1837] 



FARMKRS' REGISTER. 



317 



co:il is neiressiirily riirrit^d on tou;<*lher, iliat is. lirst 

 a vess^ol ut' wnter, iiiid iheii one ot" coitl. But it 

 ilierc is an oliicr ami deeper tmne close by, vvhicli 

 Im.s I»i",i'ii attaO(l')iieil, ilii; vv.iier is easily leJ liien', 

 ami thenre ilrdvv{t up, ivlieii necessary, I'y fii-pn- 

 raie inai-hinery, as is done here. 



Ill "'(tiny^ tlirouuli the iiulleries, we passed dit- 

 lereiit, places u-hcre iiiiuer.s were ''drilliiiif," or diL'- 

 jriiiir jrajleries, and ueariiii!; thetn, to supply ihe 

 curves which the '' trainers" drew o(i" to ilie shnl't. 

 'i'lie draiiiXinsi; of tlu" loaded corves seemed to be 

 heavy and oppressive labor. Each man, has a 

 chain liisleaeil by stra[)s around his breast, which 

 he iiooks to tiie corve, and thus harnessed, and iti 

 a stoapiniT posture, he draiis his heavy load over 

 the lloor of roclc. J'^verv di^ijer and trainer has 

 his lamp — and their appearance well accords 

 with the irloomy scene of their labors, flowever, 

 the task may be lijrht enough, thoui>h the opera- 

 tions are laborious ; and so it would seem, from 

 the Ikct that the laborers are permitted to do ex- 1 

 tra work lor their own g'ain, and that they do earn 1 

 money \n that manner. I even saw alierwards 

 where they had opened two (not very deep,) 

 shafts to the coal, lor tlieir own private vvorkinir — 

 ihouirh their proceedin<rs had been stopped, and 

 cenainly should not have been perniitied to be: 

 commenced, on so distinct and independent a Ibot- 

 in<r. 



At one part of a <xallery the carbonic acid <ras 

 was so strontj thai two ot our lamps were extin- 

 o'uished, and the third, carried by the iruide, was 

 kept burnino- only by his holdintr it as high as pos- 

 sible. ( had supposed, belbre, that wherever lights 

 would not burn, the re>^piralion must be power- 

 fully affected, and life endangered, by ex[)osure of 

 any length ot" time; but was surprised to hear that 

 digixinur was sometimes executed in spots in wliich 

 no tlaine could live an instant. But though la- 

 borers are not very sensibly afi'ecied by a ceriain 

 degree of exposure, if they continue there long, 

 they become very sick when they reach and 

 breatlie fresh air. Finding that the eli'ecls were 

 not so powerful and dangerous as I had belbre 

 supposed, I requested to be carried to where the 

 gas was still stronger. It was generated in an old 

 working of the lower seam, which comniunicaled 

 by some fissiire with the lowest drift of this seam, 

 and the working of which had been suspended on 

 that account. [ followed the guide to the lowest 

 part of this descending drift. Our lamps, though 

 nursed as carefully as possible, for experiment, 

 went out when we had not reached the bottom by 

 some seven or eight yards of distance. Still at 

 the lowest point, and even when stooping so as to 

 breathe with two feet of the floor, I did not perceive 

 the peculiar smell of carbonic acid gas, nor was I 

 sensible of anyinconvenience, after remaining sev- 

 eral minutes, excepla slight sense of fulness in the 

 head. 



As this gas is continually extricated or genera- 

 ted in coal mines, and its great weight prevents its 

 ascending, in still atmospheric air, its accumula- 

 tion would make any mine unfit to live in, but for 

 the ventilation which is produced by currents of 

 air, directed at will through the galleries. By 

 this means this gas is stirred up, and diluted by 

 mixture of other air, and by throwing it into the 

 ascenJinsr current, is continually thrown out of the 

 mine. 

 A much more dangerous gas, hydrogen, or in- 



flammable air, is evolved in some places, and in 

 some mines in large f|iiantiiies. TliiH comes \n 

 through crannies and fissures in the coal, ami 

 metal pipes are lixed Ibr it to |,ass ihioiitch, atui. 

 being lighted at the upper ends ol' the pipes, it 

 burns continually, and' lliiis is destroyed. But 

 when it is permuted, by nei>!eci or ignorance, to 

 accumulate in the high gallertes, (to which ite: ex- 

 treme levity carries it,) as soon as the liamc ol a 

 lamp touches it, the wliole explodes like gunpow- 

 der, and spreads ruin and death around. J/ast 

 year, in one of the newly worked mines in Ciies- 

 leriield, this occurred, to such eHi'ct, as to caure 

 the work to be stopped, and the value ol the pro- 

 perty to be lost — at least Ibr i!ie present time. 



The seam of coal in the pit which I visited was 

 about ten leet thick. The body here is divided by 

 the interposition of a layer of slate (thirtj- or Ibrty 

 feetthickj into two seams — and in some mines 

 there are many such separate seams, of various 

 thickness. Seams not more than four leet thick 

 are worked, fii some places the interposed slate 

 puns out, and the ditlereiit seams of coal unite. 

 Such is the case i.n one shaft of this tract, (now 

 wnlbrtiinately underwater,) where the solid coal 

 was tlirly-seven thick ; and in Chesterfield, in 

 Wooldridire's pit, it was more than filiy leet thick, 

 and in Heth's, still more. Neither of these mines 

 are now worked; but other shafts are now sinking 

 to the same thick seam, .which is reached at the 

 d.e|)th of about six hundred feet. The operation 

 is these very deep mines, and in such thick seams, 

 are far ntore interesting than such as I saw, and 

 whioh I should have been glad to witness. In 

 them, the coal is blasted by gunpowder, instead 

 of being dug by picks and by hand labor entirely 

 — the loaded sleds are dravvn by mules to the 

 tihalt — and thence steam engines draw the coal 

 up to the surface. 



VV here the coal is in two separate seams, the 

 upper is first worked, over a sufficient space, and 

 then that beneath s taken out, in like manner, 

 not afiiected by the fiilinir in, which is still in pro- 

 irress, or finished, of the seam above. 



It was on this property that the singular acci- 

 dent occurred about two years ago, of filling the 

 whole of a working of llie upper seam with wa- 

 ter from James River. The mines were then 

 rented outj and the tenant sunk a shaft in the low- 

 ground near the river, and actually extended his 

 excavation under the river, where it is perhaps 

 two hundred yards wide, until within twenty-nine 

 yards of the opposite bank. Still it would have 

 been sate; hut tor the pillars being left too weak, 

 and the settling of the roof i)erinitting the water 

 above to find entrance, and of course overflow- 

 ing the works. 



After coming out of the pit, I saw the manner 

 in which the coal is carried to the boats on the 

 canal. For this object, the design is very good, 

 and the facilities great — but the execution though 

 recently much improved, is very bad. 



A railway has been made from each of the two 

 working shafts to the canal. From the highest, 

 the railway has just been continued across the ca- 

 nal and low-ground to the river — the whole of it 

 being about 600 yards in length. This continu- 

 ation will permit boats to be loaded when the 

 canal navigation is interrupted, which has been 

 frequently the case, to the great loss of the colliere. 

 The descent will permit the cars of coal to run ra- 



