366 Mr. Buddle's Narrative of the Explosion 



and faculties, although burnt in the face and hands, with three ribs and 

 the small bone of his leg broken, and his eyes so filled with small coals 

 that he did not recover his sight till the 24th ; he is a robust man in the 

 prime of life. He was onsetter at the north shaft, and was in the act of 

 hooking on the third or lowest corf of the set, having previously hooked 

 on the other two ; three corves being drawn up at the same time. This 

 is only known from the circumstance of all the three corves being found 

 hooked on, and not drawn away, as Brown had no recollection whatever 

 of the circumstance. He neither heard, saw, nor felt any thing, nor was 

 conscious that any thing had happened until he recovered his senses, when 

 he found himself lying across a roily at the bottom of the shaft. His first 

 idea was that the pit had fired, and that all the men and boys had gone to 

 bank and left him, and he knew nothing to the contrary until Moralee went 

 to him, as already stated. 



Mr. Atkinson, who went down the north shaft with half a dozen men, 

 as soon as a passage was opened through the wreck of the brattice at the 

 main-coal seam, found these people, and sent them to bank without delay. 

 The father of the boy Middleton was one of the party, and John Brown 

 told him that his son was alive, as he had been with them, but had gone 

 he did not know where. 



On proceeding up the west Mothergait from the north shaft, Mr. Atkin- 

 son heard a weak voice singing, and on listening, Middleton recognised it 

 to be the voice of his boy. They followed the sound to the entrance into 

 the first north-west district, d, where they found the boy lying under a 

 rolley, where he had crept. He knew his father's voice before he saw him, 

 although in a state of delirium ; he was in a state of entire nudity, having 

 pulled off all his clothes. 



At the time of the accident, this boy was with his horse and a train of 

 rollies in the first siding west from the north shaft, and about twenty yards 

 from it. He was severely burnt, and continued delirious, with short inter- 

 vals, for several days, so that no account, which could be depended on, could 

 be got from him. When he became perfectly cool and collected, he stated 

 that he was at the north shaft getting a drink of water, having left his 

 horse in the first siding to the west. He was just turning round to return 



