ich the collieries
are worked. Previous to the introduction of the steam-engine the usual
machine employed for the purpose was what is called a "gin." The gin
consists of a large drum placed horizontally, round which ropes attached
to buckets and corves are wound, which are thus drawn up or sent down the
shafts by a horse travelling in a circular track or "gin race." This
method was employed for drawing up both coals and water, and it is still
used for the same purpose in small collieries; but where the quantity of
water to be raised is great, pumps worked by steam power are called into
requisition.

Newcomen's atmospheric engine was first made use of to work the pumps;
and it continued to be so employed long after the more powerful and
economical condensing engine of Watt had been invented. In the Newcomen
or "fire engine," as it was called, the power is produced by the pressure
of the atmosphere forcing down the piston in the cylinder, on a vacuum
being produced within it by condensation of the contained steam by means
of cold water injection. The piston-rod is attached to one end of a
lever, whilst the pump-rod works in connexion with the other,--the
hydraulic action employed to raise the water being exactly similar to
that of a common sucking-pump.

The working of a Newcomen engine was a clumsy and apparently a very
painful process, accompanied by an extraordinary amount of wheezing,
sighing, creaking, and bumping. When the pump descended, there was heard
a plunge, a heavy sigh, and a loud bump: then, as it rose, and the sucker
began to act, there was heard a croak, a wheeze, another bump, and then a
strong rush of water as it was lifted and poured out. Where engines of a
more powerful and improved description are used, the quantity of water
raised is enormous--as much as a million and a half gallons in the
twenty-four hours.

The pitmen, or "the lads belaw," who work out the coal below ground, are
a peculiar class, quite distinct from the workmen on the surface. They
are a people with peculiar habits, manners, and character, as much as
fishermen and sailors, to whom, indeed, they bear, in some respects, a
considerable resemblance. Some fifty years since they were a much
rougher and worse educated class than they are now; hard workers, but
very wild and uncouth; much given to "steeks," or strikes; and
distinguished, in their hours of leisure and on pay-nights, for their
love of cock-fighting, dog-fightin