The arts and the sciences, And all their appliances, Never an animal, chained or loose, As yet have I heard Utter one single word, Or so much as attempt to say "Bo!" to a goose. But you'll see, if you read the next two or three pages, The good King Tidrich rode from Bern' His charger was bay, and he took his way To be a crowned king, And to feel one's right arm strong." King Tidrich was clad in armour of proof And his helmet shone with many a stone, While on his shield one might behold To set off flying, Emblazoned in burnished gold. King Tidrich was counting his money o'er, As he rode the greenwood through, When he was aware of a "shocking affair," And a terrible "to-do:" Then loudly he shouted, with pure delight, "A glorious row, I make mine avow; I'll on, and view the fight." And a fearful sight it was, I ween, As ever king did see, For a dragon old, and a lion bold, Were striving wrathfully; But the monarch perceived from the very first And it made him sad, For "a reason he had" That the lion would get the worst. When the lion saw the royal knight, "O mighty king, assistance bring, For the battle has been both fierce and long; Two days and a night Have I urged the fight, But the dragon's so very strong." In a kind of low Dutch did the lion speak, But e'en in his hurry, for Lindley Murray And he managed his H's according to rule : Must the beast have been Long paused the royal hero then, Grave thoughts passed through his brain; Of his queen thought he, and his fair country? He never might see again; He thought of his warriors, that princely band, Of Eckhart true, And Helmschrot too, And Wolfort's red right hand.3 But he thought of the lion he bore on his shield, I must not see the lion slain; In our degree, I of the city and he of the plain." The first stroke that the monarch made, From many a scale of the dragon's mail And brake in pieces twain. The dragon laid him on her back And flung the horse her jaws across, For her young brood They were a charming family, With deep surprise in their light-green eyes, And they wagged their tails with extreme delight, Is a dainty thing When one usually dines on knight. Before them then the steed she threw, Saddle, and bridle, and crupper, And bade them crunch its bones for lunch, While they saved the king for supper; Saying, she must sleep ere she could sup, For after the fight With the lion and knight, She was thoroughly used up. A lucky chance for Tidrich : He sought the dark cave over, And soon the king did Adelring, In grief the monarch cried. "I have ridden with him in princely hosts, I have feasted with him in hall; Sword, you and I will do or die, (3) These three champions were among the eleven heroes who accompanied Tidrich in his expedition to contend against the twelve guardians of the Garden of Roses at Worms. (4) Sigurd, or Siegfried, son of Sigmond, king of Netherland, is the chief hero of the Nibelungen Lay. There are various accounts of his death, one of which supposes him to have been destroyed by a dragon, Should any reader wish to learn more of the various per sonages here mentioned, we refer him to the "Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, from the earlier Teutonic and Scandinavian Romances," to which we are indebted for our information on the subject. Then he aroused the dragon old, Attacked her with his sword, And a fearful fight, with strength and might, Made his cuirass stout Red hot throughout: Such a sight was never seen. Despair lent strength to the monarch then; A mighty stroke he made, Through the dragon's neck, without a check, At their mother's fall, each little fright Like an imp of hell, And nearly stunned the knight. He struck right and left with Adelring, And in pieces small he cut each and all With his strong right hand, Now ye whose spirits thrill to hear A DAY AT A LEAD MINE. THE traveller who enters North Wales by proceeding from the ancient city of Chester to Mold, and who thence takes coach to Ruthin, a small town in the far-famed Vale of Clwyd, cannot fail to notice the commanding and picturesque position of certain works with a skyfathoming chimney, which crown a rocky eminence on his left hand. The route up to the point where these objects become perceptible, though presenting few particulars of interest, by the bluff hills in the distance, the rugged rocks hard by, and the deep ravine with its boisterous mountain torrent below, forcibly reminds us that the tame, flat, spiritless green landscapes of England are far behind, and that the wild and romantic features of North Wales are before us. Entering a pretty valley, the boundaries of which are tall and desolate rocks of carboniferous limestone on the one side, and blue heatherclothed mountains of considerable altitude on the other, the road crosses the river Alyn, and winds along on the mountain skirts, separated by a few fields and the stream just mentioned from the rugged cliffs which wall in the valley on the other