Chapter 4 Chapter 4 The Dochart Coal Bunker
Harry Ford was a tall lad, twenty-five years old, full of energy and well-built.His somewhat serious features, almost always in a pensive pose, made him easily recognizable from his boyhood companions in the mines.His features were regular, his eyes deep and gentle, his hair rather coarse, a blond with a hint of chestnut, and a natural charm which suited him perfectly to make him the perfect type of Rowland, Scotland on the Great Plains. A wonderful specimen of man.Working in the coal mines almost from a very early age made him a strong and kind companion.Guided by his father, driven by his own instincts, he went to work and cultivated himself at an early age, at an age when others were only apprentices, he had already formed himself into a certain character-in his position. One of the first in the world—and this is in a country where the ignorant is not valued because it devotes all its energy to eradicating ignorance.If the pickaxe never left Harry Ford's hands in the first few years of his youth, the young miner did not delay in acquiring enough knowledge to advance himself in the coal mine hierarchy, if it had not been for the mine. Abandoned, he had long since inherited his father's foreman status.
James Starr was still on his feet, but still had trouble keeping up with his guide, if he had not slowed down.
The rain was not so strong then.Large raindrops shattered before they hit the ground.To be precise, it was a gust of humid wind that was swept up in the air by a gust of cool wind.
Harry Ford and James Starr—young men with the engineer's light luggage—walked about a mile along the left bank of the river.After walking the winding river bank, they took a road leading to the fields, and the big trees on the road were dripping with water.Wide pastures stretched from one end to the other around the isolated countryside.Several herds of cattle were quietly eating the long green grass of the lower Scottish grasslands.There were cows without horns, or lambs with wool like silk, like the sheep in the children's sheepfolds.Didn't see a shepherd boy, must have taken shelter in a tree hollow somewhere, but the 'Scotch collie', a dog endemic to this part of the UK and known for its vigilance, was circling the pasture .
Yale Mine is about 4 miles from Callander.James Starr walked with restrained emotion.He hadn't seen the place since the day Aberfoyle's last ton of coal was poured into the Glasgow railway carriages.Agricultural life now replaced the ever louder and more active industrial life.The winter field makes this contrast more intense because of the cessation of labor.But throughout the year, an army of miners energized the land above and below ground.The carts loaded with coal were running day and night.The rails, now abandoned on rotting sleepers, were then creaking under the weight of the carriages.At present, gravel roads and mud roads have gradually replaced the railways in the former mining areas.It seemed to James Starr that he was walking through a desert.
The engineer looked around sadly.He paused briefly to catch his breath.He listens.There were no distant whistles and the panting roar of machines in the air now.On the horizon there was no cloud of blackish vapor mingled with great clouds that the industrialists liked to see.Not a tall cylindrical or prismatic chimney belching smoke after eating the bed itself, not a single exhaust pipe blowing out its white vapor at the top of its lungs.The land, formerly smudged with soot, now had a clean appearance that James Starr's eyes felt unaccustomed to.
When the engineer stopped, Harry Ford stopped too.The young miner waited silently.He could feel exactly what was going on in his companion's mind, and he felt it strongly—he, a boy in the coal mines, had spent his life in the depths of the earth.
"Yes, Harry, all that has changed," said James Starr, "but the precious coal must one day be exhausted from the digging here! You regret the time! "
"I'm sorry, Mr Starr," Harry replied, "the work is hard, but interesting, like a battle."
"That's right, boy! There's fighting at all times, dangers of landslides, fires, floods, gas explosions like lightning strikes! These dangers must be avoided then! You speak well! It's fighting, and it's Because of this, life is exciting!"
"Those miners in Alloah are luckier than those in Aberfoyle, Mr Starr?"
"Yes, Harry," replied the engineer.
"In fact," the young man cried, "it's a pity that the entire underground world is not composed of coal alone! Otherwise, it would have been mined for hundreds of millions of years!"
"Undoubtedly, Harry, but it must be admitted that in the meantime, nature has shown her foresight, and in forming our spheroid, more sandstone, calcareous rock, granite, fire Can't burn them!"
"You want to say, Mr. Starr, that humanity will eventually be destroyed by burning their planet?"
