This photograph, taken in Pictou County in the 1880s, shows men just returned to the surface after a day underground. Through the grime one can detect that some are still youths. To be accurate, the very young boys some entered the mines while still only ten years-old were not considered miners, but labourers of one sort or another. Many of them worked with the horses which were used as draft animals at the face. Others served at "tending landing", a very responsible job which involved operation of the doors which controlled the flow of air to various parts of the mine. While these duties were less physically demanding than those of the miners, the boys' working day was just as long and as dangerous; a moment of inattentiveness or failure to obey instructions could result in severe injury or death. The general tendency of reform activity was towards raising the age at which boys were permitted to enter the underground work force. This photograph appeared in James M. Cameron, The Pictonian Colliers (Halifax: The Nova Scotia Museum, 1974).
Courtesy: Kentville Publishing Company Ltd., Kentville, N.S.
