A shaft re-opened after a recent abandonment had partly filled with water, which was in course of being pumped out. Deceased, the son of the manager, and not regularly employed about collieries, was on a scaffold about 45 fathoms from the surface assisting another man to fix a suction pipe to the pump. The water was about 1 foot below the scaffold, and about 40 feet deep. A stone fell from the side of the shaft and knocked him into the water, and he was drowned. The shaft was walled to within 6 fathoms of the scaffold; below the walling was the natural strata, which had been examined by a shaft man, and it appeared secure.