the
claim-holders and the Mining Board. Steam pumping engines had been put
in to pump out the influx of water, and this obstacle was, at last,
easily overcome. To hasten and cheapen the extraction of blue ground,
drilling and blasting were substituted for hand labor with picks, and
the work of mining was pressed with incessant energy. But the sliding,
falling reef mocked every effort to withstand it.
The
work of removal was undertaken too late. The reef slipped faster than
the tram cars and tubs could haul it out. In 1878 more than a quarter
of the surface of the claims in the mine was covered by fallen reef.
The cost of removal, at the original allowance rate of 4s. per load of
16 cubic feet,
