Mr Bald an the Fires that take place in Collieries, 111 



ed. I found, as is always the case, that the muscular energy of 

 the knee-joint first fails ; this feehng was very sensible, in this 

 instance, with both of us. 



The wastes or excavations of this coal were connected with 

 the wastes in an adjoining estate. The subtile effluvium passed 

 into this estate, and, at about a mile distant, ascended a pit, and 

 killed the birds which were near its mouth. 



After eighteen months, the fire became seriously alanning, 

 and we then had no alternative but either to allow the burning 

 to go on, or to drown the colliery, and render it useless until 

 some after-period. This last was resolved on; the pumping 

 engine was stopt, and as the growth of mine-water was compa- 

 ratively slow, we brought a brook along the surface, and allow- 

 ed the water to pour down the engine pit, where it fell in a cas- 

 cade of about 300 feet in depth. By this plan the fire was ex- 

 tinguished, but the colliery remains drowned and useless to the 

 present day. 



The Hallheath Colliery took fire in a solid bed of coal, which 

 was level-free, but had not been wrought. The crop of the 

 coal was on a bank near one of the great pumping engines, and 

 the red-hot ashes from the furnaces of the engine-boilers were 

 inadvertently laid against this bank ; these set on fire the coal, 

 and the fire extended by slow degrees in a simple state of incan- 

 descence, and continued in this state for years. Its progress was 

 only arrested by a slip of the strata, which acted as a barrier 

 against the farther progress of the burning. This shews how 

 easily, in some cases, even a bed of solid coal may be set on fire. 



The Bridge of Orr Colliery was set on fire by spontaneous ig- 

 nition, during the severe winter of the year 1812. It is a con- 

 tinuation of the thick coal of Dysart before mentioned. During 

 this severe winter, many rivers in Scotland froze to their beds. 

 The water of Orr, which passes the colliery, froze in this man- 

 ner ; and when a sudden rain and thaw succeeded the frost, the 

 accumulate<^l waters flowed on the top of tl>e ice, and a conside- 

 rable quantity ran down the colliery pits. This water caused 

 a decomposition of the pyrites, the consequence of which was, 

 that fire and flame were very soon generated. I was called up- 

 on this occasion ^ and as the burning was confined to a narrow 



