1816.] Accident in a Coal-Mine at Liege. 261 
mines of the county of Durham. I shall here relate an accident 
similar to one of those which occurred four years ago at Liege, be- 
cause it was attended with circumstances which deserve to be 
known. ‘The account was published in the French newspapers at 
the time when it happened; but the following statement is taken 
from the Voyage dans la Belgique, by M. Paquet-Syphorien, pub- 
lished at Paris in 1813, who had the details from M. Goffin him- 
self. 
Just without the gate of the city of Liege, towards Brussels, 
several coal-mines are wrought. ‘There are three perpendicular 
shafts at no great distance from each other, called Bure* Trique- 
notte, Bure de Beaujonc, and Bure Mamonster. The first two 
communicate with each other below ground; but there was no 
communication between the last two. In these mines, which are 
about 120 fathoms deep, the water is directed to a particuiar part 
of the mine, where it is confined by a wooden frame, called serre- 
ment, from which it is raised to the surface by means of forcing 
umps. 
. Oh the 28th of February, 1812, about eleven o’clock in the fore- 
noon, the mine connected with the shaft Beaujonc was suddenly 
inundated by the rupture of the serrement of the shaft Triquenotte, 
situated at the distance of 459 feet from the mine Beaujone. At 
that time 127 workmen were in the mine, 35 of whom made their 
escape at the moment when the inundation took place. The over- 
seer, M. Goffin, with his son, was at the bottom of the shaft, and 
might have easily made his escape ; but he formed the resolution of 
saying his miners, or of perishing with them. 
He gave orders to Nicholas Bertrand, Mathieu Labeye, and 
Clavier, three miners who were sharers in his generous resolution, 
to go and warn their companions, and to direct them to the part of 
the mine nearest the shaft Mamonster. Meanwhile he assisted all 
the workmen who had collected at the foot of the shaft to make 
their escape. The danger became at Jast so great that these men 
did not hesitate to tear the boys by force from the ropes of the 
basket, to which they had fixed themselves, and to take their places. 
But M. Goffin took up the poor boys, and carried them along with 
him. By the time that 35 of the miners had made their escape, the 
waters had risen to such a height as to cut off all communication 
with the shaft. 
M. Goffin collected all the miners in that part of the mine which 
he considered as nearest to the shaft Mamonster, and, assisted by 
some of the stoutest of them, he undertook to open a passage into 
one of the galleries connected with that shaft. ‘They were in pos- 
session of a few candles; but had no food. Though only two work- 
men could be employed at a time, they had already penetrated 23 
feet, when a violent explosion of inflammable air took place, and 
informed them that they had been penetrating, not into the galleries 
' * Bure is the miner’s term fora shaft, 
