Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/199

122 of affairs, and thinking that the cage on the one side was standing on the ground-level, suddenly took hold of and pushed an iron skip right into the mouth of the pit. The iron skip, falling about 140 feet, crushed the bonnet of the cage at the bottom, and killed three of the men who were in the cage; and the skip then rebounding among the crowd of men who stood near, killed another man and seriously injured two others.

The holes which had been stopped in the bed of the river once or twice this year required further attention, the tide washing away the clay and bags which had been placed over them; and it may be as well to state here, that in the following year, before the tunnel was completed, when this clay was supposed to have settled as far as possible, the hole at the top was slightly enlarged and sealed with a thick layer of concrete.

The works being thus in a very advanced condition, except the length of about 200 yards adjoining where the Great Spring had broken in, it was decided to open the door in the head-wall, which had been built across the heading in December, 1880, and to take in hand the length passing the Great Spring.

At the end of May an attempt was made to open this door, but it was at once found that a quantity of rock and shale had fallen down behind it, and that it was impossible to open it. On the 30th May holes