This rugged stretch of coast=
was
once a thriving industrial area but is now a desolate landscape of ruined
engine-houses and mine dumps and riddled with open shafts and underground
workings. There can be no more fitting tribute to the pioneering spirit and
engineering skill of the 18th. century Cornish miners than the engine-house=
of
the Crowns Mine at Botallack
perched precariously on rocks at the foot of the cliff face in defia=
nce
of the elements. In the mid 19th. century
an exploratory shaft was stru=
ck out
under the sea-bed for a third=
of a
mile. Miners working beneath =
the
ocean floor would often hear the sound of waves crashing and rocks shifting=
or
breaking above their heads. The nearby Levant Mine was the site of a major
catastrophe in 1919 when a man-engine used to transport miners to and from =
the
surface failed resulting in the loss of 31 men.