Black Diamonds

of life in one of those small provincial towns which (quite rightly) have a good opinion of themselves . . . Mr. Burgess has a nice sense of humour and a shrewd eye for a portrait: I found his book very much to my taste." " The Times Literary Supplement," in a lengthy notice, is equally favourable : " . .. . a straightforward story of ordinary life and practical people told so simply and effectively that the characters take clear and decisive shape and their destinies become matters of interest and concern for the reader. . .. A book to be read through in leisurely enjoyment of the story that it quietly unfolds."

In these disjointed times there is much to be said for a book which affords leisurely enjoyment and one in which, to quote a comment on " The Beverleys " by Sir Hugh Walpole, " the people are all human and real—the first necessity in a novel."

One of the largest coal-mines in the Sheffield district belongs to the Nunnery Colliery, and the 600,000 tons output per annum from the concern has an extensive local sale both for domestic and commercial purposes.

It was by the kindness of one of the directors of the firm that I was able to visit on two occasions the Parkgate and Silkstone surface workings and actually descend to the working-faces of the latter seam.

The pit is situated within a mile and a half of the centre of the city, and the seams, extending as they do right under the streets, make it necessary to take special precautions in the method of removing the coal from the seam. The system used is known as the half and half system, which is designed to give support to the surface so that no lowering of it or damage to buildings is done. It consists in taking out the coal in levels and gates 44 yards wide, and leaving solid coal between 55 yards in width.

As I was to accompany the under manager on his daily inspection of the Silkstone seam workings, it was not quite 9 a.m. when I arrived at his office, situated in the heart of the surface plant surrounded by the shaft, screens, the washery where the coal is automatically washed, the sidings connected with both the L.M.S. and L.N.E. Railways, the other offices, engineering shops and the coking plant.

I soon changed into my oldest clothes which I had brought with me, and after I had been fitted up with the necessary equipment—torch, helmet and heavy stick—we made our way across the busy yard toward the lift at the pit-head.

A large steam engine, the working of which I was to see the next day, operates this lift on the pulley and cable system, and the descent of some 300 yards with two sides open to the wall was breath-taking in its suddenness.

At the bottom of the shaft, however, we had to wait a few moments while one of the trains of coal tubs from the the face was split up, each tub being dispatched to the surface in the lift, there to be automatically tipped into the screens, where it is graded by sifting, after grading the coal is washed and is then ready for distribution—either to the surface plant for further utilisation or direct into lorries for public consumption.

The tubs have a capacity of only 10 cwt., and run on a gauge of only 2 ft. 4 ins. There are, therefore, many needed to cope with the yearly output of 90,000 tons from the Silkstone seam alone. That output is one-third of the output from this section of the colliery, and the coal obtained is high quality house coal with a large demand locally.

The power used underground is electricity for the pumps and haulage engines, and compressed air for small haulage engines, pneumatic picks, drills, coal cutters, etc. The power stations are placed at intervals along the main plane, and the tunnels are nearly all encumbered by either the continuous cable for the railway, which keeps rising and falling between the tracks, or by the loudly hissing compressed air and water pipes.

As we rather gingerly made our way down the fairly wide main plane, dodging occasional trains, to the first workings 300 yards from the lift shaft, the air began to get noticeably warmer, and at the first power station I was advised by my guide to remove some of my outer garments.

It certainly did get much hotter as we went down the slope, and my discomfort was further increased by the necessity for bending almost double in order to clear the low roof, made even lower by the wooden beams encountered every few yards.

By the time we began crawling through even smaller passages, many with running water on the floor and all in complete darkness, my back was really sore and aching, and I was very glad to be able to stand up almost straight at the first working-face to be inspected.

The men, as usual, were only working three at a time at the actual face, and I was able to watch them while my guide interviewed the deputy in charge of this particular section and discovered how much work was being done. This latter point is important, as each section of men is paid on its merits as a body and not individually. 26

Leaving this working-face after suggestions had been made for supporting the roof, etc., we moved, with the usual difficulty (for me at any rate), to the next, where blasting was about to take place.

