alleries; subterranean tramways; frames to support the shaft; pipes……in short; all that constituted the machinery of a mine had been brought up from its depths。 The exhausted mine was like the body of a huge fantastically…shaped mastodon; from which all the organs of life have been taken; and only the skeleton remains。
Nothing was left but long wooden ladders; down the Yarrow shaft……the only one which now gave access to the lower galleries of the Dochart pit。 Above ground; the sheds; formerly sheltering the outside works; still marked the spot where the shaft of that pit had been sunk; it being now abandoned; as were the other pits; of which the whole constituted the mines of Aberfoyle。
It was a sad day; when for the last time the ine; in which they had lived for so many years。 The engineer; James Starr; had collected the hundreds of
workmen which posed the active and courageous population of the mine。 Overmen; brakemen; putters; wastemen; barrowmen; masons; smiths; carpenters; outside and inside laborers; women; children; and old men; all were collected in the great yard of the Dochart pit; formerly heaped with coal from the mine。
Many of these families had existed for generations in the mine of old Aberfoyle; they were now driven to seek the means of subsistence elsewhere; and they waited sadly to bid farewell to the engineer。
James Starr stood upright; at the door of the vast shed in which he had for so many years superintended the powerful machines of the shaft。 Simon Ford; the foreman of the Dochart pit; then fifty…five years of age; and other managers and overseers; surrounded him。 James Starr took off his hat。 The miners; cap in hand; kept a profound silence。 This farewell scene was of a touching character; not wanting in gra