Pitch Black. It took a while to become used to the conditions underground. It was pitch black except for the places illuminated by the cap lamps which were fastened to miners helmets. If you wanted to see something you had to learn to point your head in the direction of a particular object, this may have been, up or down, left or right, or a combination of all four with any amount of variations in between depending on the situation and circumstances. The roadways were often low in places and were supported by either straight or arched girders. Men had to walk with a stoop and had to watch the roof in case they bumped their heads on the girders as they walked. When they did bump their heads it gave a sharp jolt which would go all the way down to the base of the neck and was very painful. Miners soon learned to keep their heads down. The trouble with this was that when they kept their eyes on the roof they found they were tripping up. The floor underfoot was terrible it was up and down, there were holes just big enough to catch a foot in, it was uneven, and often wet and slippery. No wonder tripping, falling and slipping accidents were so frequent in the pits. Anyway, you can imagine their difficulty, if they kept their eyes and lamp pointing to the roof they tripped up. If they pointed their lamp at, and looked at the floor, they bumped their head. After tripping and slipping a few times and bumping their head even more times, they realized the trick was to continually look up and down, up and down until they reached a point in the roadway where it was possible to walk upright, and the danger of hitting their head was reduced. There was a lot more to this mining lark than they first thought.Miners had to look everywhere and keep their wits about them, a small fall in concentration could lead to major problems. As more and more machinery was introduced into the pits their awareness and that of their work mates became more and more important.