Reports of the Inspectors of Mines of the anthracite coal regions of ...

Ex. Doc] Reports of the Inspectors of Mines. 195
cue ; but, alas, too late ! the cave in had taken place, and Pierson and
Murrish inclosed, or, perhaps, instantly killed, by the falling coal and
rock.
The cave in happened about twelve o'clock, Tuesday, the 20th day of
June, and I was there between three and four, p. m., of the same day, and
in company with the mine boss and others, we attempted to get in to where
the two men were working by four different routes, but were compelled to
retreat each time, owing to the place continually falling, and being hin-
dered by the portion which had fallen in surrounding the men that were
in. After trying all available means to extricate them, I concluded to
make one final effort on Sunday, the 24th, via Ebervale gangway, and after
we advanced through three breasts and pillars, by way of the cross-cuts,
we found ourselves cut off, at a point eight hundred feet from where the
entombed men were working, by the fallen rock, and the carbonic acid gas
which had accumulated, owing to the ventilation being cut off, compelled
us to retreat to the surface, intending to sink a shaft from the surface in
line with the breast that they were working, a distance of about two hundred
and fifty feet; but after measuring the distance from the boundary
line to the center of their breast, I observed that the whole surface had set
tied down, making it impossible to rescue them alive, supposing them to be
at the place of working, which is not probable, as it would take too long a
time to drive about eighty yards through rock.
Black Creek.
This creek runs over the coal bed, as can be seen by the cross section ;
and when the cave in occurred, the creek broke into the mines and filled
the lower workings very fast. When the water had raised to the upper
gangwa}', or E on the cross section, the pumps had all they could do to
keep it at bay. In course of time the caving in extended towards the slope,
that it became necessary to take out the pumps, which was a very hazard-
ous undertaking, for reasons tliat there was not sufficient slope pillar to
prevent the crush from closing it.
A great deal of risk was run to keep those pumps running until adequate
pumping Qapacity could be put in the Ebervale colliery to talte all
the water that the Harleigh colliery produced. A flume, about eighteen
hundred feet long, was built to convey the water over the portion caved
in ; and in the event of a few days, the crevices in the rocks became filled
in with washing, that the creek soon flowed in its regular channel. The
depression nearly in the center of the eighteen hundred feet was about
seven feet.
SUx\I>IVBY.
Coal Production.
Coal shipments, 3,t68,530 14
Home consumption, 8 per cent, of sliipments, .301,482 41
Total production, 4,070,014 15