Coal miners, carrying their safety lamps, being lowered down the pit shaft on a chain with stirrups attached. The man the bottom has lost his grip and is in danger of plunging to his death. By the middle of the 19th century this method of descending mines was abandoned except in a few very shallow pits From Underground Life: or, Mines and Miners by Louis Simonin (London, 1869). Wood engraving.