The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1885-12-25
Hush! there it is! Can't you

heard it. Hush! there it is! Can't you
hear it?"
Our lamps had been taken from us
| under the pretense of trimming them,
| and at this instant they went out, we
were in the blackness OF darkness.
Few people know what absolute dark
ness is.
ayes" we faltered; eve do hear a
strange noise. How do you account
| for it?"
IT can't" was th ereply. cit may be
water in the abandoned road there. 1t
may be an unexplainable echo. Sounds
are audible at enormous distances I'M
derground. We had similar scare
years ago." Here the bailiff succeeded
IN relighting the lamps, to our great
relief 'sIn another part of the mine
the men were constantly hearing mys-
terious knockings which they quick
ly put down to santanic agency. So l
| took careful measurements of the
spot, and found 1t to be just under an
iron foundry, where a steam hammer
was at work 400 yards overhead. But
the colliers stick to their own theory
STILL"
A little further on we were told to
climb on all fours up steep, low and
narrow cutting, technically called
'gug," up and down which small boy
was dragging, apparently with the
greatest ease, a wicker basket, fasten-
ed by a chain to a rope round his
waist. At the top he filled it with the
coal that a miner was hewing; at the
bottom he emptied it into a tram such
as we have described.
s"This was the work which the last
woman who worked underground had
to do. Her son is employed here now.
Just think what a. change has taken
place in the past thirty or forty years!
At the present time there is not, SO far
as l know, q single woman in the col
liery at work, either under the ground
or at the surface, In the west of Eng
land, though in other parts of the
country female labor is still used at
the pit top" Such was the manager
comment.
Again we march on in Indian file,
stopping here and there to watch some
| swarthy giant-the dim light makes
them look immense drive in his pick
with a dull thud and bring down ava
lanches of sblack diamonds" or to
notice how, with sledge-hammer and
drill, holes in the rock are bored to re-
ceive the charge of powder; or hurry
past, half choked by the pungent
smoke, where the shot has just been
fired, and the pleased workmen are
shoveling up the copious results OF
their skillful blasting.
We have already noted some OF the
fossils of the vegetable life of long-past
ages. Here we catch sight OF living,
apparently thriving spiders, though
they are colorless and diaphanous,
presumably from lack of light, and
perhaps also through insufficient nu-
triment-for what can they find to
eat? Not so the fungi, which hang,
like huge puff-balls, from long threads
rooted in the roof. But they, too, are
pale and almost substance less, SO
, that if YOU hold candle, or even clap
your hands against them, they crum
BILE to powder. Looking at this
STANCE growth, we think of that impris'
oned miner, who, when he was rescu
, ed. after many days of starvation
we'll nigh dead, was found to be cover
ed all over-face and hands and all
, with a kindred plant. Oh, the horror
of the quietness and stiffness in which
| a. fungus could thus root itself, AND
| flourish on living man!
/ 'Now for an adventure, If you are
/ ventursome," our guide cries as we
! reach the top of a long steep incline
: worked by horse and an endless
< rope. "Did you ever try tobagganint
J. on snow? This is a good substitute
L these bits of plank have had made
g with a groove to run on the erals. Sit
4 on it so, and off we go!'
: "Off we co." exactly described what
: happened; for we kept tumbling over
: either on the rope on one side, or els
$ against the rough, rocky wall OF thl
t narrow passage. Ii the charm OF to
/ bogganing consists in q judicious mix
j ture of speed and danger, this methoc
: of going down q colliery incline doubt
!! less resembles it closely. But for al
j. that, should prefer to walk, anothe
# time.
i Arrived at the bottom, bruised ant
d shaken, we find ourselves in sort
s dome Of COAL It's height is perhap
t fourteen or fifteen feet; and, In ou
8 inexperience, we at once exclalm: "Ah
r this is more like the real thing!"
h "Noi" the manager answers; you ar
e mistaken. This is only fault ant
will soon narrow down again to its no1
Q NAL thickness of five or six feet. Yo'
3 fancy it is easier to hew the coal here
quite otherwise. There are narroI
s bands of .shale' every here and ther
,, in these walls of coal, and it require
d considerable skill and care to keep thl
) out of the trans. While, if the hewe
a fails to send up his coal reasonabl.
o clean, it is condemned, and he gets III
: pay for it. Then there is great dange
r from falling stones when the roof
e too high. For example, not long ag
|: we had an accident here, not withou
t a comic side to it. One OF the collier
o was endowed with an immensely larg
!, nose. While he was at work sharl
Il stone fell in front of him. 1t fortu
; have dropped clear of any ordinar
;, mortal; but the nose came IN tn
n way, and from it a good thick She
was cut off The man suffered muc
), pain, and was laid off for long tim'
a but on his return to work he wa