190 Mr. Bubble's Account of the Explosion in Jarroxo Colliery. 



darts upon the plan shew more distinctly the run of the current of air. 

 I found the ventilation, at all times, in the most satisfactory state, up 

 to the 26th July, which was the last time I viewed the workings before 

 the accident happened. I then paid particular attention to the state 

 of the east drifts, and could not observe any increase of inflammable 

 air — indeed the quantity then discharging was barely discernible. And 

 we have it in evidence, on the coroner's inquest, that matters conti- 

 nued in this state until within a very short time of the accident hap- 

 pening. Having premised so much, I shall now proceed to narrate 

 the pai'ticulars of this accident, which has excited such a general and 

 lively interest in the country. 



This melancholy catastrophe happened on the morning of Tuesday 

 the 3d of August last, at about twenty ininutes before six o'clock. 



It happened to be the "pay week,"* and Messrs. John Forster, the 

 resident viewer, and Ralph Coxon, the under-viewer, went down the 

 pit at five o'clock in the morning, to measure oflfthe narrow and di'ift- 

 work, which is paid by the yard. They proceeded into the Drewitt 

 district by the rail-way, and met John Johnson, the overman, at the 

 foot of the first west drifts, marked h, on the Plan, Plate XVIII. He 

 was interrogated in the usual manner — " how are you all situated this 

 morning ; has any thing fresh occurred ?" Johnson replied, that all was 

 well, and that he had othing new, except in the east drifts. He said, 

 his back overman, Robert Linsley, whom he left in charge of the 

 pit the preceding shift, had reported, that during his shift a bag of 

 foulness had come off", in the face of the back east drift, but it was 

 soon exhausted, and the place became quite clean again. 



On receiving this information, Johnson went immediately into the 

 east drifts — he went direct into the back drifts, and, just after his arrival, 

 the he'wer,\ who was working in the face, told him, he believed he had 

 "pricked a hitch." ^ Johnson immediately examined if any inflamma- 

 ble air was discharging, as, from Linsley's report of what occurred a 



* The custom is to pay the colliers once a fortnight— they divide the fortnight into the 

 Baffand Pay Week. 



\ The collier who digs the coal. 



\ A small Slip Dyke not exceeding the height of the seam. 



