On this page
-
Text (1)
-
296 UNDER THE SEA.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
V December Lias Not Everywhere In Englan...
« on it toowithout producing any effect ) , and intolerably heavy . I , took the liberty of carrying * mine in my hand during part of out
wanderings underground , till on being appealed to by the others , " Captain John " suggested a preference for my wearing it on my
head , of whose wisdom a good knock or two which I afterwards gave the hat , to the happy _eseajDe of the head , assured me in the
afternoon . We got into our gig ( it was divided into small compartments
and could hold eight ) , we settled ourselves , we were ready . A jerk , a bump or two , and we were slipping steadily down the
inclined plane , as yet in the open air . "We looked down to the leftthe waveswhite and foaming as everwere beneath ; on the
right , hand was , the uprising precipice , before , us the black opening cut in the advancing cliff above the sea . Downwards we went into it in
a few moments , the rock roof arched over us dark and rugged , we could touch both jagged walls if we would . They gave us lights ,
one each , a tallow candle encircled in the middle with a lump of clay by which we held it , and by which we might , if we pleased ,
stick it , miner fashion , in our hats , or against the sides of the passages , if we should have need of both hands . Our candles ,
however , were presently puffed out by the draught , excepting , indeedmy neighbour ' s in frontwhich I plead guilty to having
extinguished , in a vain attempt to , relight my own . Our captain had his still burning , and there was a tiny lamp in the corner of
the gig , but we had not light enough to see more than that we were in a rude tunnel not three feet widenor much , if at allj
, more than six in height ; at first a vague glimmer touched the projecting masses overhead , soon that last remembrance of
daylight was gone , and only the feeble , unsteady rays from our lights linted on the darknessand vaguely revealed from time to time
uncouth g blocks of stone , with shapeless black shadows behind . There was in this partly seen and partly imagined wildness , and in
this doubting obscurity , an especial strangeness which is not to be described . Butwith the strangenessand the doubt , and the
half-, , seen wildness , it was a thing worth a dozen journeys to enjoy . In the dark one cannot count time ; I do not know how many
minutes it was before we stopped , certainly not many . Now we were abreast of a little wooden platform , one of many we had
passed unaware , which was the landing from the tramway to a long line of vault , low and narrow in most parts as the shaft down
which we had come so far . This was the 165 fathom level—that is , we were now , as we stepped from the carriage , at the entrance
of a subterranean gallery 165 fathoms below the Atlantic , which was rolling and lunging hih away over our heads . Sometimes
in one of the upper p levels , g not perhaps more than twenty feet
storm below -waves the sea roaring base , they 1 above can them hear , , they and say the , crash a Hollow and sound drag of of the the
296 Under The Sea.
296 UNDER THE SEA .
-
-
Citation
-
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1863, page 296, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071863/page/8/
-