fuge from the winter's storm. The cages are kept 

 from swaying, by four-corner guides of wire rope 

 stretched taut and up and down these ropes they 

 slide the guides use up a mile of rope. Ihe banks- 

 men receive the cage as it comes from the pit, and, 

 with the celerity of continuous practice, withdraw 

 the laden cars, replace with empties and dispatch the 

 cage at once for more. The full cars are weighed, 

 sent to the "tippler," and turned over into the rail- 

 way waggons. In passing over the screens the dross 

 and smaller lumps are separated from the lump coal 

 by the shaking of a steam jigger and thus the coal is 

 double screened and cleaned for shipment. The op- 

 erations are so rapid and almost automatic, that it 

 takes a sharp eye to follow them. At the weighman's 

 office the numbered tag is removed from the car, the 

 weight marked down on the output sheet, and tag 

 hung up, so that when the miner comes off his shift, 

 he receives his tags and notes his daily gain. At the 

 month's end a summary of the daily output is spread 

 on the outside of the weigh house for the use of all. 

 Here, also, are posted the reports of the miners' own 

 examiners on the state and condition of the mine, as 

 to safety and freedom from gas. The pit mouth and 

 the surface landing are guarded by fences or lifting 

 gates raised and lowered by the cages, and thus the 

 unwary are protected. The chutes for townsmen's 

 use and reception of refuse rock and dirt, and the 

 manure from the stables below, are in constant use. 

 The crippled mine cars are switched off to a repair 

 shop, where they are refitted with wheels, mended 

 and strengthened over all, until, when past all car- 

 pentry, they too increase the dump. The heap of 

 broken wheels shows the stress laid on these cars. 

 While on the tippler, in a twinkling, the wheels are 

 oiled before the return below. From the pit's mouth 

 to the coal is 650 feet, with a sump for water lower 

 down. The mine is relieved of the water that accu- 

 mulates beyond the capacity of the sump and a lodg- 

 ment by a Cameron pump of twenty-eight-inch cylin- 

 der and four-foot stroke which forces up the water 

 to the surface in a four-inch column. Water is not 

 a trouble here. Leaving the busy weighman, who is 



