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The Underground City-Part6_JULES VERNE(1828-1905)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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ten years older, often saw the last 'monk' working in the mine.

He was called so because he wore a long robe like a monk.



His proper name was the 'fireman.' At that time there was

no other means of destroying the bad gas but by dispersing



it in little explosions, before its buoyancy had collected

it in too great quantities in the heights of the galleries.



The monk, as we called him, with his face masked, his head muffled up,

all his body tightly wrapped in a thick felt cloak, crawled along



the ground. He could breathe down there, when the air was pure;

and with his right hand he waved above his head a blazing torch.



When the firedamp had accumulated in the air, so as to form

a detonating mixture, the explosion occurred without being fatal,



and, by often renewing this operation, catastrophes were prevented.

Sometimes the 'monk' was injured or killed in his work,



then another took his place. This was done in all mines until

the Davy lamp was universally adopted. But I knew the plan,



and by its means I discovered the presence of firedamp

and consequently that of a new seam of coal in the Dochart pit."



All that the old overman had related of the so-called "monk"

or "fireman" was perfectly true. The air in the galleries



of mines was formerly always purified in the way described.

Fire-damp, marsh-gas, or carburetted hydrogen, is colorless,



almost scentless; it burns with a blue flame, and makes

respiration impossible. The miner could not live in a place



filled with this injurious gas, any more than one could live

in a gasometer full of common gas. Moreover, fire-damp, as



well as the latter, a mixture of inflammable gases,

forms a detonating mixture as soon as the air unites with it



in a proportion of eight, and perhaps even five to the hundred.

When this mixture is lighted by any cause, there is an explosion,



almost always followed by a frightful catastrophe.

As they walked on, Simon Ford told the engineer all that he had done



to attain his object; how he was sure that the escape of fire-damp took

place at the very end of the farthestgallery in its western part,



because he had provoked small and partialexplosions, or rather

little flames, enough to show the nature of the gas, which escaped



in a small jet, but with a continuous flow.

An hour after leaving the cottage, James Starr and his two companions



had gone a distance of four miles. The engineer, urged by anxiety

and hope, walked on without noticing the length of the way.



He pondered over all that the old miner had told him, and mentally weighed

all the arguments which the latter had given in support of his belief.



He agreed with him in thinking that the continued emission

of carburetted hydrogen certainly showed the existence of a new



coal-seam. If it had been merely a sort of pocket, full of gas,

as it is sometimes found amongst the rock, it would soon have



been empty, and the phenomenon have ceased. But far from that.

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.

"We must attack the dyke," said Ford, raising his pick;



"for at the other side of the break, at more or less depth,

we shall assuredly find the vein, the existence of which I assert."



"And was it on the surface of these rocks that you found out

the fire-damp?" asked James Starr.



"Just there, sir," returned Ford, "and I was able to light




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