196 Mr. Bubble's Account of the Explosion in Jarrow Colliery. 



them to recover all the dead bodies of the unfortunate people who had 

 perished in that quarter. This was accomplished by four o'clock in the 

 afternoon, but the east drifts remained so charged with inflammable air 

 at that time, as not to be safely accessible ; and nothing had then been 

 discovered to explain the cause of the accident. All the people who 

 were found in these workings, had either been killed by the explosion, 

 or died of suffocation before they could make their escape. The places 

 in which they were found are marked on the Plan. 



I was from home, and did not arrive at the colliery till near five 

 o'clock in the afternoon ; my first object was to examine Johnson, the 

 overman, and others, as to the state of the pit immediately before the 

 accident, and, in short, to investigate every circumstance connected 

 with it, to endeavour, if possible, to ascertain the cause of so unexpect- 

 ed an occurrence. The result was, that I was impressed with the con- 

 viction, that it had been occasioned either by the breaking out of a bag 

 of foulness, or a blower, or both, from the hitch in the face of the back 

 east drift. This appeared the more likely from the quantity of inflam- 

 mable air with which the two east drifts were charged, while Mr. Fors- 

 ter and his party were occupied in carrying out the dead bodies. 



I next proceeded to examine the workings, and travelled through 

 with the current of fresh air, beginning at the sloping stone drift. Al- 

 though the current of atmospherical air was but faint, not equal to more 

 than one half of its ordinary power, owing to the insufficiency of the 

 temporary stoppings, which had been hastily put up for the purpose of 

 affording the most speedy relief to the sufferers, I did not discover the 

 least appearance of inflammable air in any part of the workings. On 

 arriving near the face of the fore east drift, where it had been charged 

 with inflammable air only three hours before, not the least trace of any 

 remained. I then went into the back east drift, expecting to find out the 

 cause of the accident there, but I found it precisely in the state de- 

 scribed by Johnson, when he left it less than half an hour before the 

 accident happened — not the least appearance of inflammable air was 

 discoverable in this place. 



The next object of examination was the face of the fore east drift, and 



