There are four lobbies for the accommodation of the stokers and seats at either end of the retort houses. The men in the carbonizing department are supplied with lockers in which to keep their provisions and clothes. Each man has a half-pint of the best Scotch oatmeal per diem allowed him to make "skilly" with. A quantity of oatmeal is put into a bucket, water is poured on and then stirred, after the meal has "settled" they dip it out with a mug to drink as often as they feel themselves thirsty. The engineer has no objection to the men having lemonade, etc., but all intoxicating drinks on the works are strictly prohibited. On Sundays, between 9 and 10 a.m., a religious service is conducted in the lobby at No. 6 retort house by the Missionary. _Scene in a retort house on week-day._--The stokers, after having been at work in the retort houses for half an hour, are "off" for nearly an hour, during which they employ their time in various ways; some play at cards, some at draughts, some at dominoes, others read the newspapers,--eight men in a group will club together and subscribe a penny each, this enables them to purchase six dailies and two weeklies, thus a group is furnished with newspaper intelligence for a week. Others of the stokers will seek to bring grist to their mill by employing the time they are off to their own pecuniary advantage either in mending their own boots and shoes or the boots and shoes of their fellow-workmen. At times some of the men may be seen mending their clothes, or washing a pair of trowsers in a bucket of water and using the wooden handle of a shovel as a substitute for a "dolly." Now and then a man will lie on his back at full length on a heap of coals, locked in the arms of Morpheus, presently he awakes out of his dreams, rubs his eyes astonished at what has transpired during the past hour. The foreman's whistle, similar to that used by a railway guard when a train is ready to start, is the signal for the men to resume their work, and to their credit be it said, they go at it manly and rush to their shovels and scoops like British sailors fly to their guns when commanded to salute a Prince or fire at an enemy! A stranger for the first time is startled when the lids or "lips" as they are called are removed from the mouths of the retorts by the bomb! bombing! a kind of percussion or shock occasioned by the gaseous vapours confined in the retorts being liberated by coming into direct contact with the atmosphere, then commences the belching forth of flame, the issuing of smoke, the raking out of carbonized coal blazing with tar in order to clear the retorts which are again quickly charged with that peculiar fossil of vegetable origin found among the carboniferous strata of the earth. It is interesting to mark the agility with which the stokers perform their duty. Five men constitute a gang,--there are three men to a scoop. Scoops are made of iron. A scoop is 10 feet long, 7½ inches