The Dochart Pit

: The Underground City

HARRY FORD was a fine, strapping fellow of five and twenty. His grave

looks, his habitually passive expression, had from childhood been

noticed among his comrades in the mine. His regular features, his deep

blue eyes, his curly hair, rather chestnut than fair, the natural grace

of his person, altogether made him a fine specimen of a lowlander.

Accustomed from his earliest days to the work of the mine, he was strong

and
hardy, as well as brave and good. Guided by his father, and impelled

by his own inclinations, he had early begun his education, and at an age

when most lads are little more than apprentices, he had managed to make

himself of some importance, a leader, in fact, among his fellows, and

few are very ignorant in a country which does all it can to remove

ignorance. Though, during the first years of his youth, the pick was

never out of Harry's hand, nevertheless the young miner was not long in

acquiring sufficient knowledge to raise him into the upper class of the

miners, and he would certainly have succeeded his father as overman of

the Dochart pit, if the colliery had not been abandoned.



James Starr was still a good walker, yet he could not easily have kept

up with his guide, if the latter had not slackened his pace. The young

man, carrying the engineer's bag, followed the left bank of the river

for about a mile. Leaving its winding course, they took a road under

tall, dripping trees. Wide fields lay on either side, around isolated

farms. In one field a herd of hornless cows were quietly grazing; in

another sheep with silky wool, like those in a child's toy sheep fold.



The Yarrow shaft was situated four miles from Callander. Whilst walking,

James Starr could not but be struck with the change in the country. He

had not seen it since the day when the last ton of Aberfoyle coal had

been emptied into railway trucks to be sent to Glasgow. Agricultural

life had now taken the place of the more stirring, active, industrial

life. The contrast was all the greater because, during winter, field

work is at a standstill. But formerly, at whatever season, the mining

population, above and below ground, filled the scene with animation.

Great wagons of coal used to be passing night and day. The rails, with

their rotten sleepers, now disused, were then constantly ground by

the weight of wagons. Now stony roads took the place of the old mining

tramways. James Starr felt as if he was traversing a desert.



The engineer gazed about him with a saddened eye. He stopped now and

then to take breath. He listened. The air was no longer filled with

distant whistlings and the panting of engines. None of those black

vapors which the manufacturer loves to see, hung in the horizon,

mingling with the clouds. No tall cylindrical or prismatic chimney

vomited out smoke, after being fed from the mine itself; no blast-pipe

was puffing out its white vapor. The ground, formerly black with

coal dust, had a bright look, to which James Starr's eyes were not

accustomed.



When the engineer stood still, Harry Ford stopped also. The young miner

waited in silence. He felt what was passing in his companion's mind, and

he shared his feelings; he, a child of the mine, whose whole life had

been passed in its depths.



"Yes, Harry, it is all changed," said Starr. "But at the rate we worked,

of course the treasures of coal would have been exhausted some day. Do

you regret that time?"



"I do regret it, Mr. Starr," answered Harry. "The work was hard, but it

was interesting, as are all 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 of the upper ladder. Starr followed.

They soon found themselves in a profound obscurity, which was only

relieved by the glimmer of the lamp. The young man held it above his

head, the better to light his companion. A dozen ladders were descended

by the engineer and his guide, with the measured step habitual to the

miner. They were all still in good condition.



James Starr examined, as well as the insufficient light would permit,

the sides of the dark shaft, which were covered by a partly rotten

lining of wood.



Arrived at the fifteenth landing, that is to say, half way down, they

halted for a few minutes.



"Decidedly, I have not your legs, my lad," said the engineer, panting.



"You are very stout, Mr. Starr," replied Harry, "and it's something too,

you see, to live all one's life in the mine."



"Right, Harry. Formerly, when I was twenty, I could have gone down all

at a breath. Come, forward!"



But just as the two were about to leave the platform, a voice, as yet

far distant, was heard in the depths of the shaft. It came up like a

sonorous billow, swelling as it advanced, and becoming more and more

distinct.





"Halloo! who comes here?" asked the engineer, stopping Harry.



"I cannot say," answered the young miner.



"Is it not your father?"



"My father, Mr. Starr? no."



"Some neighbor, then?"



"We have no neighbors in the bottom of the pit," replied Harry. "We are

alone, quite alone."



"Well, we must let this intruder pass," said James Starr. "Those who are

descending must yield the path to those who are ascending."



They waited. The voice broke out again with a magnificent burst, as

if it had been carried through a vast speaking trumpet; and soon a few

words of a Scotch song came clearly to the ears of the young miner.



"The Hundred Pipers!" cried Harry. "Well, I shall be much surprised if

that comes from the lungs of any man but Jack Ryan."



"And who is this Jack Ryan?" asked James Starr.



"An old mining comrade," replied Harry. Then leaning from the platform,

"Halloo! Jack!" he shouted.



"Is that you, Harry?" was the reply. "Wait a bit, I'm coming." And the

song broke forth again.



In a few minutes, a tall fellow of five and twenty, with a merry face,

smiling eyes, a laughing mouth, and sandy hair, appeared at the bottom

of the luminous cone which was thrown from his lantern, and set foot

on the landing of the fifteenth ladder. His first act was to vigorously

wring the hand which Harry extended to him.



