Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/186

Rh of affairs, and my readers may imagine that there was no little chaff at the expense of the men who had run away under the influence of panic.

By degrees, by questioning one and another, the whole story was brought to light. The men had been working in break-ups, and also in extending the long heading on the new gradient. This heading passed under the old heading (being driven for some distance level, while the other rose 1 in 100) till it left sufficient ground overhead to commence a heading entirely under the original one. A considerable stream of water, about 2,000 gallons a minute, was always running down the old heading, and where the new heading started under the old one, the water was carried on one side in a wooden shoot. The upper part of this shoot was secured in a dam made of clay-puddle to prevent the water from falling over the whole face of the heading.

On the other side of the river, I have before stated that a length of bottom heading had been driven from a number of small shafts to reach the levels of the lowered gradient. The water flowing down this bottom heading rose up the last of the shafts, and a length of about 1,500 feet always had water in it. In making the junctions of this heading between the diffierent shafts where there was considerable water, all that the men could do was to break down the last piece of rock between two shafts by blasting, without being able to go back to enlarge the hole made by the shots, or to clear up the rock