The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1912-12-05
CHAPTER XIII.
Thu CAPTAIN piaposea.

y Sid Mahommed Bergash once told
Sir George Chesterman that tradition
I'm the Atlas said the architect who
built the campanile In Saint Mark
Square at Venice was a Berber, and
that he got his idea for the inclined
footways OF that much overrated bell
tower from the mode. OF descent TO
the siege-well In his ancestral fortress.
The legend may or may not be true,
but, anyway, IL Is plausible, and ex-
cept that the man at Venice turned
the idea inside out, and from a well
evolved a tower, and incidentally
eased the angles OF the incllnes. the
plans OF the two works are Identical
Captain Kettle felt that he could
not AFFORD matches, and, after the dav
had passed, explored the slopes in the
inky dark. So, as | have only his re-
port to go upon, details will, for the
most part, be lacking in this memoir.
The cut was only a trifie over four
feet wide. so he could easily keep a
hand on each wall, and having all OF
sailors distrust for navigation In
strange waters, he always took careful
sounding with his advance foot, and
assured himself that the floor was in
place, before putting weight on e.
There are such things as wines In
these inclined shafts, and Captain Ket-
tie did not propose TO walk into eter-
nifty unawares. II ordinary precaution
could keep him alive ana useful.
or course, as he foresaw. the criti-
cal bit was the last hundred feet.
which, as the saint had told, the old
sinkers had driven vertically. 1t Is
easy 20 be wise after the event, but
really II Captain Kettle had been the
slenderest student OF archaeology, his
qualms on this point would have been
at rest. The windlass is compare
lively modern machine, and the sink
| Ing OF that first hundred feet OF we'll
shaft had antedated il By certainly ten,
and very possibly twenty centuries.
| The only method known to the an
clients OF hosting spoil from vertical
workings was in skin bags, made fast
! by two, three or even i've rawhide
ropes, each manned by its own haul
| Ing crew This was expensive In
labor. and lowing to the chafe on the
well-lip) in ropes also, and therefore
II was avoided as much as possible
Only In rare Instances were the work.
ers hauled up vertical shafts For the
most part they climbed up by notched
chicken ladders set diagonally. though
in the very early times, when shafts
,, measured two feet nine by four fee.
three az standard all the world over
they climbed up by means OF foo,
brackets set opposite one another on
7 the two longer sides.
a The engineer who In the year r. G
T 100 had planned the Bergash we'll
i, lBrobably hoped TO strike water within
. the first hundred feet. When he wa,
{? disappointed in this, he did not pro
4 coed straight away 20 stalking in in
|, clines from the bottom OF his hundred
y foot level. That would have entaile,
!. difficulty I'm hoisting his spoil.
But being a thoughtful man. he pu
down another set OF inclines from IN
surface TO the hundred.foot level. 8
: that all rock mined below could be ca
!. ried direct by baskets and skin bag
d To daylight without once having TO b
d hauled by the rope men. have ofte
d wondered, by the way. whether the
g did this work by driving Il overhan
q from below. OF course upraises -
but that is a technical point, whlc
4 has little bearing on this memoir Z
. Captain Kettle and Miss Emily Dubbi
J, III Captain Kettle had tried to elm
1.-THE hundred-foo; vertical finish to IN
well-shaft he would have been me
: at the upper end (although. OF course
ne did not know thist BY q solid doc
I OF three-inch oak, held down by De,
1 lhaps a foot Of the gravel which noor