En route thither I met cart after cart carrying away one or two coffins, and two large vans loaded with empty shells for the receptiou of the bodies as they were brought to bank. I saw altogether 30 corpses, and their state defies description. Here a long shapelesss black mass, which the miners told you was one of their com rades, but m which it was difficult to recognise the slightest likeness to humanity — here one had his head blown off, there one his arm, one lay on his bed of leaves with his face split open, another as though much bruised by the coal falling upon him. The sad work of recognition was proceeded with wirh as much despatch as possible, and the bodies were then placed m shells and their names written on the lid m chalk; A shriek m yon corner would tell of a mother recognising her son or a wife her husband lying amongst the long row of the unsightly corpses, while the plaintive wail throughout told of a far wider spread grief. I conversed with one ol the miners who had just come up, and he said the labour of recovery must be very slow (about one body every three hours), as the sides of the mine bad fallen m, and they bad to work the coal away. In most cases they found the men lying under the sides of the mine, some buried m coal, others on whom the coal had fallen, and then burnt up. One was found near the mouth of the farthest shaft hardly injured at all, and as he lay m the shed he formed a striking contrast to his companions, being extremely white and well dressed. The appear ance of the few recovered seems to indicate that most of them must have been killed from suffocation, being much swollen m the face, and nearly all

bleeding considerably at the nose, only a few (at present) being- much burnt with the explosion. Two men work at a time at e;icli end, (lie two sluiits being- quite 2uO yards separated, but they ceased work at the end nearest the village on Tues day. Each man, as he descends, is asked whether he is perfectly willing 1 to go down, and at first Mass was held for those who were to descend, at the top of the pit. 