Page:Account of the dreadful accident and great loss of lives which occurred at Kirkcaldy, on Sunday the 15th June, 1828.pdf/8

8 imagine than pourtray. On the hearts and minds of those who witnessed it, it is written in characters never to be effaced; and it is impossible to listen to their simple and affecting descriptions without the strongest emotion. The extent of the loss actually sustained, however, may now be considered as pretty accurately determined.

The number of killed in all amounted to twenty-eight; and some of these were attended with circumstances peculiarly affecting:-Three young women of the name of Mathewson, and a cousin whom they had with them, were all buried in one grave.—They were the sole support of their mother, who is left in very destitute circumstances. So dreadfully was she overwhelmed by this unexpected and heavy calamity, that fear was entertained for her life. A young lady, a stranger, had in the first moment of alarm effected her escape, but returned in search of her mother, and perished.

Besides those who were either killed on the spot or died soon afterwards, about 150 persons have more or less suffered from the injuries they received on this melancholy occasion; and many persons were confined to bed on Tuesday and yesterday who had been walking about all Monday. It is a remarkable circumstance, that so few of those injuries are of a serious nature, but some of them threaten to prove fatal. There are only two cases of fracture, one of the collar-bone, and the other of the neck of the thigh-bone, but the patients, both