I
To. 4.
THE BLACt-IKDIES.
1-15
*
After serious reflection, James Starr reached
this conclusion. This contradiction which ap-
peared in the letters, simply produced in him
an ardent desire to go to the Dockart Pit.
Besides, if this were all a hoax, better be sure
of the fact. But it seemed right to James
Starr to place more reliance on the first letter
than on the secondthat is, to the request of
such a man as Simon Ford, rather than to the
advice of his anonymous contradictor.
" The truth is," he reflected, "if they wish
to influence my resolution, it must be for the
reason that Simon Ford's communication is of
extreme importance. To-morrow I will be at
the appointed rendezvous at the hour men-
tioned."
In the evening James Starr made his prepa-
rations to go away. As it was possible that
his absence might be prolonged for some days,
he notified by letter Sir W. Elphiston, the
President of the Royal Institute, that he could
not be present at the next meeting of the so-
ciety. Ho also excused himself from several
engagements which would have occupied him
during the -week. Then, having told his ser-
vant to pack his valise, he lay down, perhaps
unnecessarily impressed by this incident.
The next morning, at five o'clock, James
Starr sprang out of bed, dressed himself
warmlyfor a cold rain was fallingand left
his house in the Canongate to take at Granton
dock the steamboat, which, after a three hours'
sail up the Forth, reaches Stirling.
Perhaps for the first time, in going through
the Canongate, James Starr did7ot turn for a
look at Holyrood, the palace of the old kings
of Scotland.    The Canongate is the principal
and most celebrated street in the old town of
Edinburgh.    Before the palace gate stood sen-
tinels, dressed in the old Scotch costume.   This
consists of a green stuff skirt or kilt, a scarf or
plaid, and a goat-skin purse, the long white
hair of which rests on the thigh.    Although an
enthusiastic admirer of Walter Scott, as is every
true son of old Caledonia, the engineer, for the
first time, failed to glance at the inn, where
Waverly   alighted,   and in which  the  tailor
brought him that famous chieftain's  costume
which the Widow Flockhart so artlessly ad-
mired.    Neither did he salute the little spot,
where, at the risk of killing Flora Maclvor,
the mountaineer's discharged their pieces after
the   Pretender's victory.     The  prison  clock
showed, in the middle of the street, its mourn-
ful dial.    He only looked at it so as to assure
himself that he would not be late for the boat.
We must  also admit that he did not  glance
When in the Nelher Bow, at the house of the
great reformer, John Knox, the only man who
resisted the smiles of Mary Stuart,    But, tak-
ing the High street, the popular street so min-
utely described in the romance of the " Abbot,"
he   hastened  toward  the gigantic   bridge of
Bridge street, which connects the three hills of
Edinburgh.
In a few minutes James Starr arrived at the
terminus of the General Railway, and half an
hour after he left the train at New Haven, a
pretty fishing village, a mile from Leith, which
forms the port of Edinburgh. Tho rising tide
covered the blackish and pebbly line of the sea
shore. The first waves bathed the stockade, a
kind of pier, supported by chains. On the left,
a boat which plies between Edinburgh and
Stirling, was moored to the Granton Pier.
At this moment tlie smoke stack of the
"Prince of Wales," vomited volumes ot black
smoke, and the boiler rumbled with deafening
noise. At the sound of the bell, which was
rung but a few times, the tardy travelers com-
menced to run. There was a crowd of mer-
chants, farmers, and ministers, the latter dis-
tinguished by their knee breeches, long coats,
and the fine white linen which circled their
throats.
inner man." The last bell sounded, the moor-
ings were cast off, and the " Prince of Wales"
cleared from the little basin which sheltered it
from the billows of the North Sea.
The Firth of Forth is the name of a gulf
which indents tho banks of the County of Fife
on tho north, and those of tho Counties of Sem
lithgow, Edinburgh, and Haddington, on the
south. It forms the estuary of the Forth, a
river of little importance, but like the Thames
or the Mersey, of great depth ; it flows from the
western slope of Bon Eamond, and empties into
the sea at Kincardine.
The distance from Granton Pier to the end
of this gulf would be short but for the many de-
tentions caused by stopping at stations on both
sides of the -water. Towns, villages, and cot-
tages dotted the banks of the Forth, among the
trees of this fertile country. Sheltered under
the largo foot-bridge thrown between the pad-
dle boxes, James Starr made no effort to look at
tho country, then streaked by the fine hatching
of the rain. He was anxious to see if he were
attracting the notice of any particular passen-
ger. Could the anonymous author of the sec-
ond letter be on the boat ? The engineer could
not detect sny suspicious glances.
On leaving Granton Pier, the "Prince of
Wales" steered toward the narrow street which
glides between the two points of South Queens-
ferry and North Queensferry; beyond which
the Forth forms a sort of lake, navigable for
vessels of a hundred tons. Through the open-
ings in tho mist, the snowy summits -of the
Grampian Hills were visible.
Soon, the steamboat had left behind the vil-
lage of Aberdour, the isle of Colm, crowned
by the ruins of a monastery dating from the
twelfth century, the remains of the castle of
Barngougle, of Dombristle, -where was assas-
sinated the Regent Murray's son-in-law, then
the _islet fortified by Garvey. It cleared the
strait of Queensferry, passed on the left Roslyn
Castle, where formerly resided one branch of
the Stuarts, of which Cromwell's mother was a
kins-woman ; shot by Blackness, always forti-
stopped at the Alloa dock to let off some pas-;
sengers.    James Starr felt his heart beat faster,
passing thus, after ten years' absence, this littl
village,  the  seat  of such important  mines j
which still supported a large number of miners;-.
