42 Book of Engineering 



inevitably meant the flooding of the land 

 for miles around; worse still, it meant the 

 flooding of the huts used by the tunnel 

 workers. Six feet of water was no uncommon 

 depth in these huts, and had the inhabitants 

 not been warned they must have been 

 drowned like rats in a trap. On went the 

 irresistible flood and poured down the work- 

 ings, again flooding them, and making the 

 position worse than before. There were 

 close upon a hundred men imprisoned in 

 the workings; too late the warning reached 

 them, and all they could do was to re- 

 treat further into the tunnel to reach a 

 shaft. 



Their position was truly terrible, for the 

 water was still rising, and they were in 

 total darkness. It seemed impossible that 

 they should escape, and had the tide gone 

 on rising they could not have been rescued. 

 Fortunately, when the flooding occurred, 

 the tide was on the ebb, and thus no further 

 flooding took place; even so the work of 

 rescue was no easy matter. Another fortu- 

 nate circumstance was the fact that above 



