MINING UNDER THE SEA.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12505, 18 May 1906, Page 4

MINING UNDER THE SEA.

The discovery of a weak spot in the roof of one of the Newcastle mines and the consequent stoppage of work therein, i> possibly one of the results of the"creep which has luad such sensational effects in the district. If. as appears probablo from tho name of the mine, the workings affected were under the sea, the incident further emphasises the existence of a danger which has already been recognised in Newcastle. In tho latter part of last year the chief inspector of coal mines forbade any more hewing to be done in a portion of the Stockton Colliery known as "Garrett's district," I which lay under the sea, because it had ■ been found that tho roof consisted only 'of SOft. of solid sandstone, followed by I 14fift. to 150 ft. of alluvium. The Coal Mines Act of New South Wales requires that the minimum thickness of roof between a coal working and any body of water that may be above it shall be not less than 120 ft., and as alluvium, or mud, lets through tho water like a sieve, it could not be considered in estimating the thickness of the roof of this particular seam. There was, in fact, a oonsriderablo danger that the miners might find the Pacific Ocean breaking in upon them at any time, and a portion of tho mine was therefore closed. The conditions of tho New South Wales Act. it is said, were taken from the English Act, tho minimum cover of 120 ft of solid strata having been fixed after a fearful disaster in an English coal mine, in which a large number of men were drowned, owing to tho sudden irruption into tho workings of the waters of the German Ocean. As is well known, a number of tho Cornish copper and tin mines run under tire pea, and in the heavy weather it is asserted that the miners can hear tho boulders rolling about on the rocky bed of the ocean over their heads. The men themselves are not disturbed by the noise, but visitors aro said to betray no anxiety for a repetition of an experience which suggests such hideous possibilities.