very good reasons I can affert, it would be well for this country in general, if Tin Bounds were totally obliterated.

To preferve the right of a Bounds, it ought to be renewed once every year, which is performed in different Bounds on different faints days, as St. John, St. Peter, St. Paul, &c. by the fervant called the Tollur, the Renewer, or the Bounder, who cuts out a turf from each hole or corner, which he places upon the top of the little bank formed by the turfs already laid there, and declares the renewal to be on the behalf of fuch perfon or perfons, the Bounds owners; from whence he generally goes to fome house of entertainment, and takes a dinner, and other refreshment, in order to celebrate and commemorate that annual renewing day.

In Several, no man can search for Tin without leave firft obtained from the lord of the foil, who, when a Mine is found, may work it himself, or affociate partners, or set it out at a farm certain, or leave it unwrought at his pleasure. In Wastrel, it is lawful for the bounder, or any other perfon having liberty from him, to dig and fearch for Tin, provided that he acknowledges the lord's right, by fharing out unto him a fifteenth part of the whole. Then it is lawful for the Bounder to take out one-twelfth, or in fome places by peculiar custom onetenth of the remainder. Tinners may drive an Adit through others Bounds without their liberty, only as a paffage for their water; but if they break Tin or difcover a Lode in their drift or finking of Shafts, they have no benefit of the faid Tin or Lode, but shall leave it wholly to the owners of the Bounds within which it is.

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The ufual grant for Tin where it is not bounded, is the same as for Copper; and the acknowledgment, Dish, or Dues paid to the lord, is commonly one-fixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, even to one-twelfth, or lefs under fome peculiar circumstances; only that the dues for Copper are payable in money, and for Tin in the Stone or Mineral Ore, and fometimes in white Tin or Metal. This grant by leafe, is called a Set for Tin or Copper, and runs for one and twenty years certain. But a Set of a Bounds for Tin, though verbal, is perpetual, and never ends while it is wrought according to the laws and cuftoms of the Stannaries; that is, if the Tinner has been in quiet poffeffion for the space of one year and a day, he may still keep his holding at five fhillings expence annually, laid out upon the premises. This

is a very injudicious indulgence, and it is an injurious licence for the benefit of the Bounds owners. I can anfwer for the truth of this, and so can almost every other Bounds owner in the county; it being no rare thing for a Tinner to keep poffeffion of a Bounds Set, like the dog in the manger.

I do not suppose the present methods for working of Tin Mines, by deep Shafts, and by Driving and Stopeing under the firm ground, has been practised more than three hundred years past. Prior to those means for raising of Tin, they wrought a Vein from the bryle to the depth of eight or ten fathoms, all open to grafs, very much like the foffe of an intrenchment. This was performed by meer dint of labour, when men worked for one-third of the wages they now have. By that method they had no use for foreign timber, neither were they acquainted with the use of hemp and gunpowder.

This foffe they call a Coffin, which they laid open several fathoms in length east and weft, and raised the Tin-stuff on Shammels, plots, or stages, fix feet high from each other, till it came to grafs. Those Shammels, in my apprehenfion, might have been of three kinds, yet all answering the fame end. First, they funk a pit one fathom in depth and two or three fathoms in length, to the east and to the west, of the middle part of the Lode discovered; then they squared out another fuch piece of the Lode for one or two fathoms in length as before, at the fame time others were ftill finking the first or deepest ground funk, in like manner; they next went on and opened another piece of ground each way from the top as before, while others again were still finking in the last and in the deepest part likewise in this manner they proceeded ftep after step; from which notion arifes the modern method of Stopeing the bottoms under-ground. Thus they continued finking from Caft to Caft, that is, as high as a man can conveniently throw up the Tin-stuff with a fhovel, till they found the Lode became either too deep for hand work, too fmall in fize, very poor in quality, or too far inclined from its underlie for their perpendicular workings. Secondly, if the Lode was bunchy, or richer in one part than another, they only laid open and funk upon it, perhaps in small pitches not more in length than one of the Stopes or Shammels before defcribed. The fhortnefs of fuch a piece of Lode would not admit of their finking Stope after Stope; it was then natural and easy for them, to fquare out a Shammel on one fide or wall of their Lode, and so to make a landing place O o for

for their Tin-stuff caft after caft. Thirdly, if the Lode was wide, and the walls of it, and the adjoining country, very hard folid ground, it was in fuch cafe more eafy for them to make Shammels or stages, with fuch timber, &c. as was cheapest and nearest at hand.

This, with Streaming, I take to be the plain fimple state of Mining in general, three centuries ago; and from hence is derived the custom of Shammeling both above and under-ground at this time; for in the clearing of Attle, (Deads) or filling the Kibble with Ore, the Miners prefer a Shammel, which is a stage of boards, for the more light and easy use of their shovels.

