Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/185

112 Just then the foreman of the Cornish pumps came up, and said:

‘I cannot understand it; there is no more water at the pumps.’

I walked over with him and with Mr. Simpson, one of my staff, to the edge of the river, and found the water from the discharge-culvert the same colour as usual; so I walked back to the pit, and said:

‘I am going below; who is going with me ?’

J. H. Simpson and Jim Richards jumped into the cage with me, and the signal to lower was given. On arriving at the bottom we found it perfectly dry, and four or five men sitting quietly on a piece of timber scraping their boots.

The principal foreman of the works, Joseph Talbot, who had reached the top of the shaft before me, had gone down the iron staircase in the pumping-shaft, thinking that the winding-shaft could not be used, and he proceeded at once up the heading to see what was the matter.

After passing beyond the 9-ft. barrel where the men had been at work, in several break-ups he found articles of the men’s clothing thrown in every direction—hats, neckerchiefs, leggings, waistcoats, everything which they could take off and throw away; besides this, nothing was to be seen but the ponies which had been employed drawing the skips to the bottom of the shaft.

Returning again to the top, I explained the