2-888-360 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Shaft - Descent of the Bucket, Marston Salt-Pit, 1850. Scene at Marston Mine, near Northwich, in Cheshire. '...every facility was shown to strangers who were desirous of seeing the wonders of the mines...we provided ourselves with a few shillings'-worth of blue lights - an essential preliminary to those who wish to see the mine to advantage...[The mine] extends under about thirty-five acres, and the shaft is 250 yards in depth...the empty bucket ascended, and our turn came to be let down into the bowels of the earth. The motion was pleasant, and the descent, unlike that into a coal mine, was perfectly free from the annoyance of dripping moisture. The aperture above seemed to grow "small by degrees" as we descended, until, at last, it appeared no larger than the crown of a bat'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.