The practice of forming the "gates" is to drive two heads, parallel with each other, right away from the shaft to the extreme boundary, alternately mining and stopping the bye-gates, which are formed at right angles as they proceed one of them may be designated the hurrying-in gate, the other the hurrying-out gate. They then commence "getting" right and left, cutting out the coal, as will by and by be described.

The roads or passages along which the coal is brought from the seam to the shaft, resemble the streets of an oblong town placed on a plane inclined sideways, and where there is one main street, through its length, near its lower side, with small side streets rising out of it at intervals, and a drain below the main street along the bottom. Along these roads the children draw, or, as it is called, " hurry" the coal, in small square wagons, called "corves," "corfs," or "dans," proportioned to the height of the passages.

The varieties are very great in the working of collieries of different magnitudes, and where the seam of coal is of different degrees of thickness. But in all cases there are side passages cut up to the bank or face where the coal is hewn. In his report on the Durham coal-field, Dr. Mitchell compares a colliery to an old-fashioned window-frame, of which the bars represent the galleries excavated from the coal, and the small glass panes the parallelograms of solid coal, which remain till the field has been entirely intersected by the galleries or roads; and then as much of the remaining masses of coal is " robbed" as prudence permits.

The entrance into a pit is effected either by the shaft or by a horizontal or inclined road cut into the side of a hill. Dr. Mitchell thus describes his descent into a coal-pit near Dudley:

"After a skip loaded with coals was drawn up, a covering of the mouth of the shaft was wheeled forward, and the skip was let down upon it, and was unloaded of about 25 cwt. of coals. The party about to descend, four in number, then stood upon the skip, and laid hold of the chain to which it was attached. The skip was then hoisted a little to allow the covering to be wheeled off. We then descended with an agreeable, gentle motion, and soon observed the light to become less and less, until we were in perfect darkness, and ere long were at the bottom of the shaft. When we looked up, the mouth of the shaft seemed to be the size of a sugar basin. There were men in readiness at the foot of the shaft, who handed to each a candle, which we held by a piece of clay attached to the end of it. In a short time the eyes became reconciled to the sudden change of light, and we proceeded forward. The great road or gateway along which we passed was cut out of the coal, seven or eight feet wide, and about nine feet high. The thickness of the seam, being the ten-yard coal, would have allowed of making the road of greater height, but that would have rendered it more dangerous in case of anything falling out of the roof, from the velocity acquired in descending from so great a height. A railway is laid along the middle of the road, to make it easier for the horses to draw the cars. Soon it became necessary to stand to one side to make way for the horses drawing cars, each horse conducted by a boy of thirteen or fourteen, the lad naked from the waist upwards, and marching, his right hand at the bridle. We were conducted to a stable where were some horses eating and drinking, and apparently very comfortable. Their skins were smooth and glossy, and the animals were fat, which is attributed to the warm uniform temperature. It sometimes happens that when a horse is for the first time brought down into a coal-pit he falls in a fainting fit, which is supposed to arise from fear. A horse which has been brought down into a coal-pit is not for ever doomed to be deprived of the light of day. Some of these horses had been up, and been put to grass several times. It was stated afterwards, by a witness at Bilston, that donkeys could not endure the heat of the coal-mines, but were sometimes employed in the iron-mines, which are always found to be much cooler than the coal-mines, although both may be at the same depth from the surface of the earth.

"We came at last to the farther extremity of the pit in that direction, and then diverged by a working or treading from the gateway to the left, to a place where men were at work. The chief miners, the undergoers, were lying on their sides, and with their picks were clearing away the coal to the height of a little more than two feet. Boys were employed in clearing out what the men had disengaged. Portions are left to support the great mass until an opening is made on each side of the mass, and also part is taken away from the

back. This undergoing is a dangerous part of the work, as, notwithstanding all that experience and judgment can do, occasionally too much is taken away, and a mass of coals will suddenly fall and crush the men and boys engaged. Fortunate are they if they escape with their lives, but broken bones they cannot fail to have to endure.”

Dr. Mitchell states, that, while in the mine, the candles of three of the party out of four who were in company in one place went out, but that on lighting them, and holding them a little higher up, no inconvenience was experienced, as the carbonic acid, being weightier than the air, falls as low down as it can. The Doctor also descended the Wallbut Pit, at Bilston, and he thus describes the adventure:

