The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1878-08-17
Blasting Under the River.
pw York Evening Post.l

/
General Newton is again at work un,
der Flood Rock, East River, with force
of about forty men, which will soon be
largely increased, On the Oath of June
last, to use the words of Captain Mer-
cur, who is in charge of the operations,
eve commenced to prepare to begin to
get ready" The first thing to do after
the long inactivity was to test the three
boilers which had been lying idle, and
which, for aught that the engineers
knew, might have gotten so rusted rs to
be useless. This took until the Sth of
the present month, ON which day the
pumps were started for the purpose of
removing the water that had leaked
from above in the shaft and the sub
marine galleries. The shaft is fifty feet
deep, and the galleries which run from
it in many directions are now about six
hundred feet long On the 10Th inst.
began the task of cleaning out the debris,
getting the steam pipes and drilling
machines in order, and propping the
sides of the galleries where these sides
are cracked or otherwise in danger of
falling. This morning the preparations
were nearly finished, and tomorrow
morning or the next day the drilling and
blasting will be resumed.
A reporter of the Evening Post, on the
invitation of the engineer in charge, yes
terday inspected the excavations already
made in Flood Rock. Accompanied by
that officer, and by the foreman, Mr..
Boyle, he jumped down from the As
toria pier to the deck of little steam
tug, and in about five minutes was
landed on Flood Rock, in the center of
the stream, due north of the lighthouse
that adorns the thin extremity of Black
wells Island. He was conducted at
once to Mr.. Boyle's private office, where
all three of the party clothed them
selves in rubber coats, freman's hats
and galoshes. Then he was led to the
yawning mouth of the shaft, from the
bottom of which, some fifty feet distant,
had just been draw up by steam an i'm
mcnse shovel-shaped receptacle full of
mud and stone.
Hold on a minute" said the en-
gineer to the men who had dumped the
load, and were about lowering the
vehicle to the bottom; "hold on /
think we'll go down with her."
Like other descents it was easy and
fast. Presently thud, jar and a
grating announced that the car had
reached the bottom. In the damp and
chilly atmosphere the several galleries
lead out from the shaft and into the
thick darkness. The party entered one
of them. Two members were provided
with torches in whose light the third
member Chat is to say the reporter) re-
joiced. The way was rough and labor
ious. Pools of water of uncertain depth
stood in it, and little streams trickled
upon it through the rocky ceiling from
above. The size was more or les
circular at times, with a diameter of
eight feet or so; at other times the gal
lery became cutting forty feet deep
One gallery runs into another, and this
into a third, at the head of which sew
eral others were focused. Finally the
party reached the end Of the extreme
northern one.
al should think" the reporter OBJ
served, "that in blasting down here
you are liable to force an opening
above, and to let the river in upon you"
ooh, that is the least of our dangers.
Still, we have to feel our way pretty
carefully, and mind what we are about"
What are some other dangersT
"The falling of rock is the principal
one. Sometimes the sides split off and
drop when least expected. You see
those cracks thereT The reporter saw
large and long ones which the concus-
sion had made. {" We have to keep our
eye on those. Look at that rock in
front of you. That is what we call a
SLIDING rock" Its strata were diagonal,
and it projected considerably. 1t
seemed as though it might slip from
under the mass above it and do terrible
mi.chief. In almost every direction
props had been laid crosswise between
the walls of the galleries to keep them
in place. Occasionally we came upon
large slabs which had been sliced off and
tumbled to the bottom. They looked
ugly and nasty in the presence of the
thirty or forty laborers near them.
" Listen" the engineer said softly.
{" Do you hear that?' 1t sounded like
the tumult of waves above.
The gallery the party were in is soon
to be blasted again. Holes three inches
wide and nine or ten feet deep are TO be
drilled across the bottom of it, and
eight feet length of bottom blown out.
Then similar holes, eight feet further
on, are to be made, and another stretch
of bottom torn away, the process being
repeated until the depth of the gallery
is thirty, forty or fifty feet. In few
years the whole of Flood Rock will
have been undermined, the top of it,
mostly under water now, becoming a
roof supported by pillars. When the
time for the final blowing up arrives the
top will be pierced upward in thousands
of places and the pillars sideways, and
both will be stored with nitro glycerine."
Handling the nitro-glycerine, the
engineer replied, is the worst source
of danger to the men. No one of them
has been killed yet by any thing else,
except fellow who ran direct into a
blast. They get consumption, though,
and other diseases, and seven of them
one day were upset in our row-boat,
while crossing to Astoria, and nearly
drowned, the tide was SO strong a. the
waves SO high. But we use a steam
tug now for crossing" Applications
for work, however, are constantly COM
ing in, and thousand fresh laborers
could be engaged within twenty-four
hours. The prices paid vary with the
work done. The men employed are
those who were tried in the Halletts
Point excavations, and Captain Mercur
desires it to be understood that there is
room for no others.
The ascent from the mine was made
by ladders. After that lasyrlnthine
tour in the bowels of the rock, in the