looking little "public" on the way-side, or
the risk of losing our way if we proceed.
The inn, at which we now seek entertainment,
is a mere weather-board hut, about eighteen
feet long, by about ten feet wide, and this
moderate space is again subdivided into bar,
parlour, and dormitories.

By eleven o'clock the next morning we are
comfortably housed in the Kooringa hotel,
and our journey is at an end. When we
reached Burra Burra, three or four directors,
with their secretary, had just arrived in a
carriage-and-four, for the purpose of making
the monthly inspection of the mines. I
arranged to accompany them.

Accordingly, we all wended our way together
across the hilly pass which lies between
the front of the hotel and the mine. As we
came to the top of this pass, we could
command a perfect view of the hollow or basin
under which the treasures of the Burra Burra
lie. Numerous cottages, long sheds, and
ranges of stalls for horses, high ladders,
immense beams, wheels, and winzes, were spread
about upon a surface of some nine or ten
acres. Vast mounds of copper ore of the
richest quality were piled up on every side;
but the occasional apparition of a red-
shirted miner, issuing from or disappearing
down a hole, reminded us that the principal
interest was subterranean.

"Going below," is a proceeding for which
one must dress. Under the guidance of Mr.
Burr, the then manager of the mine, we
repaired to one of the cottages, and having
substituted red mining shirts for our coats, we
were all soon collected together at the mouth
of one of the shafts. The mining captain, a
very muscular and earthy-looking Cornish
man, with a necklace of tallow candles, next
presented to each of us a lighted dip, to be
held in the left hand as we descended. He
then stepped upon the perpendicular ladder
with the confidence of a cat, and in an instant
was out of sight. A director followed him.
Then another director, and another, until all
the directors had disappeared. At last, the
"Now then, sir," of the worthy secretary, put
me upon the ladder too. The sensation of
descending is a peculiar one to the novice, who
reflects that there is a hole two hundred and
forty feet deep, down which he must be
precipitated before he feels the earth once more
under his feet. Once, however, that his foot
is firmly planted on the floor of the uppermost
gallery, he feels perfectly comfortable, and not
a little delighted; dazzling branches of ore,
reflecting the light of the miners' lanterns,
glittered in caves, hung over our heads, and
cropped out in huge bunches, in every
direction. From this gallery, we were led
to another, and another, and another,
ascending and descending to higher and lower
levels,—all brilliant with walls, floors, and
ceiling, green, and red, and blue. Upwards
of two hundred miners were employed
underground, and, of course, many hundreds more
were working on the surface. Yet the works
scarcely extend over a dozen of the ten
thousand acres of mineral land possessed by the
company.

We continued under-ground during two
or three hours. When we came up, some
new " discoveries " were to be " christened,"
and this is always done in Champagne and pale
ale. I eluded the kind invitation to share in
the ceremony", and made my escape.

Albeit this mine has, both directly and
indirectly, so greatly advanced the material
prosperity of the colony, yet it may reasonably
be doubted whether it has proved equally
beneficial to the morals of the people. A
certain gambling spirit is almost necessarily
engendered amongst all classes. It is known
that the five pound Burra shares have been
paying forty pounds a-year in dividends, and
that gentlemen who put five hundred pounds
originally into the concern have been and are
still enjoying four thousand pounds of annual
income as interest for their money. Such
facts as these take a strong hold of irritable
imaginations; and ruin has awaited many
who have been allured from steadier pursuits
by the fascinations of a mining enterprise.

A NOVELTY IN RAILWAY LOCOMOTION

WE entered lately a large shop belonging
to an upholsterer in the City Road, where we
were politely directed to the cellar stairs.
These we descended. A descent into a
cellar usually suggests some such ideas as
may have animated Goths who made the Alps
their stairs to walk down into Italy, a land of
wine. Such ideas did not suggest themselves
to our minds in the present instance. To be
sure, wine was the first thing that we saw,
neatly decanted, and placed with sundry
eatables on a white tablecloth, at the foot of the
said cellar stairs: but that was accidental to
the occasion upon which we went. We went
where there were sundry gentlemen, gray and
grave gentlemen, who had in that cellar
matter to think about; and Britons like to
eat and drink when they are thinking. Our
own digestion being limited to a fixed number
of daily supplies, and not being blessed with
the power of taking lunch an indefinite
number of times in one day, we turned from
the little table with the tablecloth upon it, to
the large table on which miniature railway
trains were rolling to and fro.

It was a large long cellar, lighted by gas,
and a buzz of gentlemen intent upon their
business settled about us, ready to supply all
useful information. Down the whole length
of the long cellar ran a narrow table, which,
with the necessary furniture of plates and
paupers, would have looked like an indefinite
extension of a workhouse dining-table. On
this table were laid down miniature rails, and
it was in fact established there to represent,
on a reduced scale, a line of railway, for the
purpose of exhibiting a working model of