LIABILITY OF MINE-CORNERS WHO FLOOD ADJOINING MINES.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1867, 28 December 1874, Page 2

LIABILITY OF MINE-CORNERS WHO FLOOD ADJOINING MINES.

A recent decision in the' English Courts, in the _case of Smith v. Fletcher and others, i 3 of much" interest to our mineowners, especially as the absence of precedents in mine legislation inT| this country makes the English ruling of great value.-,. ,:,... . ...:,,.;., ..'..■.■.. ..;..■. ... ;;* '. The plaintiffs and defendantt were the owners of adjoining mines, communicating with each other, and theaction was brought for the alleged flooding of the plaintiff's mine by the ntUigent and wrongful working of the defendants; It appeared from tue plaintiff's ca^e that some year* ago the defendants had worked their mine by means of open quarry as well as underground workings; and the qUairry a£ length communicated with the mine itself. Formerly there was an ancient brook near the quarry, which served as art intercepting drain to collect and carry off the surface water, of the land.; but ; ',tfie defendants' workings let down its bed, and they thereupon^ altered its course altogether, and substituted a new one for it, The new; one, however, failed to answer either purposes of draining the landotcarrying the stream, and severaL limes overflowed, letting the water run into the quarry, and thence through the defendants' into the p aintiffs' mine. It. was contended for the: Lthat if the defendants chose to work their,mine oat to the surface by means of quarrying, they were boutioWtos prevent water pouring down it and thence into the plaintiffs' mine, and also that they had no right to alter the stream as they had done. The defendants' case was that the new watercourse .was one capable of carrying off more water, and altogether * more efficient one than the old one, and that; the overflowing of it; and especially 1 that in 1871, causing the principal flooding complained of, was owing to extraordinary floods and from causes which the defendants were unable to control. Under the ruling of the Court the jury returned a verdict in the plaintiffs' favour. ■'-'■■ '-."■-]■-

What is in the Bedkoom.—Tf two person* are to occupy a bedroom daring the night, let them, step on a weighing machine as they retire/and then again in tho morning, and they will find their actual weight is at least a pound less in the morniug. Frequently there will be a loss of two or rrore pounds, and the average loss through the year will be more than a pound of matter which has gone off from their bodies partly from the lungs and partly through the pores of the skin. The escaped material is carbonic acid, and decayed animal matter, or poisonous exhalation. This is diffased through the air in part, and part absorbed by the bedclothes. Jf a single ounce of wool or cotton be burned in a room >it will so completely saturate the air with smoke that one can hardly breathe, though there can oDly be one ounce of a foreign matter in the air. It' an ounce of cotton be burned every half-hour during the night, the air will be kept; continually saturated with smoke unless there be an open window or door for it to escape.; Now the sixteen ounces of smoke thus formed is far less poisonous than the sixteen ounces of exhalations from the lungs and bodies of tho two persons who have lost a pound in weight during the eight hours of sleeping;. for, while the dry smoke is mainly taken into the lungs, the damp odors from the body are absorbed both in the lungs and into the pores of the whole body. Need more be said to show the importance of having bed-rooms well ventilated, and of thoroughly airing the sheets, coverlids, and. mattresses in the morning, before packing them upin the form of a neatly made bed! Women and thk LopEiNG-G^k-—An observant husband says that a'takingglass affords a woman.a marvellous amount of comfort and gratification. "Me states, that his wife thinks just as much of consulting her glass %hen she ties on her apron as when she ties on her bonnet. He says that when there is a knock at the door he goes there at once, but his wife, on the contrary, ejaculates, *' Mercy, who's that ? " and dashes directly f jv the looking-glass. • When does a man contrive to move in a very sisall space ?—When he comes dswn« stairs in his slippers. .*'