side. Probably, before having proceeded thus far, the traveller will have noticed wayside indications of having entered a country which, barren and sterile on the surface, contains untold wealth in its deep bosom. Here and there, heaps of broken stones, the debris of former mining operations, with rotting wooden drums, broken shafts, dilapidated enginehouses, all proclaim the truth that man has been piercing the earth's surface in every direction in quest of her mineral treasures; but with so small an amount of success as to have discontinued the painful labour, leaving behind him the monuments of his fruitless industry. Some of these old works have yielded vast quantities of lead ore for a time, and suddenly become totally unproductive, reducing their owners to beggary. Others are but the hopeless pokings of a few speculative labourers, where toil has been great and long continued, and its fruit poverty and stones. Here once played the stupendous iron beam of a hundred-horse steam engine, emptying deep cavities below of hundreds of tons of water, and dragging forth waggons full of ore. The deep mine remains; but water springs have long since flooded its galleries. The massive structure, too, remains, which upheld that labouring giant in its work; and the tall chimney, which once carried his hot breath into the clouds; but the unwearied workman has been carried away to a more promising field, and the scene of his sturdy efforts exhibits only ruins and desolation. On these the half-starved pony walked its daily rounds, winding up bushels of broken rock, in which the eye looked in vain for a trace of the coveted metal. Here, too, hope died, and there only remains a sermon in stones, upon the folly which would cast away the certainty of fruit from the surface, for the uncertainty of success below it. The mine to which our visit was lately paid is most romantically situated, and, as we have said, forms a very picturesque feature in a landscape of much beauty. Looking at it from the road, it is seen to be placed on a high rock, belonging to a chain of similar composition, which runs away far into the distance before us. This rock is a carboniferous limestone of recent formation. At its foot the glistening line of the river Alyn runs, and curiously enough, divides it from a district of a totally different geological character. It is a current maxim in the mining district, "No lead the other side of the river." Why is this? The geologist soon discovers the reason. The lovely mountains on the hither side of the stream are composed of vast layers of a blue shale; and the mineralogical student will immediately see that lead ore is not to be looked for here, since it is principally in the limestone that the mineral ore is found. Whether our conjecture be probable or not, we had not time satisfactorily to ascertain; but discovering limestone rock on the other side of the mountains, corresponding in some respects, to that on which the mine rests, and from circumstances connected with the inclination of the strata in the mountains in question, we are disposed to believe that the mountain chain which forms the chief ornament of the Vale of Clwyd, has been thrust up from below, disrupting the limestone on each side, and towering above them in haughty majesty. The river Alyn certainly forms the boundary line between the limestone and the shale, be the explanation of the geological events what it may. The lofty chimney and engine-house are placed in the midst of a clustering and luxuriant forest of firs, and are close by the side of a deep ravine, which has reft in sunder a portion of the lime rock, a fact to which, beyond all doubt, the mine owes its origin, for on one side of the rock thus rent asunder, the first discoverer of the mine spied out indications of lead in a vein of spar, which filled up a cleft in the rock. Setting to work, some brilliant masses of galena were soon extracted. The property was hastily purchased, and the mine begun. On our way up to the engine we were shown this very spot, the true, and in this instance faithful, index to greater wealth below. Every portion of spar and ore had long since been removed, and only rubbish occupied its place. It is difficult to fix the period at which this discovery took place. In the history of the mine, kept by its owners, and kindly placed at our disposal, it is vaguely stated that it has been worked for "ages unknown," the history of its first discovery being all that can be accurately ascertained. Its subsequent history has been one of oscillations, though probably the yield has been less variable than that of most mines. Yet it has known some remarkable fluctuations. In 1762, a level was driven at the depth of one hundred and twenty yards, and the mine was drained by a water-wheel of twenty-two feet diameter, actuating a series of lift-pumps. In 1777, the lowest level was given up, for the water overpowered the machinery. Soon