DEATH IN A PIT.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 244, 14 October 1889, Page 4

DEATH IN A PIT.

sixtjy-threb men lost in a ; mine.

CO&IERY DISASTER IN SCOT--1 LAND.

Edinburgh, September 6. Sixrs-THBEE men and boys have perished through a fire in the Mauricewood pit, near tenicink, Midlothian. Twenty-one bodies have been recovered. This fire was one of the nfost disastrous mining calamities that have ever befallen Scotland. On Thursday mornfng sixty-five miners, including a contingent of boys, went down into the pit to prosecute their usual calling, and all but two have perished. Th 4 pit belongs to the Shotts Iron Company,: bub rather more, attention waa directed to the production of coal, though the ironstone was still worked. of the pit is situated on the top of & hill, a short distance from the turnpike road. The shaft descends a distance iof eighty fathoms; running in a southerly direction. From the bottom of this shaft is a level mine extending fifty fathoms, at the e_xtreme end of which the shaft iof the Greonlaw pit communicates, branching off near the junction. The Greeniaw pit is an incline which descende on a scale of about a hundred feet for a distance of 160 fachoms, The coal sides of the incline were lined with wood, but the roof, whioh wae of ironstone, was bare. It) Iβ this wood lining which appeare to have taken fire, and that, too, at a point lower than the connection with the Greenlow: plfc, the consequence beingf'thab the men who : were engaged at toe lower levels were literally hemmed In and ebald find no way ef eaeape.

Then ensued a scene which, happily, is not often witnessed, and which, perhape, is best described in the words of one of the survivors, David Robbj- wb.o was afc the deepest part of the workings. He says: " I immediately shouted to the boys that the pit was on fire. Mitchell,. a boy named Willie Urqnhart, and a boy named Tolmie, volunteered to go into the workings to. warn the men. Not far from the bottom of the incline two men—Hunter and Wright— were driving a now road, and Tolmie went specially to warn them. Just at that moment I got the bell from the top to send up the men's carriage, Aβ it Was Jeaving empty, I formed a resolution to go with it, and jumped in. ' . " 1 had no idea of the serious nature of tho fire. I thought if I could get to the eighty-fathom t engine-house I might be able to turn water down the pit and extinguish the flames, but before I cot to the eighty-fathom station the smoke became so dense that I was almost suffocated. I could sco nothing and I heard no one. _ I thought I should never come through it>, and at the eighty-fathom station where the carriage halted, as usual, all I could do was to yoll ' for God's sake reel away.' That meant to go on. Fortunately they heard me, or I should nob have been alive to tellthe story." From the timo of the alarm until now relays of men have worked at the task of rescue, bub without any result.' AH through last night there wae kept up a straggle with tho overmastering fumes in putting up brattice work to obtain ventilation.

While working on the incline, the men came upon tho bodies of John Walker and Hugh JVlcl'herson. Both bodies were found in the vicinity of the eighty'-fabhoms engine. It was part of the duties of theso men to attend to it, and they seem to have died at their post. Dr. Badger, who examined the bodies on their arrival at the surface, states that, the corpses were frightfully scorched, not with actual fire, but with the" hot air in the pit, tho temperature of which is stated to have been high enough to melt lead. The flesh adhered to their clothes, and the ghastly spectacle was rendered the more hideous by the fact that on endeavouring to remove their boots the feet nearly parted from the legs. Shortly after 3 o'clock ; it was found that the east side of the pit had begun to fall in, and in order to retain the sides and roof a large number of props were utilised. A quantity of stuff, however, fell, considerably hindering the operations of the rescuers. About 4 o'clock information reached the pithead that although six bodies were viaible on the west side they could not be approached. On the east side there is nob a man alive.

In consequence of the fire on the east side of the workings and the after-damp on the west side the explorers cannot reach the bodies, although they can see a number, and from their position it would appear as if they bad made a rush almost in a body to get out of the foul air which overwhelmed them.