Scenes And Incidents From The Life Of A Practical Miner
With A Treatise On The Ventilation Of Coal Mines

57 quire it. We had not proceeded far when we met five of the men running out-bye in the dark, more afraid than hurt. AVe continued our course and met with, the overman and a deputy at the end of this branch-way where the explosion had occurred. He requested us to go in with him. Other six men came out, nothing worse, but could tell us little of th© effects nor where the accident happened. We proceeded on and began to meet men maimed, burnt, and mutilated, and fearing that those twenty three behind were lost, we pushed, on till we arrived at the switch or branch-way which formed, the high and low cranes. We here found the double bearing up doors and stoppings all blown, out, and the air rushing along the west winning'headways at the bottom, east of the whole sheth of boards. This being wrong, they also were alarmed for all the rest of tlie men; while we, following the current of air, found at last the air rushing up west, which was a proof that the separation stoppings be- tween the pits were blown out. We got up to the low crane, and in venturing into the headways to north we found tlie afterdamp so strong that we were obliged to retreat. Yet we were all certain that we heard tlie groans of men, who, though yet living, had not strength to get out. We paused at the risk of venturing further. The other men put tobacco iii rheir mouths, but I put a crust of bread in my month, and gave one of the men my lamp. Off I set, groping my way to the first east board end, where the deputy’s chest .stood, and found the men there: I seized one and dragged him through the wall into the fresh air, when those who were there carried him down to the headways, where there was a beauti- ful stream of water running. The overman laid him down with his face over this running water, and as we succeeded in getting more men out, they were all treated in a similar way by the overman—a judicious, dis- creet man, and considered a good practical miner—liis name was William Eggleston. We persevered in this manner until we got seven men out of this east board end, some of them apparently dead: yet, strange, to say, they all came round, undoubtedly by tlie virtue of that running stream of water. By this time they had got an increase of the exploring force, with news that 13 of the night shifters had gone through to the other pit and got to bank all safe. This was good news, which made only three wanting now. These fresh men conveyed the seven we had got out (where they had evidently been in the act of putting on their clothes) to the shaft, thence to bank, when the doctor was in readiness to attend and administer restoratives. Our party was satisfied there were no more men in this headway, and as we could not get any further north for the strength of the afterdamp, we proceeded up west with the current of air examining the headway ends as we went on. When near to tlie high crane, the destructive effects of the explosive blast were awful to look at. We found one young man (William Brown) lying quite dead, but not burnt. After searching and risking our own lives for the pur- pose of saving others, it was found that all hands, men and boys, were out of the pit. They then commenced to restore tlie ventilation to its proper course again, by renewing the stoppings with deals, and setting the doors afresh. By this time the chief agent had arrived on the scene of action. I was engaged with one of th© wastemen replacing' tlio separation stop-