by Jules Verne
CHAPTER XIV.
PICKAXE AND TROWEL.
The same evening Barbicane and his companions returned to Tampa Town;and Murchison, the engineer, re-embarked on board the "Tampico" for NewOrleans. His object was to enlist an army of workmen, and to collecttogether the greater part of the materials. The members of the Gun Clubremained at Tampa Town, for the purpose of setting on foot the preliminaryworks by the aid of the people of the country.
Eight days after its departure, the "Tampico" returned into the bayof Espiritu Santo, with a whole flotilla of steamboats. Murchison hadsucceeded in assembling together fifteen hundred artisans. Attractedby the high pay and considerable bounties offered by the Gun Club, hehad enlisted a choice legion of stokers, iron-founders, lime-burners,miners, brickmakers, and artisans of every trade, without distinction ofcolour. As many of these people brought their families with them, theirdeparture resembled a perfect emigration.
On the 31st October, at ten o'clock in the morning, the troop disembarkedon the quays of Tampa Town; and one may imagine the activity whichpervaded that little town, whose population was thus doubled in a singleday.
During the first few days they were busy discharging the cargo broughtby the flotilla, the machines, and the rations, as well as a large numberof huts constructed of iron plates, separately pieced and numbered. Atthe same period Barbicane laid the first sleepers of a railway fifteenmiles in length intended to unite Stones Hill with Tampa Town. On thefirst of November Barbicane quitted Tampa Town with a detachment ofworkmen; and on the following day the whole town of huts was erectedround Stones Hill. This they enclosed with palisades; and in respect ofenergy and activity, it might have shortly been mistaken for one of thegreat cities of the Union. Everything was placed under a complete systemof dicipline, and the works were commenced in most perfect order.
The nature of the soil having been carefully examined, by means ofrepeated borings, the work of excavation was fixed for the 4th ofNovember.
On that day Barbicane called together his foremen and addressed them asfollows:--"You are well aware, my friends, of the object with which Ihave assembled you together in this wild part of Florida. Our businessis to construct a cannon measuring nine feet in its interior diameter,six feet thick, and with a stone revetment of nineteen and a half feetin thickness. We have, therefore, a well of sixty feet in diameterto dig down to a depth of nine hundred feet. This great work must becompleted _within eight months,_ so that you have 2,543,400 cubic feetof earth to excavate in 255 days; that is to say, in round numbers, 2000cubic feet per day. That which would present no difficulty to a thousandnavvies working in open country will be of course more troublesome ina comparatively confined space. However, the thing must be done, andI reckon for its accomplishment upon your courage as much as upon yourskill."
At eight o'clock in the morning the first stroke of the pickaxe wasstruck upon the soil of Florida; and from that moment that prince oftools was never inactive for one moment in the hands of the excavators.The gangs relieved each other every three hours.
On the 4th of November fifty workmen commenced digging, in the verycentre of the enclosed space on the summit of Stones Hill, a circularhole sixty feet in diameter. The pickaxe first struck upon a kind ofblack earth, six inches in thickness, which was speedily disposed of.To this earth succeeded two feet of fine sand, which was carefully laidaside as being valuable for serving for the casting of the inner mould.After the sand appeared some compact white clay, resembling the chalkof Great Britain, which extended down to a depth of four feet. Then theiron of the picks struck upon the hard bed of the soil; a kind of rockformed of petrified shells, very dry, very solid, and which the pickscould with difficulty penetrate. At this point the excavation exhibiteda depth of six feet and a half and the work of the masonry was begun.
At the bottom of this excavation they constructed a wheel of oak, a kindof circle strongly bolted together, and of immense strength. The centreof this wooden disc was hollowed out to a diameter equal to the exteriordiameter of the Columbiad. Upon this wheel rested the first layers ofthe masonry, the stones of which were bound together by hydraulic cement,with irresistible tenacity. The workmen, after laying the stones fromthe circumference to the centre, were thus enclosed within a kind ofwell twenty-one feet in diameter. When this work was accomplished, theminers resumed their picks and cut away the rock from underneath the_wheel_ itself, taking care to support it as they advanced upon blocksof great thickness. At every two feet which the hole gained in depth theysuccessively withdrew the blocks. The _wheel_ then sank little by little,and with it the massive ring of masonry, on the upper bed of which themasons laboured incessantly, always reserving some vent holes to permitthe escape of gas during the operation of casting.
This kind of work required on the part of the workmen extreme nicety andminute attention. More than one, in digging underneath the wheel, wasdangerously injured by the splinters of stone. But their ardour neverrelaxed, night or day. By day they worked under the rays of the scorchingsun; by night, under the gleam of the electric light. The sounds ofthe picks against the rock, the bursting of mines, the grinding of themachines, the wreaths of smoke scattered through the air, traced aroundStones Hill a circle of terror which the herds of buffaloes and the warparties of the Seminoles never ventured to pass. Nevertheless, the worksadvanced regularly, as the steam-cranes actively removed the rubbish.Of unexpected obstacles there was little account; and with regard toforeseen difficulties, they were speedily disposed of.
Illustration: THE WORK PROGRESSED REGULARLY.
At the expiration of the first month the well had attained the depthassigned for that lapse of time, viz. 112 feet. This depth was doubledin December, and trebled in January.
During the month of February the workmen had to contend with a sheet ofwater which made its way right across the outer soil. It became necessaryto employ very powerful pumps and compressed engines to drain it off,so as to close up the orifice from whence it issued; just as one stopsa leak on board ship. They at last succeeded in getting the upper handof these untoward streams; only, in consequence of the loosening of thesoil, the wheel partly gave way, and a slight partial settlement ensued.This accident cost the life of several workmen.
No fresh occurrence thenceforward arrested the progress of the operation;and on the 10th of June, twenty days before the expiration of the periodfixed by Barbicane, the well, lined throughout with its facing of stone,had attained the depth of 900 feet. At the bottom the masonry rested upona massive block measuring thirty feet in thickness, whilst on the upperportion it was level with the surrounding soil.
President Barbicane and the members of the Gun Club warmly congratulatedtheir engineer Murchison: the cyclopean work had been accomplished withextraordinary rapidity.
During these eight months Barbicane never quitted Stones Hill for asingle instant. Keeping ever close by the work of excavation, he busiedhimself incessantly with the welfare and health of his workpeople, andwas singularly fortunate in warding off the epidemics common to largecommunities of men, and so disastrous in those regions of the globe whichare exposed to the influences of tropical climates.
Many workmen, it is true, paid with their lives for the rashness inherentin these dangerous labours; but these mishaps are impossible to beavoided, and they are classed amongst details with which the Americanstrouble themselves but little. They have in fact more regard for humannature in general than for the individual in particular.
Nevertheless, Barbicane professed opposite principles to these, andput them in force at every opportunity. So, thanks to his care, hisintelligence, his useful intervention in all difficulties, his prodigiousand humane sagacity, the average of accidents did not exceed that oftransatlantic countries, noted for their excessive precautions, France,for instance, among others, where they reckon about one accident forevery two hundred thousand francs of work.