Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/109

54 No one but those who have been engaged in such a struggle can imagine the delight of all hands at the victory which it had taken us nearly twelve months to win.

On the 13th December, the principal foreman of miners, Joseph Talbot, had the doors in the shields over the western heading opened, and explored the heading for a distance of nearly 600 feet; and on the 14th Mr. J. Clarke Hawkshaw and myself, accompanied by Talbot, went through these doors and made a second exploration of the heading. We found a stream of water 7 feet wide and about a foot deep flowing down the heading; and certainly it was a novel experience to pass through the doors in the shield and get into the heading. We were all clothed in divers’ dresses, with ‘sou’-westers’ instead of helmets; and standing on the stage by the door, over the sill of which about 10 or 12 inches of water was running, we had to put one leg through and sit down in the water while we gathered the other leg after us, and came into a standing position in about 3 feet 6 inches of water at the back of the door. From the farthest point we could reach, we could see the broken timbers where the water had first burst in. A great quantity of débris had been brought in by the spring, and at about 600 feet from the door this filled the heading to a depth of between 3 and 4 feet, so that if we had wished to go farther we must have gone on all-fours. The air, too, proved bad, and lights were with difficulty kept burning; so we