TERRIBLE COLLIERY EXPLOSION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 1931, 26 February 1867, Page 2

TERRIBLE COLLIERY EXPLOSION.

THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY LIVES LOST.

(From the Leeds Mercury Dec. 15.)

This afternoon an accident took place at the Oaks Colliery, about a mile and a half from Barnsley, which will, it is feared, bun pass in the loss Of life'caused by it any similar catastrophe upon record in the history of the country. Shortly after one o'clock, when nearly 400 men were working in the Oaks, pit, the gas in the workings suddenly fired, hurling into eternity most of those who were employed in the colliery. The pit is the property of Messrs Firth, Barber, and Co., and has been worked for a long series of years. In 1846, it was the scene of a catastrophe scmewhat similar to that which has now occurred, although in that case the loss of life was by no means so large as that which has taken place in the present instance. Seventy three men and boys were, however, then sacrificed. The shaft of the pit is about 285 yards in depth, and the. workings extend over a great area. It seems that the men employed work in one shift of eight hours, the remainder of the time being occupied by a slack or off-shift. At six o'clock this morniug the whole of the hewers, boys, drivers, &c., went down the pit to commence their daily labour. It is believed that altogether not less than 350 men and boys, in all probability about 375, went down the pit. They continued at work without any interruption until twenty minutes past one this afternoon—little more than lialf-an-hour before they would have ceased for the day—when the banksman was horrified by hearing the sound of a heavy explosion in the pit, followed immediately by a tremendous rush of air and soot up the shaft. He knew too well what this fatal signal meant, and immediately ran off to give the alarm, but before he could do so, the terrible announcement had been carried to the homes of some of the workmen themselves, the noise of the explosion being heard at Hoyle Mills, where a great many of them resided, and within a few minutes of the catastrophe crowds of agonised women were rushing towards the spot to ascertain the fate of their bread pinners. Steps were immediately taken to ascertain the extent of the calamity, and to rescue any that might have been spared by the explosion. The present accident is by far the most fatal on record in the annals of coal mining. Five years ago a terrible catastrophe occurred at Hartley, by which about 209 lives were lost, and five years before that there was an explosion at Lunhill, involving a sacrifice of 180 lives. The fatality on the present occasion, however, far exceeds that in both of those cases. Indeed should the number killed be anything like what it is reported to he, the loss of life will be greater than has occurred at any single time in Great Britain since the battle of Culloden, the only other fatality at all approaching it being the accident at Sheffield from the bursting of the Bradfield reservoir, when 250 lives were sacrificed.

The special reporter of the same journal gives the following details When I reached Barnsley last night the townspeople were pouring in a continuous stream along the road leading to the Oaks colliery, the scene of- the accident. The mouth of the pit lies low down at the bottom of a valley, about a mile and a half from the town. Yesterday the buildings which surround the shaft—the engine-house, offices, and workshops—were all crowded by the spectators who had come from Barnsley, whilst on the platform itself, throngiug close around the edge of the black and yawning shaft, were a more anxious group,—the friends and relatives of the men who, living or dead, were immured in their horrible tomb, nine hundred feet beneath us. At that time the tassf of exploring the workings had been temporarily suspended, in consequence of the breaking of the rope to which the only cage that was left in working order was attached. Painful, beyond the power of words to describe, was it to see the eager, agonised impatience of the men and women around me, whilst 1 they waited for the renewal of operations. There was but little hope that any of the JSO men and boys still confined in the pit could by any possibility be brought out alive, but no one will wonder that though the hope was faint, it was eagerly clung to by those who could not make up their, minds to believe the worst, and to whom the loss of that hope meant the destruction of everything which made life dear to them. And yet all was quiet and orderly. As the great watchfires flared up the gloom, casting strange shadows from the beams overhead upon the platform, and seeming to give an additional horror to the blackness of the shaft, they revealed hundreds of pale and yearning faces, clustered thickly on every side, but not a voice was heard to murmur at the long delay in proceeding with the search for the prisoners, nor was a reproach of any kind uttered against those who, after they had nobly risked their own lives for more than an hour, in bringing "to bank" those who shewed any signs of life, felt that they would no longer be justified in continuing their labours at such a risk.

