These are men (never women nor young persons) sentenced to penal servitude for a period of ten years or more, and until the year 1848 they lived, or rather died a slow death, entirely in the mine.  They were compelled to sleep in their clothes on the floor of rock salt; never saw the light of day after they had once entered the mine; and whatever might have been the nominal term of their sentence, disease and their unnatural surroundings invariably cut short their miserable existence after about four years’ confinement.  Now they work in the mine from 8 A.M. to 4 P.M. in winter, and from 6 A.M. to 6.30 P.M. in summer, and then leaving it, they march to the penitentiary, about a mile distant.  They work in gangs of about six or seven, and each man is obliged to raise at least 700 kilogrammes (about 14 cwt.) of salt per day.  For that quantity they receive, or at least they are credited with, 30 per cent, of their wages, which are fixed by tariff, and for all above 700 kilos they get half their wages.  These are reckoned at fourteen centimes per 100 kilos up to 600, and eighteen centimes per 100 for all above.  So far as the actual labour is concerned, we have no hesitation in saying that it is not nearly so exhaustive nor painful as that of thousands of our English colliers, besides being free from the dangers which constantly impend over our poor miners, but there are some serious and quite unnecessary hardships inflicted upon the men.  One of these is that they get nothing to eat until noon, and therefore, unless they buy food with their earnings, they must walk to and from their work and labour for several hours upon an empty stomach; another is that the benevolent intentions of the State in regard to the stimulus of remuneration are defeated by the neglect or dishonesty of certain of the officials.  The prisoners now rarely work out their term.  Either their sentences are shortened for good conduct, or on some special occasions a certain number are pardoned by royal grace, and we were informed that they rarely die in penal servitude.  And now let us descend into the mine, a proceeding which will be facilitated in the reader’s thoughts if he will kindly take before him our little plan, which is reduced from the engineer’s drawing of a section actually in use on the spot.

[Illustration:  SECTION OF THE TELEGA PENAL SALT MINE.]

The descent is effected on foot through a vertical cylindrical shaft used for that purpose only, and divided at intervals by platforms which communicate with one another by good broad wooden staircases.  The visitor is provided with a lighted candle attached to the end of a stick, which serves at the same time as an excellent test of the purity or impurity of the air in the mine, for the lower he descends, the more frequently he will find his light to be extinguished by carbonic acid gas, arising chiefly from the exhalations of the convicts.  There are no inflammable gases in the mine, and the men work with naked lights.