If these boards have decayed, a perfect trap is waiting for the first person that steps on the boards. Many tunnels have water standing in them or small streams flowing out of them. When water is standing or flowing on the bottom of a tunnel, it is usually impossible to see the bottom and there is always the danger of stepping into a winze or other deep hole. Good miners never carelessly discard explosives, however, many abandoned mines, both shafts and tunnels, contain old explosives left by careless workers. This is illegal and very dangerous.
Explosives found in old mines include dynamite and fuses and caps.
Explosives should never be handled by anyone not thoroughly familiar with them. Even experienced miners hesitate to handle old explosives as they are extremely dangerous. Old dynamite often contains free nitroglycerine and will explode with the slightest disturbance. Dynamite caps are perhaps the most dangerous. Mice and rats, common in all mines, scatter dynamite caps on the floors.