A compendium of information about mining in Cornwall during the 19th century with interesting descriptions of the working conditions, wages (miners were paid flat wages for digging shafts and similar non-ore work, but mostly worked veins of ore on spec, sometimes bidding on a digging), insurance, engineering (including details about mine workings beneath the sea, arrangements for draining and for provision of air), and much more. There is also a plot.

Of great value to anyone interested in the history of Cornwall, of Wisconsin (Cornish miners having been quite important in the formative years of the state), or of mining in general.

Pretty awful viewed as a novel, even though it was intended for children. However it forms a important record of how mining was done at the time which is rare and gives us insights which are not recorded elsewhere. The author researched the work carefully and many of the true stories and history and legends of the region are cobbled together here. ( )

A work of fiction written for the purpose of exhibiting, as graphically as may be, some of the most interesting and picturesque scenes, incidents and facts connecterd with the mining life of Cornwall in the 1800s. ( )