IsTo. 4.
THE  BLACK-INDIES.
123
"never, no, never has my old heart been so
deeply stirred.    I long to attack the vein !"
" Patience, Simon," replied the. engineer.
" You have no idea of finding an open gallery
behind this wall?"
" Excuse me, Mr. James," replied the old
overseer ; "I have every idea possible ! If
there has been good luck in the way Harry and
I have discovered this deposit, why should not
this luck continue to the end ?"
The explosion of the dynamite took place ;
a low rumbling spread through the net-work
of subterranean galleries.
James Starr, Madge, Harry and Simon Ford
returned immediately toward the wall of the
cavern.
" Mr. James, Mr. James !" cried the old
overseer, " see ! the door is broken down !"
This comparison of Simon Ford was justi-
fied by the appearance of an excavation of in-
calculable depth.
Harry was going to spring in through the
opening.
The engineer, while greatly surprised at
finding this cavity there, held back the young
miner.
" Wait till the inner air becomes pure," said
he.
" Yes, look out for mephitical vapors !" cried
Simon Ford.
A quarter of an hour passed away in anxious
suspense. The lantern, placed at the end of a
rod, was then introduced into the excavation,
and continued to burn with unaltered bril-
liancy.
"Go now, Harry," said James Starr; "we'll
follow you."
The opening made by the dynamite was
more than sufficient for the passage of a man.
Harry, the lantern in his hand, entered it
without hesitation, and disappeared in the
darkness.
James Starr, Simon Ford and Madge waited
motionless.
One minute—which to them seemed endless
—passed away. Harry did not reappear; he
did not call out. Drawing near the opening,
James Starr no longer saw even the light of
his lamp, which should have illuminated this
dark cavity.
The stratum—had it then suddenly failed
under Harry's feet? Had the young miner
fallen into some fissure ? Could his voice no
longer reach his companions ?
The old overseer, unwilling to listen to a
word from his companions, was going to enter
the opening, when a light appeared, faint at
first, but growing stronger by degrees, and
Harry called out these words :
"Come, Mr. Starr! Come, father! The
way is clear into New Aberfoyle !"
CHAPTER IX.
THE NEW ABERFOYLE.
If, by some superhuman power, engineers
could raise like a block with a thickness of a
thousand feet, all that portion of the earth's
crust which supports this collection of lakes,
rivers, gulfs and adjacent lands in tho counties
of Stirling, Dumbarton, and Renfrew, they
would find, under this enormous covering, an
immense excavation, with which there is but
one other worthy of comparison—the celebrated
Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.
This excavation was composed of several
hundred caverns, of all forms and of all sizes.
It might be called a bee-hive, with numerous
stories of cells, capriciously disposed, but a
hive constructed on an enormous shell, and
which, instead of bees, might have served to
lodge all the ichthyosaurus, the megatheriums
and the pterodoctyls of the geological period !
A labyrinth of galleries, some higher than
tho highest arches of cathedrals, others like
naves, narrow and winding, some horizontal,
others perpendicular or slanting in every direc-
tion, united these caverns and permitted free
communication between them. The pillars
which sustained these arches bent in every way,
the thick walls firmly fixed between the gal-
leries, the naves themselves in this layer of
secondary rocks, were made of sandstone and
shale. But between these useless rocks, and
powerfully pressed by them, lay rich veins of
coal, as if the black blood of this strange mine
had circulated through their inextricable out-
work. These deposits were developed over an
extent of forty miles from north to south, and
they extended even under tho Northern Canal.
The importance of this basin could only be
ascertained by borings, but it would exceed
that of the carboniferous beds of Cardiff, in
Wales, and the deposits of Newcastle, in the
County of Northumberland.
It is necessary to add that the working of
this mine is singularly facilitated, because, by
an odd disposition of the secondary rocks, by an
inexplicable withdrawal of mineral materials in
the geological period when this mass solidified,
nature itself had multiplied the galleries and
tunnels of New Aberfoyle.
Yes, nature alone ! One would have believed
at first in the discovery of some works aban-
doned centuries before. It was not so. Such
riches would not have been left behind. Hu-
man beings had never roamed through this
portion of the substratum of Scotland, and it
was nature which had thus made these works.
But we repeat that no hypogeurn of the
Egyptian epoch, no catacomb of the Roman
epoch, could be compared with it—only
the celebrated Mammoth Cave, which, in an
extent of more than twenty miles, numbers
two hundred and twenty-six avenues, eleven
lakes, seven rivers, eight cataracts, thirty-two
unfathomable depths and fifty-seven domes, of
which some are suspended at a height of more
than four hundred and fifty feet.
Like this cave, New Aberfoyle was not the
work of man, but the work of the Creator.
Such was this vast domain of incalculable
riches, of which the discovery was properly due
to the old overseer. Ten years residence in the
old mine, an unusual perseverance in search-
ing, a strong faith sustained by marvelous
mining instinct. All these qualities combined
were necessary to success, there, where so
many others had failed. Why were the bor-
ings, undertaken by James Starr, during the
last years of the works, stopped exactly at this
limit, on the very frontier of the new mine ?
