Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/207

128 into the lower workings. As it had a drop there of more than 40 feet, the roar of the water, when you were in the tunnel, was deafening. My first action on reaching the bottom of the shaft was to taste the water. To my great relief I found that it was fresh, and we, therefore, had no reason to suppose that we should not be able to contend with this difficulty, as we had with so many before.

It was evident, however, that the water was coming in at a rate very much exceeding our power to pump it out, and therefore the time that would elapse before it rose through the lower workings must be spent in precautionary measures. It was impossible to approach the head-wall in the lower heading, and the door there was open ; but men went up to see that the door in the upper heading was properly closed, and to put additional timbers in the sloping heading to secure the head-wall there.

As there was a hole existing from the tunnel at Sudbrook to the new pumping-shaft on the south side of the line, bricklayers were at once started to close this hole with brickwork in cement. As soon as these works were started, I ascertained the following facts with regard to the inburst of the water.

The night-gang, working in the bottom heading westwards, had gone to work shortly after six o’clock, taking up skips with them, and had begun to shovel up the loose rock dislodged by the blasting, when the ganger said:

‘There is more water here than usual—the