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222 THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
know, and in order to ascertain the dimensions
and the arrangement of the moat defences, they
decided to sink four shafts or manholes along the
front counterscarp (a, b, c, d). The two outer of
these happened to strike just the end walls of the
caponiers, while in the two central manholes the
sappers struck the roof, when they had worked
down about eight feet. To gain the back of the
caponier it was therefore necessary to cut hori-
zontal drifts along the roof, and then again work
down to the foundations.
As soon as the dimensions of the caponier had
been ascertained, three other shafts were sunk
perpendicularly along the back wall {e,f^ g), and
when they had reached down to the foundations
they were all connected by an underground pas-
sage. The back wall of the caponier was built of
concrete about 6 ft. thick, but, curiously enough,
its foundation was masonry, so that it became a
comparatively easy matter to chisel out holes,
about 2 ft. square and 3 ft. deep, where the
dynamite charges were to be placed. The rest
of the work was hard. The shafts, and especially
the drifts, were very narrow. At most a couple
of men, sometimes only one, could work in them
at a time, and the rock was hard and difficult.
Only the shaft f was made somewhat bigger,
with a kind of winding staircase cut out of the
rock, so that the men could go up and down
easily with their tools and their dynamite charges ;
but the other manholes, when I crept through
them, gave me a very vivid impression of the
dangers and the unpleasantness of the old-time
chimney-sweeper’s profession, while the drifts
along the caponier roofs made me wish that I had
sent my Dachshund down in my stead,—and I
am by no means a stout man.
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