[46]. The seventeenth chapter of ‘The Tropical World’ is devoted to the Erythroxylon Coca.
[47]. ‘Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall,’ vol. v. p. 11.
[48]. ‘Cornwall, its Mines and Miners.’ London, 1860.
[49]. A reverberatory furnace is a furnace in which intense heat is produced by a flame which, while passing through a furnace, reverberates from the roof over the substance to be fused, the draught being created by means of a lofty chimney.
[50]. ‘Geological Travels through Sweden.’
[51]. ‘Good luck upwards!’ or ‘A happy return to daylight.’
[52]. This hybrid name, a vile compound of English and Greek, is enough to excite the wrath of a philologist.
[53]. Since the discovery of the rich North American and Chilian mines the price of copper has fallen about 30 per cent. The consequence has been a great diminution of our copper production. Thus Cornwall and Devonshire, which in 1856 yielded 206,177 tons of copper ore, worth 1,241,835l., saw their produce gradually diminish from that time, and in 1865 furnished no more than 159,409 tons, worth only 753,427l. In 1856 the mean average price of copper was 123l. per ton; in 1865 it was no more than 94l. 7s.
[54]. ‘Cornwall, its Mines and Miners.’
[55]. The lodes in the Cornish tin and copper mines are divided by shafts and galleries into rectangular compartments, called ‘pitches.’ These are open to the inspection of all the labouring miners in the county, and, by an admirable system, each ‘pitch’ is let by public competition, for two months, to two or four or more miners, who may work it as they choose. These men agree to break the ores, wheel them, raise them to the surface, and bring them (if desired) into a fit condition for the market. The ores so raised are sold every week, and the miner immediately receives his tribute, or percentage for which he agreed to work. The sinking of shafts and the driving of levels is paid by tut-work, or task work, at so much per fathom.