Jules Vernes - The Underground City

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The Underground City
OR
The Black Indies
(Sometimes Called The Child of the
Cavern)
CHAPTER I CONTRADICTORY LETTERS
To Mr. F. R. Starr, Engineer, 30 Canongate, Edinburgh.
IF Mr. James Starr will come to-morrow to the Aberfoyle coal-mines,
Dochart pit, Yarrow shaft, a communication of an interesting
nature will be made to him.
"Mr. James Starr will be awaited for, the whole day, at the
Callander station, by Harry Ford, son of the old overman Simon
Ford."
"He is requested to keep this invitation secret."
Such was the letter which James Starr received by the first post,
on the 3rd December, 18--, the letter bearing the Aberfoyle
postmark, county of Stirling, Scotland.
The engineer's curiosity was excited to the highest pitch. It never
occurred to him to doubt whether this letter might not be a hoax.
For many years he had known Simon Ford, one of the former
foremen of the Aberfoyle mines, of which he, James Starr, had for
twenty years, been the manager, or, as he would be termed in
English coal-mines, the viewer. James Starr was a strongly-constituted
man, on whom his fifty-five years weighed no more
heavily than if they had been forty. He belonged to an old
Edinburgh family, and was one of its most distinguished members.
His labors did credit to the body of engineers who are gradually
devouring the carboniferous subsoil of the United Kingdom, as
much at Cardiff and Newcastle, as in the southern counties of
Scotland. However, it was more particularly in the depths of the
mysterious mines of Aberfoyle, which border on the Alloa mines and
occupy part of the county of Stirling, that the name of Starr had
acquired the greatest renown. There, the greater part of his
existence had been passed. Besides this, James Starr belonged to
the Scottish Antiquarian Society, of which he had been made
president. He was also included amongst the most active members
of the Royal Institution; and the Edinburgh Review frequently
published clever articles signed by him. He was in fact one of those
practical men to whom is due the prosperity of England. He held a
high rank in the old capital of Scotland, which not only from a
physical but also from a moral point of view, well deserves the name
of the Northern Athens.
We know that the English have given to their vast extent of coal-mines
a very significant name. They very justly call them the
"Black Indies," and these Indies have contributed perhaps even.more than the Eastern
Indies to swell the surprising wealth of the
United Kingdom.
At this period, the limit of time assigned by professional men for
the exhaustion of coal-mines was far distant and there was no
dread of scarcity. There were still extensive mines to be worked in
the two Americas. The manufactories, appropriated to so many
different uses, locomotives, steamers, gas works, &c., were not
likely to fail for want of the mineral fuel; but the consumption had
so increased during the last few years, that certain beds had been
exhausted even to their smallest veins. Now deserted, these mines
perforated the ground with their useless shafts and forsaken
galleries. This was exactly the case with the pits of Aberfoyle.
Ten years before, the last butty had raised the last ton of coal
from this colliery. The underground working stock, traction
engines, trucks which run on rails along the galleries, subterranean
tramways, frames to support the shaft, pipes--in short, all that
constituted the machinery of a mine had been brought up from its
depths. The exhausted mine was like the body of a huge
fantastically-shaped mastodon, from which all the organs of life
have been taken, and only the skeleton remains.
Nothing was left but long wooden ladders, down the Yarrow
shaft--the only one which now gave access to the lower galleries of
the Dochart pit. Above ground, the sheds, formerly sheltering the
outside works, still marked the spot where the shaft of that pit had
been sunk, it being now abandoned, as were the other pits, of which
the whole constituted the mines of Aberfoyle.
It was a sad day, when for the last time the workmen quitted the
mine, in which they had lived for so many years. The engineer,
James Starr, had collected the hundreds of workmen which
composed the active and courageous population of the mine.
Overmen, brakemen, putters, wastemen, barrowmen, masons,
smiths, carpenters, outside and inside laborers, women, children,
and old men, all were collected in the great yard of the Dochart pit,
formerly heaped with coal from the mine.
