Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1863-04-02
MINING UNDER THE SEA.

Mining can hardly be pleasant occupation.
The absence of sun and all natural light, the
dripping stiles Of the shaft the danger of ex-
ploson from the fire-damp, of the fall of jut-
ting rocks and numerous other perils, invest it
with vague terrors to active imaginations But
when the shafts run under the sea, and the swell
OF the ocean is distinctly audible, it must sug-
gest many fears to the diligent miners The fol-
loving graphic description is taken from an En-
gsh paper =
We are now four hundred Yards out under
the bottom Of the sea and twenty feet below the
sea level. Coast-trade vessels are sailing over
our neads. Two hundred and forty feet below
US men are at work, and there are galleries
deeper yet below that. The extraordinary mo-
sition down the face Of the cliff, of the enpines
and other works on the surface, al Bottaliie ia
now explained The mine is not excavated like
other mines under the sea. Having communi-
Gated these particulars, the miner next tells us
to keep strict silence and listen. We obey him,
sitting speechless and motionless If the rea-
der could only have beheld US now dressed in
our coppercoored garments, huddled close to-
gether in mere cleft of subterranean rock, with
a flame burning on our heads and darkness en-
velopng our limbs he must certainly have i'm
agned withoutany violent stretch Of fancy, that
he was looking down upon aconclave Of gnomes.
"After listening a few minutes distant and
unearthly noise becomes family audible-a long
lnv. lrystegiou1 m,,.uing shat never changes,
that is fell on rho as well as heard by g. a
sound that might proceed from some far invis-
ibe hight-a sound unlike anything that is
heard on the upper ground, in the free air of
heaven-a sound so sublimely mournful and
still, so ghostly and impressive when listened
to in the subterranean recesses of the earth,
that we continue instinctively to hold our peace,
as if enchanted by it, and think not of commu-
nicating to each other the strange awe and as
tonishment which it has inspired in us from the
very first
cat last the miner speaks again and tells us
that what we hear is the sound of the surf laah-
ing The rocks hundred and twenty feet above
u.s.. and Of the waves that are breaking on the
beach beyond. The tide is now at the flow,
and the sea is in no extraordinary state of agi-
tation, so the sound is low and distant just at
this period. But when storms are at their hight
when the ocean hIrs mountain after mountain
of water on the cliffs, then the noise is terrific;
the roaring heard down here in the mine is so
inexpressby fierce and awful that the boldest
men at work are afraid to continue :heir labor,
all ascend to the surface to breathe the upper
air and stand on firm earth dreadng-though
no catastrophe has ever happened yet--that
The sea will break in on them il they remain il
the cavern below.
Hearing this, we got up to look at the rock
above us. We are able to stand upright in the
position we now occupy and faring our can
dies hither and thither in the darkness, can see
the bright, pure copper streaming through the
gallery in every direction. Lumps of ooze, of
the most lustrous green color, traversed by a
natural network Of thin red veins of iron, ap-
pear here and there in large irregular patches,
over which water is dripping slowly and inces-
sanity in certain places. This is the salt water
percoluting through invisible crannies in the
rock. On stormy days it spurts out furiously
in thin continuous streams. Just over our
heads we observe wooden plug, OF the thick
ness of mans leg; there is hole there, and
that plug is all that we have to keep cut the sea
"Immense wealth OF metal is contained in
the roofs of this gallery throughout its entire
length, but will always remain untouched the
miners dare not tahe it, fUr 1t is part land a
great part) of the rock which is their only pro-
lection against the sea, and which has been so
far worked away here that its thickness is limi-
ted to an average of three feet only between the
water and the gallery IN which we now stand.
No one knows what might be the consequence
OF another days labor with the pick-ax on any
part of it."-Scientifc american.