Sioux City register. [volume] (Sioux City, Iowa) 1858-1871, 1863-06-13

iss an - y fR .---.&a'4 - ga /
Miuipg can hardly be pleasant occu-
patton. The absence Of sun and all natu
raj light, the dripping sides Of the shaft
thsdanger Of explosion from the frs-daml
Of The fall ofjutting rocks, and other per
IL, invest il with strange terrors TO active
insginations. But whom the shafts run
under the sea, and he'swell Of the ocean
is distinctly audible, it must suggest many
feara to thsdilIigens miners. The follow
ing graphic description is taken from an
English paper: $780,
1--WE are now four hundred yards on.
under the bottom of the sea, and twenty
feet below tho sea level. Coast.trade YES.
sells are sailing over our heads. Two
hundred and forty feet below us men are
work, and there are galleries deeper. yet
below that. The extraordinary position
down the face of the cliff Of the engines
and other works on the surface, at Bottal.
lie, is now explained. The mine is not
excavated like other mines under the
sea- Having communicated those parti-
culars, the miner next tells us. to keep
strict silence and listen. We obey him,
sitting sreechless and motionless. If the
reader could only have beheld US now,
dressed in our copper. colored garments,
huddled close together in mere cleft Of
subterranean rock, with fame burning
on our heads aud darkness enveioping our
limbs, he must certainly have imagined,
without any violent stretch Of fancy, that
he was looking down upon conclave Of
gnomes. -. @4..
After listening few minutes distant
and unearthiy noise becomes family audi.
ble-a long. low, mysterious moaning
that never changes, that is felt on the eat
- we'll as heard by it, sound that mighr
proceed from some incalculable distance
from some far invisible night-a sound
unlike anything that is heard on the upper
ground, in the free Dir of heaven-a sound
so sublimely mournful and still, SO ghostly
and impressive when listened to in the
subterran mean recesses Of the earth, that
we continue instinctively to hold our peace
as if enchanted by it, and think not of
communicating to each other the strange
awe and astonishment which it has inspir.
ed in US from the very first 49,.
AT last the miner speaks again and tells
US that what We hear is the sound of the
surf lash;ng the rocks q hundred and
twenty feet above us, and of the waves
that are breaking on the beach beyond
The tide is now at the flow, andthe sea i
in no extraordinary state of agitation, so
the sound islow and defiant just at this
period. But when storms are at their
hight, when the ocean huris mountain
after mountain on the cliffs, then the noise
is terrific; the roaring heard down here in
the uine il SO inexpressibly fierce and
awful that the boldest men at work are
afraid to continue their labor-and ascend
to the surface to breathe the upper air
and stand On firm Garth dreading-
though no catastrophe has ever happened
the sea will break ia on them if
they rehaia in the cavern below. !
Hearing this, we got up to look at the
rock above US. We are able to stand up>,
right in the position we now occupy; and
aaring cur candles hither and :hither in
The darkness, can see the bright, pure
copper steaming through the gallery in
every direction. Lumps Of ooze, of the
most lustrous green color, traversed by q
natural network of thin red veins of iron
appear here and there in large irreg ular
patches, over which water is dripping
slowly and necessarily in certain places
rhis is the salt water percolating through
Invisible craunies in the rock. On stormy
lays it spurts furiously in thin continuous
streams. Just over our heads we observe |
! wooden plug, Of the thickness of mans
eg; there is hole there, and that plug
8 all that we have to'keep out the sea!
Immense wealth of metal is contained
a the roofs Of this gallery throug its
ntire length, but will always remain un-
ouched; the miners dare not take it, for
is part land a great part) of the rock
shich is their only protection against the
20, and which has been SO far worked
way here that its thickness is limited to
n average Of three feet only between the
'ater and the gallery in which we now
land. No one knows what might DO the
consequence Of another days labor with
be pick. axe on any part of it. .@~s
MOTHER AND CHILD.-The greatest pain.
RS who have ever lived have tried to
Amt tho beauty Of that simple thing, q