y-staff men,
having, besides, 1400 boys belonging to their staff; 2000 were off-hand
men, for bargain work or other duties; 7600 lads and boys, working
under the various designations of "putters," or pushers of coal-tubs,
underground "drivers," "marrows," "half-marrows," and "foals," these
latter terms being local, and significant of age and labour. For
Northumberland must be added 10,536 persons, and Cumberland 3579, making
a total for these three counties of upwards of 42,000 persons labouring
in and round our northern collieries. The average that each hewer will
raise per day is from two to three tons in thin, and three to four tons
in thick seams. The largest quantity raised by any hewer on an average
of the colliers of England is about six tons a day of eight hours. The
mode of working is very laborious, as the majority of seams of coal
being very thin--that is to say, not more than two feet thick--the
worker of necessity is obliged to work in a constrained position, often
lying on his side; and you can fancy the labour of using a pick in such
a position. To get an idea of the position, just place yourself under a
table, and then try to use a pick, and it will give you a pretty clear
idea of the comfortable way in which a great part of our coal is got,
and this also at a temperature of 86 deg. in bad air. The object, of
course, of the worker is to take nothing but coal, as all labour is lost
that is spent in taking any other material away. The man after a time
gets twisted in his form, from being constantly in this constrained
position, and, in fact, to sit upright like other men is at last
painful. Then an amount of danger is always before him, even in the best
regulated and ventilated pits. This danger proceeds from fire-damp, as
one unlucky stroke of the pick may bring forth a stream of carbureted
hydrogen gas, inexplosive of itself, but if mixed with eight times its
bulk of air, more dangerous than gunpowder, and which, if by chance it
comes in contact with the flame of a candle, is sure to explode, and
certain death is the result--not always from the explosion itself, but
from the after-damp or carbonic acid gas which follows it.

Upwards of 1500 lives are yearly lost from these causes, and not less
than 10,000 accidents in the same period show the constant danger that
the miner is exposed to. It would appear that England has more deaths
from mining accidents than foreign countries, as Mr. Mackworth's table
wi