According to Simon Ford, the fire-damp escaped incessantly, and from
that fact the existence of an important vein might be considered certain.
Consequently, the riches of the Dochart pit were not entirely exhausted.
The chief question now was, whether this was merely a vein which would
yield comparatively little, or a bed occupying a large extent.
Harry, who preceded his father and the engineer, stopped.
"Here we are!" exclaimed the old miner. "At last,
thank Heaven! you are here, Mr. Starr, and we shall soon know."
The old overman's voice trembled slightly.
"Be calm, my man!" said the engineer. "I am as excited as you are,
but we must not lose time."
The gallery at this end of the pit widened into a sort of dark cave.
No shaft had been pierced in this part, and the gallery, bored into
the bowels of the earth, had no direct communication with the surface
of the earth.
James Starr, with intense interest, examined the place in which
they were standing. On the walls of the cavern the marks of
the pick could still be seen, and even holes in which the rock
had been blasted, near the termination of the working.
The schist was excessively hard, and it had not been necessary
to bank up the end of the tunnel where the works had come to an end.
There the vein had failed, between the schist and the tertiary sandstone.
From this very place had been extracted the last piece of coal
from the Dochart pit.
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