The imagination fails to picture all that had taken place in the pit itself between the hour when the men began work in the morning, and that at which I stood first upon the platform in the evening, and there is no living, being who can give us authentic information on the subject. Several of the men, as your readers know, were brought up alive soon after the accident yesterday afternoon. Some of these have since died, and from those who survive no information can be had. Without an exception they were rendered insensible by the explosion, and in tlmt condition they were brought to the surface. But this is a dim outline of what took place, as it can be gathered from such sources as are open At six o'clock the men entered the cage and descended to their work. What their exact number was it is impossible at present to say. The colliery officials, who certainly should be able to supply full particulars, and whose undoubted duty it is to satisfy the public upon this point, either cannot or will not do so. Nevertheless it is certain that not less than 330, and not more than 380 men and boys, all told, went down the pit yesterday morning. This is a large, a very large number to be employed in a. single colliery at the same moment, but it must be remembered that there is only one " shift" in the Oaks Colliery, the men working for eight hours, and then leaving the pit to the off-hands, the joiners, furnacemen, and others, whose duty it is to attend to the ventilation and the necessary repairs of the ways; moreover, the present is the very busiest season in the coal trade, and yesterday was the day on which the men were required to make up their work for tomorrow's "pay." Thus it happened that the number of miners in the pit was unusually great. Those who have been in a coal-mine may easily imagine for themselves the scene in the ill-fnted colliery during the forenoon. Far away at the face of the coal, the hewers would be working in solitude, making their pick-axes ring against the dark and shining seam as they brought great masses of coal to the ground. Scattered throughout an immense extent of workings, their only companion wouli be the little gauze lampGeorge Stephenson's blessed invention—the rays of which feebly lit up their gloomy prison. But ever and anon their solitude would be d sturbed by a visit from the boys or the tubmen, coming with their ponies for the laden waggons, and as these were trundled off along the miniature railways laid throughout the pit, the long dark galleries would ring with the songs and whistling of the lads, for whoiri the darkness and the solitude of the mine had long since ceased to have any terrors, and to whom the gloomy pit was a second home. Perhaps nowhere, save in a cotton mill, can there be such aßcene of busy industry as a coal-mine when in full work, and whilst the visitor to snch a place is struck by a thousand things which are gro-

tesque or picturesque, by nothing is he Btihick than by the unflagging energy those who are doomed to earn their wj under such disadvantages. The work t .on yesterday without a pause until it Wa „ t °S little more than half-an-hour of the time { returning to the surface. The men y pulled out their watches, and, seeing J® time was flying, had redoubled their exerti or . to complete their labours, when auddenb there came something which stilled thi active limbs for ever. A great rush of aj! through every chamber and gallery of tw mine; ,a sudden flash, blinding every eye ut its awful splendour; a dull, low boom reverberating from side to 6ide, and echoic to the remotest corner of the mine—are the indications which tell that the gag j n a colliery has fired, and these must have been the signs which first told the workmen in th e Oaks Pit of their awful fate. But to many of them : the fatal blast must itself have proved fatal, and their death must have been instantaneous when the explosion took pl ace It is probable, however, that the majority were reserved for a more lingering but not less certain doom—death from the afterdamp. When the searchers were down in the workings last night and early this morning they came upon crowds of the wort men, gathered together in affrighted groups" some clasped in each other's arms' others clinging to stronger comrades who seemed to have been dragging them towards the shaft, many seated in com. pany by the side of the ways, still in the very attitude in which they had sat down to wait fordeath. These were the victims of the deadly choke-damp, which coming after an explosion, pervades the whole workings of the pit, and proves certain death to all who breathe it for any length of time. I remember to have heard at inquests in the North thrilling stories of escape from the perils of this awful gas: stories.told me by men who have fought their way through it, whilst scores of their comrades had fallen dead beside them and whose escape from the same fate wai' little short of miraculous. No doubt some of those who were spared by the explosion yesterday made a desperate effort to break through this impalpable but deadly barrier • and the agony of their struggle against their fate it something that can hardly be thought .of without a shudder. But one by one they all fell beneath the influence of the after-damp, death coming to them in the form of sleep sealing their eye-lids, numbing their energies, conquering even the love of life itself, and gently burying them in their last long slumber. Thus as the fatal vapour stole from passage to passage of the mine, it enveloped more and more of those who were fighting against it in its folds, until at last of all the three hundred and fifty living beings