Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/126

Rh from both the long heading and the Great Spring having been shut out by the head-walls, one 26-inch pump was able to pump all the water, and the other 26-inch and the 35-inch were in reserve.

In order to bring a little pressure to bear upon the men on strike, I ordered all the carpenters, blacksmiths, and other men employed on the surface to be stopped on Tuesday morning. This was a blow they had not expected, and on Thursday, the 26th May, some of the men came back and asked for work. On Friday a larger number returned, and in a few days the works appeared to be going on as before, with this great advantage, that a number of bad characters had been got rid of.

The ten-hour shifts were worked on the west side of the river from this time to the termination of the work without difficulty. After the men returned to work, the slip at the end of the long heading was thoroughly secured, the heading cleaned up to the face, and we commenced to drive the 130 yards that intervened between it and the heading coming from the east.

The fall in the roof proved to be a very serious one. For a length of 50 feet it had fallen down from a height of 20 feet above the heading, and though we afterwards secured the brickwork safely through this length, we were always troubled at this point with water, which found its way into the work; for, by the breaking of the strata, fissures no doubt extended at this point quite up to the river-bed.