Lesson 35 Coal—The Mine

Can you tell me, Fred, asked his sister a few days after, "how the men get the coal out of the mines in the ground?"

I'll try, said Fred. "That's just what our lesson was about this morning."

First of all, he began, "teacher told us that coal can't be dug up anywhere. The right name for a place where coal can be got is a coalfield. In the ground under the coal-field there is coal."

Yes, said Willie, "but coal, like all other minerals, is always found in beds or layers. These beds are often many hundreds of feet down in the earth."

The mine has to be dug right down into the coal-bed, said Fred. "At first it is only a deep wide pit, going down, down, through all the beds that lie above the coal. This pit is called the shaft."

When the men get to the coal-bed, they don't dig down any more. They begin to dig sideways through the coal itself. They dig out great wide roads, through nothing but coal.

But how do the men get down? asked Norah. "What do they do with all that they dig out? They must dig up a lot of things before they reach the coal."

I thought you would ask that, Norah, said Fred. "I will tell you. The men put up a big engine at the top of the shaft. Then they make a great box, which they call a cage. It is big enough to hold a dozen men. The cage is held by very strong chains, and the engine lets it down and draws it up again."

I see, said his sister. "Sometimes it takes the men up and down. Sometimes it brings up the earth, and stones, and other things, they dig out. At last it brings up the coal."

Quite right, little girl, said both the boys.

Now think, added Fred, "about the mine itself. As the men dig along their great main roads, they branch off from time to time. They cut out streets and lanes on all sides. It looks like a town under the ground."

Oh, said Norah, with a shudder. "What a dark, ugly place!"

SUMMARY

Coal is found in beds or layers hundreds of feet deep in the earth. The shaft of the mine is the great pit, which stretches down to the coal-bed. The miners go up and down the shaft in great cages. At the bottom of the shaft they dig out wide roads and streets in the solid coal.