who had left the world above in health and strength a few hours before, but eighteen remained with a spark of life in their breasts. The announcement of the awful catastrophe which had taken place below was convened to those on the surface by the loud roar of the explosion, followed by a great shower of soot and smoke up the shafts of the pit and the cupola by means of which it is ventilated. It would be a waste of words to attempt to describe the consternation which was produced among those at the bank when the fatal newi was known. I have said how the womenwidowed and childless already, although they knew not—came wailing to the spot. The few colliery officials, however, who were on the surface, were not distracted from their duty by the distressing scene which followed the explosion. The cage of one of the shafts had been blown almost to pieces'by the violence of the shock, and the rope attached to the other had been so seriously injured that it was no longer safe to use it. Nevertheless the dense pall of smoke which filled the air, and rested above the shafts after the explosion, had scarcely cleared away when two brave men prepared to descend into the scene of death. To his honour be it told, one of these was Mr Dymond, the' principal owner of the colliery, whilst the other was David Tewitt, the underground steward. Poor Tewitt went down yesterday afternoon, and from that time till this morning he hardly once visited the surface, labouring during the whole interval with a valour and self-de-votion which merit a reward they can never now receive on earth, The brave fellow was labouring in the pit as indefatigably as ever when it fired this morning, and his name also has now to be added to the list of the lost. When Mr Dyiiiond and Tewitt reached the §"ttom of the shaft, they everywhere saw traces of the awful violence of the explosion. Men were lying about, some dead, others dying. The woodwork around the bottom of the shaft was wrenched and broken in every part, even the walls and roofs of the ways had been brought down by the blast, whilst the. doors and stopping were blown away in all directions. Very soon they were reinforced by aid from those at the surface, and they at once proceeded to remove all those men in whom any life still remained. Eighteen of these poor creatures were taken to bank, and at once carried to their homes. Most of them had suffered fearful injuries from burns, and when they recovered their senses they were in great agony; a large staff of medical men were, however, promptly upon the spot, and the wants of the sufferers were most carefully attended to. Then commenced a most ghastly business—that of bringing up the dead. Four dead bodies wrapped in blankets were brought up in the cage and recognised by heart-broken relatives. But when the work had proceeded thus far it became evident that it would be most unsafe to use the injured rope any longer, and it had therefore to be replaced by a new one. . When communication with the bottom of the pit had been restored, an immense quantity of wood and canvas bratticing wa9 taken down, for the system of ventilation used in the colliery had been completely deranged by the explosion, and there was erery reason to anticipate the gas would again fire, if it were not in some measure restored. Thus a considerable space of time was occupied before any progress could be made in the exploration of the workings. But those who were competent to judge already knew that no haste could now avail, and that with the exception ef those already brought up not » man of those who had been in the pit when the explosion occurred then bo living. The work of restoring the ventilation by means of temporary bratticing was one of many difficulties and much danger. Nevertheless by this time the pit-heap was crowded by miners from the neighbouring collieries, who had hurried to the spot on the first announcement of the accident, and who now -olunteered to give their assistance whenever it might be required. The conduct of these men deserves something more substantial than a word of commendation. The admirable patience with which they waited till their services were needed, and the unhesitating readiness with which—in spite of the risks involved—they then gave them, are beyond praise. The greater is the pity that to so many of them their heroic self-devotion has proved fatal.

To most men and women it happens that they have to pass nights of sorrow, or pain, or horror, that, however long they may lite afterwards, their memory is never lost. But rarely can people be called upon to endure such a night as that which was passed by those who waited patiently for their dead around the pit-heap during the long hours of the winter night which has just passed awayOnly those who waited for seren dreary days and nights on the platform at the mouth of Hartley Pit, in January, 1862, can form any conception of last night as it was spent by hundreds of men and women in the neighbourhood of the Oaks Pit. The scene at the mouth of the pit itself was one which those who witnessed it can never forget. The great platform and the buildings around it were lit up by cressets of burning coal, the flames of which rose high in the December wind. In the centre of the shaft, black and treacherous, looking as though it were som e trap laid for the unwary; whilst above it towered the clumsy beams and head-gear or the cage. On the platform itself were gathered little knots of men, in curious dresses, anu with faces scarcely distinguishable beneath the dust and grime. Some were leaning against the wall of the cabin, waiting until it was their turn to descend, others were watching the great black rope which ran down the centre of the shaft, and at the end of which the cage was hung j whilstjone or two stood by the open chasm with a long, ugly stretcher, hastily made of boards nailed to-

