144 
the kind which provokes resistance, since it might involve 
enormous additional expense. Yet it remains for the cal- 
culation of proprietors themselves whether explosions and 
their consequences do not exhibit a large per contra figure. 
Jarrow Mine, six times wholly or partially stopped, six 
times to be repaired and restored, in twenty-eight years, 
must have furnished some set off to the expense of pro- 
viding different shafts for different purposes, instead of one 
shaft divided into three parts by wooden brattices. To 
place the shafts, at the first laying out of the workings, 
at proper distances instead of close together, would not 
involve, in many instances, much additional expense; and 
it is of great importance. At the Oaks, where the upcast 
and downcast were only nine feet asunder, the men and 
boys who reached the bottom of the shaft were kept be- 
tween the danger of suffocation by after- damp, or being 
crushed by stones, with very few yards of fresh air. At 
Darley, where the arrangement of the ventilation ensured 
a supply of air for a considerable distance, many of those 
carried out as dead subsequently recovered.* At Jarrow, 
Jacob Barnborough, hewer, says, ‘‘ If they (the masters) 
gave us two shafts instead of one, it would give us a better 
chance of escape after an accident.f” Every arrangement 
which tends to keep up the current of fresh air after an 
explosion, or to facilitate its speedy restoration, is of great 
importance in lessening the extent of injury to life. To 
nothing do the accounts more generally testify than that 
the greater part of the deaths take place from the choke 
damp, or after damp — carbonic acid gas. I find from my 
examination of the evidence, that at Risca it seems doubtful 
whether more than four or five lives were destroyed by 
burning, out of thirty-five lost. We have instances of 
stupor being produced, and recovery following after the 
* Report on Darley, p. 10. t Report, 1847, p. 18. 
