at Wallsend Colliery, June, 1835. 361 



and gained access to the open part of the rolley-way in the West Mother- 

 gait drift leading from the south shaft. 



As soon as the noise and hustle of forcing their way through the rub- 

 bish at the bottom of the pit had ceased, and they had begun to advance 

 they were startled by the sound of human voices, some way near to them 

 On proceeding a few yards, they found Robert Moralee, John Brown, John 

 Reed, and the boy, Middleton, alive. They were all very weak and ex- 

 hausted, but sensible, and knew the voices of the people who were about 

 them. They were all burned and mained, less or more, and one of Reed's 

 legs was dreadfully fractured by the fall of a stone from the roof. John 

 Brown was severely burnt and contused, his face was stuck full of small 

 coals, and dirt all over, and his eyes filled with the same materials, as if 

 he had been shot at, and three of his ribs were broken. Moralee was 

 burnt in the feet and legs, and severely contused ; the boy, Middleton 

 was severely burnt, but not so much exhausted as the rest ; he was rather 

 delirious. They were all so ill and weak, that I abstained from asking them 

 any questions that evening. 



It is impossible to describe the scene which ensued on the intelligence 



being circulated that some people had been found alive. Every one whose 



relatives had not yet been found, rushed to the pit in the fond hope of 

 their yet being alive. The most exaggerated reports were spread, and the 



crowd of anxious inquirers thronged about the top of the pit so, as mate- 

 rially to impede the operations for the recovery of their relatives, which 

 they were but too anxious to hasten. 



The ascent of every corf from the pit was watched with the most eager 

 impatience, in the hope of its producing other individuals who had escaped 

 the general destruction. I witnessed one remarkable instance of the ef- 

 fects of sanguine hope, and the power of imagination united. Joseph 

 Waggot brought up the dead bodies of his father, and that of Christopher 

 Ovington, together, in a corf. He sprang to me in an ecstacy of delight on 

 landing at the top of the pit, exclaiming " Oh ! sir, I have found my father 

 alive, and here he is." On examination, however, the vital spark appeared 

 to me to have been long extinct. 



Progress was made along the rolley-way leading to the north-west work- 



