Chatterbox, 1906 Part 13

When the human moles, burrowing under the Severn from opposite sides, had got to within one hundred and thirty yards of each other, the drills of those in the western part suddenly broke through into the secret hiding-place of a great spring. The water gushed forth in cascades faster than the pumps could pump it out, and in twenty-four hours the 'heading' was filled with water. This was in October, 1879, and for two months all work was stopped. Then Sir John Hawkshaw was appointed chief engineer. With great difficulty larger pumps were set in action to draw the water out, and when this had been partly accomplished, it became necessary for some one to descend the shaft through thirty feet of water, grope his way for one thousand feet along the tunnel, and close a certain door which had been left open when the workmen fled in panic before the deluge. This door, together with two pipes which ran beneath it, allowed the pa.s.sage of large quant.i.ties of water from under the river, the checking of which would enable the pumps to cope with the rest. A diver named Lambert undertook this task. He required twelve hundred feet of tubing to convey air to his helmet, and as this was more than one man could drag after him, two other divers were called upon to a.s.sist. One descended to the bottom of the shaft, while another walked up the 'heading' for five hundred feet, pa.s.sing Lambert's air-tube along as the latter continued the terrible journey alone. Stumbling in the darkness over the scattered tools which the escaping workmen had thrown down, he arrived at last within a hundred feet of the door--only to find that he had not the strength to drag the air-hose any farther! Floating upwards in the water, it rubbed too hard against the ceiling of the tunnel to be pulled downwards and onwards. Lambert sat down, and, by a supreme effort, pulled it a few feet more. But the task was beyond his strength, and, greatly disappointed, he returned to the bottom of the shaft.

A few days later he tried again. This time no air-hose was used.

Strapped on his back he carried a vessel filled with condensed oxygen gas, which he could admit to the helmet in small quant.i.ties at will.

Groping his way once more along the narrow, water-choked pa.s.sage, he at last reached the door. Pa.s.sing through to the other side he felt for the open end of one of the pipes, and turned the screws of its valve. Then, stepping back, he shut the door behind him. All that now remained to be done was to seal the second pipe. This had what is called a sluice valve, and Lambert had been instructed to turn the screw which closed it round and round, until he found he could turn it no farther; when that was done, he would know that it was shut. It took some time, but it was accomplished at last, and the triumphant diver returned to the upper air. He had been absent one hour and eighteen minutes.

Lambert had done well, and all were ready to acknowledge his great courage; but the water, strange to say, remained abundant, and it was only after still further increasing the size of the pumps that it was at last got rid of. Then the secret came out: no one had told Lambert that the sluice valve had a left-handed screw, and that, therefore, to close it he would have to turn it in the opposite direction to the usual one.

So all his heroic labour was expended on opening the valve to its fullest extent, and thwarting the purpose for which he had undertaken such a perilous duty.

This spring proved to be the greatest enemy the engineers had. But on one occasion the sea itself made an attack upon them. A tidal wave burst over the Severn's banks one night, and, rushing in a volume five feet high, entered the workmen's cottages, and rose above the beds on which their children were asleep. They were only saved by being lifted on to tables and shelves. Then the great ma.s.s of water rolled on, to fall in a huge torrent down the tunnel shaft. At the bottom eighty-three men were at work. They escaped by running up the sloping tunnel and climbing a wooden stage or platform at the far end. The water rose to within eight feet of the tunnel-roof. As soon as the mouth of the shaft could be reached from above, a small boat was lowered, and upon the gloomy subterranean river a party of rescuers rowed in search of the imprisoned men. A huge timber, stretched from side to side of the tunnel, soon barred the boat's progress, and it became necessary to return to the shaft for a saw to cut it in two. This they dropped overboard before accomplishing their purpose, and had to wait while another was obtained.

Eventually, however, the men were reached and removed from their terrible prison.

But through danger and difficulty alike, the Severn Tunnel was pushed on with, reaching completion in 1886--fourteen years after its beginning--and was opened for pa.s.senger traffic on December 1st, in that year.

JOHN LEA.

THE UNDECIDED TRAVELLERS.

'The world is wide,' exclaimed the Goose, 'I think I'd like to travel.'

'And so should I,' the a.s.s replied, 'I'm tired of loads of gravel.'

'Where shall we go?' inquired Miss Goose; 'Myself, I fancy China.

'Oh, no!' cried a.s.s; 'in Switzerland The mountain peaks are finer.'

'A fig for landscapes!' hissed his friend, 'I yearn for fields of paddy; About my food I must confess I am a trifle "faddy."'

'They'd make _us_ into food,' cried a.s.s, 'They'd fry our bones in batter; I will not walk ten thousand miles To make a Chinee fatter.'

And as no plan would suit them both, They have not yet departed, And I should hear with great surprise That they had really started.

A. KATHERINE PARKES.

A BRAVE ANSWER.

There was sharp fighting between the English and French in the Windward Islands in 1778, when General Meadows conquered St. Lucia, not, however, without himself being severely wounded at the very beginning of the engagement.

The General, though wounded, would not leave the field for a moment, and when the action was over, he visited every wounded officer and man before he would receive the surgeon's attention himself.

