The miners grumbled, and Scott and Thirlwell felt the mental and physical strain.

They were highly strung and often irritable, while when they sat by the stove when work was over they only talked about the difficulties they had struggled with all day and others that must be met in the morning.
In the meantime, the thaw began.

The snow softened and got honeycombed by the drops from the trees.

One sank to the knees in trampled slush among the sawn-off stumps about the shaft-head.

The ice rotted, and in places where the current ran fast large floes broke off, and drove down stream until they were stopped by the thick ice in the slacks.