Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/286

Rh  which they did pluckily, rather than turn back.

On the occasion of the visit of the mechanical engineers, Joe had quietly arranged that they should not go away without some idea of what blasting was like underground. A favourable spot being chosen in one of the ‘break-ups,’ about fifty holes were drilled, charged, and pinned all ready for firing at a given signal. The miners, being in the secret, were all quietly at work while the visitors were filing past; but as soon as the last of them had reached the safety point, each miner lit his fuse and ran, and the result was as successful as Joe could have wished. The fuses having been cut in various lengths, so as to give the effect of a bombardment, and the tunnel having been completed except just at this particular ‘break-up,’ the sound echoed and re-echoed along it to such an extent as to startle the most experienced of the underground travellers; and I think some of the younger ones were not sorry when the next shaft was reached, and they could get into the open air again, and get the ringing sound out of their ears.

The principal foreman on the Gloucestershire side was John Price. Price always said he was not a Welshman, but a Shropshire man. However, I think that matter is a little doubtful. He had also been at work through the Metropolitan and the Metropolitan District Railways, and was on the East