That was due to chance, which plays a great
part in searches of this kind.
However, it happened there was, in the
Scotch substratum, a sort of subterranean
county, which only lacked, to make it habita-
ble, either the rays of the sun, or lacking that,
the light of a special star. Water existed here
in certain depressions, forming vast ponds, or
even lakes larger than Loch Katrine, situated
exaetly overhead. Without doubt these lakes
had not the movement of water, currents, or
surf. They did not reflect the outlines of any
old Gothic castle. Neither birch trees nor oaks
hung over their banks ; mountains did not cast
great shadows on their surface ; steamboats did
not plow them ; no light was reflected in their
waters ; the sun did not impregnate them with
its glittering rays ; the moon did not rise on
their horizon. Nevertheless, these deep lakes,
whoso surface was unruffled by the breeze,
vyould not have been without charms by the
light of some electrical star, and united by a
2acing of canals, they well completed the
geography of this strange domain.
Although unfit for vegetation, the substratum
might meanwhile serve as a dwelling place for
a whole population. And who knows, in the
midst of an even temperature, at the bottom of
these Aberfoyle mines, as well as in those of
Newcastle, Alloa, or of Cardiff, when their
deposits will be exhausted—who knows but
the poor class of the United Kingdom may
some day there find a refuge ?
CHAPTER X.
GOING AND  RETURNING.
At the sound of Harry's voice, James Starr,
Madge and Simon Ford entered by the narrow
opening which brought the Dochart Pit into
communication with the new mine. They
found themselves at the rise of a rather large
gallery. One would have thought that it had
been pierced by man—that the pick and the
mattock had emotied it for the working of a
new deposit. The explorers asked themselves
if, by a singular chance, they had not been taken
into some ancient mine, of which the oldest
miners in the county had never known the-,
existence.
No ; it was the geological layers which had,,
escaped this gallery, during the epoch of the,-,
piling up of the secondary formation.
Perhaps some torrent had formerly rem
through it, when the upper waters had minjte»i
with the vegetable kingdom ; but now it was
as dry as if it had been bored several thousand
feet lower in the flooring of the gigantic rocks.
At the same time the air circulated easily, indi-
cating that certain natural vents put it in com-
munication with the outer atmosphere.
This observation, which was made by the
engineer, was correct, and they knew that the
ventilation would work easily in the new mine.
As for the fire-damp, which scarcely burned
through the schists of the wall, it seemed as if
it had been contained in a simple pocket, now
empty, and it was certain that the atmosphere
of the gallery did not contain the least trace of
it. However, as a precaution, Harry only took
in the safety-lamp, which insured them a light
for twelve hours. James Starr and his com-
panions then experienced complete happiness.
This was the entire satisfaction of their desires.
Around them was nothing but coal. Emotion
kept them silent. Even Simon Ford controlled
himself. His joy was expressed, not by l«ng.
sentences, but by short interjections.
Perhaps it was imprudent of them to go so
deep into the crypt. Pshaw ! They hardly
dreamed of returning. The gallery was
practicable, not very winding. No crevice
barred the passage no shoot propogated bad ex-
alations. There was nothing to stop them,
and, for'one hour, James Starr, Madge, Harry
and Simon Ford pursued their way without
finding anything to indicate what was the exact
direction of this unknown tunnel.
Undoubtedly they would have gone still
farther, had they not reached the end of this
large road which they had followed since their
entrance into the mine.
The gallery ended in an enormous cavern,
the height or depth of which they could not
estimate. To what altitude rounded the arch
of this excavation ? At what distance receded
the opposite wall ? The shadows which filled
it prevented any discovery.
But by the lamp light the explorers could
verify the fact, that this dome covered a vast
extent of stagnant water, pond or lake, whose
picturesque streams, tumbling overhigh rocks,
were lost in the darkness.
" Halt ! " cried Simon Ford, suddenly stop-
ping. " One step farther and we may roll into
some abyss ! "
" Let us rest, my friends," said the engineer
"We must soon think of returning to the
cottage."
" Our lamp will last us for ten hours yet,
Mr. Starr," said Harry.
" Well, let us rest," said James Starr.
" I admit that my limbs need it ! And you
Madge, don't you feel fatigued after such a long
walk ? "
" Not very much, Mr. James," said the ro-
bust Scotchwoman. We have had the habit of
exploring for whole days, the old Aberfoyle
mine."
"Pshaw!" added Simon Ford. "Madge
could walk ten times the distance if it were ne-
cessary ! But I want to know, Mr. James, it
my communication was worth the trouble you
have taken ? Say what you think, Mr. James,
say what you think ! "
"Ah, my old companion, it is a long time
since I felt such joy !" replied the engineer.
" The little we have explored of this marvel-
ous mine seems to indicate that its extent is
very considerable, at least in length."
"In length .and in depth, also ! " replied
Simon Ford.
" We will find that out later."
" And I, I am sure of it ! Remember my
instinct as an old miner. It has never deceived
me."
" I would like to believe you, Simon," said