The tunnel, thirty
feet high by thirty feet broad, was formed of bricks, laid in cement,
and the bricklayers were progressing in lengths averaging twelve feet,
when those who were nearest the quicksand, on driving into the roof,
were suddenly almost overwhelmed by a deluge of water, which burst in
upon them. As it was evident that no time was to be lost, a gang of
workmen, protected by the extreme power of the engines, were, with their
materials, placed on a raft; and while, with the utmost celerity, they
were completing the walls of that short length, the water, in spite of
every effort to keep it down, rose with such rapidity, that, at the
conclusion of the work, the men were so near being jammed against the
roof, that the assistant-engineer jumped overboard, and then swimming,
with a rope in his mouth, he towed the raft to the nearest working
shaft, through which he and his men were safely lifted to daylight, or,
as it is termed by miners, "to grass."
The water now rose in the shaft, and, as it is called, "drowned the
works" but, by the main strength of 1250 men, 200 horses, and thirteen
steam-engines, not only was the work gradually completed, but, during
day and night for eight months, the almost incredible quantity of 1800
gallons of water per minute was raised, and conducted away.
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