"Yes! Absolutely, my child," replied the engineer, "the earth will throw its last piece into locomotives, mobile internal combustion engines, steam turbines, gasworks boilers, and, necessarily, our world This is how it will be destroyed someday!"
"There is no need to worry about that, Mr. Starr, and besides, the coal mines will undoubtedly be exhausted more quickly than the statistics show!"
"There will come a day, Harry, when, as I see it, England is making a mistake by exchanging its own fuel for another people's gold!"
"Indeed," Harry replied.
"I know," added the engineer, "that neither the water power nor the electric power is exhausted, and that one day men will make the most of both powers. But what the hell! Coal is very convenient , and can meet the different needs of industry at any time! Unfortunately, man cannot produce coal of his own will! If the forest above the ground can be continuously regrown by heat and water, the forest below the ground, they, They cannot be regrown, and the earth will never be able to recreate them under the necessary conditions!"
Talking with his guide, James Starr resumed his brisk walk.An hour after leaving Callander, they arrived at the Dochart coal bunker.
Even to an unconcerned person, the bleakness of an abandoned facility is shocking.It was like a skeleton left over from a man who had been so alive before.
A few gaunt trees surrounded a wide field, and the soil was covered with a layer of black dust of combustible ore, but there were no more unburned coal chips, large lumps, or fragments of a single coal.Everything has long been taken away, used up.
On a small hill, there is a reflection of a huge structure slowly eroded by sunlight and rain.On the top of the frame is a wide outrigger or a cast iron wheel, and slightly below, there are those thick and bulging rollers. In the past, the cables that lifted the cages to the ground were wound around these rollers.
On the floor below, dilapidated machine rooms could be discerned, with mechanical parts cast in steel or copper as gleaming as they used to be.The framing of several walls had fallen to the ground, and the center of the grating had cracked and turned green from the damp.A few pieces of the pendulum spliced to the drainage pump rod, some broken or oily bearings, some gears with broken teeth, some hoisting machinery that was knocked down to the ground, and some rungs nailed to the brackets. The past was like the spine of an ichthyosaur, sections of rail on broken sleepers still supported by two or three rickety piles, some streetcars that could no longer pull the weight of an empty dump truck — Such is the desolation of the Dochart coal bunker.
The stone shafts of the well-worn mine shafts were covered under thick moss.Here the remnants of a certain cage can be found, there recognizable remnants of a coal store where the coal was sorted by mass and volume.In short, this fragment of a large wooden barrel hanging from a chain, this fragment of a huge support, this pierced cauldron plate, this twisted piston, this long pendulum leaning over the pump well head, this in the wind The wobbly gangplank, the one-span bridge trembling underfoot, the cracked fence, the half-collapsed roof overlooking the partitioned brick chimneys, which seemed to have rings on the breeches. The modern cannon, all of this, gave a strong sense of that abandonment, that misery, that desolation that even the ruins of old stone castles and the remnants of demolished fortresses could not have.
"It's a catastrophe," said James Starr, looking at the young man, who did not answer.
So the two went out under the lean-to roof that sheltered the Yale Mine shaft whose steps still lead down to the gangways below the coal bunkers.
The engineer leaned over the mouth of the well.
In the past, there was a strong airflow drawn by the ventilator gushing out there, but now it is a quiet abyss.It was as if we had come to some blocked crater.
James Starr and Harry Ford step onto the first landing.
During the mining period, some of the mines at Ashenfoyle were interconnected by dexterous machinery, which was highly mechanized; cages with automatic fall arresters, hooked on wooden chutes, and swinging ladders called "robots" .With a simple swinging motion, the miner can come down without danger or go up without much effort.
But since the end of the project, all these perfect machinery have been taken away.All that remains of the Yale Mine is a long string of ladders separated by narrow landings of 50 square feet.There are 30 such ladders connected end to end, allowing miners to descend to the sill of the lower drift.This is the only passage between the bottom of Dochart's coal bunker and the ground.As for the ventilation, the Yale mine's drifts lead to another mine with a higher head--the hot air escapes naturally through this counter-breathing.
"I'll follow you, boy," said the engineer, gesturing to the young man to go first.
"At your command, Mr. Starr."
