70 



THE SEVEEN TUNNEL. 



after tho post was in he had not .sinff enough to fill the hole 

 again, bat had to Eotch another barrow-frill; the stnlf after- 

 wards set almost like moi-tar. 



After the heading had passed thi-oiigh fifty yards of this 

 material, it came into an open vertical joint, two feet wide, 

 which was fall of water under pressure. When the first 

 drill that went into it was witlidrawn, the water spurted out 

 with such for(;o as to knock down tlie ganger flat upon his 

 back, as he was standing about four or five yards from tlie 

 face, looking on. The men said it flow fifty yards along the 

 heading before t struck the ground, and caused gi-eat [ilarni 

 amongst them at tho time ; but the pumps took it all, and 

 in a day or two tho quantity of water had dwindled down 

 to a moderate sized spring. This wide fissure is traceable 

 on tho English Stones overhead, but it is quite filled iqi 

 there. 



After the heading had bo(;ii <lriven under tho whole breadth 

 of tho Shoots, and liiid thus demonstrated the extremely 

 sound character of the rocks there, the other shafts were 

 sunk, and headings were started in the line of the Tunnel 

 from all of them. A heading was at the same time begun 

 landwards from, the Sndbi'ook Shaft; and it was in this 

 heading, when it had attained a length of 354 yards from 

 the shaft, that the big spring was first tapped, and flooded 

 the works on tho Kith October, 1879. The heading under 

 the river had then reached a length of 3,370 yards, or nearly 

 two miles from Sudbrook Shaft, and was within 138 yards 

 of joining the heading from the other side. 



It niiiy bo mentioned lusre tliiit when tho headings met 

 some two ye.ars or so afterwards, the Engineor-in-cliargo 

 reported them as meeting "dead true both in lines and 

 levels." 



After the works had been flooded, the directors made Sir 



