IN THE EARTH'S CRUST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2368, 20 July 1899, Page 63

IN THE EARTH'S CRUST.

By a Baxkeb.

To those who wish to experience a new sensation, altogether different from anything they have ever previously felt, a trip down- a very deep coal mine will probably furnish them with the desired novelty. The visitor, after assuming a "sou- wester," and also a miner's pea-jacket, a3 a protection against dripping water, steps on a small unprotected square wooden platform, fixed by chains at the corners to a wire rope. Tightly grasping the rope, and accompanied by a foreman, he commences to descend into the darkness. The mouth of the pit, which is perhaps about 30ft in circumference, soon apparently begins to narrow as* he is carried lower and. lower ; after a' time appearing not more than a yard across,, then it has dwindled to the size of a cheese plate, then* it is a small "round, disc 'of light about " as large as a shilling, soon still further diminishing, until no larger than. a threepenny piece, then of a pin's point, at length disappearing from view altogether. Still he feels that he is rushing down, down, down, into the very depths of the earth. The atmosphere is becoming hotter and hotter as he is appro.ac.hing nearer to the internal fires o£ the globe (the rise in temperature is about ldeg to every 60ft of, depth), but he feels that he must resist any feeling of trepidation, for as the platform on which he is standing is but a yard or two acroßS, and has no sides, if he should happen to become nervous he might perchance fall over aud reach the bottom sooner than he intended. The descentnow seems interminable, and the visitor feels as if he were spending a considerable portion oi the morning going down. The utter and Cimmerian darkness is positively appalling, for the poor glimmer of light of the Davy lantern only appears to make the- gloom , more intense (the writer is describing his experiences of five-and- thirty years ago, the electric light is now frequently used) ; the atmosphere is oppressive and heavy, and a peculiar malodorous miasma, like a combination of various gases and damp earths, appears to hang about, and he comes to thf conclusion that one visit iv a life-time is quite sufficient.

■At length he reaches the bottom of the pit, and, for some occult reason, is told to take a seat for a time on a low bench. Probably the object of this proceeding is in order' that the visitor, whose nerves ought, in. the opinion of the guide, to be somewhat shaken, may recover his equanimity. And now the guide commences his esploratiou of the workings ; and as these are several miles in extent, and Ufcvc lanutications in, all directions, the visitor takes care to keep (literally) in touch with him, for if in the pitsh darkness he should become separated from his mentor, he might spend the remainder o£ his days in a hopeless attempt to discover the right track. After threading these niaze-hke tunnels for a -considerable distance, a party of miners is seen at work in the murky obscurity. It is a nar-' row seam at this point, and the half-naked, begrimmed, sooty workmen — brave men, all of them, but in the gloom and obscurity more like gnomes — are lying down oa their sides inside the cleft from which they ara excavating the coal, some of them buried far in the dim recesses of the hollowed-out cavity which they have formed. Truly there me avocations more agreeable than that of coal-mining; and yet from generat" in to generation the same families contint . to follow in the footsteps of their predec .-ssors. Alter further porogrinations through flisurf:d workings, ventilating galleries, and narrOj", low tunnels, the up-cast shaft is at lyiigth ■ reached, and the visitor, this time , placed in a sort of cage, commences the long ascent, and arriving at the top, emerges in the dazzling light of day, and onco more breathes freely the pure heathland ail.

And surely, this transition from the murky atmosphere and pitchy darkueas of the depths of the earth s crust into the glorious sunshine above is a fit simile of another transition which some of us will experience, from this lower scene into the supernal glories of the third heaven. But, alas! this splendid and sublime translation is not foi all For those who refuse to conform to the Divine l,,Tf b V n " CV - OCabt y «*«* out, anJ condemned to a despamng and remorseful blackness of darkness, aitogethei lurid and ghastly.