That would offer no difficulty if you had plenty of elbow-room, but as you will only have a limited space it will be more trouble.
Nevertheless as the work must be done it will be done, and I depend upon your courage as much as upon your skill." At 8 a.m.the first spadeful was dug out of the Floridian soil, and from that moment this useful tool did not stop idle a moment in the hands of the miner.

The gangs relieved each other every three hours.
Besides, although the work was colossal it did not exceed the limit of human capability.

Far from that.

How many works of much greater difficulty, and in which the elements had to be more directly contended against, had been brought to a successful termination! Suffice it to mention the well of Father Joseph, made near Cairo by the Sultan Saladin at an epoch when machines had not yet appeared to increase the strength of man a hundredfold, and which goes down to the level of the Nile itself at a depth of 300 feet! And that other well dug at Coblentz by the Margrave Jean of Baden, 600 feet deep! All that was needed was a triple depth and a double width, which made the boring easier.

There was not one foreman or workman who doubted about the success of the operation.
An important decision taken by Murchison and approved of by Barbicane accelerated the work.