The romance of mining; containing interesting descriptions of the methods of mining for minerals in all parts of the world

Front matter

ARCHIE- lL'E AMS

Uniform with this Volume Crown 8vo. Cloth, gilt.

THE ROMANCE OF

Chapter I Page

The Ages of Man — The Stone Age — The Copper Age — The Bronze Age — The Iron Age — The Steel Age — The discovery of gold, copper, lead, silver, quicksilver, and zinc — Iron and the smiths — Why iron was found so late — Its effects on civilisation — Coal — The precious metals and their influence on exportation— Metallurgy and science— Metallurgy and mechanics — The romance of mining — Dangers of mining — The scope of this book 17

Chapter II

Features of early mining — Riches of the ancients — The Egyptian mines — The earliest European miner — The Etruscan mines of Campiglia — The Phoenicians — Zimbabwe — The Romans as miners — The Romans in Britain — Aztecs and Peruvians — The development of mining methods — Ventilation — Gunpowder — Hoisting devices — Comparative comfort of modern miners 30

Chapter III "the Eldorado Of The Great West "

The Sierra Nevada — The result of altering a mill-race — First discovery of gold in California — Booty scented by the public — Gold reaches San Francisco— Sudden rise in wages — Scenes in 'Frisco — Off to the diggings — The Mormons — The mining outfit — Scarcity of water — Disappointed hopes — " Placer " mining — Panning-out — The sluice — Racial feeling — Hardships and disease — Riotous extravagance — What the average miner got — Rough justice — Danger of wealth — Incredible selfishness— Trouble in San Francisco — The trans-continental journey — What Mark Twain saw — Rapid increase in California's population — The miner's restlessness — The sad results — Exhaustion of ' ' placers" — Hydraulic mining — Gigantic "flumes" — How gold is washed out by the hydraulic jet — Devastating effect on the country ... 44

Chapter IV Page

First discovery of gold in Australia — A convict's hard luck — Early discoveries hushed up — Hargraves finds the New South Wales deposits — The " rush " — Melbourne folk alarmed — Gold found in Victoria — Huge nugget found at Meroo Creek — Its effect on the colony — Victorian gold — Wonderful "pocket" struck — Overcrowding of Melbourne — "Canvas Town" — Rapid growth of Melbourne — Ill-feeling aroused by mining fees — Ballarat riot — Gold-field extravagance — Curious plight of South Australia — Special measures for gold-transport — The great nuggets of Australia 70

Chapter V

Sterile character of West Australia — Gold at Coolgardie — A lucky find — Another lucky find — The luck of "Hannan's" — The Westralian fields — Coolgardie — Wind and Dust — Want of Water — "Dry-blowing" — "Hannan's Brownhill" and "Great Boulder" — The Coolgardie Water Supply — A pipe 328 miles long — Description of the pipe line — Effect of Gold discoveries on Australia ... 85

Chapter VI The Gold-mines Of The Witwatersrand

Gold and War — Value of these mines — Nature of Tramvaal deposits — The Witwatersrand — ' ' Banket " — Value of the "Banket" reef — The gold output — The " Essential Kaffir" — The labour supply — Recruiting— Chinamen imported — How the mines are worked — How the ore is treated — The cyanide process — Difference between Rand and other gold mines . . . . . . . . . .96

Chapter VII

The Excelsior arrives in 'Frisco Bay — California upset — The Yukon district — The early approaches thither — Forty-Mile — George Carmack's find — A unique episode in gold-mining history — The reward of laziness — Wonderful earnings — Melting the ground — The " clean-up " — Fortunes made — A rush to the Klondike — The Chilkoot and White Passes — Down the Yukon — Terrible mortality among baggage animals in the White Pass — Growth of Dawson — H igh pri ces — Dawson of to-day — The Klondike " placers " — Mining laws — How Alaska is being opened up — The White Pass Railway — Alaska's future . .110

Chapter VIII

The high estimation in which the Diamond has always been held — Mythical properties — Actual properties — Its value as compared with that of the Ruby — Diamond-cutting at Amsterdam — The Carat — Varieties of

