g64 u4ccldent at Felling Colliery, [May^ 



sssertions seemed indeed to be a mixture of those prejudices and 

 conceits which cleave to workmen whom experience has afforded 

 a partial insight into the nature and peculiarities of their pro- 

 fession, and not to be grounded on any memory of facts, or to 

 result from a knowledge of the connection between causes and 

 eflects : and on this account^ as soon as the leaders of the outcry 

 could be brought to listen with patience to a relation of the 

 appearances that attended this accident, and to hear the reasons 

 assigned for the conclusion that the mine was on fire, and that 

 the persons remaining in it were dead, they seemed to allow the 

 impracticability of reaching the bodies of the sufferers, till the 

 fire was extinguished, and consequently the necessity of smother- 

 ing it out by excluding atmospheric air from the mine. 



The proprietors of the mine gave the strongest assurances to 

 the crowd, that if any project could be framed for the recovery 

 of the men, no expense should be spared in executing it; if 

 any person could be found to enter the mine, every facility and 

 help should be afforded him ; but, as they were assured by the 

 unanimous opinion of several of the most eminent viewers in 

 the neighbourhood, that the workings of the mine were in an 

 unapproachable state, they would hold out no reward for the 

 attempt : they would be accessary to no man's death by persua- 

 sion or a bribe. 



The mouth of the John Pit had continued open since the 

 accident : the William Pit was to-day almost wholly muzzled 

 with planks. 



On Wednesday the 27th of May, at the clamorous solicitation 

 of the people, Mr. Straker and the overman again descended the 

 John Pit, in order to ascertain the state of the air in the work- 

 ings. Immediately under the shaft they found a mangled horse, 

 in which they supposed they perceived some signs of life ; but 

 they had only advanced about six or eight yards, before the 

 sparks of the flint were extinguislied in the choak-damp, and 

 Haswell, who played the mill, began to show the effects of the 

 carbonic poison, by faultering in his steps. Mr. Straker there- 

 fore laid hold of him, and supported him to the shaft. As the 

 baneful vapours had now taken possession of the whole of the 

 mine, and they found it difficult to breathe even in the course 

 of the full current of the ^atmospheric air, they immediately 

 ascended. But the afflicted creatures, still clinging to hope, 

 disbelieved their report. Wishful, therefore, to give as ample 

 satisfaction as possible to the unhappy women, Mr. Anderson 

 and James Turnbull (a hewer of the colliery, who had escaped 

 the blast) again went down. At 30 fathoms from the bottom 

 they found the air exceedingly warm : to exist without apoplectic 

 symptoms for more than a few yards round the bottom of the 

 gliaft, was found impossible, and even there the air was so con* 



