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but as we had our plaids on, we thought ourselves proof against wet, dirt, or cold, and therefore declined them. The two miners then put on their dresses, and my friend and I set forward with them.
We entered a hut at the side of the hill, where our guides provided themselves with lights, which they carried in their hands by sticking several in a lump of clay, and then proceeded down steps for near fifty yards till we came to a canal. Here they told us we were to get into a boat, and go along the navigation for one thousand yards. This navigation is through a cavern cut in the rock seven feet high, and four wide, the water about three feet. The miners have five guineas for every two yards, which they work by blasting the rock with gunpowder. We entered the boat, and my friend and I had each a chair to sit upon, our guides fitting one at the head, the other at the stern of the boat. When we had gone six hundred yards, we came to a large natural cavern in the rock, where there was a most dreadful roar of waters; we stopped here to see a water fall from an artificial dam made to keep up the level of water through the navigation. One of the men pulled up the sluice and the roar added to the solemnity of the scene, was dread and awful. Hence, we went two hundred and fifty yards to another fall nothing to be compared to the former: This joins the other after running some little way, and the joint stream runs under ground till it finds its way into Peak’s Hole. The whole course of this stream is wonderful; it loses itself under ground about four miles front Castleton, on the Manchester road, runs through the mine, and afterwards through Peak’s Hole, whence it again emerges to light, and takes its course through Castleton, Hopedale, &c. By means of this stream there is a constant current of air through the mine, which keeps it free from any noxious vapours, which would otherwise be dangerous to the miners. One hundred and fifty yards farther brought us to the end of the navigation, when we chained our boat to a rail; and, with each of us a light, proceeded upon planks, and upon rafters over the (illegible text)