IO

PAGE

Diamond — India the earliest source of diamonds — Brazil a rival — Minas Geraes — Bahia — An observant shepherd — South African finds — A child's toy leads to the discovery of the Kimberley fields — The diamond "pipe" — Early days in Kimberley — Water invades the mines — The Illicit Diamond Buyer — ' ' De Beers, Limited" — How the Blue Earth is disintegrated — The Pulsator — Kaffir labourers — The Compound — Work below ground — Diamond market controlled by De Beers — Value of Kimberley production — Kimberley in the War — Historic Diamonds — The Great Mogul — The Koh-i-nur— The Pitt — The Orloff— The Cullman 132

Chapter IX

Discovery of the Lode — Henry Comstock — Silver ore cast aside as worthless— An assay proves its true value — " Rush " to the mines — Difficulty of treating ore — Paul's reduction mill — The timbering of the mines — Litigation — Bonanza times — Mark Twain — The Sanitary Flour Sack — Extent of the mines— The overland telegraph — The new highroad — Its maintenance — Rivalry between stage drivers — Accidents — Depression— Labour troubles — Water inroads — The Sutro Tunnel — A marvellous engineering feat — Hardships of tunnel-driving — John W. Mackay — The "Virginia Consolidated" — Perseverance brings fortune— The Big Bonanza — Huge yields — Wild speculation — Scene in the mines — High temperature — A sad contrast — The fate of the Comstock . 154

Chapter X

Fifty years ago — Significant names — Early history — First era of mining — Valuable rubbish — Second era — Great profits — A railway episode — Third and fourth eras 182

Chapter XI

Mexico as a silver producer — What Humboldt found in 1802 — The total production of silver — Huge lumps of solid m^tal — Sensational fortunes— A lucky priest — A millionaire fiddler — Two fortunate peasants — The " Good Success " Mine — The mines of Zacatecas — The mines of Guanajuato — The Valenciana Mine — The Marques de Rayas — Mexican mining law about depth of claims — Zacatecas wealth . . 189

Chapter XII

The Real del Monte — Early history — Mexican mining laws — Bustamente and Terreros — The great adit — Huge profits — Kingly favour and great promises — Water again causes trouble — Decline of the Real — English enterprise — Mexican mining mania — Great energy of newowners — Their mistake — Checked by water — The crash — Third chapter of the mine's history — Below ground — Thefts of miners — The refineries — The patio process — Silver and Silverland . . . 196

Chapter XIII The Copper Mines Of The Rio Tinto

PAGE

The natural riches of Spain — Early miners — The Carthaginians — The Romans — Blindness of Spaniards — The irony of history — The Rio Tinto — Modern development — Vallejo — Vaillant — Lieberto Wolters — Early company promotion — Report on the Rio Tinto's resources — Samuel Tiquet — Thomas Sanz — The Spanish Government tries its hand — The Marquis de Remise — The Government decides to sell its rights — French invaders — German invaders — Doetsch, Sundheim, and Blum — A gigantic payment — The Rio Tinto Mine — Separation of copper from its ore — Spain's future — "Wanted" .... 211

Chapter XIV

The copper contributions of different countries — The United States — The Lake Superior deposits — History of their discovery — A large mass of solid copper found — Sensational blocks of metal — The Calumet and Hecla Mine — A huge shaft — Machinery at the mine — Refining — A bad speculation — The Montana deposits at Butte — The Anaconda Mine — Bessemerising copper — Arizona — California — The copper mines of Ashio, Japan — Fahlun — Rammelsburg — Splitting rocks with fire — The Burra Burra Mine — British copper mining — A decayed industry — The Parys Mountains, Anglesea — Concluding remarks . 224

Chapter XV

Characteristics of quicksilver — Its uses — Cinnabar — Almaden — Its early history — The workings — Dangers of quicksilver mining — Poisoning — New Almaden — Its discovery — 111 success of first company — Separation of metal from ore — Description of the mine — The miner — The carrier — Sorting the ore — Injuries to health — Mexican mining superstition — Figures relating to New Almaden .... 245

Chapter XVI

Cornwall — Its place in history — Phoenician tin merchants — The chief groups of mines — Nature of ore-seams — The Cornish miner — Mining feats — Carclaze mine — Botallack submarine mine — A storm overhead — The Wheal Wherry Mine — A persevering miner — Carbonas — Wheal Vor mine — Patience rewarded at Old Crinnis — Dolcoath — Getting out the ore — The man-engine — Treatment of ore — Uses of tin — Tin statistics .......... 258

