1813.] Accident at Felling Colliery, 441 



the purpose, and drawn ' to bank ' in a net made of strong 

 cords. 



It is worthy of remark that number six was found within two 

 or three yards of the place where the atmospheric current con- 

 centrated, as it passed from the one pit to the other ; but that 

 he was lying on his face with his head downwards, apparently in 

 the position into which he had been thrown by the blast. The 

 air visited him in vain. 



When the first shift of men came up, at ten o'clock, a mes- 

 sage was sent for a number of coffins to be in readiness, at the 

 pit. These being at the joiner's shop, piled up in a heap, to the 

 number of 92, (a most gloomy sight) had to pass by the village 

 of Low Felling. As soon as a cart load of them was seen, the 

 howliiigs of the women, who had hitherto continued in their 

 liouses, but now began to assemble about their doors, came on 

 the breeze in slow fitful gusts, which presaged a scene of much 

 distress and confusion being soon exhibited near the pit ; but 

 happily, by representing to them the shocking appearance of the 

 body that had been found, and the ill effects upon their own 

 bodies and minds, likely to ensue from suffering themselves to 

 be hurried away by such violent convulsions of grief, they either 

 returned to their houses, or continued in silence in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the pit. 



Every family had made provision for the entertainment of 

 their neighbours on the day the bodies of their friends were 

 recovered ; and it had been generally given out that they in- 

 tended to take the bodies into their own houses. But Dr» 

 Ramsay having given his opinion that such a proceeding, if car- 

 ried into effect, might spread putrid fever through the neigh- 

 bourhood, and the first body, when exposed to ol)servation5 

 having a most horrid and corrupt appearance, they readily con- 

 sented to have them interred immediately after they were found. 

 Permission, however, was given to let the hearse, in its way to 

 the chapel yard, pass by the door of the deceased. 



From the 8th of July to the 1 9th of September, the heart- 

 rending scene of mothers and widows examining the putrid 

 bodies of their sons and husbands, for marks by which to identify 

 them, was almost daily renewed; but very few of them were 

 known by any personal mark — they were too much mangled and 

 scorched to retain any of their features. Their clothes, tobacco-^ 

 boxes, shoes, and the like, were, therefore, the only indexes by 

 which they could be recognised. 



After finding numbers seven, eight, and nine, the operations 

 of the first day ceased, about ten o'clock in the evening. At six 

 the next morning the workmen began to put deal stoppings into 

 the stentings of the double head-ways west of the William Fit. 

 la thp afternoon number tea was found, and the third boarc^ 



