THE QUEEN OF THE THAMES.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1775, 10 September 1874, Page 2

THE QUEEN OF THE THAMES.

A fresh party of men have started to work in the Queen of the Thames shaft and this morning were working away with a will. The sinking is still in hard ground, but shoots big dirt. The present contract is for about thirty-five feet of sinking. Prom what I could see of the shaftings, the ground although tight i* not difficult to work, nothing like so bad as the basaltic rock in niany of the Victorian mines. I noticed that the" stuff being sent up was wet, but on enquiry found that thft water did not come? in from the bottom, but from the side of the shaft near the surface. ' The broken nature of lhe country, through which it has been sunk perhaps prerentine perfect puddling. J n this shaft the ladders are down as clone to the bottom of the shaft as blasting will permit. From where the permanent ladder road ceases a chain ladder is provided. The whim and all the gear seems to work smoothly and well. I noticed one bit of forethought evinced by ..the mnnage»ent —when the bucket* are landed they are not, as in manyVses swung on to the brace without an^Sver over the men working below, but as soon as the loaded bucket comes to surface a flap is lowered, although the bucket may not touch it when full and being tipped, it is a kind and wise precaution to provide a cover for the workmen below. Aitcr seeing the Vanguard Company going down in such comparatively soft stuff I thought that .the. Qu^en of the liiames country may possibly have changed and have been somewhat similar to the Vanguard. I find that it has not done so.