"7.. ivine at their feet. All round the g dee of the platform, kept back by the infers wiieh had been erected, might , be ; on rows of faces curiously illuminated by ff' X-fires-the faces of men, and «nnieii and'tender children, all turned in one oiin'n every 1 eye resting on one object fhecreat black rope running down the shaft, p Ltly there comes from the engine-hnu>e Kkine of a bell, and then the.great rope wins slowlv to glide upwards Slowly it ¥ 2s UP and up. until the sloping iron roof Pff cage s«n, and underneath the eaves, v Lrth faces'of half a dozen of the .ro|uncoming up half-dazed from the polluted there of the pit, But not upon their £ do the eager glances of those gathered ind fall At their feet m the. bottom of ,w«sre lies-something,, wrapped in a . shroud f white-a something which. half; a dozen ?,«aeo was a man, full of man's vigour. 1 strength, arid life. Very solemnly do the lh miners raise the. shrouded' form,, and v tenderly do they lay it upon the stretcher bear it amy UP 00 their shoulders down path leading from the platform and ■ m the carpenters' shed, where busy men JC ''raring rough deal coffins for the dead, n i the poor corpse is laid upon a table, and ♦hnils is reverently uncovered,and men «ih tearful eyes-aye, you can see beneath, S the crime and dirt that their eyes are sore 5h weeping — berid over it, and say if they I n\v it for the face of father, or brother, or p i jf they do so, there is a sad recogroii • such a recognition as takes place but Mom' and the solemnity of which every'; must feel. But, mayhap, the man is a t ineer- or perhaps the, features are disf'il aid recognition is. not easy, and then fhp body is left lying whilst others are Lucid up and placed beside it. And so all ' L# "'8 !I 'g ht the work lvent on upon the pit platform and iti the carpenter's shop, AH found the pit-buildings great fires were Mniing, and here trying to beat back the drill of a December, night other groups of. watchers and waiters were seated; but: over rtcra all there brooded a calm to which such In are not accustomed, and every mind, Led occupied with the awful tragedy of »hich the place had so recently been the e And over the whole district the voice nf lamentation could be, heard. I strolled tl roueh some of the long-winding lanes, which run from the colliery, about midnight, ind as I did so l met;again:an.d again a little. Drocession— a.cart rolling slowly on towards Le neighbouring cottage, , with, a .figure stretched at its bottom like that which ! had seen brought up in the cage,. whilst behind it Talked a man and two or three women, who filled the air with their plaintive wail. Little s l ee p could there have been in the villages in the neighbourhood, or even in Barnsley itself. : At Hoyle Mills, a "long unlovely street" of houses, chiefly occupied by the men who : worked at the Oaks Pit, death seemed to have gotten an entrance to every, house, and 8S vou passed along you saw the open door, ready to receive the dead, whilst your heart to pierced by the cry of the bereaved,, Those who are now children too young to feel tlie full extent of this great calamity will have grown grey, before the people of Hoyle Mills will have forgotten that, awful night. . Some may think that it was a,night, of horrors only ; but the pathos of the scenes which it witnessed was even greater thau their horror. Even: the sight, of the stiffened bodies of the dead was pathetic rather than horrible. They had : died in their harness, poor fellows! And as each one was brought up in his loose r fitting woollen jacket; anddiia great rough clogs, the heart was touched in a way in which no amount of funereal : ppmp could haye affected it. Still it was a ghastly : spectacle that, was presented to the watcher by the shaft, as hour after hour of the long; light passed and still an unending succession. of the dead was brought - up out of the depths beneath, us.,'. ..From., ten: to twenty,,.from .twenty to fifty, from fifty, to Eerenty, mounted up the ..score, which, was being kept in ;the carpenter's shed aiid still none could tell when the solemn business would be accomplished. At length, far in the east litre broke a; faint glimmering of grey, and toon the stars began to pale away, and the •watch-fires to sink before the dawn, that presently broke in a morning of rare and unclouded beauty. Seldom can the light ofday have teen more welcome than it was to those - who had waited round -the pit so patiently throughout the night.: . During all this time the work in the: colliery had been carried on by the exploring parties with unremitting vigilance and diligence. As far as was possible the stoppings, . were renewed, and whilst a certain portion of the explorers were told off to collect the dead who .were lying thick about the workings and, bringing them to the surface, others were employed in restoring the ventilation, or in .venturing- into,:those workings which had not previously been explored. As these latter advanced it became evident to them that large numbers of those who had been killed could not.. possibly be reached in time to ensure; the identification of their bodies. In every case the progress of the explorers was a matter of the utmost difficulty, but at some places tliey were absolutely stopped,.. and nearly twothirds of the entire extent of workings could ; not be reached in consequence of the quantity of coal which had fallen from the sides and roof of the ways when the