[ 226 ] 



feet and an half high, including the water, 

 which is three feet four inches deep; it is 

 already continued icven hundred and fifty- 

 yards further, ten feet wide, and it is faid 

 (how true I know not) that it will be car- 

 ried on at leaft a mile and a half further. I 

 took ibme time to explore the horrid 

 caverns of thefe mines, and found, on 

 an attentive examination, that the method 

 of conducting the bufinefs of them, was 

 nearly as follows : 



The feams (or, in thefe mines, rather 

 veins) of coal branch divers ways, fome are 

 above the tunnel, and fome below it; as 

 fail as the coal is got, the fpace is cleared 

 and arched for a road, to move the coal on : 

 This is done in little four-wheeled waggons, 

 which contain ten cwt. of coals, and are 

 pufhed along by a man fetting his head and 

 hands againfr. them, (the road being laid on 

 purpofe for it.) The roads all lead to the 

 tunnel. When the man with the waggon 

 comes over a well (of which there are feve- 

 ral) that is funk from the road through the 

 arch of the tunnel, and under which the 

 boats are fixed, he flops on a frame work of 

 wood, which turns on pivots, and is fo con- 

 trived, that upon drawing up a part of one 

 end of the waggon, fome of the coals drop 

 out, and then the waggon is tilted up, and 

 all the reft follow them, falling into the 

 boat beneath either promifcuoufly, or di- 

 rected 



