MINE

The name given generally to every system of subterraneous work or excavation which has for its object the discovery and extraction of the metallic ores or other mineral produce. But in addition to the underground works which constitute the mine properly so called, the term usually comprehends also the ground on the surface, together with the numerous appendages which arc required there; as steam-engines, water-wheels, and other machinery for drainage, the extraction of the ores, and their mechanical preparation, with various buildings and erections. The subject of mines is one of the most important within the whole range of human knowledge: their contents constitute the main-springs of civilization; and the means employed to obtain them are to be ranked among the most extraordinary instances of human enterprise, patience, and ingenuity. The art of mining has been practised from the earliest antiquity,and has formed a branch of industry to the most barbarous as well as the most civilized communities. It is true that we can scarcely dignify by the name of mining the operation by which the savage merely collects grains of gold in the sands of rivers, or extracts it by pounding, when mechanically combined with other substances; but even this simple operation becomes interesting when viewed as the first link in the chain of those elaborate and scientific pro- [s. 762]