628 
of conducting air through the workings and out of the up- 
cast shaft, ignorance of the real necessities of mines, and a 
false economy, have been at the root of all the evils that 
have befallen miners and proprietors. In the hope that 
the future may be productive of something adapted to 
the real wants of the case, we proceed to notice the many 
improvements, so-called, for ventilating collieries, as well 
as suggestions for almost every conceivable theory that has 
been circulated through the medium of the press. Parties 
have indulged in speculations, and practice has not been 
idle, yet no general method has been devised to which all 
could subscribe. All agree as to the necessity of something 
being done, more especially since the disaster at Lundhill, 
nearly twelve months ago. This explosion is unequalled in 
the annals of mining history, and is only surpassed, I 
believe, by one existing colliery, in the number of human 
lives that have been sacrificed by this destructive element. 
But in one case the colliery had been in operation nearly 
seventy years, the other about five years. But are colliery 
proprietors, engineers, viewers, and colliers, yet fully aroused 
to a sense of the dangers to which every moment life and 
property are exposed in all ill-regulated and ill-ventilated 
mines, as in the South Yorkshire and other districts. 
It is to be feared there is danger in many instances of parties 
falling into a state of apathy and indifference, peculiar to 
mankind, to be awoke to a sense of the danger they are every 
moment exposed to, only by a sad event that takes away many 
at a stroke ; and each succeeding explosion, experience 
proves, is more fearful and fatal than its predecessor. 
From a desire to bring about a better state of things, two 
papers, by highly respectable and intelligent gentlemen, have 
been contributed to this Society on this subject, and consider- 
able discussion has followed the reading of the same, in which 
many deeply interested in mining operations have taken a 