"Delighted to meet you!" he exclaimed. "If I had only known you were to

be above ground to-day, I would have spared myself going down the Yarrow

shaft!"



"This is Mr. James Starr," said Harry, turning his lamp towards the

engineer, who was in the shadow.



"Mr. Starr!" cried Jack Ryan. "Ah, sir, I could not see. Since I left

the mine, my eyes have not been accustomed to see in the dark, as they

used to do."



"Ah, I remember a laddie who was always singing. That was ten years ago.

It was you, no doubt?"



"Ay, Mr. Starr, but in changing my trade, I haven't changed my

disposition. It's far better to laugh and sing than to cry and whine!"





"You're right there, Jack Ryan. And what do you do now, as you have left

the mine?"



"I am working on the Melrose farm, forty miles from here. Ah, it's not

like our Aberfoyle mines! The pick comes better to my hand than the

spade or hoe. And then, in the old pit, there were vaulted roofs, to

merrily echo one's songs, while up above ground!--But you are going to

see old Simon, Mr. Starr?"



"Yes, Jack," answered the engineer.



"Don't let me keep you then."



"Tell me, Jack," said Harry, "what was taking you to our cottage

to-day?"



"I wanted to see you, man," replied Jack, "and ask you to come to

the Irvine games. You know I am the piper of the place. There will be

dancing and singing."



"Thank you, Jack, but it's impossible."



"Impossible?"



"Yes; Mr. Starr's visit will last some time, and I must take him back to

Callander."



"Well, Harry, it won't be for a week yet. By that time Mr. Starr's visit

will be over, I should think, and there will be nothing to keep you at

the cottage."



"Indeed, Harry," said James Starr, "you must profit by your friend

Jack's invitation."



"Well, I accept it, Jack," said Harry. "In a week we will meet at

Irvine."



"In a week, that's settled," returned Ryan. "Good-by, Harry! Your

servant, Mr. Starr. I am very glad to have seen you again! I can give

news of you to all my friends. No one has forgotten you, sir."



"And I have forgotten no one," said Starr.



"Thanks for all, sir," replied Jack.



"Good-by, Jack," said Harry, shaking his hand. And Jack Ryan, singing as

he went, soon disappeared in the heights of the shaft, dimly lighted by

his lamp.



A quarter of an hour afterwards James Starr and Harry descended the last

ladder, and set foot on the lowest floor of the pit.



From the bottom of the Yarrow shaft radiated numerous empty galleries.

They ran through the wall of schist and sandstone, some shored up with

great, roughly-hewn beams, others lined with a thick casing of wood. In

every direction embankments supplied the place of the excavated veins.

Artificial pillars were made of stone from neighboring quarries, and now

they supported the ground, that is to say, the double layer of tertiary

and quaternary soil, which formerly rested on the seam itself. Darkness

now filled the galleries, formerly lighted either by the miner's lamp

or by the electric light, the use of which had been introduced in the

mines.



"Will you not rest a while, Mr. Starr?" asked the young man.



"No, my lad," replied the engineer, "for I am anxious to be at your

father's cottage."



"Follow me then, Mr. Starr. I will guide you, and yet I daresay you

could find your way perfectly well through this dark labyrinth."



"Yes, indeed! I have the whole plan of the old pit still in my head."



Harry, followed by the engineer, and holding his lamp high the better

to light their way, walked along a high gallery, like the nave of a

cathedral. Their feet still struck against the wooden sleepers which

used to support the rails.



They had not gone more than fifty paces, when a huge stone fell at the

feet of James Starr. "Take care, Mr. Starr!" cried Harry, seizing the

engineer by the arm.



"A stone, Harry! Ah! these old vaultings are no longer quite secure, of

course, and--"



"Mr. Starr," said Harry Ford, "it seems to me that stone was thrown,

thrown as by the hand of man!"



"Thrown!" exclaimed James Starr. "What do you mean, lad?"



"Nothing, nothing, Mr. Starr," replied Harry evasively, his anxious gaze

endeavoring to pierce the darkness. "Let us go on. Take my arm, sir, and

don't be afraid of making a false step."



"Here I am, Harry." And they both advanced, whilst Harry looked on

every side, throwing the light of his lamp into all the corners of the

gallery.



"Shall we soon be there?" asked the engineer.



"In ten minutes at most."



"Good."



"But," muttered Harry, "that was a most singular thing. It is the first

time such an accident has happened to me.



"That stone falling just at the moment we were passing."



"Harry, it was a mere chance."



"Chance," replied the young man, shaking his head. "Yes, chance." He

stopped and listened.



"What is the matter, Harry?" asked the engineer.



"I thought I heard someone walking behind us," replied the young

miner, listening more attentively. Then he added, "No, I must have been

mistaken. Lean harder on my arm, Mr. Starr. Use me like a staff."



"A good solid staff, Harry," answered James Starr. "I could not wish for

a better than a fine fellow like you."



They continued in silence along the dark nave. Harry was evidently

preoccupied, and frequently turned, trying to catch, either some distant

noise, or remote glimmer of light.



But behind and before, all was silence and darkness.



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