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

71 It is also necessary for the officials of Coxlodge colliery to bear this in miud, that the long range of district which is now left for them. to work off is situated between the goaves, from the place of the explosion to about one mile out; Gosforth is on the south side and Coxlodge on the north and south. The whole of the distance to near the down-cast shaft, which must make it precarious to deal with, and difficult to venti- late, requiring at all times the utmost caution, with strict attention towards the safety of the workmen, inasmuch as they will frequently have to contend with stealthy volumes of inflammable gas, not generated from the stratas, but arising from the same source I have already described__stao-nation, putrifacticjn, and decomposition. Such is the natural subtlety and deceptive principle of hydrogen gas, that it will, as it were, embrace every opportunity offered by any important change of the atmosphere, or any trivial neglect and defect in the arrangement of the system Thus, it must appear obvious to all concerned, the inevit- able consequences of duty neglected, and the virtue of a just and due regard to a daily prospective throughout the whole process of mining. *And now to end bhe work as we begun, with an humble address to you ye fellow-workmen of the mines; let not then any man attaint my memory by believing me actuated by selfish motives or individual hostility. My whole object is the general good, without prospect or remuneration; and while I await in silence on the reception of these precepts, let me endeav- our to stimulate you in the universal belief of the merits of their truth You are aware that a man in my situation has not only to combat with the difficulties of the mine, in the absence of fortune, but also t he diffi- culties of prejudice. Let not, then, their virtues be consigned to obloquy, or their just appreciation left till other times and other men can do them justice. Then will my object be seen, and my character be vmdic.i e< . M. & M. W LAMBERT, PRINTERS, 50, GREY STREET, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.