Page:Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1838 Vol.2.djvu/411

at Wallsend Colliery, June, 1835. 365 some body there; the constant falling of the roof, however, near the shaft, deterred them from approaching it, and they sat down amongst some props, to protect themselves from the falling stones. While in this situation, conjecturing as to the probable extent of the mischief which had been done, and the chance of their being relieved from their forlorn situation, they heard frequent falls of the roof stone, very near, which deterred them from moving from their place of security amongst the props, and one of those falls fractured the small bone of Brown's leg, on which they crawled further to the westward to seek a place of greater safety, and again took shelter amongst some props. Soon after this they heard John Reed, one of the rolley-way men, somewhere near to them, but he was delirious, and they could not make him understand them nor gain any information from him. Shortly afterwards they heard a knocking and the voices of men calling in the shaft, which cheered them greatly, as they were then satisfied that efforts were making to save them. By this time, Brown and Moralee had quite recovered their senses, but Reed and the boy continued delirious. Whenever the knocking ceased, Brown and Moralee crept as near to the bottom of the shaft as they could for the fall from the roof, and called with all their strength, but could not make themselves heard. After repeated unsuccessful efforts of this kind, and finding themselves weak and exhausted, although not conscious of being burnt or materially hurt, they sat quietly down under the conviction that every possible effort was being made for their relief. They never felt the sensation of hunger, and, although thirsty, they did not suffer severely from it. From the first they never felt any smoke nor after-damp, but had constantly a cool breeze of fresh air, which made them suffer from cold; they never moved from the place where they had sat down after they ceased calling to the people who were working in the shaft, until they were found at nine o'clock in the evening of Saturday the 20th of June, being fifty-two hours after the explosion. They slept a good deal, but Moralee became delirious, calling to his wife to bring his night-cap, and partly undressing himself to go to bed, in which state he was found. They had no recollection of the time the boy, Middleton, left them. John Brown, after recovering from the first shock of the explosion retained his consciousness VOL. II. 3 x