Many of these families had existed for generations in the mine of
old Aberfoyle; they were now driven to seek the means of
subsistence elsewhere, and they waited sadly to bid farewell to the
engineer.
James Starr stood upright, at the door of the vast shed in which
he had for so many years superintended the powerful machines of
the shaft. Simon Ford, the foreman of the Dochart pit, then fifty-five
years of age, and other managers and overseers, surrounded him.
James Starr took off his hat. The miners, cap in hand, kept a.profound silence. This farewell
scene was of a touching character,
not wanting in grandeur.
"My friends," said the engineer, "the time has come for us to
separate. The Aberfoyle mines, which for so many years have united
us in a common work, are now exhausted. All our researches have
not led to the discovery of a new vein, and the last block of coal has
just been extracted from the Dochart pit." And in confirmation of
his words, James Starr pointed to a lump of coal which had been
kept at the bottom of a basket.
"This piece of coal, my friends," resumed James Starr, "is like the
last drop of blood which has flowed through the veins of the mine!
We shall keep it, as the first fragment of coal is kept, which was
extracted a hundred and fifty years ago from the bearings of
Aberfoyle. Between these two pieces, how many generations of
workmen have succeeded each other in our pits! Now, it is over!
The last words which your engineer will address to you are a
farewell. You have lived in this mine, which your hands have
emptied. The work has been hard, but not without profit for you.
Our great family must disperse, and it is not probable that the
future will ever again unite the scattered members. But do not
forget that we have lived together for a long time, and that it will be
the duty of the miners of Aberfoyle to help each other. Your old
masters will not forget you either.
When men have worked together, they must never be stranger to
each other again.
We shall keep our eye on you, and wherever you go, our
recommendations shall follow you. Farewell then, my friends, and
may Heaven be with you!"
So saying, James Starr wrung the horny hand of the oldest
miner, whose eyes were dim with tears. Then the overmen of the
different pits came forward to shake hands with him, whilst the
miners waved their caps, shouting, "Farewell, James Starr, our
master and our friend!"
This farewell would leave a lasting remembrance in all these
honest hearts. Slowly and sadly the population quitted the yard.
The black soil of the roads leading to the Dochart pit resounded for
the last time to the tread of miners' feet, and silence succeeded to
the bustling life which had till then filled the Aberfoyle mines.
One man alone remained by James Starr. This was the
overman, Simon Ford. Near him stood a boy, about fifteen years of
age, who for some years already had been employed down below.
James Starr and Simon Ford knew and esteemed each other
well. "Good-by, Simon," said the engineer.."Good-by, Mr. Starr," replied the overman, "let me
add, till we
meet again!"
"Yes, till we meet again. Ford!" answered James Starr. "You
know that I shall be always glad to see you, and talk over old
times."
"I know that, Mr. Starr."
"My house in Edinburgh is always open to you."
"It's a long way off, is Edinburgh!" answered the man shaking his
head. "Ay, a long way from the Dochart pit."
"A long way, Simon? Where do you mean to live?"
"Even here, Mr. Starr! We're not going to leave the mine, our
good old nurse, just because her milk is dried up! My wife, my boy,
and myself, we mean to remain faithful to her!"
"Good-by then, Simon," replied the engineer, whose voice, in
spite of himself, betrayed some emotion.
"No, I tell you, it's TILL WE MEET AGAIN, Mr. Starr, and not
Just 'good-by,'" returned the foreman. "Mark my words, Aberfoyle
will see you again!"
The engineer did not try to dispel the man's illusion. He patted
Harry's head, again wrung the father's hand, and left the mine.
All this had taken place ten years ago; but, notwithstanding the
wish which the overman had expressed to see him again, during
that time Starr had heard nothing of him. It was after ten years of
separation that he got this letter from Simon Ford, requesting him
to take without delay the road to the old Aberfoyle colliery.
A communication of an interesting nature, what could it be?
Dochart pit. Yarrow shaft! What recollections of the past these
names brought back to him! Yes, that was a fine time, that of work,
of struggle,--the best part of the engineer's life. Starr re-read his
letter. He pondered over it in all its bearings. He much regretted
that just a line more had not been added by Ford. He wished he
had not been quite so laconic.
