GAIIFOHTII : DEEP MINING. 
477 
To further reduce the temperature it would be quite practicable 
to have troughs of water at the sides of the roadways. On the 
principle that warm air absorbs more moisture than cold, the air 
might thus be reduced without being too heavil}' charged with 
moisture. 
Other matters connected with the cost of production, waste in 
working, structural formation of coal, dirt and other strata, the 
further application of electricity, the absorption of heat by different 
substances, certain mechanical and chemical appliances for reducing 
the temperature, etcetra, it is hoped will be dealt with in the after 
discussion. 
Looking at the question from a mining point of view, and after 
an experience of nearly twenty years in the deepest mines, I believe 
coal will be worked as deep as it will be found to exist. In arriving 
at this opinion I have, amongst other matters, considered the fact 
that the thickness and quality of the deepest coal already proved is 
not thin, faulty, or inferior (whicli might have led to certain doubts 
being entertained), but on the contrary the deep seams are four 
to six feet thick, and equal in quality to the best coal hitherto pro- 
duced. With reference to labour there has been for some time past 
a reduction in the number of accidents in proportion to the quantity 
of material raised, due no doubt to parliamentary legislation, better 
education, and stricter discipline, from wdiich it may be assumed that 
deep coal will, in the future, be won without gTeater loss of life than 
in the past. 
