Scenes And Incidents From The Life Of A Practical Miner
With A Treatise On The Ventilation Of Coal Mines

27 hole with clay, and then drive in the plug, thus making it perfectly tight and preventing the escape of gas from the goaf. But these instructions were neglected. The borer was taken away, and the men continued to drive the board on by guess and hazard until the pay Saturday morning, when, the overman set two of the deputies to bore a hole and prove the thickness of coal. In doing so, they holed into the goaf at 2| yards, with- out any knowledge of or provision for the plug, &c. They brought away the rods, leaving the hole open as a vent from the goaf. The board to the south is not up nor the wall holed, as you see by the plan, when the strike takes place. The timber is all drawn out and a portion of the upper strata lias fallen; and this very important position is neglected, remaining in this state without me having any knowledge of it. After a few weeks had passed over we, officially employed at colleries throughout the coal trade, had to start and hew coals, &c. The chief agent kept me on up to the last day of the strike, and when that was done, we had to go and repair the timber in the horseway by his order, without ever thinking about the waste, or the ventilation of the two pits. By this time the coal work- men had got well underway. We had been four days in the waste, and my object was to look after the most important places within the know- ledge of my own ken first. I had no dread of this district, being ignorant of this neglect, when I received an order to wait upon the under viewer and a young gentlemen who was serving his time to be a viewer. They were coming down to line round by the face of the workings to ascertain their position and distance from the boundary line, as indicated by the angular border of black to the north. We commenced our survey at the crane, going up west, keeping by the face of the workings to the northern- most board, and down east to the main going headways, as indicated by the the red dotted lines. We had got all the angles, and were now returning back to the south. At our last sight, the compass stood on. the main working headways, at the end of the board dotted red leading a pillar to east, to a blank headway, with the timber all drawn out and a portion of stone fallen. I being the leading marksman, I had fixed my plumb convenient for continuing the survey down this headway to the south; and although we had now got far through the required process, yet not one had. ever told me of the board being holed into the goaf, as you see by the plan it is, nor that the wall was not holed to the south. I proceeded on knowing nothing, nor dreading anything. I had got to where you see the single black dot in the wall next to the foul board. When I had proved the sight, I fixed my thumb for them at the compass, where you see the three black dots, and all was right and clean as far as I had gone. I was confident in my skill and judgment, inasmuch as I dreaded no danger. But when the two men with the chain had got off the main working headways, they released five putters whom they had been stopping to the north of them; when they all set off running at a rapid rate down the headways a pillar to the west of us, this caused a strong counter cur- rent of air to flow up north, in the east headways, where we were, when this volume of hydrogen gas which had escaped from the goaf by tlie bore hole, and gathered into bulk, in the board below as a floating stream of deception even to the skilful miner, was bore up to the north and me.