EMISSIONS OF GAS. 231 buretted hydrogen. In short distances from the main current of ventilation, "a workman crouched upon all fours without a light, keeping his head low to prevent breaking the gas, or a mixture of it; and fastening a hook with a string through it in the roof at the extremity of the opening. He then returned, in the same manner, to the entrance with the two ends of the string in his hand: to one of these ends he fastened a lighted candle fixed in clay on a boardwith the other, he drew the candle to the extremity in good air, and finally raised it to the hook in the roof, when its flame ignited the gas at that point, upon which a violent rush of atmospheric air immediately took place."* The introduction of the Davy lamp has, however, mostly superseded this perilous practice. *Geol. Facts, p. 26. CHAPTER XII. GETTING THE COAL. Ideas of unpleasantness and danger associated with Coal Pits in general-Few persons like to descend to inspect the subterranean workings-An interesting sight to the Visitor-Impressions experienced in traversing the deep fiery mines about NewcastlePlan of removing the pillars which support the roof-Crushes or creeps-Working crept CoalAppearance of the Pitmen underground-Steel mill-Use of Horses-Anecdote-Employment of Females-Implements used by the Collier-Fractures of the Coal-Backs, cutters, and partingsMethods of breaking down the Live Coal-Attempts at the introduction of Machinery. FROM what has been stated in the preceding Chapter, a tolerably accurate idea may be formed of the underground economy of a coal mine in its general scope. It will be proper, however, to describe some of those dangerous but not unusual combinations of working by means of which a still greater proportion of the entire coal is obtained, and also to go a little more into detail relative to the actual operations of the colliers. As exhibitions, the minia APPREHENSIONS OF DANGER. 233 ture model of a coal-work in one of the fashionable Bazaars, and even the Thames Tunnel, have attracted the attention of parties in the metropolis; while few persons, actuated by curiosity merely, have the resolution to descend a coal-pit, whether they happen to be residents or visitors in the colliery districts this circumstance is perhaps generally attributable partly to the prevalence of a vague notion of danger, and connected therewith, the necessary unpleasantness in most instances, of traversing the excavations amidst the dirt and moisture commonly met with in such places*. Yet these considerations and inconveniences overcome, and they are often greater * The collieries belonging to Earl Fitzwilliam at Elsecar and Rawmarsh, near Rotherham, are carried on with great spirit, and the whole of the arrangements for working them are on a scale of great magnitude; at the same time they are carried out with a degree of care and effect not surpassed in that part of the country. The workings are not only approached by means of the drawing shaft, but also by a futteril or subterranean way, so that timid persons, who might hesitate to allow themselves to be let down by means of the steam-engine, need be under no apprehension about entering by the inclined gallery. There is, moreover, little or no fire damp, so that the colliers work with open lamps; and so clean and commodious are the board ways, in many parts, at least, that the ladies from Wentworth House, sometimes go down to witness the operations, and more particularly to see the impressions of organic remains with which some portions of the strata abound. The roof is beautiful, not only on account of its being in some places richly embossed with lepidodendritic impressions, but because it is for the most part, as dry, compact, and even as the street pavement itself. The comfortableness of the board-ways underfoot, has been materially lessened, since the occasion when it was necessary to inundate the works with water from a neighbouring reservoir, in order to extinguish the burning of the beds of coal which had been wilfully set on fire. Dirty, however, as was the floor of the mine in many parts, owing to the cause first assigned, when the author went in a few days previous to writing this paragraph, (June 1835), it was by no means impassable to curious visitors. The entrance of the footrail consists of a neat front with two lodges of hewn stone, having between them an iron gate. One of the shafts is called the Royal William Pit, from the circumstance of his present Majesty having once, when Duke of Clarence, descended, along with some other illustrious guests of Earl Fitzwilliam, to inspect the workings. This august personage, is also said, previously of course to his accession to the throne, to have once descended into the deep workings of a coal mine at Newcastle. in imagination than reality-there are few sights more striking to an eye unaccustomed to subterranean mining operations than are presented by those immense caverns, or apparently interminable galleries, in which the pitman pursues, "Howe'er the daylight smiles, or night-storms rave, His dangerous labour, deeper than the grave; Creates a dubious subterranean day, Or whether climbs the sun his noontide track, Or starless midnight reigns in coif of black; Intrepid still-though buried at his work, Where ambushed deaths, and hidden dangers lurk." Besides the rarer occurrence of those ancient vegetable forms described in previous Chapters, the curious visitor will commonly be interested by the more recent manifestations of organised existence. In the damp recesses of the mine, several species of the fungus family make their appearance: as these are mostly beautifully white, sometimes filamentous, at others like tawed leather, they contrast strikingly with the sombre aspect of the coal from which they shoot. Not only are there various species of fungi met with in the forsaken workings of old coal mines, but sometimes mosses, especially the Rhizomorphaceæ, or root moss.* Efflorescences of mineral matters In the coal mines in the vicinity of Dresden, the Rhizomorpha phosphorea are said to be so abundant and so luminous, as even to dazzle the eye by the brilliant light they afford. Mr. Erdmon, the Commissioner of Mines, thus describes the phosphorescent appearance of the Rhizomorphæ in one he visited :-" I saw the luminous plants here in wonderful beauty; the impression produced by the spectacle I shall never forgot. It appeared on descending into the mine, as if we were entering an enchanted castle. The abundance of these plants was so great, that the roof and the walls, and the pillars, were entirely covered with them; and the beautiful light they cast around almost dazzled the eye-it resembled faint moonshine, so that two persons near cach other could readily distinguish their bodies. The lights appear to be most considerable when the temperature of the mines is comparatively high."-Burnett's Outlines of Botany, p. 165. APPEARANCES WITHIN THE MINE. 235 of considerable interest sometimes occur in minute capillary masses frequently occasionally, however, judging from specimens in the museums at Newcastle and other places, very fine crystals of sulphate of lime are found in the abandoned galleries of Felling colliery; "teaching," as was lately remarked,* "important truths as to the power and action of what have been called 'diurnal' geological causes." But if courage be required to enter a coal mine at ordinary depths, it is in descending the frightfully deep pits in the neighbourhood of Newcastle, that sensations bordering on the awful are inevitably experienced; and in traversing at such profound depths the endless galleries into which the shafts ramify, the visitor is struck by the perfection of plans adapted to lessen, as much as possible, the risk which the pitmen run in situations where the great value of the coal induces them to get it as completely as possible. On the other hand, the vast caverns formed in getting the thick Staffordshire coal, exhibit on a much more striking scale the combined operations of the miners, from the space which, when artificially illuminated, the eye commands at once; at the same time that persons may move about more commodiously, and also with fewer apprehensions of danger from explosions or foul air. A large but indifferently executed print published some years ago in Staffordshire, represents in a striking manner several of the operations connected with getting the ten-yard coal in the old Bradley mine, near Bilston. But whatever be the dangers or difficulties that may be encountered in carrying out the first workings, according to the plans already described, in which * In Report of Yorkshire Phil. Society, 1835. |