'20't Mr. Budjdle's Account of the Explosion in Jarrow Colliery. 



ing collieries, for the alacrity with which they volunteered their servi- 

 ces. The kind feeling and sympathy of the colliers through the whole 

 district, for the distress occasioned by this catastrophe, have been evinc- 

 ed in the strongest manner by the liberal subscriptions they have made 

 for the relief of the widows and orphans of the sufferers. May we not 

 hope that this laudable feeling may be directed to the formation of a 

 permanent fund for the relief of sufferers, arising from the various casu- 

 alties incidental to coal-mining, in which, it is scarcely to be doubted, 

 that the coal-owners, as well as the coal and landed proprietors of the 

 country immediately connected with the coal-trade of the north, would 

 cheerfully join. 



A handsome subscription has also been raised by the activity of Mr. 

 George Major and other humane individuals, which has greatly reliev- 

 ed the distress of the widows, children, and other dependents on the 

 labour of the individuals who suffered on this melancholy occasion. 



POSTSCRIPT. 



It may not probably be deemed unimportant to remark, that in con- 

 tinuing the east drifts beyond the hitch where the fatal eruption took 

 place, certain phenomena of rather unusual occurrence in coal-min- 

 ing appeared. 



As the workmen proceeded, powerful eructations as loud as the re- 

 port of a musket frequently took place when the coal was struck by the 

 pick, and large splinters were thrown off by their force to the great 

 annoyance and alarm of the workmen. The presence of inflammable 

 air was never discoverable by the safety lamps when those eructations 

 took place, but from the strong pungent and sulphureous smell which 

 always accompanied them, I had reason to think that they were accom- 

 panied by a discharge of sulphuretted hydrogen. 



Eructations from the Coal are by no means uncommon when struck 

 by the pick, but the eructations above described exceeded beyond 

 comparison, in point of force and loudness, any thing of the kind that 