Was it possible that the old foreman had discovered some new
vein? No! Starr remembered with what minute care the mines had
been explored before the definite cessation of the works. He had
himself proceeded to the lowest soundings without finding the least
trace in the soil, burrowed in every direction. They had even
attempted to find coal under strata which are usually below it, such
as the Devonian red sandstone, but without result. James Starr
had therefore abandoned the mine with the absolute conviction that
it did not contain another bit of coal.
"No," he repeated, "no! How is it possible that anything which
could have escaped my researches, should be revealed to those of.Simon Ford. However, the
old overman must well know that such a
discovery would be the one thing in the world to interest me, and
this invitation, which I must keep secret, to repair to the Dochart
pit!" James Starr always came back to that.
On the other hand, the engineer knew Ford to be a clever miner,
peculiarly endowed with the instinct of his trade. He had not seen
him since the time when the Aberfoyle colliery was abandoned, and
did not know either what he was doing or where he was living, with
his wife and his son. All that he now knew was, that a rendezvous
had been appointed him at the Yarrow shaft, and that Harry, Simon
Ford's son, was to wait for him during the whole of the next day at
the Callander station.
"I shall go, I shall go!" said Starr, his excitement increasing as
the time drew near.
Our worthy engineer belonged to that class of men whose brain
is always on the boil, like a kettle on a hot fire. In some of these
brain kettles the ideas bubble over, in others they just simmer
quietly. Now on this day, James Starr's ideas were boiling fast.
But suddenly an unexpected incident occurred. This was the
drop of cold water, which in a moment was to condense all the
vapors of the brain. About six in the evening, by the third post,
Starr's servant brought him a second letter. This letter was
enclosed in a coarse envelope, and evidently directed by a hand
unaccustomed to the use of a pen. James Starr tore it open. It
contained only a scrap of paper, yellowed by time, and apparently
torn out of an old copy book.
On this paper was written a single sentence, thus worded:
"It is useless for the engineer James Starr to trouble himself,
Simon Ford's letter being now without object."
No signature..CHAPTER II ON THE ROAD
THE course of James Starr's ideas was abruptly stopped, when
he got this second letter contradicting the first.
"What does this mean?" said he to himself. He took up the torn
envelope, and examined it. Like the other, it bore the Aberfoyle
postmark. It had therefore come from the same part of the county of
Stirling. The old miner had evidently not written it. But, no less
evidently, the author of this second letter knew the overman's
secret, since it expressly contradicted the invitation to the engineer
to go to the Yarrow shaft.
Was it really true that the first communication was now without
object? Did someone wish to prevent James Starr from troubling
himself either uselessly or otherwise? Might there not be rather a
malevolent intention to thwart Ford's plans?
This was the conclusion at which James Starr arrived, after
mature reflection. The contradiction which existed between the two
letters only wrought in him a more keen desire to visit the Dochart
pit. And besides, if after all it was a hoax, it was well worth while to
prove it. Starr also thought it wiser to give more credence to the
first letter than to the second; that is to say, to the request of such
a man as Simon Ford, rather than to the warning of his anonymous
contradictor.
"Indeed," said he, "the fact of anyone endeavoring to influence
my resolution, shows that Ford's communication must be of great
importance. To-morrow, at the appointed time, I shall be at the
rendezvous."
In the evening, Starr made his preparations for departure. As it
might happen that his absence would be prolonged for some days,
he wrote to Sir W. Elphiston, President of the Royal Institution, that
he should be unable to be present at the next meeting of the
Society. He also wrote to excuse himself from two or three
engagements which he had made for the week. Then, having
ordered his servant to pack a traveling bag, he went to bed, more
excited than the affair perhaps warranted.
The next day, at five o'clock, James Starr jumped out of bed,
dressed himself warmly, for a cold rain was falling, and left his
house in the Canongate, to go to Granton Pier to catch the steamer,
which in three hours would take him up the Forth as far as Stirling.
