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300 UNDER THE SEA.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
V December Lias Not Everywhere In Englan...
to go first ; she got to the brink and managed to scramble off it . But the ladder on which she stepped one foot had a side splitand
, the topmost bar gave way under her . She made little disturbance about it , however , got back for the moment to a little jutting ledge ,
and with the captain ' s assistance , began her descent again , and now she was standing safe in the pitch , jubilant at being * where no
lady had ever been before her . No more nervousness after that . I do not know that excepting that small vaunteither she or her
, party gained much by entering the pitch . We found ourselves in a rock chamber like the others , only instead of being" like them
heightened , it was deepened _Tby the twelve feet dug out downwards . But for the holiday , we should have heard miner ' s tools busily
clanging and ringing here , for the lode was being followed into the rudely-broken corners and crevices . The uneven floor was
blocked with fragments , and rugged masses protruded oil all sides , most of them to be to-morrow forced and chipped into new
ruggedness come . but It was not roug different her . here We than saw at as any we part should to which thoug we h , less had dis yet
tinctly , , have seen it from above , a j , agged hollow , , somewhat oblong , but not much other than square with its height in length , with _,
everywhere rough traces of its origin . I have since been told that the best mining works upwards
rather than downwards , and that the mine should have been a thing into which to climb zip and not down . But I conceive that
in this , as in other toolwork , there are exigencies to which rules must J _* ive way . Botallack mine is not likely to be under
incompetent management , and if this particular work is going on upside down , at least it elicited no disparaging explanation from
Captain John . We , in our ignorance , supposed it to be the inevitable , as it certainly seems the natural , way of proceeding .
The pitch seen and left , we returned towards the platform where the igagain come downwas in waiting ; but on tlie way the
light g from , my candle showed , rue a circular fretwork of dainty white spots , crystal-shaped , looped , as it were , together . It looked
weblike , and quivered web-like at the _apjxroach of the flame , when , struck with its beauty , I stopped to examine . I touched it with
my hand , and found it loose from the wall like a fleecy tapestry draped against it . " How beautiful ! what is it ? " We all
admired . The answer was disenchanting : " Mildew , only mildew , you'll find plenty of it about . " Though it was but mildew , I
looked immediately for more . There , over the entrance of a lower passage , which we were about to enter , it was adhering in another
form , delicately branched like the waving crimson and green seaweed in rock pools , but snow-white , and as if encrusted in its rough ,
dark entablature . I dragged off a spray ; it collapsed like the seaweed uptorn , and hung limp over my fingers , to make me regret
spoiling the tiny , graceful tree it helped to shape . We looked for
300 Under The Sea.
300 UNDER THE SEA .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1863, page 300, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071863/page/12/
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