Blasting is not a frequent occurrence, because the miners have to pay for their own explosives. In a mine the usual method of making a small hole, padding it up, and touching it off from a distance by a spark, is followed, and after we had retired the necessary few yards round a corner, the leader of the men pressed the plunger. Rather to my surprise all that followed was a dull rumbling and the air became filled with clouds of coal-dust and the reek of cordite.

As the distance from the lift shaft increases so the difficulties in the transport of the coal are intensified. In the more awkward places moving belts have to be used to carry the coal from the working-face, either directly to tubs which are attached to the continuous cable system used for haulage, or to the fewer tubs drawn to the nearest " rail-head " by pit ponies.

Lads are employed to look after the ponies, and they treat them very well.

After visiting many working-faces where just the normal work was in progress, I was beginning to get rather tired of crawling along permanently doubled up, and I also realised that it was somewhere near dinner-time!

However, my interest revived when we reached a working-face where a compressed-air coal-cutter was in action.

This machine eats horizontally into the coal by means of a revolving belt of teeth moving round a long arm some 30 ft. in length. The arm, despite its length, is quite easy to move about horizontally, although how they managed to get such a tremendous machine right up to the coal face completely defeated me.

Another example of manual labour in the mine being supplemented by machinery is the pneumatic drill, already mentioned as being driven by compressed air. This drill is larger and heavier than the ordinary street drill, and is much more difficult to use, since the operator has to raise it at least horizontally and sometimes vertically before he can dig into and so loosen a piece of coal from the seam.

In the area at present being worked an average section of the seam is as follows :—dirt, coal 2 ft. 6 ins., dirt 1 ft. 2 ins., and coal 2 ft. 4 ins., and the usual height of the working-face is between 5 to 6 ft.

The farthest workings are over a mile away from the lift bottom, and I was very relieved to learn that we were 27

to travel back for the last half-mile on the " 2 p.m. Paddy Mail," or the train of tubs in which the men travel from the face when their shift is over.

Thus, after nearly five hours underground, I once more saw the light of day at the pit-head, grateful for the experience, but thankful to be out " on top " again ! J. A. Cato, Farm VI.

THE COUNTRYSIDE DURING THE COLD SPELL.

At the beginning of this year we experienced the coldest weather of this century. Records show that it was as far back as 1895 since we have had such intense frost. This has had a very serious effect in the country, the land being frozen many feet deep. Most farm work has been held up because the work that should have been done then, ploughing, was impossible. Most farmers filled up the time with hedge slashing, a job which is usually done at this time of the year when the weather is not fit for anything else.

As soon as the weather became warmer the snow began to fall. The first fall was about one foot deep and in drifts. All the stock had to be brought in from the fields as they were starving from both cold and hunger. In some parts of the country sheep were buried for several weeks until found and dug out.

The rabbits could not get at the grass and chewed the bark off the hawthorn stumps in the hedge bottoms instead.

The wild birds suffered greatly from the snow rather than from the frost, owing to lack of foodstuffs.

A word must here be said about the war on Wood Pigeons, as it was they who attacked the sprouts and kale in the fields, the only green things showing above the snow. The farmers built hideouts in their fields and shot many hundreds of these birds. They did not come in twos or threes, but in hundreds, covering the whole field and pecking at the sprout tops with their strong beaks. Two or three could be shot in a line at once.

The cold weather brought the seagulls in from the coast, seeking warmer weather and food. Many were seen on the Ouse near the School, and a young Herring Gull was found by an Olavite on the Ings.

One day when the snow was deep on the ground a Sparrow Hawk was seen to pounce on a Sparrow within a few feet of the house, and to carry it off in its claws. It is not often that these birds venture so near buildings. It 28