His heart was greatly cheered by an answer given to him by a young subaltern, Lieutenant Gomm, of the Forty-sixth Regiment, who, in the heat of action, was wounded in the eye.

'I hope you have not lost your eye, Lieutenant,' said the General.

'I believe I have, sir,' replied Gomm, 'but with the other I shall see you victorious this day.'

The brave young fellow had his wish, and history tells us that the French General 'was driven back with shame and with loss.'

A QUIET CONSCIENCE.

The famous Dr. Watts once said, when suffering from a dangerous illness, 'I thank G.o.d that I can sleep quietly to-night without being uneasy as to whether I awake in this world or in the next.'

How many of us can say that our consciences are so untroubled as that?

THE SHADOOFS AND DRAW-WHEELS OF EGYPT.

In the greater part of Egypt rain never falls, and if it were not for the Nile the country would be little better than a desert. But every year, at exactly the same time, near the end of June, the river begins to rise and overflow its banks. For three months it continues to swell and spread, until it floods nearly the whole of the valley in which it flows. It then begins to fall as steadily as it has risen, and retires gradually into its proper channel, leaving the land which it has overflowed covered with fertile mud, which has been brought down from the interior of the continent, where the Nile rises. This rich soil and the annual flooding of the valley by the river have made Egypt one of the most fertile countries in the world.

The Egyptian farmer knows well the advantages which he reaps from the overflowing of the Nile, and he cuts many ca.n.a.ls to lead the water to his fields, and builds dams to retain it when the river goes down. But the overflowing of the river, even when helped by ca.n.a.ls and dams, is not enough for the proper irrigation of the land, and the Egyptian farmers and field-labourers have to spend much of their time in raising water from the river, or the ca.n.a.ls, and distributing it over the fields, especially upon the higher ground, which the annual flood does not reach. Along the banks of the river, especially in Upper Egypt, may be seen great numbers of machines, which are used for raising water from the river into reservoirs, from which it is distributed through the fields.

The commonest of these machines is the _shadoof_. It is a sort of balance, with a weight at one end and a cord and bucket at the other.

The arm of the balance rests upon a bar of wood, which is supported by two wooden posts, the whole resembling the horizontal bar of a gymnasium. The posts are about five feet high and two or three feet apart, and they are set up on the top of a bank, close to the edge, so that the end of the arm which bears the bucket may project over the water. This arm is made out of a slender branch of a tree, and is fastened to the horizontal bar by loops of cord. Its thicker end is loaded with a large, round ball of mud, while the other carries a long cord, or even a slender stick, at the end of which is the bucket, or bowl, in which the water is raised. This bucket is not made of iron, but of basketwork, usually covered with leather or cloth. The man who works the shadoof stands near the water's edge, below the slender arm of the balance. He pulls down the cord to which the bucket is attached, until the bucket dips into the water and is filled, while at the same time he raises the lump of mud at the other end of the balance. When the bucket is filled, he lifts it up, and empties it into a little tank higher up in the bank, perhaps at the height of his head. The heavy weight at the other end of the balance aids him a great deal in lifting the bucket, even if it does not quite balance it. When the bank is high, and the water has to be raised some distance, several shadoofs are employed.

They are arranged in stages, or steps, one above the other; the second from the bottom takes its water from the reservoir, into which it has been emptied by the first, and the third from the reservoir of the second, and so on. Drawing water with the aid of the shadoof is said to be very hard work, especially in so hot a country as Egypt. The shadoof was used thousands of years ago, just as it is to-day, as we know by the pictures of it which are still to seen painted upon the walls of some of the ruins of ancient Egyptian buildings.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Egyptian "Sakiyeh."]

Another machine used for the same purpose is the _sakiyeh_, or draw-wheel. It consists of a horizontal axle, with a wheel at each end.

One of these wheels overhangs the water of a river, a ca.n.a.l, or a well, and over it there pa.s.ses a long, hanging loop of cords, to which a number of earthen pots are fastened. As the axle and the wheel go round, the pots on the cords are drawn over the wheel, and made to move in a circle like the buckets of a dredging-machine. The lower end of the loop of pots dips in the water, and each pot, as it pa.s.ses through the water, is filled. It is then slowly drawn up by the turning wheel, and as it pa.s.ses over the wheel, and is tilted over, it empties the water into a tank, or spout, and pa.s.ses on downwards, empty, to the river again to take up a new supply. The wheel at the other end of the axle is connected with a large horizontal wheel, or 'gin,' to which a pair of oxen may be yoked. These animals, walking round and round, turn the large wheel, which, by means of cogs, turns the wheel upon the nearer end of the axle, and so turns the wheel bearing the pots. The machinery is very rough, and squeaks and groans in the loudest manner when it is at work; but it raises a great quant.i.ty of water, and is not easily put out of order.

W. A. ATKINSON.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Egyptian "Shadoof."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "One of the largest pounded upon the wall with his tusks."]

ELEPHANTS ATTACKING A GRANARY.

A True Anecdote.

A traveller, who was making a tour in India some years back, tells us that in his wanderings he arrived at a village on the north border of the British dominions; near this stood a granary, in which was stored a large quant.i.ty of rice. The people of the place described to him how the granary had been attacked by a party of elephants which had somehow found out that this granary was full of rice.