a Cual-work at Bemijmic, near Liege. 24)3 



Monday the drift was only twenty-six yards long, and no exact 

 plan of the workings was to be found. They had no data to 

 calculate the distance, which might be twice as great as they 

 supposed, even taking into account that the immured men, 

 whom on good reason they judged were deprived of light, could 

 continue to work. 



In this anxiety, each owner of pits was required to furnish 

 six of his strongest miners, only two of whom could work at a 

 time. The air, too, was so much rarefied and deprived of oxy- 

 gen, as to be scarcely fit for respiration ; it was therefore pro- 

 posed to open a second drift parallel with the former ; but still 

 to continue that with the greatest activity. This 1 insisted 

 upon, and wrote to M. Migneron. The advice was adopted, 

 and entrance into the pit positively forbidden to every one but 

 such as were absolutely necessary. 



In a short time the two drifts were united, to form only one, 

 and to conduct the air more regularly. The 3d of March ar- 

 rived. The dam at the Triquenote pit continued to hold, the 

 water lessened, and the noise of the men within was more dis- 

 tinctly heard ; but nothing yet indicated that the direction of 

 our drift went precisely to the desired point. The boring-rod 

 made no discovery, and the varied effect of the sound kept up 

 an illusion which made us afraid we were going farther from 

 the unhappy men, who, plunged in darkness, might be equally 

 deceived. The miner scarcely breathing, and dropping down 

 with sweat, can make use of the pick only for a few minutes ; 

 another, however, takes his place ; the work advances, and we 

 begin to entertain a hope of breaking down the barrier in the 

 night. 



Filled with this hope, I gave order that a messenger should 

 be dispatched to me as soon as the boring-rod should pierce into 

 the interior, and returned to town a quarter after four o'clock 

 in the afternoon, with the principal engineer M. Mathieu. I 

 had scarcely reached the prefecture, when M. Engineer Mig- 

 neron recalled me to the spot, and told me we were in commu- 

 nication with the interior of the mine. It was about six o'clock. 

 I called upon M. Mathieu and Dr Logens, and set off, taking 

 with me M. Asiaux junior, a surgeon. A new detachment of 



