Chapter 13 Chapter Thirteen Coal City

Three years after the incident just described, the guide Yona or Murray, with great charm, suggested that the numerous sightseers, passing through Stirlingshire, spend a few hours visiting the coal mines of New Aberfoyle. No matter which country in the New World or the Old World, there is no mine that can present a more exotic appearance. First, visitors are brought safely and effortlessly to the digging face, 1,500 feet below the county surface. In fact, seven kilometers southwest of Callander, a crooked tunnel, adorned with a grand entrance with pylons, serpentines, and porticoes, is level with the working surface.This tunnel, with a gentle slope and wide hollows, leads directly to this dungeon so curiously excavated in the Scottish Highlands.

A double-track railway, whose carriages are driven by a hydraulic power, stops every hour in this village built under the county, perhaps with an ambitious name, Coal City, that is, the city of coal. Upon arrival in Coal City, visitors are placed in a center where electricity plays a primary role as the prime mover of heat and light. In fact, the ventilation shafts, however numerous they were, could not possibly mix enough sunlight into the deep darkness of New Aberfoyle.At the same time, an intense light filled the center of the darkness, where a multitude of electric wheels took the place of the sun.Suspended below the soffit faces of the vaults, and anchored to natural pillars, electric currents generated by electromagnetic machines continuously energized some of them the sun and others of the stars which illuminated the field extensively.When it's time to rest, a switch is enough to create an artificial night in these deep abysses of the coal mine.

All these devices, large and small, operate in a vacuum, that is, their glowing arcs never touch the surrounding air.As a result, when the gas mixed in the air reaches the ratio of explosion, there is no need to worry about any explosion.The prime mover of electricity is equally invariably employed in all the needs of industrial and domestic life, in the houses of Coal Town as in the digging lanes of New Aberfoyle. First of all, it must be said, engineer James.Stahl's vision regarding the opening of new coal mines was fully realized.The abundance of carbonaceous veins is difficult to quantify.To the west of the Dungeon, a quarter of a mile from Coal City, the miners' pickaxes struck the first veins.Workers' housing estates therefore do not occupy the center of mining.The underground engineering is directly connected to the ground engineering through ventilation shafts and mining shafts, so that different mine layers are connected to the ground.The large tunnels of the railway lines, which use hydraulic traction, are used only to transport the inhabitants of the Coal City.

Everyone remembers the curious construction of the vast cavern in which the old foreman and his companions were imprisoned during their first explorations.There, over their heads, was a rounded, curved dome.The pillars supporting the dome disappear into vaults of slate at a height of three hundred feet—almost equal to the height of Mammoth Dome in the caverns of Kentucky. As we all know, this huge hall is the largest underground building in the United States and can easily accommodate 5,000 people.In this part of New Aberfoyle, the proportions are the same and the layout is the same.Here, however, instead of the wonderful stalactites of the famous cave, there are raised carbonaceous veins that burst out of all the rock walls as if under the pressure of the fractured fissures of the flaky veins. .It can even be said that some of the flakes in the round carvings of coal fines will burn in the sun.

Below this dome extends a lake whose extension can be compared to the Dead Sea in the Mammoth Dungeon. The transparent water in the deep lake is full of eyeless fish.Engineers named the lake Malcolm Lake. It was there, in that great natural cave, that SimonFord had built his new cottage, and he would not exchange it for the prettiest mansion in Edinburgh's Princes Street.The home sits on the edge of a lake, with its five windows looking out onto the dark water that stretches as far as the eye can see. Two months later, the second house stood in Simon.The proximity of Ford's cottage.That's James.Starr's residence.Engineers put their hearts and souls into the new Aberfoyle.He was just as happy to live there, and if he agreed to go out again, it would be his business imperiously forcing him to do so.He was, indeed, living there among his miners' society.

Since the discovery of the new seam, all the workers in the old coal mine hastily abandoned the plow and the spiked harrow, and took up the pickaxe and pickaxe again.Convinced that they would never lose their jobs, and that the boom in mining would lead to high wages for the labor force, they left the above ground and went underground to live in the coal mines, whose natural configuration befits such a settlement. These brick miners' dwellings, arranged little by little in a curious fashion, some on the shore of Malcolm Lake, some on those arches like cathedral buttresses against the thrust of the arches. under.Coal miners who hammer rocks, mine cart pushers who transport coal, engineering drivers, installers who use pillars to support mine tunnel supports, road maintenance workers who are responsible for road repairs, and use rocks for mining parts The earth-fillers who replaced coal, in short, all these workers who worked more underground, made their homes in New Aberfoyle, and gradually in the north of Stirlingshire, formed the Coal Town at the East Head of Lake Catlin.

So it's a kind of Flemish country that stands on the shores of Lake Malcolm.A chapel built for the blessing of St. Giles overwhelms all of this with a gigantic overhang, the bottom of which is submerged in the waters of the subterranean sea. When this subterranean village is illuminated by the glare cast by the discs suspended from the dome's pillars or from the arches of the side temples, it takes on a curious effect under its somewhat magical appearance, confirming that the guides A recommendation from Murray or Yona.That's why tourists flock in droves. It goes without saying that the residents of Coal City exude pride in their settlement.They also seldom leave their workers' housing estates, imitating Simon S.Ford, he never wanted to get out of here.The old foreman asserted that it had been raining up there, and, having said the climate of the United Kingdom, it must be admitted that he could not be wrong.The family in New Aberfoyle prospered.In three years, these families have reached a certain level of well-off that they never want to go to the county grounds.Many babies born when work restarted had never breathed outside air.