after, from several causes, the mine was altogether abandoned until the year 1790. It was then again worked, and proved a paying undertaking. Shortly, however, before coming into the hands of its present owners, the amount of ore raised was so small, and the difficulties of working, in consequence of the powerful springs of water, so great, that the proprietors sold their shares, in despair, to the present owners. These enterprising gentlemen worked on patiently, but with vigour; and, strange to say, in about a month after it had come into their hands, the largest bed of ore was broken in upon that has ever been known in the history of the mine, containing, as was conjectured, a mass sufficient to supply work for at least five years. Since that time its produce has been steady, and the mine now yields a very large revenue to its owners. Although we may reasonably despair of a Saxon reader giving it the proper accentuation, yet we may mention that the Welsh title of the mine is Maesy-Safn, which may be rendered, the "Field's-mouth," the term having probably originated from the country people, beholding a deep hole in the field, giving it the above fantastic title. It is a noteworthy fact, that the vein which yields the ore in this mine lies in a due east and west direction. immense oak beam, which shivers like a willow branch beneath its impulse, and goes trembling down to the heart of the earth to do its business there. The kind of steam-engine necessary for this work is simple. As there is no rotatory, but simply a perpendicular motion necessary, there is no fly-wheel, crank, &c. At the one end is the cylinder, with its piston; at the other end of the beam, the immense pump-rod it has to put in motion. The power of this engine is reckoned at about one hundred and fifty horses. Some idea may be formed of the duty it has to do, when it is mentioned, that the weight of the pump-rods alone is considerably more than twenty tons, and, although this is balanced so as to diminish its influence upon the engine, still the mere amount of force necessary to set in motion this great machinery, would more than suffice to do the ordinary work of a small factory. Of course, the whole amount of power after overcoming this difficulty is spent upon the twelve pumps which are situated at the bottom of this shaft, and draw water from all parts of the mine. Four immense boilers supply this engine with steam, and must be kept in full work to meet the demands of the enormous cylinder of the machine. Difficulties of no ordinary kind attended the erection of such heavy mechanism on the top of an almost inaccessible rock, and materially added to its cost, it having been stated that the probable entire expense of its erection fell little short of ten thousand pounds. Proceeding from the engine house to the roof, we enjoyed one of those prospects which only Wales can afford. Distant mountains rose in blue undulations against the sky, while at their feet the fertile fields spread their smiling garments of green, and ran down to the river's brink. Just below, were waving foresttops, and on either side precipitous hills showed their rugged profile in stern contrast with the scenery beyond and beneath. On descending, the mouth of the pit was uncovered, and we looked down the yawning hole in which the ponderous pump-rod was for ever playing up and down. The descent was by means of ladders. We had looked forward with some pleasure to an exploration of this mine in person, but the sight of the shaft, dark, reeking wet, and only to be descended by ladders, with the disagreeable certainty of alighting into a foot or so of water at the bottom-for the mine was flooded-daunted us; and when we learnt, in addition, that we should probably come up drenched to the skin; that the roof of the levels dripped water" like a shower-bath," and the floor was everywhere covered with water; and that, after all, little could really be seen that was worth the trouble,all these things considered, we deemed it most prudent to give up the attempt. Nor are we ashamed to confess that bronchitis and an underground soaking, linked together as they were in our estimation, stifled every desire we might have felt for the visit. Although, therefore, a miner's suit was kindly proffered for use, we declined accepting of it; and, unless matters are more promising another time, we feel much disposed to recommend a similar course to every visitor. As we toil up through the ravine of which we have spoken, the deep concussions which move the air, and the rill of boiling water which runs steaming down the hill by our side, tell us that we are nearing the abode of the iron monster whose duty is to suck this great hill We have thus seen one of the pre-requisites to obtaindry-if he can. Gaining the summit of the rock, beholding the lead ore-the machinery for draining the mine. his dusky frame, bending with never-ceasing efforts to his daily and nightly