explosion took place, Still the brave men persevered in their labours, although the longer they remained below the greater the danger to their lives became. The bulk of the, workmen were relieved at short , intervals in their irduous labours by. . fresh volunteers. Whenever a cageful7 of exhausted men came to bank; the official in charge at. the surface called out, " Now then, six more volunteers, strong, ablebodied mien wanted j" anc l there was never an occasion when lis could not have had twice that numtor. Indeed some of the pitmen were almost troublesome in their wish: to be permitted to* take a share in the labour, and the chagrin of sonse who were disappointed in their deshe to do so was intense. Whilst these yolunteers did not as a rule remain very long in the workings, there were others who stopped there during the whole night.., During the P'glit there were generally about fifty persons W the pit at once, hut when morning broke a considerable number of those who had been 'fas employed came to the surface, to obtain measure of the rest and refreshment '-ty' seeded so much. About nine o'clock this morning the catastrophe was rendered additionally terrible by another accident. The pit fired again 1 At time many of those who had been' on the Platform all night were absent from the spot. j*as slowly returning to the pit by tlie wuley road, in the midst of a crowd of ® en i chiefly miners, who were also going to , !3 me spot. I was within about a quarter ( a ®ileof the colliery, and. within, fall: sight the buildings at the shaft; when I was suddenly startled by a cry from a. man in jont of me. It' was a cry of the wildest a ® ra . and looking up I saw turned j® me the face of a pitman, white , 0(l horror-stricken. " It's fired again I" } Rasped out from between his Irfu-''" B ''P 3 ' £re t ' ie won ' B ' * a,r '^ "his mouth, the air was rent by an awful the like of which I bad never heard ore, it was not like, the heavy crack of dull ' or the roll; of thunder. It was a ■> muffled, long-continued boom, in the t , r [ B ' iU "d of which there seemed something ,r as unnatural—something that shook, j, 11 f rves , an d carried terror to theheart, I| .° towards the pit buildings, Ijing in j n ' e y before trie, under the bright morn.6 sun, and as I did so I saw suddenly; out of, the two shafts . lying ~'e together, and out of the cupola some t) , ail . Ce 10 the left, art .immense.black cloud; Ve s '°wly ascended in the form of an yiner e ' c °ne, arid spread long over the spot, bodi r, freeze dispersed it Like eyerybttt i on roa( s) I quickened my steps, 601 l I moment I was arrested by another W l ' / Wtts passing a row of cottages,, leousi 8 , en, y- an d, as it seemed, i-imulta" ami /' e doors of all were thrown open, *om<> eac ' l there rushed screaming ttorlti 11 ' .'"'ey were the wives of volunteers the o%"' " le pit- As they looked towards whi,,i' | ler y and saw the .great black pall m,in the sky above it, they threw pi 6rc j r in horror, and gave vent to th em shrieks of terror, some; of "there Hi ®-, to ground half-fainting, sta ggering towards the pit as. fast as

•' their trembling : limbs I would; carry c.them';-: It was an awful spectacle of misery and , despair one which must have ..beeh;se'eri;to have.been. .appreciated in; Jail v;its.. hoirror. I hurried onV: towards tthe ; pit; evert a: moie thrilling scene was presented to my eyes. With few exceptions, the .volunteers.; who had hitherto borne up so nobly, seemed to have been completely unnerved by the terrible disaster that had befallen their comrades. Some were .weeping like children, the ; liot tears tracing broad channels on their, blackened: faces { others, seated in all the attitudes in winch artists are wont to depict ■ despair, were rocking, themselves to and fro shaking tlier heads is. in mournful certainty of the fate of tliose whose places they had so lately occupied. The scene was one of panic and despair, and every face shewed, how ter-. ribie was the shock. which this, second ealaihity. had produced.;. When I ascended.tp the 'ptatform I found . the of tlie siscond explosion' still freß|i; around me, The platform itself wascompletely covered with soot, arid pieces of rope, cloth, and wood, which had been hurled; up by the ■force of the. explosion. , The signal wires running down the shaft had been broken, and were hanging in tangled masses round the head-gear, whilst the iron roof of the cage in which the men had so lately been ascending ; and descending was crumpled up like a -piece; of paper. But, already Mr Dymond, and the gentlemen who were assisting him, were taking measures to' ascertain as far ..as possible the fate of those who had been searching for the dead at the time ' that this second explosion occurred. And first o£ all the I signal wires .were drawn out of • the shaft; iiiext the cage, which'had not been far from the surface when the explosion took place,; was cautiously raised, and then fo|lowed a scene more ihrilling than any that the most exciting " sensation drama" cbuld-present, ! All round the pit-buildings were gathered ■panic-stricken men, awaiting 'the next act in this awful tragedy;. On the platform itself ;^ere;w(^ : only- : or so of those more immediately connected with the colliery, and amongst those there were no traces of the panic which seemed to have taken possession •of the greater number of those below. Presently amongst these half-score on the platform, Mr Dymond stepped forward with uplifted hand, and conimanded all to preserve the strictest silence-rand ..all were; immediately silent. Then two of the workmen lay down at full length at the edge of the shaft,, with tlieir