In the Track of the Troops | Page 6

my mother and sister, you see, Mr Jones," said I, as we
approached. "They don't quite believe in the giant-power which is
under your control; they seem to think that it is only a little stronger
than gunpowder."
"We can soon change their views on that point," said the manager, with
a slight bow to the ladies, while I introduced Nicholas as an officer of
the Russian army.
"This is one of the stones you wish to blast, is it not?" said Mr Jones,
laying his hand on an enormous boulder that weighed probably several
tons.
"It is," I answered.
The manager was a man of action--grave of countenance and of few
words. He drew a flask from his pocket and emptied its contents, a
large quantity of gunpowder, on the boulder. Asking us to stand a little
back, he applied a slow match to the heap, and retired several paces.
In a few seconds the powder went off with a violent puff and a vast
cloud of smoke. The result was a little shriek of alarm from my mother,
and an exclamation from Bella.
"Not much effect from that, you see," said the manager, pointing to the
blackened stone, yet it was a large quantity of powder, which, if fired in
a cavity inside the stone, would have blown it to pieces. "Here, now, is
a small quantity of dynamite." (He produced a cartridge about two
inches in length, similar to that which I had shown to my mother at
breakfast.) "Into this cartridge I shall insert a detonator cap, which is
fastened to the end of a Pickford fuse--thus."
As he spoke, he inserted into the cartridge the end of the fuse, to which
was attached a small cap filled with fulminate of mercury, and tied it
tightly up. This done, he laid the cartridge on the top of the boulder,

placed two or three similar cartridges beside it, and covered all with a
small quantity of sand, leaving the other end of the fuse projecting.
"Why the sand?" asked Bella.
"Because a slight amount of confinement is advantageous," replied Mr
Jones. "If I were to bore a short hole in the stone, and put the dynamite
therein, the result would be still more effective; but the covering I have
put on it will suffice, and will serve all the better to show the great
difference between this explosive and gunpowder."
"But," said my mother, who had a tendency to become suddenly
interested in things when she began to have a faint understanding of
them; "but, Mr Jones, you did not give the powder fair play. If you had
covered it with sand, would not its effect have been more powerful?"
"Not on the stone, madam; it would only have blown off its covering
with violence, that would have been all. Now, ladies and gentlemen, if
you will retire behind the shelter of that old beech-tree, I will light the
fuse."
We did as we were desired. The manager lighted the fuse, and followed
us. In a few moments there occurred an explosion so violent that the
huge boulder was shattered into several pieces, which were quite small
enough to be lifted and carted away.
"Most amazing!" exclaimed Bella, with enthusiasm.
It was quite obvious that she had no anticipation of such a thorough
result. Nicholas, too, who I may mention had no natural turn of taste for
such matters, was roused to a state of inquiry.
To a question put by him, Mr Jones explained that, taking its powers
into consideration, dynamite was cheaper than gunpowder, and that it
saved much labour, as it would have taken two men a considerable time
to have bored an ordinary blasthole in the boulder he had just broken
up.

I now led the way to another part of the ground on which grew a large
beech-tree, whose giant roots took a firm grasp of the ground. It was a
hundred years old at least; about twelve feet in circumference, and sixty
feet high. One similar tree I had had cut down; but the labour had been
very great, and the removal of the stump excessively troublesome as
well as costly.
Mr Jones now went to work at the forest-giant. In the ground
underneath the tree he ordered Lancey to make a hole with a crowbar.
Into this he pressed some cartridges of dynamite with a wooden
rammer. Then the cartridge, with the detonator inside of it; and the fuse,
extending from its mouth, was placed in contact with the charge under
the tree. The hole was next closed up with some earth, leaving about a
foot of the fuse outside. The light was then applied, and we retired to a
safe distance. In a few moments the charge exploded. The tree seemed