Fifteen Minutes of Terror.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 131, 14 May 1872, Page 7

Fifteen Minutes of Terror.

In the year 1850 1 was a gold miner on the Durham Lead, Victoria, Australia. I had been tenderly raised in childhood, but that did not prevent me from following the calling of a gold digger and all its ups-aml-.lowns. I have run many risks from ground caving i in, fording rivers, &c, but the greatest and | most thrilling I think I ever experienced is I the subject of this narrative. The Durham j Lead is on the Ovens Diggings, and was j pretty good. I had worked on it some year j or two previous to the time of which 1 write. I was doing nothing then, and was induced by an old friend to try my luck in an old claim which he thought would remunerate us for our labour. The shaft on this claim, 1 will mention, was 230 feet deep, from the surface to the bottom. It will not be out of place to say the manner in which we worked the claim I was by a perpendicular pillar or derrick raised | over the shaft with a wheel to the other end, | in which the rope was run, and led out to a j walk'for a horse, who hauled all the washdirt I or gravel fron the claim. This appliance was ! also used for lowering and raising the men who worked down below. We had two ropes; I the one for raising the men was new and j strong, and the one that raised the gold and gravel was rotten. 1 took the management of the underground work, and my. mate always stayed on top, and attended to the work there. The company consisting of but two of us, we had to employ labour : and as white men were very scarce and hard to get, we had recourse to Chinamen, and I may ihere add, for tho bonefitof that much abused and derided nation, very enicicnt woodwork-

men they are. We worked the claim some month or six weeks before we found payable gold, when we were ruwardi d by obtaining very good proipicts. One evening, about six o'clock, my mate made the signal down the shaft that it was time to quit, but I was anx'ous to liave a certain piioa of work done and secured, so I told the Chinamen to go up and I would follow, as I invariably stayed down the last. At last 1 got to the foot of the shaft, and found that they had all gone up and the rope was waiting for me. I blew out the candle, put my foot in the rope, clutched hold of the rope above my head, gave the signal, and slowly commenced the ascent. Up, up ! Every foot I went the more disastrous would it be if anything went wrong. Looking above me, 1 saw a small opening like a pane of glass. It was the mouth of the shaft, the distance making it look very small. When nearly half way up I heard a sharp twang—reader, I can hear it now—which curdled my blood with an undefinable terror. What was it / Ah ! my experience told me too plainly—a strand of the rope had parted ! What my exact feelings were I cannot d3fine. A vague feeling of awe came over me. I trembled. I would hold on with an arm of iron, fingers of steel. But vain, all in vain ! I saw the strand slowly but surely separating itself from the main part. It was two feet above my head—it might as well have been fifty, for I could not reach it. Years of my life crowded into a few minutes. Should I cry for help? Of what avail ; if 1 could, they would never hear me! Instinctively I gave an inward groan, for no sound escaped my lips—my tongue felt too large for my mouth. But love of Hie is strong; it worked a powerful difference in me ; I saw I could do no good but keep perfectly still. I held my breath, thinking to make myself lighter—for in a few seconds I should be on the surface, or—oh, horror !—a poor, smashed, bleeding, broken mass at the b< >ttom. Slowly, slowly, I ascended ! " Hold on, you few threads ! hold on ! a human life is depending on your feeble strength !" I mentally prayed. I felt my body getting heavier, and heavier ; j the two small strands that were holding me were getting longer and longer ! In this moment I became conscious that it was lighter —I could see the daylight ! I was nearer the top, I was half-way out of the shaft ! I made a clutch at the framework or timber of the shaft, I was safe ! A dizzy feeling came over me ; 1 felt too thankful to speak. I sat, however, until I could hear my partner say—- " What's the matter ?" I asked him to look at the rope. A light was brought. I partly fancied it was a dream, a horrible nightmare ; but no, it was reality ! They had sunt down the old rope for the new one. lam a heavy man, the Chinamen were light. The rope was never used again. I could have broken it with my hands. My partner wxs very much chagrined at his carelessness, and felt it very much, no doubt.