144 



How Coal is Obtained, 



CHAPTER XIII. 



MINING: COAL, IRON, GOLD, SILVER, ETC. 



\ t To get coal, men must 

 'sink a shaft ; that is, they 

 must dig a great hole in 

 the ground until they come 

 to where the coal is best 

 and most abundant. The 

 hole or shaft must be large 

 enough for very large 

 buckets full of coal to be 

 raised up from the bottom ; 

 and to raise these there 

 must be a steam-engine at 

 the mouth of the shaft. 

 This must have a house 

 built over it to protect the 

 machinery and the work- 

 men, and this is the house 

 that you see in the chart. 



2. Down below, at the 

 bottom of the shaft, men 

 are working away with pickaxes and shovels, 

 making passages wherever they find coal. 

 These passages are called galleries. In a coal- 

 miner's life there are many dangers. Some- 

 times the sides or roof of the gallery fall on him 



Blackboard Drawing- of 

 a Mine, Shaft, Chute, 

 and Engine-house. 



