SINKING A PIT SHAFT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 188, 23 June 1862, Page 6

SINKING A PIT SHAFT.

(From Temple Bur.) " Pule up," cries the banksman, when we have seated ourselves by the side of a sinker, as comfortably as we may, bii the rim of the boiick, and we are instantly lifted from the " tacking," or platform, which has been pushed over the pit. " Short," he cries again, in a prolonged tone ; and before he lias finished his long-drawn note, down we shoot; like a stone falling—so fast, that if as a workman says, ypu lose your Jim-Crow bat; it will come slowly after you, and not attempt to lead the way. . The glimmering1 flames of the couple of candles we carry with us just give- light enough to reveal the smooth walls of the shaft running upwards at a fearful rate ; for the motion,of the rope is sq easy that we hardly know otherwise.the rapid rate we are descending at. Iv places where there" has been a slight trickling of water down the brickwork, tbe sides of the shaft are glazed over, and have something of the: appearance of a sheet of water tumbling upwards. We perceptibly slacken speed as we near but "journey's end,' and- begin to hear more distinctly the clinking of hammer and chisel as the men industriously ply tlieir tools at the bottom of the shaft.

Carefully we get out of the big bucket, for the light is but dim, and there are boles of water convenient for stepping into.; but the men are very attentive to warn ns of danger, and we stand on firm footing at last, and begin to perceive what is going on round, and the state of affairs in a place rather novel to our ideas. As our eyes get accustomed to the light we see that the sinkers are engaged in blasting their way down thi^ugh a hard, rtose-gniined rock, and that for several feet above our heads there have been no bricks used, but the shaft cut round in theliving stone. One man is sitting churning away at a round hole iv the rock with an iron bar, some four feet long, swelling in the middle, with both ends flattened out and sharpened like the edge of a small hatchet, so that when one of the steeled ends begins to get blunted, he can turn the bar end for end, and go on again churning away. A tiny prill 'of Waiter is very pretty to look at on the surface of the ground, but is a sad enemy to the sinker. After going on successfully for a time, stimulate! by the progress he is making, lie finds, after firing a shot, that a little stream is oozing out of a crack in the bed of rock he is blasting through, arid which he knows will all have to be wound out as he goes down taking it with'him ■; and visions of long hours of waterlading in wet- clothes, or the alternative of sinking under a pump, oppress him like a night-mare " Coffering" is sometimes resorted to, and the water, effectually dammed out by a thick watertight casing (or coffering) of fine soil and cement brickwork, which is continued up the shaft above the level to which the water is found to rise. But this coffering is liable to crack in course of time, and then all the .trouble and expense is thrown away ; so that the plan is not often adopted, except where the "come" of water is. rather near to the surface.

; Sinking being usually hard work, and frequently in the wet, the men employed at it are accustomed to work in "shifts" of several hours' length, instead: of all the day through, as other men, having thereby an opportunity of changing their clothes often, if the nature of their work renders it necessary. As their employer in general finds each sinker mi extra suit of flannel, they have always one change of. clothes hanging before the ample fire in the cabin, dry and warm for them 'when they come out of the pit. The men soon get accustomed to these short spells of hard work and often much prefer it to labouring the day through at a slower and more equable stroke. There is advantage, too, gained in the greater rapidity with which the shaft is sunk by continually changing the men, and letting them work only such a length of time as they can put out their full strength. The bottom of 'a shaft six to tenfeet in diameter is a very limited area -and as only a few . men can work together in such a narrow compass, it is therefore most essential that the men who occupy that valuable space should make the best use of their time, and not fill a man's room without doing to the full a man's work.