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COAL MINES OF

of vapour which gradually diminished in itsforce and blackness, and by the followingmorning had so much decreased as only to re-semble a stream of smoke. Here again anotherscene of misery and distress presented itself:for, notwithstanding the time which the minehad been closed, the remembrance of someinstances where men had subsisted for thirtyor forty days upon candles and horse-beans,led many to believe that their relatives mightstill be restored to them. They assembled ingreat numbers in the hopes of a miraculousdeliverance being effected; some out of cu-riosity, some from their sufferings, and othersto create distrust and confusion, by acrimoniousand malignant observations, formed a numerousbut wretched assemblage.

Early on the morning of the 8 th of July,one of the pits was descended by Mr. Straker,one of the viewers, and Mr. Anderson, withseveral other persons, for the purpose of ex-amining the mine, and to ascertain whether anyof the poor sufferers had by the remotest possi-bility preserved their existence. The dreadfuldislocations which nature had sustained, thedreary and terrific aspect of all they beheldaround them, united with the horror-inspiringremembrance that they were in the tomb of