"Do you have a lamp?"
"Yes, if only it were the same safelight we used to have!"
"Indeed," replied James Starr, "now there is no need to fear a gas explosion!"
Harry had only brought an ordinary oil lamp, and he lit the wick.In a coal mine that has been depleted of coal, primary hydrocarbon gas leakage does not occur.So there's no need to worry about any explosions, no need for that kind of wire gauze between the flame and the surrounding air to keep the fire from igniting the gas outside.The David Lamp, which was so perfect back then, is no longer used here.But if there is no danger, it is because the flammable factor which gave rise to it, which had made the fortune of the Dochart coal bunkers in the past, has disappeared.
Harry descended the first few rungs of the ladder above.James Starr followed him.After a while, the two of them reached the depths of darkness where only the light of the lamp was on.The young man raised the lamp above his head so that his companions could see better.
The engineer and his guide completed the twelve steps with the cautious step customary to a miner.The steps are still solid.
James Starr peered curiously at the dark inner walls of the mine, which the dim light allowed him to see, over which a half-rotted wooden siding still hung.
At the 15th landing, halfway through, they paused.
"Obviously, my legs are not as good as yours, boy," gasped the engineer for a long time, "but I can walk anyway."
"You're pretty good, Mr. Starr," replied Harry, "from, you know, having lived a long time in the mines."
"You're right, Harry. Before, when I was twenty, I could go down in one breath. Come on, on the road!"
However, just as the two were about to leave the platform, a voice came from far away in the depths of the mine.The sound became clearer and clearer like a gradually expanding sound wave.
"Ah! Who's there?" asked the engineer, holding Harry back.
"I don't know," replied the young miner.
"Could it be your old father?..."
"He! Mr. Stahl, no."
"Which neighbor is it, eh? . . . "
"We have no neighbors down the coal bunker," Harry replied, "just us, and only us."
"Well then! Let the trespasser pass," said James Starr. "Let the one who goes down let the one who goes up."
The two waited.
At this time, the voice resounded loudly, as if it was coming through a huge megaphone, and after a while, a few words of a Scottish song clearly entered the ears of the young miner.
"Song of the Lake," cried Harry, "ah! I'd be surprised if someone else sang it instead of Jack Ryan."
"Who is he, this Jack Ryan, who sings so well?" James Starr asked.
"A former mate in the coal mines," Harry replied.
Then, crouch onto the landing:
"Hi! Jack!" he yelled.
"Is that you, Harry?" he answered. "Wait for me, I'll be there."
The singing sounded again and more beautifully.
After a while, a tall 25-year-old boy appeared in the depths of the cone of light from the lamp he was carrying. He had a happy face, smiling eyes, a happy mouth, and fiery red hair. Step onto the landing of the 15th ladder.
His first movement was to squeeze the hand Harry had just extended to him.
"Nice to meet you," he cried, "but St. Mungo keep me! If I had known you would be back today, I would have saved me from going down the Yale Shaft."
"Mr. James Starr," said Harry now, turning the light on to the engineer, who was still standing in the shadows.
"Mr. Starr!" replied Jack Ryan, "ah! Mr. Engineer! I don't recognize you. Since I left the bunker, my eyes are no longer used to seeing in the dark as they used to be. "
"And me, I'm reminded of a little rascal who's always singing. It's been 10 years, kid! It's you, isn't it?"
"It's me, Mr. Stahl, who has changed his occupation but not changed his temperament. You have seen that? Ah! I think laughing and singing are always more worthwhile than crying and moaning."
"Without a doubt, Jack Ryan—what have you been doing since you left the coal mines?"
"I work at Mellows Farm near Irwyn in Renfrewshire, which is forty miles from here. Ah! It's nothing to compare with our coal mines at Aberfoyle! A pick is better than a shovel in my hand Or goads for poking cattle are much better! Besides, there are some corners in the old coal bunker that rattle, and happy echoes happily send your song back, and there! . . . But you're going to visit old Simon , Mr. Starr?"
"Yes, Jack," replied the engineer.
"Then I won't delay you..."
"Tell me, Jack," said Harry, "how did you come to the cottage today?"
