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

33 our object was to find out the cause and whereabouts of the stoppage, if possible. So we persevered on our journey over monster falls of the upper strata, damming back, the water; nothing daunted, we continued our course over the falls and through the water, until we came to another old pit (the Granary), but this exploration was made before that pit was opened out. We now deem it necessary to pause, as on inspection we find this shaft filled up with rubbish, loose dirt, fallen stones, &c., quite solid, but how far up is beyond our ken; yet our determination is to open it out, that being a necessity for the purpose of ventilation, for as we look there is no visible system that can be applied to force the atmospheric air down into this drift, in its present state; the fact being present to our minds that even now, should a sudden change take place in the atmosphere, we would be instantly involved in a volume of carbonic acid gas (a deadly poison), with no other way to escape, but by (lie road I have been des- cribing. You will naturally conclude, therefore, that our present posi- tion is dangerous, with little chance to get out. Yet, such is the daring requisite in the miner’s occupation, that many a brave intelligent man loses his life through adventures such as this, whose death is never heard of. He is borne away by his friends and fellow-workmen to nature’s final repository (the grave), and nothing more is seen or heard of him. His bold and daring spirit, his genius and prolific mind, his great experi- mental qualifications and many virtues, are all for ever gone, and nothing now is left to show the spot where these once such graces lie deposited. To these dangers, certainly the general body of miners are not exposed ; m an ordinary way, they are confined to a select few. On the other hand, there are many unseen dangers which the miner is subject to, even m a common coal working shaft, where there is little to excite fear, or nothing apparently to dread. Tt is a common customs in an extensive coal mine that a certain number °f men are divided into two shifts, the one-lialf going down with the overman, say at three o’clock a.m., the other half going down to release the first at ten o’clock. By this, the process is kept going the whole of the day. On this particular occasion we were in the fore shift, and had got our day’s work over at ten o’clock. We were making the best of our way home, and had got out to the shaft, when we told the onsetter we wanted to go up next. He gave those at bank the signal, and we prepared f°r our ascent. One young man got on top, two men in the high loop, and George Laws and myself in the low loop. Again, the signal is giv&i and oil wo go cheerfully, whistling as we went for want of thought (as s°me one says), nor dreading danger until we got to near half-shaft, when a. door struck the chain between the high loop and us to the right hand side, where Laws was on. In an instant we were driven right backwards over out of the loop, and might have been sent head-first down the pit to the bottom again. But fortunately for us both, niy left hand was ,lGe> and in the struggle I caught hold of a link and held fast by it. My °» was out to the ancle and foot; Laws was out altogether, but just <ls. 118 was passing through the loop over the chain, I caught him with my right }ianj by toe of tøs s]106j }iee] resting on the edge ° a link, and by the lever and length of his foot, I held him in that E