Mr Bald on the Fires that take plaice in Collieries . 101 



body of the monster is upwards of a foot, and is thinly set with 

 hair ; the tail is that of an elephant, there being setae or bristles 

 at its extremity ; in the upper jaw are a couple of canine teeth : 

 the testes, as in the genus Elephas, do not protrude from the ab- 

 domen ; but this is no distinctive mark, as the young of most 

 animals have them similarly situated. — Plate I. fig. 4. 4. 



The only way of accounting for the production of a monster 

 like the foregoing, is the almost inexplicable doctrine of sympa- 

 thy, — the imagination of the mother may have been fearfully 

 excited when in a state of gestation, by being nearly trodden 

 upon, or injured, by an elephant, of which there are several at 

 the birth-place of the monster. 



Royal Military College, ) 

 Sandhurst, 1st Map 1828. j" 



On the Fires that take place in Collieries ; and particularly on 

 the Recent Fires in the Whitehill and Polton Collieries, in 

 Mid-Lothian ; and South Sauchie Colliery, in Clackmannan- 

 shire. By Robert Bald, Esq. Mining Engineer, F, R.S. E. 

 M, W. S. he. * Communicated by the Author. 



X N the ordinary and arduous operations of collieries, there daily 

 occur many difficulties ; such as, an excessive extra quantity of 

 water which requires to be drawn to the surface ; bad roofs, 

 which must be constantly guarded and secured, for the safety of 

 the adventurers and miners ; and crushes of the coal pillars, and 

 of the whole superincumbent strata, which frequently resist every 

 attempt to stop their progress. 



Besides these, there are others, such as the constant flow of 

 carbonic acid gas common to every colliery, by which many lives 

 are lost, and the production of carburetted hydrogen, peculiar to 

 collieries in particular districts- In Scotland, the carburetted 

 hydrogen is most abundant in the Ayrshire and Glasgow Col- 

 lieries ; in England, in the districts of the rivers Tyne and Wear, 

 in the counties of Northumberland and Durham. The first of 

 these gases is named by the miners in Scotland, Choke-damp, 

 Black damp, and Styff ; the latter is generally named Fire, or 

 Fire-damp. 



• Read before the Wemerian Natural History Society of £dinburgh, 19th 

 AprU 1828. 



