254 M. Kovanko’s General View of the Environs of Pekin. 
mine. The galleries of the mines are so low that the work- 
men can scarcely move in them except by crawling. 
When the horizontal beds are to be won, continued timber- 
ing is used; but in winning the vertical beds, only the roofs 
and floors are timbered, particularly the latter, in order that 
the trains which are employed to transport the coal to the 
surface should slide easily upon them. 
The timbering employed by the Chinese is not above two 
or three vershoks in thickness. It costs, nevertheless, about 
two copecks per poud.* 
The winning of the horizontal bed is carried on in the fol- 
lowing manner :—A gallery is opened in the bed of coal itself, 
14 archene in height. After having penetrated into it seve- 
ral vershoks, a cross beam is fixed in the roof, by the two ends 
being let into the walls of the rock ; having advanced another 
archine, a fresh joist is fixed, which is bound to the first by 
beams placed lengthwise above them. These beams having a 
distance between them of a quarter of an archene, are covered 
with brush-wood made into fascines ; when this work is finish- 
ed, they continue to advance within the thickness of the bed, 
and following its direction. 
The floor of the gallery is in like manner fitted with cross 
beams placed near together; the gallery is thus pushed on un- 
til the want of air renders it necessary to put a stop to the 
work. Below this gallery a second is opened, to continue the 
working of the coal. 
The only difference in the process of working the vertical 
and the horizontal beds of coal is, that in the first the galleries 
are not only timbered above and below, but also on their side- 
walls. 
The coal taken out is put into baskets, placed upon sledges, 
which are raised to the surface by manual labour; one basket 
may contain about three pouds of coal, and one man can raise 
to the surface about eight in a day; he generally receives at 
the rate of 30 copecks per basket. The water which accu- 
* Note by the author.— Wood in China is sold by weight. 
