COAL MINING. 33) 
mine, and cut away as clean as practicable, but a great part is necessarily 
lost by the falls which follow their extraction. Pillar-work is the most 
dangerous part of mining. In some mines the pillars are attacked as 
soon as the rooms are finished ; under such circumstances it is necessary 
to leave strong supports along the galleries, to prevent the crushes and 
falls of the overlying rocks from overrunning the mine. 
The manner of digging the coal is artful and curious. The tools of 
the miner consist of a sledge, 8 to 10 pounds in weight; several steel 
wedges, 6 to 8 inches long; 3 to 6 picks, from 23 to 3 pounds in weight, 
with handles 28 to 32 inches in length; a set of drilling tools, to-wit: 
a drill, a scraper, a needle, and a tamping bar; frequently the drill and 
tamping bar are made of one piece, one end being used for a drill and 
the other for a tamper. 
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=ET OF MINERS TOOLS. 
