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Onyx, Nicolo

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ONYX.
229
pressing their backs firmly against the sides they in this manner ascend and descend without danger or difficulty. This I myself accomplished easily after going down two or three mines.
" The average depth of the shafts is thirty feet. I de­scended into one that was thirty-eight feet. The galleries run off in every direction, or wherever the miner's fancy leads him to dig. Their height is five feet and their width about four. The roof is arched, and the soil is a stiff clay in which the stones are embedded. The galleries seldom extend more than one hundred yards in length ; but many of them join those of other mines. To each of the mines there are thirteen men attached, who work by turns ; each man must send up so many basketfuls of earth and stones, when he is relieved. All the other people are employed in sorting and trying the stones as they are brought up. They seat themselves around the mouth of the shaft and try each stone, which is done by chipping off a piece with another stone. From the appearance of the fracture they are able to judge whether the stone is good or not ; the finer and more compact the stone the better it will be when burned, and the blacker it appears at first the redder it will become after undergoing the same operation and when ready for being cut and polished.
" The stones are brought up by means of a rude roller or pulley supported by four pieces of wood let into the ground. This, with a small iron pick, not steeled in order that the miner may not be injured by the sparks, a few bamboo baskets, and one rope, compose all their implements. In one mine they had tapped a spring of fresh water at thirty feet, and had been obliged to abandon it until the hot season, when they stated they should be able to work it again. " The strata through which the shafts are sunk appear
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