Mr. Buddle's Account of the Explosion in Jarroxs) Colliery. 191 



few hours before, he thought it most probable that a discharge of in- 

 flammable air would ensue from the fissure of the hitch. No such 

 discharge, however, did take place, and he immediately took a pick 

 and laid rather better than a superficial foot of the face of the hitch 

 bare, to examine it. He then went into the fore drift to examine the 

 state of the air, and the ventilation there ; he found the former clean, 

 and the latter powerful. He conversed with Joseph Tinkler, who 

 was hewing in the fore drift, and Richard Morgan who was working 

 in the back one, on the excellent state of the ventilation — little think- 

 ing, alas ! how soon their doom was to be sealed — and remained with 

 them until it was time for him to go to meet Messrs. Forster and 

 Coxon, at the usual place of rendezvous, at the bottom of the first west 

 drifts. 



On arriving at this place, the conversation already narrated took 

 place, and the party sat down there till Mr. Forster wrote the names 

 of the different persons whose work they had to measure off". This 

 only occupied a few minutes, when, contrary to their usual custom, 

 they went, by mere accident, into the first west drifts to measure off" 

 the work in that quarter. This was most providential, for had they 

 gone into the east drifts first, according to their usual custom, they must 

 inevitably have perished by the explosion which ensued in a few mi- 

 nutes. In which case, the whole of the people, in all probabihty, whose 

 lives were saved by their subsequent exertions, would also have perished. 



From the point b, Plate XVIH., Messrs. Forster, Coxon, and Johnson 

 went into the first division of the west workings, and had just begun to 

 measure off" the narrow work at B, when they were alarmed by a sudden 

 concussion and whizzing in the air — the well known indications of an ex- 

 plosion having taken place some where. They, however, least of all sus- 

 pected it to have happened in the east division of the Drewett district. 

 Their first impression was, that it had happened in the Main Coal seam 

 under Jarrow Slake, where the pillars are being worked. That being 

 the only place in the colHery where inflammable air was known to 

 abound at the time. 



VOL. I. > D d 