task! See, how that colossal beam stoops and rises, again and again, its one extremity hid in the castle-like structure where the cylinder is placed, while to the other is attached an Descending the hill in the track of the steaming rivulet of water discharged from the condenser of the engine, we come a little way below to the middle shaft. There is a twelve-horse engine on a sort of plateau here. Heaps of spar are scattered around, and every indication ore, | sents itself. A powerful current of warm, moist air, possessing a peculiarly earthy odour, rushes up it, with sufficient force to be felt by the hand, and very sensibly by the face. The miners, also, declare that they never experience cold in their occupations, although they are so constantly drenched with water. While there is this strong ascending current up one shaft, there is also a descending current of air down another to supply its place. The explanation is, undoubtedly, that this warmth is due to that mysterious source of heat which all philosophers admit to exist in the crust of the earth, while none are able satisfactorily to explain it. At this spot it was a natural impulse to listen if aught could be discerned by the ear of the ceaseless sounds we well knew to be occurring in the mine below. Although blasting, hammering, shouting, picking, and all such the ear on the surface all was silent as the grave-not so much as a distant echo could we hear at this spot to tell us that a gang of toiling sons of men were hard at work beneath our feet. exists to show that it is at this spot where the deep hidden riches of the rock are dragged to light. Numbers of men are bustling around: some are busy with the trucks for conveying the ore; a few are breaking and puddling and others are superintending its transport to the washing-place. On approaching nearer, we found the shaft opened in the side of the rock, and was a sort of low tunnel, on the floor of which were a couple of tramlines. This shaft was not perpendicular, but inclined at an acute angle; and we learned that it terminated in a level, to which the ore to be raised to the surface is conveyed. Low trucks of a peculiar shape are used for this purpose. The one is the " up-line," the other the "down-line." Trucks laden with ore are dragged up by a long rope wound round a great wooden drum moved by the steam-engine, on the one line, while the empty ones descend by the other to be reladen by the in-noises are continually taking place in those depths, to dustrious miners below. The engine moves, the drum revolves, the long rope tightens; applying the ear to the rock, there is a muffled sound of wheels in the distance it approaches nearer, and a long line of trucks rushes up the steep declivity. The engine stops, and the trucks are impelled along a short tram-road to the debouching place. At this spot there is a large wooden trunk, which opens by three branches or funnels, discharging their contents into other trucks, which then carry the ore down to the washing-place. By a simple contrivance- a moveable inside partition, the ore can be discharged at pleasure by any one of these three funnels; and this is necessary, because there are three sets of miners employed, and the ore they procure is kept separate the one from the others, in consequence of the system of pay depending upon the value and amount of the work done. The tram-road runs to the mouth of this three-branched trunk, and as each truck, full of ore, runs along it, on reaching the extremity, there is a little contrivance, by which it is made to tilt itself over, and empty its contents into one or other of the three branches. When in full work this spot is a peculiarly interesting one; and at all times the continued motion of the toiling engine, the roar of the ascending and descending carriages, the rushing to and fro, and the thundering rattle of the ore clattering down the wooden tubes, make it perhaps one of the most lively scenes about the mine. Fortunately, to follow the ore in its further progress it is not necessary to take the same course as it, down the wooden tube. A narrow path winds down the back part of the office of the works. As we descend, booming sounds, like those of a couple of ponderous hammers directly succeeding each other, meet our ear, and resound quite across the valley. We come, also, in sight of two long beams, which run up the hill, and move majestically to and fro incessantly. One of these beams was said to be several hundred yards in length; the other is not so long. They are composed of massive pieces of timber, solidly joined and clamped together; and they rest upon iron friction-wheels, which bear their weight and assist in their motion. In consequence of the steep ascent of the hill, they are necessarily inclined at a considerable angle; and to obviate their consequent gravitating tendency, a heavy balance-weight is placed at the end of each. On our way down, we pass the