For the first time in his life, perhaps, in passing along the
Canongate, he did NOT TURN TO LOOK AT HOLYROOD, the palace
of the former sovereigns of Scotland. He did not notice the sentinels
who stood before its gateways, dressed in the uniform of their.Highland regiment, tartan
kilt, plaid and sporran complete. His
whole thought was to reach Callander where Harry Ford was
supposedly awaiting him.
The better to understand this narrative, it will be as well to hear
a few words on the origin of coal. During the geological epoch,
when the terrestrial spheroid was still in course of formation, a
thick atmosphere surrounded it, saturated with watery vapors, and
copiously impregnated with carbonic acid. The vapors gradually
condensed in diluvial rains, which fell as if they had leapt from the
necks of thousands of millions of seltzer water bottles. This liquid,
loaded with carbonic acid, rushed in torrents over a deep soft soil,
subject to sudden or slow alterations of form, and maintained in its
semi-fluid state as much by the heat of the sun as by the fires of
the interior mass. The internal heat had not as yet been collected
in the center of the globe. The terrestrial crust, thin and
incompletely hardened, allowed it to spread through its pores. This
caused a peculiar form of vegetation, such as is probably produced
on the surface of the inferior planets, Venus or Mercury, which
revolve nearer than our earth around the radiant sun of our system.
The soil of the continents was covered with immense forests.
Carbonic acid, so suitable for the development of the vegetable
kingdom, abounded. The feet of these trees were drowned in a sort
of immense lagoon, kept continually full by currents of fresh and
salt waters. They eagerly assimilated to themselves the carbon
which they, little by little, extracted from the atmosphere, as yet
unfit for the function of life, and it may be said that they were
destined to store it, in the form of coal, in the very bowels of the
earth.
It was the earthquake period, caused by internal convulsions,
which suddenly modified the unsettled features of the terrestrial
surface. Here, an intumescence which was to become a mountain,
there, an abyss which was to be filled with an ocean or a sea.
There, whole forests sunk through the earth's crust, below the
unfixed strata, either until they found a resting-place, such as the
primitive bed of granitic rock, or, settling together in a heap, they
formed a solid mass.
As the waters were contained in no bed, and were spread over
every part of the globe, they rushed where they liked, tearing from
the scarcely-formed rocks material with which to compose schists,
sandstones, and limestones. This the roving waves bore over the
submerged and now peaty forests, and deposited above them the
elements of rocks which were to superpose the coal strata. In
course of time, periods of which include millions of years, these.earths hardened in layers,
and enclosed under a thick carapace of
pudding-stone, schist, compact or friable sandstone, gravel and
stones, the whole of the massive forests.
And what went on in this gigantic crucible, where all this
vegetable matter had accumulated, sunk to various depths? A
regular chemical operation, a sort of distillation. All the carbon
contained in these vegetables had agglomerated, and little by little
coal was forming under the double influence of enormous pressure
and the high temperature maintained by the internal fires, at this
time so close to it.
Thus there was one kingdom substituted for another in this slow
but irresistible reaction. The vegetable was transformed into a
mineral. Plants which had lived the vegetative life in all the vigor of
first creation became petrified. Some of the substances enclosed in
this vast herbal left their impression on the other more rapidly
mineralized products, which pressed them as an hydraulic press of
incalculable power would have done.
Thus also shells, zoophytes, star-fish, polypi, spirifores, even fish
and lizards brought by the water, left on the yet soft coal their exact
likeness, "admirably taken off."
Pressure seems to have played a considerable part in the
formation of carboniferous strata. In fact, it is to its degree of power
that are due the different sorts of coal, of which industry makes
use. Thus in the lowest layers of the coal ground appears the
anthracite, which, being almost destitute of volatile matter, contains
the greatest quantity of carbon. In the higher beds are found, on
the contrary, lignite and fossil wood, substances in which the
quantity of carbon is infinitely less. Between these two beds,
according to the degree of pressure to which they have been
subjected, are found veins of graphite and rich or poor coal. It may
be asserted that it is for want of sufficient pressure that beds of
peaty bog have not been completely changed into coal. So then, the
origin of coal mines, in whatever part of the globe they have been
discovered, is this: the absorption through the terrestrial crust of
the great forests of the geological period; then, the mineralization of
the vegetables obtained in the course of time, under the influence of
pressure and heat, and under the action of carbonic acid.