heads, over the side, and together , they raised aloud and long halloo, that went echoing down the sides of the fatal pit, There was a pause that seemed to last for minutes, and again the shout was raised; but there only came back from the pit the long-, drawn echoes of the. call, arid then all was; silent: as the grave. Then it was known that. there: was no hope for the brave men who had been in the pit when the second• explosion took place, and; slowly and , mournfully the owners arid the assembled, viewers withdrew to consult together at the colliery offices. Orders were given that the pit platform: should be cleared, as it was not at all improbable that another explosion might take place. : Accordingly most of the persons near the mouth of the shaft moved away, but a few still remained; and watched, the operation of running the cage up and down, which was then being performed, When first it was: lowered to tlie bottom it was allowed to remain there a few minutes, and then- it was brought quickly to the surface in the hope, the faintest of faint hopes, that some might have.been, living at the bottom and . might liave crawled into it. But it. only came up empty arid dripping wet from the dreary depths.. Iliad just left the shaft, arid.had; proceeded about a score of yards from it, when, at ten o'clock precisely, a third explosion took place equal in violence to that which had occurred: an hour before. The ground in the neighbourhood was shaken by the shock, arid again- there was a shower of smoke and soot.. This time, too, the cage which had been ascending at the moment of the explosion was caught up by the blast and hurled completely out of the shaft, and. over the wheel of :the;head-gear,. and .on the l offside of which; it hung, disfigured and useless; • It . hardly needed- this.. third, catas-, tropheto complete the disheartening of all who were interested 1 in; the progress of the:! work. Yet its dull reverberation fell like a krieU upori the ears of all vrho heard it. It shewed how useless any further attempts to resume the search would be.

And now let me give what particulars L : could glean as to the numbers in the pit when the second explosion took place. At half-past eight it seems certain that there were : thirty-seven volunteers and others en- : gaged in labouring in the workings. During, the whole night the quantity of gas :iii -the workings had been, very great, so great as seriously to interfere: wit lithe comfort of the workmen, ns well as to threaten them with the fate which had befallen those who had perished on the previous day, Between eight and nine o'clock the state of things grew worse, and. at last the men near the workings felt the air, to use. their own phrase, " sucking on them," and knew that an explosion was imminent. One of them, named William Sugden, the ground-steward,- whose. place was at the bottom of the shaft, cried out, " Oh, lads, we're all done for." Some sixteen of them, however, ru hed together to the bottom of the shaft. Seven were immediately taken up in the; cage, which was again lowered, arid the remaining nine entering ft, they were also carried to bank, trembling for their lives, When they reached; the,surface. with pale faces, and ■ trembling limbs, they found seven men waiting to go down and carry on the search, and these men charged them with cowardice for having left the pit in such a manner, and wished them to return again. Those who had thus escaped from what they believed to be a terrible peril were Unmindful of the reproaches of their comrades, and earnestly .besought'theiii not to put their lives to a terrible risk by entering the pit. Their entreaties were, however, of no avail ; the whole party entered the cage and went down. This was a few minutes before : nine o'clock. At nine exactly the pit fired, and.' the whole of the poor fellows, together ; with those whom they had joined in the pit—, twenty-eight in, all were . hurried into e ernity. Let it be.mentioned, to the honour of Sugden, the ground ; steward, that though he was the first to discover the approach of tlie second explosion, he would not leave his pest at the bottom of the shaft, but nobly perished there,' " only an honest man; doing : his duty." - Of course;after .tliis second explosion it was felt.that to send any further exploring parties down the shaft would... be to incur a frightfuirisk for no practical purpose. Yet even at. this time, when such a .mission seemed worse than a forlorn, hope, a man named Thomas Dawson, of Hoyle Mill; 1 volunteered to descend the shaft'to see if any i of the exploring party . had been spared by the explosion.' - Most wisely he was not permitted to carry out his intention, and the occurrence of the third explosion at ten o'clock showed that if he had. descended he would but have added another, name to the list,of the lost. After the third, explosion the.opinion jhat the pit was on fire received full Confirmation, and a consultation of; the viewers on the spot was Immediately held iri the Colliery-offices to determine what steps should be taken. Thus the full extent of the accident may never be ascertained with any. degree of certainty; but adding. the twenty-eight who lost their, lives this morning to the list of those who were killed yesterday, it seems certain . that from 360 to 380 human beings have been sacrificed by this deplorable tragedy. As Soon as the third explosion; took place the pit platform was cleared of all those upon it, as it was felt that it would he highly unsafe for any one to remain near the mouth of the pit, in which another explosion might at any moment take place, Tlie consequence is that .:that, place is. deserted, though round the buildihge.at tlie base of the pit-heap a curious crowd is still gathered., ~"A"most thriiling inci(lent lias occurred in, connection with theterrible catastrophe (jf : Wednesday, and Thursday. As your readers well know, ail hope that anyone could be left alive in .the workings of the, colliery : was abandoned, after the two explosions yester-: day, and bo firmly convinced were those upon the spot that any further attempts to explore the pit would he unavailing, that the mouth of the shaft was abandoned, and all proceedings were suspended until ftfter the