termination of the shortest of these roddings; at this spot it is seen that their office is to pump water from levels not drained by the steam-engine above. In leaning over the shaft, a very curious circumstance pre Following the direction of the rodding, we came in sight of the source of those deep-toned, sharp sounds we had heard, and we could wish that we could illustrate with the pencil a scene we must attempt to describe by the pen. We had entered a narrow, densely wooded ravine, at the bottom of which ran the impetuous river we have before mentioned; on this side were sharp rocks of no great height, on the other, the graceful foliage of larch, elm, and oak trees; and overtowering the tops of the trees, we beheld the broad iron rim of a stupendous water-wheel, fifty feet in diameter, rolling its deep-celled edge in a magnificent circle, and showering down sheets of glistening water, which sparkled and flashed in the sun in a manner beautiful to behold. This immense machine was entirely constructed of wrought iron; its appearance is, consequently, light and elegant in the extreme, and the picture presented to the eye by the union of the great and graceful in art with the wild and lovely in nature, is one we have seldom seen equalled. The wheel is an undershot, and is fed by a sluice drawing its supply from the river at a higher portion of its course. Each rim is provided with an armature of powerful iron cors, which set in motion a pair of smaller wheels, furnished with powerful cranks connected with the rodding. The great wheel revolves twice in a minute, the smaller ones ten times; consequently, the pumps which are lifted by the rodding make ten strokes a-minute. The cause of the sounds is the jumping movement of the cranks which impel the rodding; as it is found altogether impossible to prevent a certain heavy jerk at each revolution, which shakes the very earth in the vicinity of the machine. The power of the wheel is calculated at eighty horses. Thus, the drainage power of this mine is equivalent to that of two hundred and thirty horses; yet, with all this, the water occasionally overpowers the machinery. The spectacle presented by this picturesquely placed colossal engine made us linger long in its vicinity, and when we departed left an impression of mingled pleasure and awe of some duration. It was a beautiful, spirit-stirring sight! A team of trucks proceeding leisurely along the mimic railroad at a little distance, reminds us that our visit is but yet half completed. The ore, having been received from the discharge pipes before seen, is conveyed by horse power along the tram-road, across a field to another portion of the works, where it is to be washed and fall together upon the knock-stone. The foreign matters with which the lead-ore is found united, in this mine, being soft and friable, cause this inartificial method to be perfectly adequate to the trituration of the mass; but in other mining districts the more perfect machinery of crushing and stamping mills is requisite to prepare the hard ore for the washers. A coarse sort of powder, or rather gravel, is thus obtained, and we are conducted to the wash-pools, a little beyond. prepared for the market. By the side of the tram-road | mallets make a somewhat agreeable sound as they all runs a small rivulet of water, taken off from the sluice which supplies the water-wheel. Insignificant as this may appear, we shall presently find that even this tiny streamlet has a most important duty to fulfil before it is lost once more in the parent stream. The trucks arrive at length at their destination, and here there are also three funnels, corresponding in function in some respects to those through which the ore has already passed, being each appropriated to the reception of the different "lots" dug up by each of the three gangs of miners. The rivulet now becomes confined in several wooden tubes, and as the ore is discharged from the trucks down each of the funnels, a stream of mountain water, clear as crystal, falls upon it, and washes away at once much of the dirt and extraneous matters, in some measure purifying it, and preparing it for future operations. These are carried on in a convenient area below, where a large number of men and boys may be seen busily engaged upon different portions of the work. It is very possible that the appearance of lead ore in the rough, just as it is extracted from the mine, may cause some surprise that such apparently valueless rubbish should be so carefully dealt with and anxiously sought after. We were ourselves surprised on being told that a little heap of yellowish dirt and spar contained any lead-ore; but our surprise vanished when we saw a stream of pure water sent rushing through and through it, and lumps of grey ore alone remained behind. It was experience teaching us the value of what ignorance calls refuse. It is associated in this case with calcareous and fluor-spar, and with