14 Hunning Motes, Agricultural and \S\x\j, 



was digging through! Another convulsion lifted up the mass, and 

 relieved him! I alluded to the terrifying circumstances in which 

 he was placed. He said that he felt no fear until he emerged 

 from the mouth of the mine and was in safety, — " then he did 

 have, and has often since had, a feeling of dread creep over him, 

 in thinking of them." He represents the reports when the rocky 

 strata above the mine split and gave way, as absolutely deafen- 

 ing — louder than the loudest thunder. 



Eight dead bodies were taken out, and six — five men with 

 families, and one the only son of a widow — were left in. The Com- 

 pany expended large sums in attempting to rescue them, and 

 finally to recover their bodies — made every effort that propriety 

 or humanity could dictate — and gave not over the search until the 

 nearest relatives of the deceased surrendered all hope of discover- 

 ing them. And what recks it, that they sleep where their " life- 

 ache" ended? Is not a m.ountain as good a monument as a hil- 

 lock in the graveyard! 



The " fall" extended over about forty acres, and strange as it 

 may seem, though there is only from one to two hundred feet of 

 earth, rocks, &c. above, (I here speak from recollection, having 

 made no minute of the fact on the spot,) there are no external 

 traces of it, excepting at one edge. The fallen chambers being 

 mostly exhausted of coal, will, of course, never be re-excavated. 

 In fact, all the old chambers, as the wooden props rot away, gra- 

 dually fill up with the falling masses of slate. 



It was arranged that I should explore the mines, with a guide, 

 on the 10th, but Mr. Clarkson, with a courtesy I had no right to 

 expect, signifying to me that if I would defer my visit until the 

 morrow, he would himself accompany me, and " give me a day," 

 I occupied the intermediate time in outside researches, and also in 

 visiting two other mines of the company a short distance from 

 Carbondale. With Doct. S. and Bryden I mounted a returning 

 coal-truck, drawn by a horse, and started for the " Powderly" mine, 

 two miles off. The I'ailroad passes a long viaduct on its route, 

 -supported on wooden props seventy feet in height. It seems to 

 me now, that the surface width did not exceed five feet. On it 



