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I believe the problem with Victoria level may have been because they followed the base of the main lime and so the rise in the level refelcts the rise in the beds. However as i am reliing on second hand information albeit from a mining engineer i cannot confirm this. As to the comments about the connection between Bunting and Hard level, i have to agree with Mike it was not an error. The agents notebooks indicate that the connection on the Old Rake vein was equiped with a pair of "metal hoppers". I would suggest that this referes to hoppers for metal not hoppers made of metal. So this would indicate that the hoppers served as a collection point for ore from the west side of the Old Gang Mine complex which could then be trammed out of Hard level to the dressing floor and smeltmill. One question that this raises is why use the term "metal hopper", does this suggest that it was dressed material trammed in from the Bunting dressing floor that was tipped down the hoppers? This dressing floor apears to have worked throughout the 19th century and the easiest way to transport dressed ore to the companies smelt mill would have been through the mine. The question of how well the surveyors and engineers knew the local geology is an interesting one. Boring rods had been used during the 1680s when they were used to drain a shaft and to provide air. It seems hard to imagine that they were not also used to prove the position of the bearing beds and possibly the position of the veins. Martin Roe ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%