conference of TleWers, which Began its ■ sittings yesterday, and 5 lias continued .them throughout the greater part of to-day. The pit was known yesterday to be on Are, and : ocHiar demoiiatrntiori of the fncfc was afforded last night when sparks were;, seen issuing, in great volumes from ene of the shafts. These of spectators who in the evening had ..dispersed io their homes, and for some hours during the night : there' was:a large number of mien and boys gathered round the pit in momentary expectation of another explosion. But nt last the showers of sparks ceased, and as they did so, and the night passed on, the spectators gradually dispersed, until at last the pit-build- ! ings were left in darkness and in silence to the care of a few policemen who alone ; watched; the; Spot;?' It was in the very dead, of the winter's night, that an incident occurred, bo,srtrtljng as to cast into the shade, the wildest imagining of the romancer. The guardians of the great sepulchre in which lay. nearly three. hunilred: corpses were slowly; pacing J round the spot, when, about four o'clock they were- startled and alarmed by hearing a noise proceeding from the pit, in which as every one believed, there was not then a living creature.., At .first they supposed' that their imagination lmd cheated their senses, and that the sounds had no existence save in their excited brains'; but presently there was a repetition of the. noise, whatever it was. Then the policemen crept near to the mouth of the pit, and listening intently they heard sounds which convinced them that some one was still living—impossible though it might seem—in the dreadful depth beneath them, and was striving to make lus existence. known to those upon the surface. The policemen of course could do nothing of themselves for his rescue, but they instantly dispatched a messenger to Barnsley for tliC mining engineers, who were staying at the King's Ilead, and whilst the messenger, was performing his errand, they took means to let the prisoner in the pit know that his ; signals were heard and would be attended to. The first thing done by the engineers when they a'rived was to lower a bottle of brandy to the bottom of the shaft, When they had done this they were able to hold some com- : munication with the poor fellow below, and it is said that tliey told him to go to the cupola, some four hundred yards distant, by which he might more easily be rescued than by the shaft, As he would not do so, however, and the cage having been shattered by the third explosion yesterday, a temporary apparatus was rigged up, and a tub, in which were seated two gallant men, iowi red cautiously down into the pit. Presently those at the bank re eived the signal to draw up, and on getting it they hauled up the tub amidst breathless interest and excitement. On bringing it to the two men who had just been sent down was a third man, one of the missing volunteers, who did not appear to be seriously injured by the awful perils through which he had passed. The name of the person whose life has been thus; miraculously preserved is Samuel Brown; He was a .miner at Smithies-bridge Pit, and was one of those who had volunteered to labour in the pit after the first explosion. He went down yesterday morning at seven o'clock, and had been two hours in the workings when the terrible explosion took place, which it was believed had destroyed the whole of the exploring party in the pit, But it happened that lie was amongst those who felt the indications by : winch the explosion gave warning of its approach, and though he could not join the fortunate sixteen who succeeded in reaching the surface before it took place, he was able to creep into a small building in the workings of the pit used for holding the tools. Here he remained whilst the first explosion occurriedi:and. though he. was rendered insensible by the shock, lie did not suffer any serious injury, nor was he, like most of his comrades, lulled into a fatal sleep by the after-damp, lie seems, to have lain in a state of insensibility until after.the third explosion, which occurred at ten o'clock; and how long he was in fairly recovering his senses neither lie nor . any one e|secati tell. He did so, however, during some period of the day, arid on awakening discovered that; he alone wrs left living in tlie mine. He groped his way amidst a darkness blacker than the blackest night of winter down one of tlie principal ways of the .pit,'endeavouring'-to; reach the bottom of the shaft. In his awful journey he repeatedly stumb'ed over the bodies of those who had been less fortunate than himself, but not one of them gave the least, sign of life. Presently lie wag. overcome by the foulness, of, tl/e *tmospher«, and the fatigue which lie had undergone, and. lying down, lie again slept heavily for a considerable, time, Arousing himself he once more endeavoured to reach the shaft, but how great the difficulties in his way were, only those who are acquainted with the interior of a coal-pit can conceire. He spent hours in fruitlessly wandering the tortuoui galleries