aming,
suffocating chamber. His intimate friend, Mr Trotman, who had followed
him down almost immediately, found the poor lap-dog moaning under a heap
of ruins, and was the means of restoring it to its little mistress.

The magnificent saloon was a mass of torn and shattered furniture,
mirrors, and ornaments. Had the passengers adjourned to this apartment
after dinner, instead of to the deck, the consequences would have been
awful.

An eye-witness describes the scene of devastation as follows:--

"The mirrors which formed the covering of the funnel which had been the
cause of so much mischief were literally smashed to atoms, and large
fragments of the broken glass were hurled upon deck, a long distance aft
of the paddle-wheels. The ornamental bronzed columns which supported
the gilt cornices and elaborate ornamentation, were either struck down
or bent into the most fantastic shapes; the flooring, consisting of
three-inch planks, was upheaved in several places; the gangways leading
to the sleeping-cabins at the sides were shot away; the handrails were
gone, and the elegant carpet was concealed beneath a chaos of fragments
of finery. The books on the shelves of the library remained unmoved;
the piano was thrown on one side; and the floor presented huge upheaved
and rent chasms, through which might be seen the still greater ruin in
the lower cabin. Below the saloon, or drawing-room, is the saloon of
the lower deck, which was, of course, traversed by the same funnel as
the one above it. On each side of these spacious saloons were small
staircases leading to blocks of sleeping-cabins, scarcely one of which
would have been without its two or more occupants a few hours later in
the evening. They were now blown down like a house of cards. The
furniture which they contained formed heaps of dislocated chairs, and
wash-stands, and basins; the doors were off their hinges, the partitions
were forced outward, the staircases leading to them had to be sought in
the splinters and broken wood which lay in heaps in the lower saloon."

The unhappy men who were working in the stoke-holes and tending the
furnaces were the sufferers by this catastrophe. Believing that one of
the boilers had exploded, fears were entertained that the whole body of
stokers and engineers attending the paddle engines were killed. Mr
Trotman went down the air-shaft communicating with the other boilers.
Seeing by the light of the furnaces a number of me