Chapter XVII Page

The importance of coal — Its origin — Its formation — The distribution of coal — Some figures — The coalfields of South Wales — Of the Midlands — Of the Northern Counties — Of Scotland — Statistics — France and Belgian deposits — German coalfields — French perseverance — The coalfields of the United States — Some interesting stories about their discovery — Popular prejudice against anthracite coal — Efforts to overcome it — The poker trouble — Growth of the coal industry in the States — The Connellsville coke fields — Indian seams . . . 274

Chapter XVIII

The nature of a colliery — Better than it looks — Former cruelty in the mines — The Mines' Commission — "Winning" and "getting" — Prospecting for coal — The diamond drill — Methods of entering a seam — English coal-beds — Shafts — Their construction — Freezing the strata — Depths reached — How coal is "got" — "Long-wall" and " pillar-and-stall " — Ventilation of a mine — Gigantic fans — The mechanical coal-cutter — Electricity in the mine — Transporting and hoisting the coal — Winding devices — Pneumatic hoisting — Breaking, sorting, and washing — What is done with the fine coal and rubbish — The distribution of coal by rail and vessel — The up-to-date collier 297

Chapter XIX

The Jermyn Street Museum — Natural distribution of iron — Classes of iron ores — The Edison separating process — Roman mining — The iron mines of Sussex — Consequent destruction of forests — The decline and fall of the Sussex ironmasters — Coal used as fuel for English smelting-furnaces — Sturtevant — Dud Dudley — Abraham Darby — The Bilbao deposits — Ai'n Morka — Dannemora — Gellivare — The Cerro de Mercado — The Lake Superior iron ore beds — Methods of mining — The steam-shovel — Remarkable prices — Transporting iron ore to Pittsburg— Other iron countries 320

Chapter XX

Carrara — Greek Marbles — The town of Carrara — The quarries — How marble is blasted — Bringing down the hillsides — The lizzatura — Road transport — The miners of Carrara — Marble in Britain, Algeria, and India— The marble beds of Vermont — Electricity in harness . 338

Chapter XXI Page

Bath stone — Early users of it — A stone for country mansions — Ralph Allen and John Wood — The quarries — Their extent — How stone is got — The quarry horse — Its cleverness — Portland stone — Convict v. free labour — A curious custom — Granite — The Aberdeen quarries — The hardness of granite — A record blast — Sawing and turning granite . 346

Chapter XXII

The value of the Oriental ruby — Its composition — And qualities — The Burma ruby fields — A curious law — Annexation by Great Britain — Leased by the Burma Ruby Mines Company — Their engineer's difficulties — Attacks on the by on — Spiders Hill — Tagoungnandaing — A fine stone found — Operations in Mogok Valley — Methods of working — Testing the stones — Native miners — The ruby shops of Mogok — Electric power — Troubles from inundations . . . 358

Chapter XXIII

Salt — Its value as a dietetic — And distribution — Rock salt — Brine springs — The salt industry in Cheshire, Staffordshire, and Worcestershire — The salt mines of Wieliczka — A subterranean city — Art and industry combined — The day's work — Searching the miners for salt — The wonders of the mine — The Letow ballroom — Salt chapels — A vast chamber — A railway station in the depths — A saline Styx — The salt plains of Colorado — Ploughing the salt — A fine sight . . . 367

Chapter XXIV

The uses of sulphur — Its occurrence — The Sulphur deposits of Sicily — Popacatapetl — A romantic incident — A perilous adventure — Senor Corchado explores the crater — The miners at work — Mountains of sulphur in Japanese territory — Its exploitation — And removal — Grim surroundings 377

Chapter XXV

Dangers incurred by the miner — Fire, falls, poisonous gases, and disease — Falls — Safety catches for cages — Fire-damp — Choke-damp — White-damp — Ventilation the surest safeguard — The safety lamp — Electric lamps — The Wattstown disaster — One hundred and twenty lives lost — Other notable disasters — Extraordinary endurance of entombed persons — John Brown — Giraud — The Snaefell lead mine disaster — A dramatic account of the effects of white-damp .... 385

