CABLE NEWS,

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 70, 23 March 1907, Page 5

CABLE NEWS,

(at eibctiuo telegbamc. — coptmqhx.j © HEROIC RESCUE WORK. WONDERFUL SUCCESS OF DIVERS. EOOD CONVEYED TO ENTOMBED MINER. THROUGH SHAFT, LEVEL, AND RISE. PHBS3 ASSOCIATION. (Received March 23, 9.52 a.m.) ' PERTH, 22nd March. Divers have l cached the entombed miner pn the Westralia East mine, and have supplied him with food. His name is Varischefcti. In order to reach him, the clivers had to mate their way down the shaft from the 900 ft level, through jvater, down a ladderway, to the 1000 ft level. Then it was necessary to walk a distance of 300 ft along the 1000 ft level, then to ascend 30ft up a rise, at the top of which Varischetti is imprisoned, the comprossed air acting as in a diving bell, and keeping him from being drowned. Hughe3, a miner, who is used to divine, volunteered to assist the regular divers who were brought to do the work. Hughes, in his third attempt, succeeded in reaching Varischetti, after a hard struggle, the rise being almost blocked with mud. Varischetti was intensely surprised when the diver emerged from the water below. Water and food wore supplied to him. An attempt will be made to get Varisohetti out in a diving dresfc. The achievement is a triumph, and probably a unique one, in the exciting annals of mining rescues. The diver had to descend through water lOOft by laddorway down the shaft, then to grope his way for 300 ft along a level or drivo, then to scramble 30ft up a rise, that is, an .excavation made m6re or less perpendicularly from t£e level into the conntry above it. Evidently the "compressed air" means the. air which is imprisoned, like Vanschetti, in tho top of the rise, and which by its lesistance keeps tho water level down, and protects the man as does the air in a diving-bell. As food and water can be conveyed to Varischetti, tho length of lime in which he can live in his confinement would appear to be dependent qolely on the quantity of air in the rise, and how long it will take to become vitiated by his own respiration. If he is to^be got out in a diving-dress, that would presumably imply the ability of a diver to carry a second dress with him. Descending ladderways and clambering up rises are not very simple feats even in ordinary circumstances, pnd the navigation of the flooded workings must be au undertaking of extreme clifficnlty.