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1PICKAXE AND TROWEL The same evening Barbicane and his companions returned to Tampa Town; and Murchison, the engineer,
2re-embarked on board the Tampico for New Orleans. His object was to enlist an army of workmen, and to collect together
3the greater part of the materials. The members of the Gun Club remained at Tampa Town, for the purpose of setting on
4foot the preliminary works by the aid of the people of the country. Eight days after its departure, the Tampico returned
5into the bay of Espiritu Santo, with a whole flotilla of steamboats. Murchison had succeeded in assembling together
6fifteen hundred artisans. Attracted by the high pay and considerable bounties offered by the Gun Club, he had enlisted a
7choice legion of stokers, iron-founders, lime-burners, miners, brickmakers, and artisans of every trade, without
8distinction of color. As many of these people brought their families with them, their departure resembled a perfect
9emigration. On the 31st of October, at ten o'clock in the morning, the troop disembarked on the quays of Tampa Town; and
10one may imagine the activity which pervaded that little town, whose population was thus doubled in a single day. During
11the first few days they were busy discharging the cargo brought by the flotilla, the machines, and the rations, as well
12as a large number of huts constructed of iron plates, separately pieced and numbered. At the same period Barbicane laid
13the first sleepers of a railway fifteen miles in length, intended to unite Stones Hill with Tampa Town. On the first of
14November Barbicane quitted Tampa Town with a detachment of workmen; and on the following day the whole town of huts was
15erected round Stones Hill. This they enclosed with palisades; and in respect of energy and activity, it might have been
16mistaken for one of the great cities of the Union. Everything was placed under a complete system of discipline, and the
17works were commenced in most perfect order. The nature of the soil having been carefully examined, by means of repeated
18borings, the work of excavation was fixed for the 4th of November. On that day Barbicane called together his foremen and
19addressed them as follows: "You are well aware, my friends, of the object with which I have assembled you together in
20this wild part of Florida. Our business is to construct a cannon measuring nine feet in its interior diameter, six feet
21thick, and with a stone revetment of nineteen and a half feet in thickness. We have, therefore, a well of sixty feet in
22diameter to dig down to a depth of nine hundred feet. This great work must be completed within eight months, so that you
23have 2,543,400 cubic feet of earth to excavate in 255 days; that is to say, in round numbers, 2,000 cubic feet per day.
24That which would present no difficulty to a thousand navvies working in open country will be of course more troublesome
25in a comparatively confined space. However, the thing must be done, and I reckon for its accomplishment upon your
26courage as much as upon your skill." At eight o'clock the next morning the first stroke of the pickaxe was struck upon
27the soil of Florida; and from that moment that prince of tools was never inactive for one moment in the hands of the
28excavators. The gangs relieved each other every three hours. On the 4th of November fifty workmen commenced digging, in
29the very center of the enclosed space on the summit of Stones Hill, a circular hole sixty feet in diameter. The pickaxe
30first struck upon a kind of black earth, six inches in thickness, which was speedily disposed of. To this earth
31succeeded two feet of fine sand, which was carefully laid aside as being valuable for serving the casting of the inner
32mould. After the sand appeared some compact white clay, resembling the chalk of Great Britain, which extended down to a
33depth of four feet. Then the iron of the picks struck upon the hard bed of the soil; a kind of rock formed of petrified
34shells, very dry, very solid, and which the picks could with difficulty penetrate. At this point the excavation
35exhibited a depth of six and a half feet and the work of the masonry was begun. At the bottom of the excavation they
36constructed a wheel of oak, a kind of circle strongly bolted together, and of immense strength. The center of this
37wooden disc was hollowed out to a diameter equal to the exterior diameter of the Columbiad. Upon this wheel rested the
38first layers of the masonry, the stones of which were bound together by hydraulic cement, with irresistible tenacity.
39The workmen, after laying the stones from the circumference to the center, were thus enclosed within a kind of well
40twenty-one feet in diameter. When this work was accomplished, the miners resumed their picks and cut away the rock from
41underneath the wheel itself, taking care to support it as they advanced upon blocks of great thickness. At every two
42feet which the hole gained in depth they successively withdrew the blocks. The wheel then sank little by little, and
43with it the massive ring of masonry, on the upper bed of which the masons labored incessantly, always reserving some
44vent holes to permit the escape of gas during the operation of the casting. This kind of work required on the part of
45the workmen extreme nicety and minute attention. More than one, in digging underneath the wheel, was dangerously injured
46by the splinters of stone. But their ardor never relaxed, night or day. By day they worked under the rays of the
47scorching sun; by night, under the gleam of the electric light. The sounds of the picks against the rock, the bursting
48of mines, the grinding of the machines, the wreaths of smoke scattered through the air, traced around Stones Hill a
49circle of terror which the herds of buffaloes and the war parties of the Seminoles never ventured to pass. Nevertheless,
50the works advanced regularly, as the steam-cranes actively removed the rubbish. Of unexpected obstacles there was little
51account; and with regard to foreseen difficulties, they were speedily disposed of. At the expiration of the first month
52the well had attained the depth assigned for that lapse of time, namely, 112 feet. This depth was doubled in December,
53and trebled in January. During the month of February the workmen had to contend with a sheet of water which made its way
54right across the outer soil. It became necessary to employ very powerful pumps and compressed-air engines to drain it
55off, so as to close up the orifice from whence it issued; just as one stops a leak on board ship. They at last succeeded
56in getting the upper hand of these untoward streams; only, in consequence of the loosening of the soil, the wheel partly
57gave way, and a slight partial settlement ensued. This accident cost the life of several workmen. No fresh occurrence
58thenceforward arrested the progress of the operation; and on the tenth of June, twenty days before the expiration of the
59period fixed by Barbicane, the well, lined throughout with its facing of stone, had attained the depth of 900 feet. At
60the bottom the masonry rested upon a massive block measuring thirty feet in thickness, while on the upper portion it was
61level with the surrounding soil. President Barbicane and the members of the Gun Club warmly congratulated their engineer
62Murchison; the cyclopean work had been accomplished with extraordinary rapidity. During these eight months Barbicane
63never quitted Stones Hill for a single instant. Keeping ever close by the work of excavation, he busied himself
64incessantly with the welfare and health of his workpeople, and was singularly fortunate in warding off the epidemics
65common to large communities of men, and so disastrous in those regions of the globe which are exposed to the influences
66of tropical climates. Many workmen, it is true, paid with their lives for the rashness inherent in these dangerous
67labors; but these mishaps are impossible to be avoided, and they are classed among the details with which the Americans
68trouble themselves but little. They have in fact more regard for human nature in general than for the individual in
69particular. Nevertheless, Barbicane professed opposite principles to these, and put them in force at every opportunity.
70So, thanks to his care, his intelligence, his useful intervention in all difficulties, his prodigious and humane
71sagacity, the average of accidents did not exceed that of transatlantic countries, noted for their excessive
72precautions--France, for instance, among others, where they reckon about one accident for every two hundred thousand
73francs of work.
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