Now, at the time when the events related in this story took place,
some of the most important mines of the Scottish coal beds had
been exhausted by too rapid working. In the region which extends
between Edinburgh and Glasgow, for a distance of ten or twelve
miles, lay the Aberfoyle colliery, of which the engineer, James Starr,
had so long directed the works. For ten years these mines had been.abandoned. No new
seams had been discovered, although the
soundings had been carried to a depth of fifteen hundred or even of
two thousand feet, and when James Starr had retired, it was with
the full conviction that even the smallest vein had been completely
exhausted.
Under these circumstances, it was plain that the discovery of a
new seam of coal would be an important event. Could Simon Ford's
communication relate to a fact of this nature? This question James
Starr could not cease asking himself. Was he called to make
conquest of another corner of these rich treasure fields? Fain
would he hope it was so.
The second letter had for an instant checked his speculations on
this subject, but now he thought of that letter no longer. Besides,
the son of the old overman was there, waiting at the appointed
rendezvous. The anonymous letter was therefore worth nothing.
The moment the engineer set foot on the platform at the end of
his journey, the young man advanced towards him.
"Are you Harry Ford?" asked the engineer quickly.
"Yes, Mr. Starr."
"I should not have known you, my lad. Of course in ten years
you have become a man!"
"I knew you directly, sir," replied the young miner, cap in hand.
"You have not changed. You look just as you did when you bade us
good-by in the Dochart pit. I haven't forgotten that day."
"Put on your cap, Harry," said the engineer. "It's pouring, and
politeness needn't make you catch cold."
"Shall we take shelter anywhere, Mr. Starr?" asked young Ford.
"No, Harry. The weather is settled. It will rain all day, and I am
in a hurry. Let us go on."
"I am at your orders," replied Harry.
"Tell me, Harry, is your father well?"
"Very well, Mr. Starr."
"And your mother?"
"She is well, too."
"Was it your father who wrote telling me to come to the Yarrow
shaft?"
"No, it was I."
"Then did Simon Ford send me a second letter to contradict the
first?" asked the engineer quickly.
"No, Mr. Starr," answered the young miner.."Very well," said Starr, without speaking of the
anonymous letter.
Then, continuing, "And can you tell me what you father wants with
me?"
"Mr. Starr, my father wishes to tell you himself."
"But you know what it is?"
"I do, sir."
"Well, Harry, I will not ask you more. But let us get on, for I'm
anxious to see Simon Ford. By-the-bye, where does he live?"
"In the mine."
"What! In the Dochart pit?"
"Yes, Mr. Starr," replied Harry.
"Really! has your family never left the old mine since the
cessation of the works?"
"Not a day, Mr. Starr. You know my father. It is there he was
born, it is there he means to die!"
"I can understand that, Harry. I can understand that! His
native mine! He did not like to abandon it! And are you happy
there?"
"Yes, Mr. Starr," replied the young miner, "for we love one
another, and we have but few wants."
"Well, Harry," said the engineer, "lead the way."
And walking rapidly through the streets of Callander, in a few
minutes they had left the town behind them..CHAPTER III THE DOCHART PIT
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
摘要：

TheUndergroundCityORTheBlackIndies(SometimesCalledTheChildoftheCavern)CHAPTERICONTRADICTORYLETTERSToMr.F.R.Starr,Engineer,30Canongate,Edinburgh.IFMr.JamesStarrwillcometo-morrowtotheAberfoylecoal-mines,Dochartpit,Yarrowshaft,acommunicationofaninterestingnaturewillbemadetohim."Mr.JamesStarrwillbeawait...

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