"Want to see you, man," Jack Ryan replied, "and invite you to Irwin's Clan Festival. You know, I'm local'! There will be singing and dancing!"
"Thanks, Jack, but I can't go."
"Can't go?"
"Yes, Mr. Starr's tour may be extended, and I have to accompany him to Callander."
"Hi! Harry, Irwin's Clan Festival is in eight days, and by then I think Mr. Starr's tour is over and nothing will keep you at the Cottage."
"Indeed, Harry," replied James Starr, "don't give up your partner Jack's invitation!"
"Well, I take it, Jack," said Harry, "and I'll see you at Irvine's festival in eight days."
"In eight days, it's settled," replied Jack Ryan. "Good-bye, Harry! Salute to you, Mr. Starr! I'm so glad to see you back! I'll tell my friends about you. No one has forgotten you, Mr. Engineer."
"I haven't forgotten anyone," James Starr said.
"Thank you for everyone, sir," Jack Ryan replied.
"Goodbye, Jack!" said Harry, shaking his partner's hand for the last time.
Jack Ryan sang again, and soon disappeared up the mine shaft dimly lit by his light.
A quarter of an hour later, James Starr and Harry descended the last ladder to the bottom floor of the coal bunker.
The circular clearing below the Yale Mine radiates the various drifts used to mine the last phosphorous veins in the mine.Some of these alleys inserted into the schist and sandstone rocks are supported by the steps of thick beams that are roughly squared, and others are protected by a thick stone protection layer.Waste rock used to fill hollowed out seams is everywhere.Artificial pit logs, made of stone from an adjacent quarry, are now supporting the double floor, the third and fourth floors that formerly rested on the ore bed.The alley is now completely dark. In the past, either miner's lamps or electric lamps were used for lighting. In the last few years, the use of electric lamps was introduced into the coal bunkers.But now in the dark tunnel there is no more the squeaking of dump trucks on the track, the sound of ventilation doors slamming shut, the laughter of mine cart pushers, and the use of caving mining methods The loud sound of blasting rocks.
"Would you like to rest for a while, Mr. Stahl?" asked the young man.
"No, boy," replied the engineer, "because I want to get to old Simon's cottage quickly."
"Come with me, Mr. Starr, and I'll show you the way, but I'm sure you'll know your way in this dark labyrinth of the alley."
"Yes, for sure! I still have the whole traffic map of the old coal bunker in my head."
Harry held up the lamp to illuminate it brighter, and guided the engineer down a high alley that resembled a cathedral's transept.The feet of the two still hit the sleepers used to support the railway tracks during the mining period.
But before taking 50 steps, a boulder fell to James Starr's feet.
"Watch out, Mr. Starr!" Harry cried, grabbing the engineer's arm.
"A stone, Harry! Ah! These old vaults are no longer reliable, no doubt..."
"Mr. Starr," replied Harry Ford, "I think the stone was thrown... by a hand! . . . "
"Thrown!" cried James Starr. "What do you mean, boy?"
"It's nothing, it's nothing...Mr Starr," replied Harry falteringly, his eyes hardening, trying to penetrate the thick rock walls, "go on, please take my arm, I beg You, don't worry about stepping on the wrong step."
"Okay, Harry!"
The two walked forward, and Harry looked behind him, using his miner's lamp to illuminate the depths of the alley.
"Are we almost there?" the engineer asked.
"Ten minutes at most."
"it is good."
"But," said Harry in a low voice, "it's not that simple. It's the first time anything like this has happened to me. The rock must have fallen just as we were walking by! …"
"Harry, that was just a coincidence!"
"Coincidence..." The young man shook his head and replied, "Yes, a coincidence..."
Harry stopped and listened.
"What's the matter, Harry?" asked the engineer.
"I think I heard someone walking behind us," replied the young miner, pricking up his ears more intently.
then:
"No! I may be mistaken," he said, "just lean on my arm, Mr. Stahl, and use me as a crutch..."
"A strong cane, Harry," replied James Venthal, "and there was never a better brave lad than you!"
The two continued in silence through the shadowy outer hall.
Harry obviously had something on his mind, and he often turned around, hoping to suddenly find a sound in the distance, or a few rays of light in the distance.
But before and behind him was silence and darkness.
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