Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/169

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about four years ago, and travelled by waggons containing twenty tons each. Upon this level come in a vein of Kennel coal, and sixteen others. The lowest is sixty yards beneath the second level; a steam engine keeps this passage from being flooded, by pumping up the superfluous water into the middle level, to which the coal also is elevated by a simple wheel and balancing tub of water, bringing up six or seven hundred pounds of the ar- ticle in half a minute. The daily produce of these mines, is about three hundred tons; which is sold at the mouth of the level for about 3-kl. per hundred weight. Here, in these doleful regions of i darkness visible,' and solitude, (for the men work by the dim light of a small taper, and separate from each other) the wretched miner, nearly naked, earns (if his bodily strength and industry will allow him to work seven hours in the day) the scanty pittance of 2 cs. or 22s. per week; exposed to the fire- blasts and sulphur-damps, which, frequently burst- ing out unexpectedly, relieve him in a moment from his weight of labour, and place him :n that state, " where the weary be at rest." A small provi- sion in this case is made for his widow Irom a fund, formed out of donation-; given by visitors to

��the mines. The accidents arising Irom these si

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