Progress of the work—1886. deliberate judgment that no tunnels ought to be made in hard ground; they ought to be made only where the ground was soft.
Joe, of course, was first in exploring everything. He was the first to go through the Shields into the western heading, the day before he took Mr. Clarke Hawkshaw and me up the same heading. He was first up the long heading when the water was out, and brought me back a mile in the dark, when our lights went out on my first trip up, saying, ‘Put your hand on my shoulder; I can go along all right in the dark.’ He was first up the heading after the ‘panic,’ and though he could see nothing then to alarm him, took the wise precaution of shutting the door in the head-wall before he returned. He generally was the one chosen to act as guide to strangers visiting the works, and I think there are very few visitors to the underground workings who will not remember ‘Joe;’ and I have no doubt he often has a quiet laugh to himself when he recalls the adventures of some of them. On one occasion two ladies expressed a wish to go through a certain part of the workings.
‘You’ll find it rather wet,’ said Joe.
‘Oh! we do not mind that,’ they said; ‘we have come prepared to get wet.’ And so they had, as far as regards water falling from the roof, being equipped in miners’ donkey-jackets and sou’wester hats; but they little thought they would have to wade through two feet of water for some dis-