The Underground City | Page 9

struggles."
"No doubt, my lad. A continuous struggle against the dangers of landslips, fires,
inundations, explosions of firedamp, like claps of thunder. One had to guard against all
those perils! You say well! It was a struggle, and consequently an exciting life."
"The miners of Alva have been more favored than the miners of Aberfoyle, Mr. Starr!"
"Ay, Harry, so they have," replied the engineer.
"Indeed," cried the young man, "it's a pity that all the globe was not made of coal; then
there would have been enough to last millions of years!"
"No doubt there would, Harry; it must be acknowledged, however, that nature has shown
more forethought by forming our sphere principally of sandstone, limestone, and granite,
which fire cannot consume."

"Do you mean to say, Mr. Starr, that mankind would have ended by burning their own
globe?"
"Yes! The whole of it, my lad," answered the engineer. "The earth would have passed to
the last bit into the furnaces of engines, machines, steamers, gas factories; certainly, that
would have been the end of our world one fine day!"
"There is no fear of that now, Mr. Starr. But yet, the mines will be exhausted, no doubt,
and more rapidly than the statistics make out!"
"That will happen, Harry; and in my opinion England is very wrong in exchanging her
fuel for the gold of other nations! I know well," added the engineer, "that neither
hydraulics nor electricity has yet shown all they can do, and that some day these two
forces will be more completely
utilized. But no matter! Coal is of a very practical use, and lends itself easily to the
various wants of industry. Unfortunately man cannot produce it at will. Though our
external forests grow incessantly under the influence of heat and water, our subterranean
forests will not be reproduced, and if they were, the globe would never be in the state
necessary to make them into coal."
James Starr and his guide, whilst talking, had continued their walk at a rapid pace. An
hour after leaving Callander they reached the Dochart pit.
The most indifferent person would have been touched at the appearance this deserted spot
presented. It was like the skeleton of something that had formerly lived. A few wretched
trees bordered a plain where the ground was hidden under the black dust of the mineral
fuel, but no cinders nor even fragments of coal were to be seen. All had been carried
away and consumed long ago.
They walked into the shed which covered the opening of the Yarrow shaft, whence
ladders still gave access to the lower galleries of the pit. The engineer bent over the
opening. Formerly from this place could be heard the powerful whistle of the air inhaled
by the ventilators. It was now a silent abyss. It was like being at the mouth of some
extinct volcano.
When the mine was being worked, ingenious machines were used in certain shafts of the
Aberfoyle colliery, which in this respect was very well off; frames furnished with
automatic lifts, working in wooden slides, oscillating ladders, called "man-engines,"
which, by a simple movement, permitted the miners to descend without danger.
But all these appliances had been carried away, after the cessation of the works. In the
Yarrow shaft there remained only a long succession of ladders, separated at every fifty
feet by narrow landings. Thirty of these ladders placed thus end to end led the visitor
down into the lower gallery, a depth of fifteen hundred feet. This was the only way of
communication which existed between the bottom of the Dochart pit and the open air. As
to air, that came in by the Yarrow shaft, from whence galleries communicated with
another shaft whose orifice opened at a higher level; the warm air naturally escaped by

this species of inverted siphon.
"I will follow you, my lad," said the engineer, signing to the young man to precede him.
"As you please, Mr. Starr."
"Have you your lamp?"
"Yes, and I only wish it was still the safety lamp, which we formerly had to use!"
"Sure enough," returned James Starr, "there is no fear of fire-damp explosions now!"
Harry was provided with a simple oil lamp, the wick of which he lighted. In the mine,
now empty of coal, escapes of light carburetted hydrogen could not occur. As no
explosion need be feared, there was no necessity for interposing between the flame and
the surrounding air that metallic screen which prevents the gas from catching fire. The
Davy lamp was of no use here. But if the danger did not exist, it was because the cause of
it had disappeared, and with this cause, the combustible in which formerly consisted the
riches of the Dochart pit.
Harry descended the first steps