"The water was said to have risen in the pit, and we were detained nearly an hour until the pumps had reduced it a little. We at last entered the skip, and whilst descending, saw, as we passed, the ten-yard coal, and much lower down, the "Heathen" coal. The beds at which we arrived, at the depth of eighty-one yards from the top, consisted of the new-mine coal and fire-clay coal, which here came very near to each other, there being only a thin parting between them, so that both seams might be worked at once. The first step from the skip went above the ancle in water and wet coal-dust, and the second step was like the first. It was of no use then to be on ceremony, and we advanced forward. The water in one place was nearly knee deep, and through this part we went on a carriage with a skip drawn by a horse. The water everywhere fell from the roof in great drops like the shower of a thunder-storm out of the roof of the gateways. The horses had wax cloths spread over them to protect them a little from the rain. The water sometimes fell in spouts. It was stated that all this was merely the drainage of the water which had accumulated for ages in the coal and in the measures above it; and that in four or five months, by the time the gateways were completed, the mine would be thoroughly drained, and would be easily kept dry and comfortable with very little pumping. There was a long gateway of some hundred yards in length, and other roads coming off at right angles from it, from one to the other of which airways were drawn, which formed the means of ventilation.

"In one place the gas bubbled up through the water, and when a candle was held to it there was a flash."

The mode of descent into a coal-pit in Shropshire differs a little from that most in use in Staffordshire. Instead of using the empty skip, they take away the skip, and then they hook on to the end of the chain from the engine a short chain by hooks at each end of it, and then other chains in the same way, according to the number of persons going down. Every man takes hold of his chain, one part in each hand, and steps over the double of it, and sits down like a boy in a rope-swing. The engine draws all up a little until the cover of the shaft be withdrawn, and then all go down together in a bunch. It is thought to be a safer way than going down in a skip, or in the tub, which is sometimes used when ladies or timid gentlemen venture to descend. Sometimes twenty miners, men and boys, come up in one bunch, and in such case a boy puts his legs across a man's thigh, and takes hold of the chain: if the long chain should break, all would perish together. Such an occurrence is rare, but a man was killed last year, near Wellington, by a brick falling out of the side of the shaft.

There is much that is reprehensible in this mode of descent and ascent. Merely sitting on a chain, and holding by both hands, is not nearly so safe as when the thighs pass through a loop, which is too narrow to let the body get through. In Leicestershire, Derbyshire, and in the great northern coal-field, it is considered a point of the highest importance not to allow above a certain number of men or boys to descend or ascend at a time, and it ought to be so everywhere.

There are various kinds of machinery used for drawing the persons and the coal up and down the shafts of the mines. The suspender is generally a rope, terminating in some feet of chain, and a cross bar of iron, called theclatch-harness," by which the corve is suspended, or on which the

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persons to be raised or lowered are seated. The turn-wheel represented in the following engraving is the least expensive, and certainly the most dangerous piece of machinery employed for this purpose, as you are, upon all occasions, dependent upon the man, or it may be, woman, who works it. It is in fact nothing more nor less than a common well-winch, with a fly wheel, without trap-door or stage, conducting-rods, or anything else. In getting on or off the clatch-iron, or corve, in coming up or going down, you are at the mercy of the winder. The unfortunate case of David Pellett, who was drawn over the roller by his own uncle and grandfather, at the North Bierley Pit, at the time Mr. Scriven was pursuing his investigation upon the same ground, just at the moment when their attention was called to a passing funeral, is a painful illustration of their unsafety.

As

The sketch given is intended to represent Ann Ambler and William Dyson, hurriers in Messrs. Ditchforth and Clay's colliery at Elland, in the act of being drawn up cross-lapped upon the clatch-iron by a woman. soon as they arrived at the top, the handle was made fast by a bolt drawn from the upright post; the woman then grasped a hand of both at the same time, and by main force brought them to land. The corve on these occasions is detached from the hooks, to render the load lighter.

We need scarcely remark on the revolting indecency of this placing of a male and a female, each of them in an almost naked state.

The shafts are of variable depths, being, in some instances, as shallow as 45 feet, in others as low as 600. This difference is consequent upon the number of seams in work, and upon the undulations of the country; the measures also through which they are cut are as variable in character and density, consisting of loam, sandstone, ironstone, clay, gravel, shale, &c.; the greater number of them are lined with stones, bricks, or boards, as a means of protection. In many instances, however, as Mr. Scriven remarks, i this necessary precaution is neglected; the consequence is, that when the earth is saturated with moisture, the measures are loosened, and large portions fall, or are struck off by the descending light corves, and alight on the children below. This was illustrated in his own person, in a pit he had descended, and where, just at the moment of disengaging himself from the corve and chains at the foot of the shaft, all around being dark and dismal enough, a stone, weighing five pounds, fell from near the top, close to his feet. Several children have been thus killed. Some few of the shafts have roomy excavations at the foot of them, which are indispensable provision for the safety of the children, and should be made imperative in every pit.

