lar level, with a rugged floor full of holes with water
in them, and with projections in the roof that rendered frequent
stooping necessary. The difficulty of one's progress in such places is
that, while you are looking out for your head, you stumble into the
holes, and when the holes claim attention you run your head against the
roof; but, thanks to the miner's hat, no evil follows.

We were now in a region of profound _silence_! When we paused for a
minute to rest, it felt as if the silence of the tomb itself had
surrounded us--for not the faintest echo reached us from the world
above, and the miners at work below us were still far down out of
ear-shot. In a few seconds we came to a yawning hole in the path,
bridged by a single plank. Captain Jan crossed. "How deep is it?" I
asked, preparing to follow. "About 60 feet," said he, "it's a winze,
and goes down to the next level!"

I held my breath and crossed with caution.

"Are there many winzes, Captain Jan?"

"Yes, dozens of 'em. There are nigh 40 miles of levels and lots of
winzes everywhere!"

The possibility of anything happening to Captain Jan, and my light
getting blown out occurred to me, but I said nothing. When we had
walked a quarter of a mile in this level, we came to the point where it
entered the pump-shaft. The shaft itself was narrow--about 8 or 10 feet
in diameter--but everything in it was ponderous and gigantic. The
engine that drove the pump was 70 horse power; the pump-rod was a
succession of wooden beams, each like the ridge-pole of a house, jointed
together--a rugged affair, with iron bolts, and nuts, and projections at
the joints. In this shaft the kibbles were worked. These kibbles are
iron buckets by which ore is conveyed to the surface. Two are worked
together by a chain--one going up full while the other comes down empty.
Both are free to clatter about the shaft and bang against each other in
passing, but they are prevented from damaging the pump-rod by a wooden
partition. Between this partition and the pump was the ladder we had
now to descend, with just space for a man to pass.

Captain Jan got upon it, and as he did so the pump went up, (a sweep of
10 or 12 feet), with a deep watery gurgle, as if a giant were being
throttled. As I got upon the ladder the pump came down with another
gurgle, close to my shoulder in passing. To avoid this I kept close to
the planks on the other side, but at that moment I heard a noise as