1S46.] Geological, of a trip to Carhondale. 13 



Alexander Bryden is about forty-five years of age. His form 

 though well knit and sinewy, betokens no extraordinary physical 

 power. A placid gray eye, a well arched nose, curling locks of 

 light brown escaping under his Scotch cap — intonations of voice 

 modulated to " more than woman's mildness" — a reserved, modest, 

 and entirely unassuming demeanor, are external traits which would 

 strike any observer; and perhaps few would see, under this un- 

 pretending exterior, the man who could do and dare what he has 

 done and dared. But there is a firmness in those gentle tones, 

 a deep earnestness and truthfulness — a quiet but unwavering de- 

 cision — an utter merging of self — a gushing tenderness of feeling, 

 which pervade the whole man, which would lead the deeper ana- 

 lyst of character to expect the legitimate manifestations of these 

 united traits. A high sense of duty and overflowing humanity, it 

 was, and was alone, which prompted his heart and his hand in 

 that dreadful hour. 



Bryden, I need not say, is an intelligent, reading man. A mile 

 from the light of day, on the edge of the " fall," we talked of and 

 quoted Burns, — (eight miles from w^hose birth place, and in the 

 same county — Ayrshire — Bryden was born;) and with the gigan- 

 tic vegetation of pre- Adamite ages over our heads, he and Clark- 

 son and I discussed the theories of Buckland and Lyell, and the 

 " Vestiges of Creation." 



The escape of Hossie, who was for two days and two nights 

 shut in the mines, without food or light, has already been pretty 

 fully and accurately recounted to the public. He is a plain, plea- 

 sant appearing young man — of from thirty to thirty-five years of 

 age — filled to the full, as the facts accompanying his escape am- 

 ply prove, with Scottish nerve and Scottish forecaste. The most 

 determined efforts were made to save him ; but while Clarkson 

 and Bryden and many a bold heart sought him in danger, he had 

 escaped to a place of comparative safety in the unbroken cham- 

 bers of the mines. For two hours he w^as buried to his middle, 

 by a mass of rubbish which caught him in one the passages he 



quired an equal amount of bravery — mere animal courage — was instigated 

 by motives, mean compared with those which led to the one I have described. 



