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overcome or got round, is the monotony varied. 

 Whoever proposes to go down a coal pit for the fun 

 of the thing may save themselves much unnecessary 

 toil and do the thing at home, for if they happen to 

 have a damp, low-roofed coal cellar, they can evolve 

 as much "fun" by groping about, over their own coal, 

 as it is possible to find in an exploratory tour of a 

 coal pit. A knock on the head every now and then 

 from projections in the roof of a low, short, cut, 

 along which one is trying to make headway, by the 

 feeble lamp glimmer, with one's back almost at right 

 angles to one's legs, is trying to say the least, and I 

 remember with a pang that if I had been with the 

 workmen I could have boarded the train of empty 

 cars, which conveyed them so comfortably along the 

 No. i north level to their work. The electric motors 

 traverse this level for a distance of about two and a 

 half miles from the pit to a long heading known as 

 Boyce's Incline (named after Tully Boyce for it is 

 usual to give the name of the leading contractor to a 

 gangway which his party has put through.) When 

 carrying men the motor only runs at about five or six 

 miles an hour, but on returning with from forty to 

 sixty laden cars, each containing from thirteen to 

 fifteen hundredweight of coal, it travels at a very 

 much greater speed. There is a meeting place and 

 sidings where the motors going in opposite directions 

 can pass (very much as they have on -street car lines). 

 The system has been in use for several years and no 

 mishaps of any consequence have occurred, which is 

 a very excellent record. Mr. H. F. Bulman, of Eng- 

 land, was recently conducted through the mine; he 

 was much interested in and closely examined this 

 system of underground hauling by electric motors, 

 and declared his unqualified approval of the mode 

 of construction and operation adopted, adding that 

 there was nothing of the kind as yet in all England. 

 There they still adhere to endless rope and tail rope 

 systems. Mr. Bulman is one of the authors (with R. 

 A. S. Redmayer) of a treatise just published, by 

 Crosby, Lockwood & Son, 7 Stationer's Hall Court, 

 London, on the Colliery Working and Management 

 of Mines. 