Jack.So Ryan couldn't stop saying: They have been weaned for eighteen months, yet they haven't seen the sun yet! On this point, it must be noted that Jack.Ryan was one of the first to arrive at the engineer's call.This happy companion makes it a duty to get back into the old business.Mellows Grange thus lost his singer and permanent bagpiper.But that's not to say Jack.Ryan stopped singing.Instead, the loud echoes of New Aberfoyle echoed him with their stony lungs. Jack.Ryan is in Simon.Ford's new cottage made his home.They offered him a room, and he, being a simple and frank man, accepted it without ceremony.Mrs. Madge liked his good nature and cheerful disposition.She more or less shared his idea of ​​ghosts haunting the coal mines, and when they were alone they told each other macabre tales that would make the myths of the Far North Greatly enhanced.

Jack.Ryan thus became the joy of the cottage.Besides, this is a good man, a strong worker, and six months after the restart of work, he became the captain of a team working underground. It's all very well done, Mr. Ford, he said, he was setting up his home a few days ago, you've discovered a new lode, and if you nearly died for that discovery, well, it's The price is not too expensive! No, Jack, that's even a good deal for us there!The old foreman replied, but whether Mr. Starr or I, we will not forget that you saved our lives! No, Jack.Ryan went on to say that your son Harry saved him because he was going to accept my invitation to Irving's festival

It didn't go there, did it?Harry shook his friend's hand and retorted, no, Jack, it was you, your wounds were just recovering, it was you, who didn't waste a day, an hour, and kept us alive when we were found in the coal mines! Well, don't say that!The stubborn lad quickly retorted, I won't let you say nothing at all!I'm in such a hurry to find out what's the matter with you, Harry, that's all.But, in order to let everyone know whom to be grateful for, I will add that if it weren't for the elusive goblin ah!We think together, Simon.exclaimed Ford, a goblin!

A goblin, a ghost, a fairy's son, Jack.Ryan repeated, a grandson of Lady Lighthouse, a Urisk.Anyway, call it what you will!Indeed, without him we would never have entered the alley from which you could no longer come out! Undoubtedly, Jack, Harry replied, it remains to be seen whether this man is as supernatural as you would like to believe. supernatural!Jack.Ryan yelled, but he was as supernatural as a house god, saw him running with a lantern, tried to catch up to him, he avoided you like a spirit in the air, and disappeared like a shadow!Don't worry, Harry, you'll see him again someday! Well, Jack, Simon.Ford said, whether he is a house god or not, we will try to find him, and you must help us in this matter. You'll make a loss, Mr. Ford!Jack.Ryan replied. OK!Just wait and see, Jack! It is easy to imagine how quickly New Aberfoyle became familiar to the Fords, and especially to Harry.The latter got acquainted with the most mysterious bends there.He could even tell that a certain point on the ground was exactly this or that point of the coal mine.He knew that above this seam stretched the Firth of Creed, and there stretched Loch Softmonde or Loch Catlin.These pillars are branches of a ridge of the Grampians they support.This vault is the bedrock of Dumbarton.Over the top of this wide pond runs the Baruch's Railway.There, the coast of Scotland ends.There, is the starting point of the sea, and in the big storm of the vernal or autumnal equinox, the sound of rumbling and rumbling can be clearly heard.Harry was simply an excellent guide in these natural catacombs, and what the guides on the snow-tops of the Alps do in full light, he did so with an unrivaled instinctive precision in the dark of the coal mines. can do it. So he loves it, this new Aberfoyle!How many times had he ventured deep into the deepest and deepest places of New Aberfoyle with a lamp in his hat.He deftly steered a small boat to explore its ponds.He even shoots pintails, squirrels, and muscovy, because many wild birds fly into this basement, and they feed on the fish, and these black waters are full of fish.Harry's eyes seemed made for this dark space, like a seaman's eyes for the distant horizon. Yet, on such a run, Harry seemed to be drawn irresistibly by the hope of finding the mysterious man whose intervention, to be honest, saved not only him but everyone else, his family and him.Can he find him?Yes, if he trusted his hunch, sure enough.No, if he had to conclude from the ineffectiveness of his search up to that point. There was no repeat of the attack directed at the old foreman's family before New Aberfoyle was discovered. That's how things are in this strange realm. Don't think that even when the sketches of the Coal City were just drawn, all entertainment was out of touch with this underground city, where life was dull and monotonous. Not at all.This group of residents, with the same interests, the same hobbies, and almost the same wealth, actually formed one big family.People are acquainted with each other, in contact with each other, and seldom feel the need to go outside for entertainment. Besides, walking in the coal mines and picnics on lakes and ponds every Sunday is an equally pleasant pastime. Bagpipes are often played on the shores of Lake Malcolm.The Scots arrived at the call of their national instruments.People were dancing, and that day, Jack in a highlander costume.Ryan is the king of the festival. In short, it can be concluded from all this that, according to Simon.According to Ford, the Coal City has already been able to compete with the capital of Scotland. That city suffers from severe cold in winter and scorching heat in summer. However, it is confirmed by its nickname, the old chimney [Note]. [Note] The smoky Odd is a nickname given to old Edinburgh.