Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-03-15
A Night Of TerrOr-Two EHen aIn-
prison ed I'm a Mineral Cave.
rom the Dubuque Daily Times. sd.l :


Jonah has won historic fame, and claim
ed the sympathies of ninety generations
for being shut up in a whales belly; and
after being swallowed so suddenly, no
wonder he should feel somewhat down In
the mouth. But Jonah has been -outdone.
by Messrs. James Peacock and John Kelly,
who were imprisoned In the bowels OF the
earth all Wednesday night, separated from
humanity horizontally by three hundred
feet of water, or perpendieularly by thirty
feet of rock. "a.
Mr.. Kelly went to work as usuaDat the res
Gently discovered Peacock Chapman Rad
cliffe- Bunting lead. They had to go down
shaft seventy feet deep; then along
drift horizontally three hundred feet there
is then a rise of about eight feet into a new
crevice, when another drift is reached about
six hundred feet long, leading to cave Of
considerable extent, where they had been
excavating. .HI@.i "a f'l'B h''', 7nSh
Quitting time arrived, and the miners
started to return home. They came to the
descent between the second and the first,
and sliding down this, one Of the men found
himself in the water. In an instant ne
comprehended the situatiOn-the, drift be-
tween them and the shaft by which they
must return to daylight was filled with wa
ter, and the water was constantly rising
At "a little distance east was ravine, beside
which was a shaft, which became filled
with water, and from that made its way
| through the network Of crevices into this
drift. There they were Imprisoned, not
knowing for how long, and there was but
one possible way to make their situation
known to those upon the surface. A shalt
was being sunk into the cavein which they
had been at work, and a small drill hole
about two inches in diameter, had Dfsfac
bored down through thirty feet OF solid
rock. BY using this as speaking trumpet,
the men below made those at work above
sinking the shaft aware of their unpleasant
and dangerous predcament. .H,
OF course every effort was at once made
| to rescue them. Barrels were brought,
sunk, filed with water, and drawn up, but
| for a long time it seemed doubtful whether
| by this method the quantity of water in
the shaft could be reduced faster than 1t
was running in. At last it became evident
| that the water was lowering, and the men
at the "pumps" (barrels) worked with re-
newed energy. This continued all night
| till daylight next morning. .........
A candle or two had been lowered
through the drill hole, and 'wee drap"
of stimulus, by both of which the miseries
of those below were rendered lighter.
| "
had been drawn off to such an extent that
the men in the cave concluded they could
make their way out. They began to wade,
the water being up to their necks; and,
holding their candles aloft, began to wade
along the drift. By and by they came to
place where the cap-rocE, or roof of the
tunnel in which they were, wasso low that
the candles could not be held above water,
and were extinguished; while in some
places there was room enough between the
water in the drift so that they could keep
their noses where there was air, in some
places the tunnel was completely filled with
water for a short distance, compelling them
to forego breathing for the time. But at
last the shaft was reached, and the cold,
wet, hungry, bruised, weary devils-that
is the way the story was told us, and they
certainly did not look like men or angels
were dragged to daylight once more. -.
About twenty men were engaged, all
night in endeavoring to reduce the water
in that shaft so that the men could escape,
to all of whom the persons rescued feel
the deepest gratitude for their untiring ex-
ertions. 'r.E nod 40. .... ..-fr.f Hsl