List of Illustrations

The Railway Station in the Third Level of the

Wieliczka Salt Mines, Galicia . . Frontispiece

Hydraulic Gold Mining . . . To face page 68 Drilling Blast-holes in a Rand Mine

with Ingersoll Sergeant Air-drills „ 96

A Cyanide Plant at the Rand Mines „ 108

On the Way to the Yukon Goldfields,

Summit of the Chilkoot Pass, with

Impedimenta o^ Prospectors, April

1090 „ 112

First Tourist Excursion, Pacific and Arctic Railway, July 24, 1898. . ,, 120

"Panning" at the Junction of the Eldorado and Bonanza Creeks, Alaska „ 128

DlGGlNG-UP AND SCREENING THE KlMBER-

ley Streets for Diamonds ... ,, 136

a klmberley mlne in the early days „ 1 44

The Motino or Crusher, used in Mexican Silver Reduction Works for Breaking Ore into Small Pieces . „ 200

The Mexican Patio Process of Silver

Reduction „ 208

A General View of the North Lode

"Open Cast" at the Tinto Mine . „ 212

List of Illustrations

Open-air Calcination Heaps, or Teleros, at the Rio Tinto Mines . . To face page 224

A Mining Surveyor at Work in a Coal

Mine „ 280

The Entrance to a Branch-working in a Coal Mine „ 304

A Steam Shovel such as is used in the Lake Superior Iron-ore Open-cast Mines „ 320

A Brown Transporter for Transferring Iron-ore from ship to rail, or vice-versa „ 328

Lowering Massive Blocks of Marble at the Carrara Quarries „ 338

An Ingersoll Sergeant Channelling

Machine at Work on a Bed of Marble „ 342

A Huge Stack of Bath Stone at Corsham, Wiltshire, piled ready for Removal TO ALL PARTS OF THE BRITISH

Isles and the Colonies „ 346

An Oolitic Stone Quarry, Indiana,

The Upper "Lift" or Terrace of the

Sharbontha Ruby Mine, Mogok,

Burma „ 358

Ruby Sorters at work in the Ruby

Mines, Burma ,, 362

The Letow Ball-room, cut out of Salt

in the Wieliczka Mines . . . ,, 372

Chapter I Introductory

The Ages of Man — The Stone Age — The Copper Age — The Bronze Age — The Iron Age — The Steel Age — The discovery of gold, copper, lead, silver, quicksilver, and zinc — Iron and the smiths — Why iron was found so late — Its effects on civilisation — Coal — The precious metals and their influence on exportation — Metallurgy and science — Metallurgy and mechanics — The romance of mining — Dangers of mining — The scope of this book.

Any writer on mining in its general aspect is, when casting about for a starting-point, driven to express what others have said before him — that the history of mining is the history of civilisation. If we try to penetrate into the period when metals were unknown to, or at least unused by, man, all we find of his arts is a few rough scratches on a cavern wall and some stone implements of defence and offence. So we call the era — covering thousands, tens of thousands of years, may be — during which the cave dweller depended for his livelihood on his power of fashioning flints, the Stone Age ; synonymous in our minds with a dark, brutish existence of a creature just sufficiently more intelligent than the

" beasts of the field " to survive their attacks and to live by destroying them.

The ancients, who looked backwards rather than forwards in search of an ideal existence, spoke of the dawn of history as the Golden Age, the epithet being used metaphorically. All was then peace, plenty, and content. Strife between man and man, between nation and nation, had not yet arisen to mar human existence. Arguing from the social deterioration of their own time, they concluded that far back in the past men must have been of a far nobler stamp, and their lot cast in much more pleasant surroundings.

To-day we know too much to take refuge in such imaginations. While deploring the decay of time-honoured institutions and the virtues of the "good old times," we look confidently forward ; and, were we given the choice, should not like to antedate our existence by even one hundred years. From the vantage-ground of knowledge we see that mankind has steadily advanced in spite of temporary setbacks, fighting circumstances ever more successfully by means of the weapons which the Arts and Sciences enable him to forge.

The importance of metallurgy is shown by the very fact that, when we wish to divide human history into a few periods, we fly to the metals as the standards by which to measure man's industrial development. The Copper Age succeeds the Stone Age ; then tin is found, and the Bronze Age begins.

After the Bronze the Iron Age ; and, last of all, we have the Steel Age, in which we live ; though even at the present day there are, in different parts of the world, races still passing through the earlier Ages.

The metals serve three important ends. They supply man with the means of making life beautiful ; secure ; and comfortable.

