Underground City

A new translation by Sarah Crozier, with a foreword by Professor Ian Thompson. Ten years after manager James Starr left the Aberfoyle mine underneath Loch Katrine exhausted of coal, he receives an intriguing missive that suggests the pit isn't barren after all. When Starr returns and discovers that there is indeed more coal to quarry, he and his workers are beset by strange events, hinting at a presence that does not wish to see them excavate the cavern further. Could there be someone out to sabotage their work? Or is something more menacing afoot, something unnatural they can neither see nor understand? When one of his miners falls in love with a young girl found abandoned down a mineshaft, their unknown assailant makes it clear that nothing will stop its efforts to shut down the mine and prevent the wedding, even if that means draining Loch Katrine itself! Originally titled 'Les Indes noires' ('The Black Indies'), 'The Underground City' is one of Verne's 'lost' Scottish novels.