But as this manner of working was irreconcileable with the discovery and raising any Tin-stuff below a certain very fhallow depth, it became neceffary to contrive fome other way to follow downwards the inviting rich stones of Tin fome Lodes produced. The method of Shammeling, even in those moderate times, has been expensive, where a very small Lode of Tin occurred in a hard country. To remove a dense hard ftratum of rocky overburden, must be very fatiguing and perplexing; therefore they found it most adviseable to fink Shafts down upon the Lode, to cut it at fome depth, and then to Drive and Stope east and weft upon the courfe of the Lode: in time, no doubt, fuch improvements presented, as rendered that the cheapest and most established cuftom of Mining.

The fpeculative reader may be apt to imagine, that we can trace, and diftinguish, the different advancements which have been made in Mining, by the depth and proportion of old Shafts, &c. But it is not fo; for Shafts, and other workings, of the Mines, depend upon the fame, and yet different contingencies, in one and the fame Mine. It is very likely, that a hundred years fince, a Shaft would not be funk in a certain place but fifteen fathoms deep, from the quantity of water; where it now may be done beyond fifty fathoms, without a drop. The reason of this is not because the skill of the present occupiers is greater than that of the former; but because the adjoining ftrata or country is Bled, as we call it, by Adits, and fundry other drifts and levels, driven through them pofterior to that time.

Having fhewn how Sets for Tin and Copper are granted, and how Tin was anciently fought for, at a time, indeed, when

Copper

Copper was as well known to be in Terra incognita, as in Cornwall, we ought to proceed to the discovery of the Lode: but as this has been described elsewhere, we shall now fet forth the first arrangements for working a Mine; in order to which, the principal thing to be thought of is a Shaft to cut the Lode, at twenty or thirty fathoms deep, if it is poffible to be done. Here it is neceffary to form fome judgment of the inclination or underlye of the Lode, before we attempt to fink a Shaft; for inftance, if the Lode underlies to the north about three feet in a fathom, and a Shaft is defigned to come down upon the Lode in twenty fathoms finking, the Miner must go off north from the back of the Lode full ten fathoms, and there pitch his Shaft; by which means he is certain to cut the Lode in the Shaft about twenty fathoms deep; because for every fathom the Lode defcends in a perpendicular line, it is alfo gone three feet to the north of the perpendicular.

But to render this the more confpicuous, let the line E W represent the back or furface of a Lode pointing east and west, and whofe underlie is north: by finking a Shaft upon this back, it will foon be deferted by the Lode, which is gone further north three feet for every fathom that is funk upon that line; fo that when the Lode is twenty fathoms deep, it must be gone north to the imaginary line N, where another Shaft must be funk to cut the Lode at that depth.

N

W

E

A proper working Shaft, upon which a Whym may be erected if neceffary, fhould be fix feet long and four feet wide, or more where large water barrels may be wanted; and the harder the ground is, the longer and wider the Shaft ought to be, that the men may have the more liberty to work and break it, the area of a large fhaft being more easy to rip up where the ground is hardest, than of a fmall one where it is more confined together, and breaks in fhreds of ftone, &c.

In

In many parts of the Mining district, the north or the fouth channel appears to full view; and it is a maxim among the Miners, when they erect their windlass upon a Shaft, to place it true to the horizon; in order to which they make an observation in a line to the farthest distance they can see, which is always the fame height as the eye of the observer, either upon the highest hill, or with the edge of the water.

A Shaft that is defigned for a water engine, may serve, if it is of the fize of the largest working Shaft; but a fire engine Shaft ought to be, at least, nine feet square, or ten feet by eight, or in fact to contain three Shafts in one, which must be partitioned into three compartments, all the way down from grafs to the deepest bottom of the Mine. One half is divided for the pumps and engine work; three feet in length of the other is proportioned for a foot way, to go down and rectify the pumps when amifs; and the remainder is divided alfo by a partition of boards, for a whym Shaft to draw the Deads and Ore from the Sump of the Mine. If the ground is hard and very wet, or the water very quick upon the men in finking, there ought to be eight men employed to fink a working Shaft; that is, two men in a corps of every fix hours; and in a fire engine Shaft, there should be fixteen employed in the fame manner : but if the ground is tender, and there is no hindrance by water, fix men in the firft, divided into three corps every eight hours, are reckoned fufficient; yet I have known four and twenty men put to fink an engine Shaft upon a great emergency.

The working Shaft being funk downright until it cuts the Lode, they open the Vein, or fink the body of the shaft through it; and if they think the Vein is worth following, they fink the same Shaft deeper in the body of the Lode, upon its inclination or underlie; whence the Shaft becomes, and bears the name of, an Underlier: at the fame time they turn house, as they call it, from the bottom of their perpendicular, or from the top or beginning of the underlie. So that when the Lode is well impregnated, they turn house by driving or working horizontally on the courfe of the Vein, either to the eaft or to the weft, or both, as they find it most likely to answer their expectations, in order to make a fuller trial and discovery. Where the Lode anfwers well in thus driving upon it, they continue to do so, till they are prevented by want of air; or till the end of their workings is too far from the Shaft, and the expence of rolling back the ftuff to the Shaft is great and incommodious;

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