The first metal to be discovered was probably gold, which exists in its native, or pure, state in many countries, lies on the surface, attracts the eye, and can be easily secured. What nation first set value by gold we cannot say, but we may reasonably conjecture that the primitive folk, even of the Stone Age, may have beaten this metal, valueless for tools or weapons, into decorations. So that, in one sense, the Golden Age was contemporaneous with the dawn of civilisation. The value of gold arose only when other metals had been added to the list of those mined and worked.

Copper, also found pure — though usually combined with other elements — must have been known to man at a very early date. By itself, its uses were limited, but when tin was discovered and alloyed with it, the manufacture of bronze altered the history of nations. The stone-users were no match for invaders armed with bronze weapons tempered to extreme hardness ; and where stone encountered metal, metal won. Civilisation had now taken a long stride forwards. Bronze could be used for the arts of peace as well, being fashioned into tools, agricultural implements; ornaments, and money. So well did the alloy serve man that for long ages he was content with nothing harder and more stubborn. When the Spanish conquerors invaded Mexico in the sixteenth century they found the Aztecs quite ignorant of the uses of iron ; an ignorance which made possible the subjugation of a great race by a mere handful of bold adventurers.

After bronze came lead, silver, quicksilver, and zinc. Silver was probably discovered at the same time as lead, since the two metals are often found together. This fact caused the alchemists of the Middle Ages to regard lead as the " mother of silver," and to endeavour to transmute the baser into the more precious metal. Quicksilver, like lead and silver, is commonly found in combination with sulphur, which can be driven off by heat ; and, whether discovered accidentally or otherwise, wTas used by the ancients as a solvent for gold.

Who first forged iron must ever remain a mystery. Tubal Cain is mentioned in the Book of Genesis as " an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron." He may have lived 3000 years B.C. The African natives seem to have been acquainted with the use of iron for time immemorial, perhaps long before the days when, in Greece, iron was offered as a prize to the victor in athletic games. The importance of iron, its utility for warlike as well as peaceful purposes, soon won it recognition. The early workers were defined under the names of Vulcan, Hephaestus,

Thor. Legends cling round the ancient smithies, associating the pioneer craftsmen in iron with supernatural powers. Wayland Smith, of the Berkshire Downs, has left behind him, in the pages of u Kenilworth," a reputation for magic. The family names of Smith, Smythe, Schmidt, Fabri, Lefevre, and their equivalents in many other languages, testify to the high rank of the armourer of the Middle Ages.

The late employment of iron is partly accounted for by the circumstance that, though one of the most widely diffused of minerals, it is never found pure except in the form of meteorites — lumps of iron which have suddenly descended upon the earth from the abysses of heaven. The earliest iron tools were probably made from these " gifts of the gods," which have been found in various sizes ranging from a few ounces up to many tons. Iron ore is so little suggestive of the metal it contains that an inexperienced eye would never connect it with the iron and steel of commerce. And even when the relationship had been established by the ancients the extraction of the metal from its matrix was a matter of great difficulty, on account of the numerous impurities of the ore and the high temperature needed for its reduction. We may still see in various parts of the world — China, Africa, the Malay Peninsula — the primitive methods used to separate the iron ; a hearth blown by the winds or a pump of the simplest form ; and the beating on the anvil of a heated metal ball to squeeze out the impurities. Iron thus obtained was very valuable. Early warlike nations used it only for the " business edge " of their weapons, which were otherwise of copper or bronze.

