The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1893-02-08


stantly and the smoke has blacl1ened
the walls. You look away to the east,
through long, dark tunnel, and you
discern in the far distance some flicker
ing lights, and you are informed that
they are lights used by the workmen
who are engaged in mining the salt.
Your guide steps up to a man near
where you land and says: Three lights,
please and three tallow candles are
handed out. 1t may seem a little
strange that tallow candles are used in
this age of kerosene, gas and electrici-
ty, but such is the case, and they are
the only lights used in the mine, and
each man carries one, and they are
hung up from the ceiling where the
mining of salt is going on, and they
are the handiest lights that can be
used. They don't purchase these lights
by the dozen or hundred, but by the
carload.
1.-THE candles were lighted, and with
them in hand we followed the guide
and proceeded to make tour of the
mine; we might add, partial tour, for
it would take a person something like
ritory. We followed the guide along
through dark and winding pathways,
until we reached a point where the
worl1men were busily engaged mining
the salt. They were not at work with
picks picking it out, as might be sup
posed, but were breaking up the large
Jumps and shoveling it into the cars,
the salt having been blasted out ahead
of them. While some were engaged in
shoveling the salt, others were drilling
holes into the solid mass, making ready
for q blast, machines run by COM
pressed air being used for this purpose.
Gas before stated, the main tunnel
runs directly east, and is nearly half
mile in length. Near the shaft two
other tunnels branch off from the main
tunnel, one on either side, and run par
allel with it. These, we believe, are
termed airshafts. From these shafts
rooms branch off both north and south,
and in these rooms is where the salt is
mined. These rooms are nothing more
nor less than short tunnels, and in time
will probably be heightened out as far
as the main tunnel or even farther, as
they can go miles in any direction and
still be in the salt The rooms are, per-
haps, twenty or thirty feet wide and
from seven to eight feet in height. A
section of salt some thirty feet in
thickness is left between each
room as support to the solid mass
above. A thickness of five or six feet
is left above as roof, and substan-
tial roof it makes, as the salt in it's nat
ural state is almost as hard as rock.
There are no other supports than the
columns Of salt that are left.
'Of these rooms mentioned there are
fifty or sixty at the present time, and
the worlzmen are distributed about,
working in several .rooms at a time.
There is no necessity Of foreman in
each room, as the number of carloads
of salt delivered at the shaft tells the
tale as to whether the men are shirlx-
ing their duty or not. A railway runs
through the main tunnel and branches
eXte nd in all directions. The cars are
hauled from the several rooms by large,
powerful mules, and there are some
thirty of the Sc in the mine.
'"There is a blacksmith's shop in the
mine where the tools are repaired and
the mules are shod, and there is also a
large stable where the mules are shell
tered during the night Of course they
would be we'll sheltered in the mine,
anyway, but if allowed to roam about
they could find nothing to eat but salt