Chapter 16 - Page 2

foremost fugitives reached the entrance to the tunnel,
they encountered Simon Ford, who had quitted his cottage.
"Stop, my friends, stop!" shouted the old man; "if our town
is to be overwhelmed, the floods will rush faster than you can;
no one can possibly escape. But see! the waters are rising
no further! it appears to me the danger is over."

"And our comrades at the far end of the works--what about them?"
cried some of the miners.

"There is nothing to fear for them," replied Simon; "they are working
on a higher level than the bed of the loch."

It was soon evident that the old man was in the right.
The sudden influx of water had rushed to the very lowest

bed of the vast mine, and its only ultimate effect was to raise
the level of Loch Malcolm a few feet. Coal Town was uninjured,
and it was reasonable to hope that no one had perished in the flood
of water which had descended to the depths of the mine never yet
penetrated by the workmen.

Simon and his men could not decide whether this inundation was owing
to the overflow of a subterranean sheet of water penetrating fissures
in the solid rock, or to some underground torrent breaking through its
worn bed, and precipitating itself to the lowest level of the mine.
But that very same evening they knew what to think about it,
for the local papers published an account of the marvelous phenomenon
which Loch Katrine had exhibited.

The surprising news was soon after confirmed by the four travelers, who,
returning with all possible speed to the cottage, learned with extreme
satisfaction that no serious damage was done in New Aberfoyle.

The bed of Loch Katrine had fairly given way. The waters had suddenly
broken through by an enormous fissure into the mine beneath.
Of Sir Walter Scott's favorite loch there was not left enough to wet
the pretty foot of the Lady of the Lake; all that remained was a pond
of a few acres at the further extremity.

This singular event made a profound sensation in the country.
It was a thing unheard of that a lake should in the space of a few
minutes empty itself, and disappear into the bowels of the earth.
There was nothing for it but to erase Loch Katrine from the map of
Scotland until (by public subscription) it could be refilled, care being
of course taken, in the first place, to stop the rent up tight.
This catastrophe would have been the death of Sir Walter Scott,
had he still been in the world.

The accident was explicable when it was ascertained that,
between the bed of the lake and the vast cavity beneath,
the geological strata had become reduced to a thin layer,
incapable of longer sustaining the weight of water.

Now, although to most people this event seemed plainly