Just as bronze overcame stone, so iron vanquished bronze in battle. The Romans, and, later, the Alchemists, called iron Mars. In the Bible we read how the Philistines, after their conquest of the Israelites, carried off all the smiths. " There was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords and spears. But the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock." Gibbon tells us that the Turks owed their position as a powerful invading nation to the iron which, as slaves, they fashioned for their lord, the great Khan of the Geourgen. To quote his own words, "Their servitude could only last till a leader, bold and eloquent, should arise, to persuade his countrymen that the same arms which they forged for their masters might become, in their own hands, the instruments of freedom and victory. They sallied from the mountains (A.D. 545) ; a sceptre was the reward of his advice ; and the annual ceremony, in which a piece of iron was heated in the fire, and a smith's hammer was successively handled by the prince and his nobles, recorded for ages the humble profession and rational pride of the Turkish nation." From that time onward victory has declared for the nations who have known how to combine discipline and strategy with invention in the employment of iron. The Roman's short stabbing sword and protected shield against the shieldless barbarian ; the armourclad Spaniard against the naked Mexican ; the firearms of Europe against the spear, arrow, and club of savages ; the armour-plated warship against the " wooden walls " — in every case iron suitably fashioned wins the day. Even among highly civilised nations every advantage of metallurgical science is eagerly seized to strengthen defences and make weapons more deadly. Mere numbers do not now prevent defeat. Steel plates must be of the toughest; cannon and rifles must belch out the greatest possible number of missiles with the greatest possible accuracy. The mechanism of war must be reliable in every way. As M. Simonin wrote some decades ago, " In the contests which will unhappily long continue to take place, victory will henceforth generally remain with those who produce steel in the largest quantity and of the finest quality," — words which were echoed by Mr. Andrew Carnegie when he said that predominance must be in the hands of the nation which can manufacture the cheapest ton of steel.

Our age, the Steel Age, could not be better named. Whichever way we look, steel confronts us. We move over it, shaped as rails or bridges. It enters more and more into the construction of our houses. The machinery which transports us from place to place, clothes us, feeds us, caters for our luxuries, is wrought from steel. And the wealth of nations is derived chiefly from steel, either directly or indirectly.

Hand in hand with steel advances coal, without which it would be impossible to make full use of the metal. Steam-power waits on both. In fact, the triumvirate of steel, coal, and steam mutually support one another. Steam raises coal ; coal smelts iron ore ; iron ore yields material for the steam-engine ; and so round the circle again. So great is the part played by coal in modern civilisation that the "bottled sunshine" of past ages may claim almost equally with steel to give a name to the present period in the history of mankind.

Enormous as has been the effect of iron on the fortunes of human society, we cannot forget the importance of the intrinsically more precious metals. Their unalterability, their beauty, and their variety have won them a place in our regard which, so far as we can see, nothing will ever be able to diminish. Associated as silver and gold have been with princely magnificence, they appeal to our aesthetic sense. The figures which stand out from history often, in part at least, owe their fame to the glamour of great wealth. What more striking personage has been immortalised by Holy Writ than King Solomon, in whose days silver " was nothing accounted of " ; whose palaces and thrones were decked with gold ; whose argosies sailed home laden with the gold of Ophir ? The precious stones and marvellous riches which loom so largely in the " Arabian Nights " contribute as much as personal -adventure to the fascination of that book. Gold has been the magnet that has attracted the conqueror and the explorer. Time after time, India, the land of gold and diamonds, has had to bow to the invader, informed through travellers' tales of the wealth of the country. Gold took the Spaniards to Mexico and Peru.. Gold drew hundreds of thousands to California, Australia, South Africa, Alaska. Unfurl the golden standard where you will, a huge army soon collects under the banner, and, after exhausting the minerals, turns to the agricultural development of the country. But for the reputed riches "of Ormuz and of Ind," exploration and colonisation of the world by Europeans would have been delayed for centuries.

The advance of science has been so greatly stimulated by metallurgy, and in turn metallurgy owes so much to scientific discovery, that we can hardly conceive of the one without the other. The alchemy of the Middle Ages, which vainly strove to change the baser into the nobler metals, laid the foundations for modern chemistry, which helps on the one hand to trace and extract metal from its ore, and on the other shows how metal may serve mankind in a thousand ways. The influence of mining on mechanical arts is no less striking. Out of the ladder and bucket has gradually been evolved the winding engine which whirls men and ore at twenty miles an hour from the depths of the earth. The air or water-driven drill has replaced the stone or bronze hammer of the ancient miner. Electric lamps have ousted in large degree the candle and flickering oil-boat. Tramways do with ease what once caused basket-carrying men much toil and pain. The mechanical coal-cutter does the work of a hundred picks. Dynamite blasts into fragments huge masses that formerly would have been cleft laboriously with wedges. In spite of his conservatism the miner finally adapts to his use any invention which has proved beneficial to those who work on the earth's surface. And in return he has shown how mountains may be burrowed through for the passage of the locomotive. The Simplon Tunnel and the prehistoric underground galleries of Italy and Spain are more closely related than one may think.