444 THE (JIJAXD TIU'XK CANAL. PART V. 



of windmills and watermills working pumps over each 

 shaft was sufficient to keep the excavators at work. But 

 as the miners descended and cut through the various strata 

 of the hill on their downward progress, water was met 

 with in vast quantities ; and here Brindley's skill in 

 pumping-machinery proved of great value. The miners 

 were often drowned out, and as often set to work again 

 by his mechanical skill in raising water. He had a fire- 

 engine, or atmospheric steam-engine, of the best construc- 

 tion possible at that time, erected on the top of the hill, by 

 the action of which great volumes of water were pumped 

 out night and day. This abundance of water, though it 

 was a serious hinderance to the execution of the work, 

 was a circumstance on which Brindley had calculated, 

 and indeed depended, for the supply of water for the 

 summit level of his canal. When the shafts had been 

 sunk to the proper line of the intended waterway, the 

 excavation then proceeded in opposite directions, to meet 

 the other driftways which were in progress. The work 

 was also carried forward at both ends of the tunnel, and 

 the whole line of excavation was at length united by a 

 continuous driftway it is true, after long and expensive 

 labour when the water ran freely out at both ends, and 

 the pumping-apparatus on the hilltop was no longer 

 needed. At a general meeting of the Company, held 

 on the 1st October, 1768, after the works had been in 

 progress about two years, it appeared from the report of 

 the Committee that four hundred and nine yards of the 

 tunnel were cut and vaulted, besides the vast excavations 

 at either end for the purpose of reservoirs ; and the Com- 

 mittee expressed their opinion that the work would be 

 finished without difficulty. 



Active operations had also been in progress at other 

 parts of the canal. About six hundred men in all were 

 employed, and Brindley went from point to point super- 

 intending and directing their labours. A Burslem cor- 

 respondent, in September, 1767, wrote to a distant friend 



