Ward & Lock's descriptive and pictorial guide to the Isle of Man ...

DuiKjlas to Laxey and Snaefell. 71copper, the products of the mine ; and one of the value of£180 per fathom is not unfrequently brought to the surface;and the lead ore will sometimes yield more than 100 ouncesof silver to the ton.The large washing-floors present a scene of great activity.Here men, boys, and women are at work breaking up andcarrying the ore. The masses are first broken by hammers,and then ground by machinery. The washing process follows,by which the metal is separated from the matrix, and thelead from the other metals.It is for the purpose of facilitating this washing processthat the great wheel was erected in 1854, receiving its name,the "Lady Isabella," as a compliment to the wife of theHonourable Charles Hope, then the Governor of the island.It is 72 feet in diameter, 226 feet in circumference, andG feet in thickness, contains 188 buckets and 48 spokes.The balance at the wheel shaft weighs 10 tons, and the topbalance 7 tons. The wheel is of 200 horse power, and willpump water from a depth of 400 yards at the rate of 250gallons a minute. The galleiy above is reached by a spiralstaircase of 95 steps, round the circular white pillar, throughwhich the water (brought in pipes from reservoirs in themountains) ascends. Visitors subject to dizziness would dowell to avoid this corkscrew-like staircase, and be content towatch the revolutions of the wheel from the high ground inthe neighbourhood. The wheel was constructed by Mr. Casement,a native of the island.The washing-jloors may he inspected hy permission of thecaptain of the mine on the spot, or by order obtained at Dambell'sBank, in Dour/las.The village is divided into Old and New Laxey. Theformer is on the shore of Laxey Bay, and there, near thequay, where the ore is shipped, is the large warehouse ofthe Mining Company. On the beach is a well, "LordHenry's," said to possess valuable medicinal qualities. InOld Laxey is a Reading Room, provided by the Company forthe use of the work-people employed in the mine. BetweenOld and New Laxey is an old bridge, and a road up the faceof the hill, supposed to have been constructed by the Romans.In New Laxey is a pretty Church, erected by the Company,and opened in ISIay 185G. In the lower p:irt of the elen arechapels for Methodists and Piimitive Methodists.The Laxey Qlen Gardens, laid out in a very pleasing mannerwith flower-beds, tennis and croquet-grounds, bowliuggi-eenand bowling-alleys, and play-grounds for children, with