MINING. The art of mining embraces the contrivance and manage ment of the operations necessary to effect the various objects requisite in a mine, as the discovery of mineral deposits, the preliminary trials of the value, and the final extraction of their produce by means of suitable excavations and the application of the requisite machinery. These occupations may be said to constitute the business of the miner in the more comprehensive signification of the term, and it will be evident that they demand an extensive range of acquirements in which knowledge, both practical and scientific, must be blended.
History of Mining.—A regular or detailed history of mining, how ever interesting in itself, would far exceed the limits of this article ; we shall therefore briefly glance over some of the most important steps by which mankind have been led to their present bold and extensive operations for the extraction of metals and other mineral substances. The use of the metals, and consequently some process for their extrac tion and separation, may be traced to the most remote antiquity, and is there lost in the obscurity which veils the early history of our species. Moses ascribes the first use and manufacture of the metals to Tubal Cain, the seventh in descent from Adam, who is said to have been the "instructor of every artificer in brass and iron." Upon so brief a notice we are not entitled to build much, but it proves nevertheless that the use of the metals is almost coeval with the human race. Profane history likewise shows that it was known to the earliest nations of antiquity, as to the Assyrians, the Greeks, and Egyptians. Gold and silver were abundant among the ancients ; an alloy of copper and tin formed the armour and weapons of the Greeks, although iron was not unknown among them, and of this metal the Roman weapons were formed. These facts do not, however, imply any great know ledge of mining, properly so called, as it is well known that metal liferous deposits are often found near the surface, frequently in a state of extreme purity, as gold and copper for example; and in early ages, when they had been so much less ransacked by the miner, these superficial deposits must have been much more abundant than at present, and probably furnished a large proportion of the metallic produce of those times. Most of the mines of antiquity were pro bably of a similar nature to the stream-works of Cornwall, and it appears from Strabo * (175, Casauli.) that the Phceniciaus at that early time used to trade to Cornwall for tin and lead. In early times the demand for the metals could not have been very great ; their use was then either as instruments of luxury or war, and thus confined to a limited class, so the quantity found near the surface was in all probability fully adequate, leaving but little inducement for deeper and more laborious research.
There is, however, evidence enough to show that operations similar to those of modern mining were carried on by the nations of anti quity. Herodotus (vi. 46, 47) observes that a mountain in the island of Thasos was completely burrowed by the Phoenicians in their search • Strabo spooks of the Cassiterides, which can be no other place than Cornwall or the Stilly Islands; probably the former.
for the precious metals; and the curious fragment of Agatharchidus preserved in Diodorus (b. iii. ch. 12, 13) shows that the art of forming sham and passages for exploring mines and procuring the metals was well known in Egypt. The silver mince of Laurium in Attica were worked by the Athenians, to some extent at least, as early as the beginning of the 4th century p.c. Under the Romans the quicksilver mines of Almaden in Spain, and the lead and Iron mina of Sardinia [Mtacuse, in NAT. MST. Div.], were extensively worked.
It Is singular to observe that an art for which this country possesses such great natural facilities, and which was certainly cultivated here both before the Roman conquest and during the Roman occupation of this island, should afterwards have fallen into decay, and indeed for a time have been chiefly practised by foreigners. Prior to tho Norman conquest our mines had been much neglected, probably in consequence of incessant civil commotion ; and subsequently to this period they were chiefly worked by Jews. In the reign of Elizabeth the art of mining had fallen into so much decay that an importation of foreign skill was found necessary to revive it ; and the Germans, long and justly celebrated as skilful miners, received every encouragement to &settle in this country and turn their attention to them. From this measure some success appears to have resulted, and in the following reign we find Sir Hugh Middleton, a citizen of London, deeply con cerned in the lead and silver mines of Cardiganshire, from which he derived a large revenue, which was expended in that noble work from which the metropolis still benefits—the formation of the New River. About this time a new and important auxiliary was fdrnished to the art of mining by the application of gunpowder for blasting, which appears to have been first practised in Hungary or Germany ; and an invention which had revolutionised the art of war thus became the means of effecting an equally extensive change in one of the most prominent arts of peace.