Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1863-08-11
Mining Under The Sea.

Mining can hardly be pleasant Occu
tRtion. The ahse! ce Of sun aud all nat
ural light, the drip Ing sides Of the chat,
the danger of explosion from the fredamp
Of the fall Of jutting rocks ard numerous
other peris, invest it with vagne terrors
- active imnginatiOns, But when tn"
chats runs under the -ea, and the swell
OF the cean il distinctly audible. it must
suggest many fears to the diliGent miners
The llOWing graphic description is
taken from an English paper:
1--WE are now four hundred yards cut
under the bottom Of the sea and l24 feet
below the sea level Coast trade vessels
are sailing over our heads. Two hundred
and forty feet below us men are at work,
and there are galleries deeper yet below
that. The extraordinary position down
the face Of the cliff, of the engines and
other works OH the surface, at b attallip, is
now explained. The mire il not excavated
like other mines, under the earth, but un-
der the sea. Having communicated these
particulars, the miner next tells US to keep
strict silence and listen. We obey him,
sitting speechless. If the reader could
only have beheld us nov, drcs-ing in our
copper cOlUred garments hudGled cl. g.
together IL mere cleft Of subterraneau
rO2k, with flame. burning over our heads
and darkness enveloping cur limbs, he
must certainly imagine. without any vio-
lent stretch OF fancy, that ne was looking
upon q conClaVe of gnomp-.
After Listening a few minutes q distant
and u6earthly noise becomes family aud
ible-a long, low, mysteri US mo; nj
That never changes, that il felt on the eIr
as we'll as heard by it, a sound that might
proceed from some incalculable distarc4-
from sumo far invisible he!ght-a sound
unlike anything that is heard on the upper
ground, in the free air of heaven-a sound
70 mourDful AID still, SO ghostly and i'm
Pressive when listened to in the subter-
ranean recesses of the earth, that we con>
tinue instinctively to hold our peace. as If
enchanted by it, and think not of commu-
nicating to each other the strange awe and
astonishment which it has inspired in US
from the very first.
"At last the miner speaks again al d
te1' uI that what we hear is the sound
Of the surf flashing the rocks hundred
and twenty feet above US, and Of the waves
that are breaking on the beach beyond
The tide is now at the aOw, and the sea
is in no extraordinary state of agitatipn. so
period. But when storms are at their
height, when the ocean hurls mountain
after mountain of water on the cliff, then
the noise is terrific; the roaring heard
down here in the mine is 50 inexpressiJle
hsrce and the boldest men at work are
afraid to continue their labor-alI ascend
to the surface TO breathe the upper air
aud stand on firm earth, dreadiug-though
no catastrophe has ever happened yet
that the sos will break in on them if they
remain IN the cavern below,
Hearing this. we got UP TO look at he
rock above us. We are able to stand ",
right in the position we now occupy; and
flaring our candles hither and thitheT in
the darkness, caC see the pure copper
Etrea ming through the gallery in every
direction. Lumbs of Ocze, Of the most
lustrous green celOr, traversed by a nat
uFsl network of thin red veins Of iron,
appear here and there in large Irregular
patches, over which water is dripping
slowly and necessarily IN certain places
This is the salt water pcrculating through
invisible crannies in the rock. The stormy
days 1t spurts out furiOusIy in thin, con-
tinuous streams. just over our heads we
observe wooden plug, of the thickness OF
mans leg; there is a hole there, and that
plug is all that we have to keep out the
seal
Immense welth of metal is contained
in the roofs of this gallery throughout i s
entire length, but will always remain un-
touched; the miners dare not take it, for i,
is part land a great part) of the ,ock which
Is there only protection against the sea
and which has been go far worked away
here that its thickness is limi'ed to an av
erage Of three feet only between the water
and the gallery in which we now stand
No one knows what might be the consru,
uence Of another days labor with the pick
axe IN any part of it."