sieve in washing; the fourth, which is caught by a very slow stream of water, and is as fine as flour, is called bellard; it is inferior to all the rest, on account of the admixture of foreign particles. All the ore, as it comes from the mine, is beaten into pieces and washed before it is sold. This business is performed by women, who can earn about sixpence per day."

1

The business of the miner is entirely a matter of speculation, the lets or bargains, as they term them, sometimes not repaying them for the trouble of procuring the ore, and the expence of their blasts; at others, the profits are very large. A short time since two men, who had lately taken a let for six weeks, made thirty guineas each, clear of all deductions.

The only remaining object at Castleton was the great Speedwell level, lying to the south of the road called the Winnets, at the distance of a mile from the town. Being provided with lights and a guide, who expects five shillings for his trouble, we descended a flight of stone stairs, about one hundred feet below the surface of the ground, and found ourselves in a subterraneous passage seven feet high and six feet wide, through which flowed a stream of water. Here was a boat ready for our reception, formerly used, when the mine

was worked, for the purpose of bringing out the ore. As we proceeded slowly along the current, impelled by our guide, who gave motion to the boat by pushing against some pegs driven into the wall for that purpose, we began to contemplate this great example of man's labour, and at the same time to lament, that it had been exerted in vain. This level, it seems, was undertaken by a company of speculators about five and twenty years ago, who drove it into the heart of the mountain three thousand seven hundred and fifty feet, at an expence of 14,00ol. by the ceaseless labour of six men and three boys, who were employed upon it eleven whole years, at a contract of five guineas per yard. The veins, however, which the level intersected, were not sufficiently rich to answer the expence of pursuing them after they were found; therefore, having followed their speculation for ten years, they were obliged to relinquish it, and content themselves with letting the level to a man at 1ol. per annum; who took it in order to gratify strangers with a sight of this subterraneous wonder. Whilst employed in putting questions to our conductor on the, subject before us, our attention was excited by a distant murmur, which gradually increased upon the ear, and at length swelled into a stunning noise, exceeding the loudest

thunder, and conveying the idea of a stupendous river throwing itself headlong into an unfathomable abyss. Nor had fancy painted an unreal picture, for on reaching the half-way point a scene was unfolded to us tremendous in the extreme. Here the level burst suddenly upon a gulph, whose roof and bottom were entirely invisible, a sky rocket having been sent up towards the former, above six hundred feet, without rendering it apparent; and the latter having been plummed with a line four hundred feet, and no bottom discovered. A foaming torrent, roaring from the dark recesses, high in the heart of the mountain, over our heads to the right, and discharging itself into this bottomless caldron, whose waters commenced at ninety fect below us, produced the noise we had heard; a noise which was so powerfully increased on this near approach to it, as entirely to overwhelm the mind for a short time, and awaken that unaccountable feeling which creates desperate courage out of excessive fear, and almost tempts the spectator to plunge himself into the danger, whose presence he so much dreads. The prodigious depth of this abyss may be conceived from the circumstances of its having swallowed up the rubbish which a level, eighteen hundred feet long, of the dimensions above given, produced; as

well as sixteen tons of the same rubbish cast into

it every day for three or four years, without any sensible lessening of its depth or apparent contraction of its size. Indeed many facts concur to prove, that it is connected with the Castleton cave; and naturalists are now of opinion, that the whole country from hence to Elden-Hole exhibits a series of caverns, extensive and profound, uniting with each other, and thus becoming joint partakers of whatever either of them may receive. A conveyance apparently perilous, but perfectly secure, is formed over the chasm we have described, by a strong wooden frame-work, through which the water passes. Beyond this the level continues about two thousand feet further; but as the effect of a second approach to the abyss (which must be again. taken in returning) is much lessened by the prior visit, and as nothing occurs worth observation in the remaining half, we found we had extended our voyage to no purpose to the termination of this last wonder of the Peak.

Your's, &c.

R. W.