At the Eaton coal works, in Gloucestershire, the proprietors have caused a commodious "hutch" to be constructed, of riveted iron plates, in the form of an elliptical dome, with two entrances. In this, seven men and two or three boys can go up and down together, snugly protected from the jets of water, as well as from any stone or other substance accidentally falling on them. This humane and proper accommodation furnishes a praiseworthy contrast to the neglect of anything like attention to the health, safety, and comfort observable at other places. At Cromhall, Mr. Waring says he saw poor fellows coming up in the coal tubs, at mid-day, to escape suffocation from bad air in the stalls, smeared with clay, and dripping with shaftwater, from which they partially protected themselves by hanging old sacks over their heads and shoulders. On inquiry, it was found that they had no

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other provision for their passage to and from their work.

Mr. Symons, in his description of the Yorkshire coal-field, says—

"That man must have strong nerves who for the first time descends a deep shaft, probably much deeper than St. Paul's Cathedral is high, without some degree of uncomfortable sensation. To a young child it is often cruelly frightful. It is difficult to describe the impression of dark confinement and damp discomfort conveyed by a colliery, at first sight. The springs which generally ooze through the best-cased shafts, trickle down its sides, and keep up a perpetual drizzle below. The chamber or area at the bottom of the shaft is almost always sloppy and muddy, and the escape from it consists in a labyrinth of black passages, often not above four feet square, and seldom exceeding five by six. As you proceed, the dampness decreases, and the subterraneous smell increases. Still these unpleasant sensations rapidly depart, even on a slight familiarity with the scene."

The greatest difference prevails in different collieries in regard to the state of the atmosphere and the dryness of the ground. It need hardly be

remarked, that the appearance as well as health of the work-people depends greatly on the attention paid to draining and ventilation. It will, however, very frequently happen that where the one is good the other is bad.

In very many collieries the ground is extremely wet, and the atmosphere humid, and of an earthy and damp smell. In some collieries both are equally well provided against, and always with the best possible effects on the health and comfort of the work-people. In a colliery at Mirfield, the men were found actually working in water, and in many others the children's feet are never dry, there being no engine-pump whatever, but merely a hand-pump to pump the water into a sort of dam to run out again into the gates. This colliery, nevertheless, belongs to a gentleman reputed for benevolence, but who knows nothing of his own pits. It is stated by some of the assistant commissioners, that neither drainage nor ventilation are sufficiently attended to for the health and comfort of the work-people in a majority of cases; whilst in some the ventilation is so imperfect that it is positively dangerous. Mr. Symons says, he has seen collieries where fire-damp or black-damp prevailed, and where slits for increasing ventilation ought to be cut every ten or a dozen yards, which are not now cut for upwards of fifteen and seventeen.

The general opinion is, that where mines are thoroughly ventilated, they are by no means unhealthy. One professional man, Mr. Sadler, is of opinion, however, that exclusion from the daylight alone is noxious.

The large and well-managed collieries in most districts seem to form the exception rather than the rule. In East Scotland, says Mr. Franks

"Few of the mines exceed the depth of one hundred fathoms. They are descended by shafts, and trap and turnpike stairs, and, in some instances, by inclines. The roads are most commonly wet, but in some places so much so as to come up to the ancles; and where the roofs are soft, the drippy and slushy state of the entire chamber is such that none can be said to work in it in a dry condition, and the coarse apparel the labour requires absorbs so much of the drainage of water as to keep the workmen as thoroughly saturated as if they were working continually in water."

In Durham and Northumberland, the coal runs thick, and there Dr. Mitchell says――

"The mines for the most part are dry, but there are exceptions. The roads and excavations in the pits are sufficiently spacious to allow room for working. There is this most decided advantage in the whole of this district, that the seams are not uncomfortably thin.

In Cumberland and the extreme south of Yorkshire, and nearly all the Midland districts, the seams generally run from five to ten feet in thickness, and in these few, hardships and horrors prevail. Mr. Kennedy, reporting on Lancashire, speaks of water pouring out of the roof in torrents: Margaret Winstanley, one out of numbers of his witnesses, states

"The place I work in is very wet; the water is half a yard deep in some places. My husband has worked in wet places for many a year; sometimes he has worked in water up to his knees, and does now, where he is at work. When I am drawing for him my clothes are all wet through."

In the neighbourhood of Halifax, Mr. Scriven thus describes the kind of place in which children are employed, at ages, be it remembered, when the law deems them too young to endure the confinement of factories—namely, at six, seven, and eight years old :—

"In the Booth Town Pit, in which Patience Kershaw hurried eleven corves a-day, I walked, crept, and rode 1800 yards, to one of the nearest faces;' the most distant was 200 further; the bottom or floor of this gate was every here and there three or four inches deep in water, and muddy throughout. The Swan Bank Pit, to which I was accompanied