His fancy led him into this subsoil, vhich the
miners' pick still hollowed out to great advan-
tage.     These Alloa mines, almost contiguous
to those of Aberfoyle, continued to enrich the-
County, while the neighboring borings-, now"
for many years exhausted, did lot bot , s*"?
gle workman.
The steamboat, after leaving Alloa, struck
into the numerous turnings which tho Forth,
makes for a distance of nineteen miles. It
steamed rapidly between the great trees on
both banks. One moment through a glad,
appeared the ruins of the Abbey of Cainbus-
kenneth, which dates from the twelfth century.
Then, Castle Stirling with the borough of that
name, where the Forth is crossed by two
bridges, and is no longer navigable lor high-
masted vessels.
Scarcely had the " Prince of Wales " touched '
the dock, when the engineer sprang lightly on
the wharf. Five minutes after he reached the
station at Stirling. One hour later, he left the
train at Callander, a large village situated on
the left bank of the Tuth.
There, on the platform, stood a young man
who at once approached the engineer.
It was Harry, Simon Ford's son.
CHAPTER III.
THE   SUBSTRATUM OF THE UNITED   KINGDOM.
It is necessary for the better understanding
of this story, to recall, in a few words, the
origin of coal.
During those geological periods, when the
terrestrial apheroid was still in process of for-
mation, a thick atmosphere surrounded it, com-
pletely saturated with watery vapors, and
largely impregnated with carbonic acid. Little
by iittle these vapors were condensed in dilu-
vian rains, which fell as if thrown from the
bed, m conformity with one of the articles in  necks of millions and thousand of millions of
the treaty of the Union; and skirted the
wharves of the little port of Charleston, whence
is exported the limestone from Lord Elgin's
quarries. Then the "Prince of Wales'" bell
signalled the station at Crombie Point.
The weather had grown very disagreeable.
The rain, beaten by the violent wind, was
swept about like water-spouts by the roaring
gusts. James Starr was not free from some
anxiety. Would Simon Ford's son be at the
rendezvous? He knew from experience that
the minors being accustomed to the quiet depths
of the mines, are less willing than the outward
men to face inclement, weather. From Callan-
der to the Dochart Pit, and Yarow Well, the
distance was four miles. These were reasons
which might to a certain extent delay the old
overseer's son. An4 all this time, the engi-
neer was worried by the idea, that the meeting
arranged in the first letter had been counter-
manded in the second.
It was, in fact, his greatest anxiety.
At all events, if Harry Ford was not in wait
bottles oi seltzer-water. It was, in truth, a
liquid charged with carbonic acid which over-
flowed in torrents on a sticky soil, spongy,
subject to sudden or slow -change of form, at
that time kept in a half fluid condition as much
by the heat of the sun as by that of the inter-
nal mass The internal heat was not then
confined to the center of the globe. The crust
of the earth being thin and not thoroughly
hardened, allowed the heat to escape through
its pores. Hence a phenomenal vegetation;
such no doubt as is produced on the surface of
the inferior planets, Venus and Mercury, being
nearer than the earth to the central blazing
luminary.
The soil of the continents, still spongy, was
then covered with immense forests. Carbonic
acid, so necessary to the development of the
vegetable kingdom, abounded. Besides, vege-
tation developed itself in the form of trees.
There was not a single herbaceous plant.
Everywhere were enormous clumps of trees,
without flowers, without fruit, of a monotonous
appearance, which could not have sufficed for
ing when the train reached Callander, James  
Starr had decided to go alone to the Dochart ] the nourishment of a single living creature.
Pit, and even if necessary, as far as the village j The earth was not yet prepared for the advem
of Aberfoyle.     There he could without doubt ; of the animal kingdom.
hear something of Simon Ford, and he could Such was the composition of these antedilu-
ascertam where the old overseer actually lived, vian forests. The class of vascular crypto-
Meanwhile, the "Prince of Wales" contin- gams prevailed. The calamits, a variety of
ued its course, raising great billows under the ! the tree JEuisetaceee, the Lepidodendrons, a kind
strokes^ of its paddle-wheels. Nothing could I of gigantic Lycopodiacece, seventy to seventy-
be distinguished on either bank, neither the ' five feet in height, and two or three feet in
village of Crombie, nor Torryburn, nor Torry- \ diameter, Asteropodiums, ferns, Sigillaria of
house, nor Newmills, nor Carriden-house, nor | gigantic proportions, of which they have found
Kirkgrange, nor Salt-Pans, on the right. The i impressions in the mines at Sainte-Etienne; in
little port of Bowness, the port of Grange- j fact all the enormous plants, to which we find
mouth, hollowed outatthe mouth of the Clyde  nothing  analogous  except  among   the  most
James Starr wasnot the last to embark. He   Canal, disappeared in the heavy fog.    Cuiross,   humble  specimens   of  the   habitable   earth.
rang ^nimbly on the deck ofthe " Pnnee of the old borough, and the ruins of the Abbey ot  Such  were the few varieties of species,  but
Citeaux, Kincardine and its ship-yards, at ' enormous in their development, which com-
which the steamboat touched, Castle Ayr and posed exclusively the forests of that period.
its square tower of the thirteenth century, | These trees were immerged in a sort of im-
Clackmannan and its castle, built by Robert! mense lagoon or swamp, made perfectly moist
Bruce, were not even visible through the slant- J by the union of fresh and salt waters. Tbf
ing lines of rain.   The "Prince of Wales "! eagerly assimilated the   sarbon   -whieh" ttay
spranL
Wales." Although raining violently, not one
of these passengers dreamed of seeking shelter
in the cabin. They remained quiet, enveloped
in their wraps, some refreshing themselves
from time to time from their flask of gin or
whiskyor, as they saj, "looking after the