Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1863-05-07
Mining under the Sea.


The absence of sun and natural light, the drip.
ping sides of the shaft, the danger of explo-
sion from the fre-damp, of the fall of iutting
rocks and numerous other periIs, invest it with
vague terrors to active imagiuatons. But
when the shafts run under the sea, aud the
swell of the ocean is distinctly audible, it must
suggest nany fears to the diligent miners
The following graphic description is taken
! from an English paper -
We are now four hundred yards oct uu
der the bottom Of the sea and twenty feet be.
low the SEQ level Coastrade vessels are sail.
ing ever our heads. Two hundred and forty
feet below US men are at work, and there are
galleries deeper yet below that. The extra.
ordinary position down the face of the cliff Of
the engines and other works on the surface, at
Bottallie, is now explained. The mine is not
excavated like other mines under the earth,
but under the sea. Having communicated
| these particulars, the miner next tells us to
keep strict silence and listen We obey him,
sitting speechless and motionless If the read
er could only have beheld US now, dressed in
our copper colored garments, huddled close to-
gether in mere cleft of subterranean rock,
with a flame burning on our heads and dark.
| ness enVeloping our limbs, he must certainly
have imagined, without any violent stretch Of
fancy, that he was looking down upon a con-
clave Of gnomes
After listening q few minutes distant
and unearthly noise becomes family audible
a long, low, mysterious moaning that never
changes, that is fell on the ear as well as heard
by it, a sound that might proceed from some
| incalcuable distance-from some far invisible
| hight-a sound unlike anything that is heard
on the upper grouud. in the free air of heav-
en-a sound SO subimely mourntul and still,
| so ghostIy aud impressive when listened to in
the subterranean recesSeS Of the earth, that we
continue instinctiVely not Of communicating to
| each other the strange awe and astonishment
which it has inspired in US from the very first.
At last the miner speaks again and tells
| Us that what we hear is the sound OF the surf
| lashing the rocks hlndred and twenty feet
above US, and of the waves that are breaking
on the beach beyond. The tide is now at the
| flow, and the sea is 10 no extraordinary state
of agitation, so the sound is low and distant
| just at this period But when storms are at
their hight, when the ocean hurls mountain af-
ter mountain of water on the cliffs, then the
| noise is terrific tue roaring heard down here
| in the mine is so inexpressbly fierce and awful
| that the boldest men at work are afraid to con-
| tinue their labor--a ascend to the surface to
breath the upper air and stand on firm earth
| dreading-though no catastrophe has ever
| happened yet-that the sea will break in on
them if they remain in 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 faripg
our candles hither andthither 10 the darkness,
can see the bright, pure copper streaming
through the gallery in every direction. LuDps
of ooze, OF the most lustrous green color, trav
ersed by natural network Of thin red veins
of iron, appear here and there in large irregu-
lar patches over which water is dripping slow
ly and necessarily in certain places. This is
the salt water pcrcoiating through invisible
crannies in the rock. On stormy days it spurts
out furious y 10 THU continuous streams. just
over our heads we observe a wooden plug, OF
the thickness of Il mans leg there is a hole
there, and that plug is all that we have to
keep out the sea
Immense wealth OF metal is contained in
the roofs of this gallery throughout its entire
| length, but will always remain untouched; the
miLers dare not take it, for it is part (and
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 linn
tied to on average Of three feet only between
! the water and the gallery in which we now
stand. No one knows what might be the con-
sequence of another days labor with the pick
Ak on any part of it,"