Day 638:
The area with the river cave had another cave behind it. I found that out chasing a seam of ore (of course).
That second cave opened up into a deep cavern with no roof. Which I guess makes it a hole? Anyway, it’s loaded with ore and has a pond of what appears to be rainwater at the bottom. No fish or anything, it’s too shallow.
I’m considering filling the whole thing in since it seems quite fond of housing monsters. But first I’m getting the ore out and checking for sand.
And then I’m considering. What do you do with a giant hole in the ground? If it had bats in it, I’d leave it alone, but it appears to be lifeless (except for aforementioned monsters). It’s a health hazard to just have a giant hole in the ground. I could put a fence around it I suppose, or work on grading it so it’s not so deadly. Or fill it in.
I suppose this is less like mining and more like landscaping. On the other hand, if the hole didn’t have a ton of ore in it I wouldn’t be exploring it, and if I wasn’t exploring it, I’d just cap it with some dirt and move on.
Ethics is hard, especially now that I know there are real people living on this rock. Murderers, yes, but real murderers that don’t deserve to lose a leg to a giant hole.