a yellowish clay and rubble. The ore is occasionally met with in large lumps, and in those cases is of fine quality, and bears a proportionate value in the market. This is called "round ore;" in consequence of its greater purity, it yields a considerably larger portion of metal per cent. than the "small ore" does. Although a lump of leadore taken in the hand has all the density of a mass of lead, and to the eye much resembles a portion of the metal in brilliant crystals, it must not be mistaken (as is commonly done) for pure lead. Technically, it is called galena, and its chemical composition indicates it to be a compound of sulphur and lead, a sulphuret of lead in fact. One hundred parts of galena contain about eighty-seven parts of lead, combined with thirteen of sulphur. In order, therefore, to obtain the metal in a fit state for economical purposes, it is not sufficient simply to melt the ore and run it into moulds, as one is disposed to imagine. The sulphur in combination with it must be discharged; and this is effected by the operation of smelting, a process we shall shortly describe further on. After the first washing, we found the ore was conveyed to one side of the area on which these operations are going forwards, and here we were amused at the simple method which is at the beginning of the extractive process. There is a long, cast-iron bench, a little raised from the ground, on which the spar and lead-ore are placed to be bruised and prepared for the washers. This iron bench is called the "knock-stone." Six or seven young men were busy bruising a heap of ore, which lay before each, by means of a heavy kind of mallet, having a broad, flat head of iron, technically, the “beating-bucker." Wielding their instruments with a peculiar sweep, the ore is crushed, and pushed off the bench to make room for more; and the six or seven Here, the sparkling rill we were tempted to despise, as it gambolled through the field by our side, enters upon the serious duties of its existence. It is conducted by a number of pipes, which ramify in every direction, to a series of shallow beds. The ore to be washed is spread out, and a current of swirling water rushes through it; it is raked to and fro across the current until the operation is completed. The water thus carries away all the lighter particles of clay, mud, and spar, but is unable to carry to any distance the heavier portions of the lead, which are therefore easily separated. The lead-ore is then collected, re-washed, and sifted, and after undergoing several processes of a similar description, it is conveyed to a certain heap in the weight ing place. The water, however, carries away a considerable quantity of ore in the form of a fine powder, called "sludge;" this is, of course, too valuable to be allowed to run to waste. The water is consequently conducted, all black and slimy now with particles of the ore, into a number of deep pits. In these it deposits its lead, and after it has escaped from the last and is once more free, it retains but little mineral impurity. When the pits are filled to a certain depth with the ore in this condition, it is dug out, dried, and sold separately at an inferior rate to that in larger crystals. The last spot to which we were conducted about the mine is the paved area, on which a number of heaps of ore of different qualities, and belonging to different gangs of miners, rest. We might call this the shop of the mine, for here the goods are exposed (to view, and here the bargains for their purchase are made. This, therefore, is the proper place for the discussion of matters of business connected therewith. The sales of ore are effected once a-month, and its price is, of course, regulated by two circumstances, the market price of the metal, and the purity of the parcel for sale. The market price of lead has varied extremely, and is always more or less uncertain. The price of ore at the mine in 1823 was as high as 147. 10s. a ton, whereas at the present time it is only 97. 10s. Every ton of ore has to pay a certain royalty to the lord of the manor; at present, the royalty paid at this mine is 17. per ton. A productive mine is therefore a source of considerable revenue to the lord of the manor, originating without anxiety, and collected without trouble of any kind on his part. The average amount of ore raised at this mine in a month, has varied from 150 to 200 tons. As the yield is always dependent upon the character of the vein worked, and as the latter is well known to be most uncertain, it follows that the amount of ore obtained is sometimes in excess of this sum, and oftener in diminution. A large heap of ore by our side had just been sold to an eminent patent-shot manufacturer. This heap was perhaps twelve feet square, and about three in height: our conjecture as to its probable value made the gentleman who was kind enough to accompany us smile; but it is probable our readers will wonder with |