From the introduction Often enough the entrance to a mine is nothing more than a dark hole in a cliff face or the ground. In this case the miners have made more of an effort. A simple house, not much more than a wooden framework filled in with stones and mortar from the depths of the mountain covered with a wood shingle roof, has been set up around the entrance to the mine. A well trodden path leads down from the mountain slope past the stumps of countless trees cut down to serve as shoring timbers in the mine shafts. Evidently the mine has been around for quite a while.