. From 1838 to 1843 the profits averaged 30,693l. per annum, and in 1833 630l. were divided per share, or in all 60,480l. upon ninety-nine shares, each share having about 20l. paid up, so that in one year the profits surpassed more than thirty times the capital invested.

Old Crinnis Copper Mine, near St. Austell, was in 1808 abandoned, after repeated failures, and declared by the best miners of the day to be not worth ‘a pipe of tobacco.’ In 1809 Mr. Joshua Rowe, of Torpoint, and some co-adventurers, notwithstanding the general contempt for the mine, began working it again. As it still remained poor, the adventurers dropped off one by one, leaving the entire cost of working upon Mr. Rowe, who, after laying out a few additional hundreds, was rewarded by the discovery of a rich mass of ore at about ten fathoms from the surface. Upon this becoming known, the old adventurers again claimed their shares; but Mr. Rowe resisted their unjust pretentions and won his lawsuit. In the short space of four years and a half, this mine made a clear profit of 168,000l., besides paying 20,000l. for law expenses.

Another instance of remarkable success is afforded by the Devon Great Consols Mines, which were opened in the year 1844. The capital of the company which undertook their working was parted into 1,024 shares, with 1l. paid on each share. In the same year by November a rich copper lode was cut, and the profits paid working expenses without call. The lodes soon began to turn out so rich that in the six years between the dates of 1844 and of 1850 the company extracted and sold copper ores to the amount of 600,000l. After paying all expenses, the shareholders received about 207,000l., or more than 200l. per share on 1l. paid. No more was called, and thus an average annual dividend of 35l., equivalent to 3,500 per cent., fell to the lot of each share.

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—

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.