of the mine, again and again he raised a : loudi cry, in order that, if anyone hadbeen spared like himself, they might join him. At length, however, lie perceived in the distance a light, and on drawing near to it found that he had reached the bottom of one of the shafts, the wood-work of which was on flames. Then it was that he made the signal, which, after a while was heard by those at the surface; and; after another long interval of waiting, he was joined by the two brare meii who, at the risk at: their lives descended into the pit to/ save him, and by whom he was immediately conveyed to the world nbove, which had long, since given him up for lost. In the meantime steps have been taken to ascertain, as far as possible, the exact number of those whose lives have been lost by the accident, and the owners of the Colliery have Had messengers employed throughout the day in visiting the residences of their workpeople in order to ascertain who are and who are not. missing., .'l'liey have not been able to, arrive at the exact number, but the following is; the nearest calculation which they have been able to make, and it is certain that it does not, at any rate,exceed the mark: -r-On Wednesday morning 333 men and boys went down into the pit. After tlie explosion 18 were brought up alive,. On. Thursday niorning 25, and no* 28, ns was at first believed, of the volunteers were working in: the pit when it fired the second time. Of these, only the- m.sn Samuel Brown has been recovered alive. This makes a total of deaths in the pit of 339, Since the accident, however, a large number of those who were brought up alive succumbed from the injuries they had sustained.. Three or four died: during yeßtcrday, and fiix7npre died during laßtniglit:iiidearlytbißmorning;6otliat the,lowest estimate gives 348 lis the number of deaths by this terrible catastrophe.

With regard to the cause of the explosion the. strictest silence is observed by all the officials connected with the colliery, and .we shall certainly have to wait for the scientific. evidence at the; inquest before we know anything definite upon the subject. I find in a local journal of this morning, however, the folio wing statement as to the probable, cause of the explosion, which may be taken for what it is worth —" It seems that there have for 6ome time been complaints .of the heat of the ■atmosphere from t'ie distance ..the air had.'to travel through the workings; Hitherto the engine,, plane has been the main .passage for ventilating purposes to tiie dip ievc-ls, but the drawing up and letting down, of corves/ occasionally interfered with the regularity of the crirrent,; Mr Dymond; .therefore; 'determined a short time ago to make a new arid more direct ventihiting pnesai;e from ne ir the downcast sh«ft into tlio "dip" levels. Six :men were employed in making this passage, two working at a time in shifts of eight hours. Mr Dymond was anxious to. have the ; drift and offered a premium for its. completion on Wednesday. Blasting by powder was resorted to from the first as a means of expediting the work,and on Wednesday morning William Wi|son, who was on duty as one of' the fire triers, learned that a long drill was being used with a view to an unusually powerful blast.. The ■ drift was approaching completion, and this strong blast was expected to drive it through. As he was going about his work in the pit, it occurred to him that there wai danger in this heavy;blasting", arid hie"hastened back to the drift to stop it. The two men at wprk in the,diift at the time were Richard ■Hunt.arid, John Clayton ; and strictly it was theft duty ; :to wait, for Wilson to fire, the blast. When Wilson reached the end of the drift, which was sixty yar Is long; he learned that

John.Eobson, another deputy,.had taken upon himself to let off the blast, and had, in .fact, just lighted the fusee. Stopping the blast was therefore impossible; Wilson had reached the place a moment too late, and there was nothing for it but to wait the effect. Tor this purpose he, Hunt, and Clayton stood in a sheltered place near, and were joined by Robson. Wilson states that the powd erex P^ e^w ' t ' l a terrific report, sending a large volume of flame along the workings. So'far as he could perceive, the explosion of the .powder and of the gas were simultaneous; though he thinks it possible : that.there,was thelapseof a moment between them. This seems to leave no doubt that the explosion resulted from the blast, It is admitted that the drift had been freo from gas from the first. The blast completed the drift by forcing out the thick wall into which the powderivras inserted, and the supposition is that it reached an accumulation of gas somewhere in the workings in that immediate neighbourhood. Be this as itjmay, there can hardly be a doubt that a flame of the powder exploded the gas. Hunt and Clayton were killed on the spot. Wilson was dreadfully burnt and left helpless and insensible, and Robson suffered almost as much. Wilsori remained inthepit two- hours after the explosion, and would have perished but that he was found and sent to the surface by the first exploring party. Eobson, thoughstunned and. : insensible, was just able to scramble to the bottom of the pit, and he also was rescued'. Wilson and Robson are both still alive, and, though badly burned, are at present in a fair, - way for recovery. Such was, we believe, the cause of the explosion. Mr Dymond waß making a drift to improve the ventilation of the mine, and the catastrophe he was thereby endeavouring the more effectually to provide against was produced by the very haste with which it was attempted to make the pit more safe."