dreadful catastrophe that has happened below.
Perhaps all that remains of some of the workers consists of charred and
scorched bodies, scarcely recognisable as human beings. Others escape
with scorched arms or legs, and singed hair, to tell the terrible tale to
those who were more fortunately absent; to speak of their own sufferings
when, after having escaped the worst effects of the explosion, they
encountered the asphyxiating rush of the after-damp or choke-damp, which
had been caused by the combustion of the fire-damp. "Choke-damp" in very
truth it is, for it is principally composed of our old acquaintance
carbonic acid gas (carbon dioxide), which is well known as a
non-supporter of combustion and as an asphyxiator of animal life.

It seems a terrible thing that on occasions the workings and walls
themselves of a coal-mine catch fire and burn incessantly. Yet such is
the case. Years ago this happened in the case of an old colliery near
Dudley, at the surface of which, by means of the heat and steam thus
afforded, early potatoes for the London market, we are told, were grown;
and it was no unusual thing to see the smoke emerging from cracks and
crevices in the rocks in the vicinity of the town.

From fire on the one hand, we pass, on the other, to the danger which
awaits miners from a sudden inrush of water. During the great coal strike
of 1893, certain mines became unworkable in consequence of the quantity
of water which flooded the mines, and which, continually passing along
the natural fractures in the earth's crust, is always ready to find a
storage reservoir in the workings of a coal-mine. This is a difficulty
which is always experienced in the sinking of shafts, and the shutting
off of water engages the best efforts of mining engineers.

Added to these various dangers which exist in the coal-mine, we must not
omit to notice those accidents that are continually being caused by the
falling-in of roofs or of walls, from the falling of insecure timber, or
of what are known as "coal-pipes" or "bell-moulds." Then, again, every
man that enters the mine trusts his life to the cage by which he descends
to his labour, and shaft accidents are not infrequent.

The following table shows the number of deaths from colliery accidents
for a period of ten years, compiled by a Government inspector, and from
this it will be seen that those resulting from falling roofs number
considerably more than one-third of the whole.

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