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The district was occupied by the hewers on Friday, the 14th December, when the ordinary shifts were worked.

Saturday, the 15th, was an idle day. On Sunday evening, the 16th, about 9p.m. a timberman, named James Nixon, went round the 1st South district, and stated at the inquest that he examined the three headways and the stenton going from the centre headway to the right-hand headway, and found them clear of gas and all bratticed close to the face. He made a written report as to the result of his examination. No workmen were in the district on Sunday night.

Joseph Bloomfield, the fore shift deputy, examined the working places in the district about 3 a.m. on the day of the explosion before the entry of the hewers and found them clear of gas. He afterwards examined another district further inbye on the endless rope road, and then returned to the station on the endless rope road at 4 a.m., to meet the fore shift hewers for both districts. Here he made a written report as to the result of his examinations, and having met his men about 4.30 a.m. returned to the 1st South district accompanied by Barnes and Suggett, the only fore shift hewers working there that day, Barnes occupying the left-hand headway and Suggett the stenton going from the centre headway to the right-hand headway. He re-examined the places about 5 a.m. and found them clear of gas. He laid a length of rails for Barnes and laid some loose brattice cloth next the floor at the face in both Barnes' and Suggett's places, as the brattice cloth used, 4 feet and 5 feet deep, was rather short. He fired no shots, and left the district about 6.10 a.m. He met the back-shift deputy, Edward Greenwell, at the station at 9.50 a.m., and handed him a shot box, detonator box and battery, and told him that the working places were all right and that he should go to the 1st South district first as the men there would have shots ready to fire. Greenwell left for the district, and Bloomfield waited until the back-shift hewers arrived at about 10.20 a.m. and then went outbye. Edward Shaw, Joseph Elliott, and Andrew Barnes, the back-shift hewers, after seeing Bloomfield, proceeded in-bye, and had passed one of the drivers coming out with a loaded set and were in the left-hand crosscut, at the point marked A on the small-scale plan, when the explosion occurred. They were not injured, and neither saw flame nor felt any heat, but felt the rush of air reversing the current, but not accompanied by much dust. They returned to the shaft, and Shaw told the onsetter to telephone in-bye for the officials, including the manager, Mr. A. P Stoker, who was in the New South district of the same seam when the explosion occurred, but felt nothing there. Shaw and Elliott then went in-bye again and met George Black, the back overman, and told him what had happened. The regulating door was examined, and then they went in-bye on the left-hand crosscut and met the other driver coming out-bye in the dark in a state of terror and slightly injured. He was not burned, and had been driving a loaded set out-bye and had arrived at the point shown on the large-scale plan when the explosion occurred. He was cut about the head, and said something as to stones having been thrown at him. When his set was reached it was found that the tubs were derailed and a fall of stone had taken place, some stone resting on the tubs. The pony was uninjured, but still connected to the tubs.

It appeared probable either that the force of the explosion had derailed the tubs, or that the pony in its fright had done so, and the tubs had come in contact with the timber and drawn it, causing the fall. No other timber was displaced for a considerable distance in-bye of this point, and none was displaced out-bye.

Efforts were made by the manager and other officials to get to the face, but the after-damp was difficult to dislodge, partly owing to an obstruction in the shape of a fall in the return air-way, the result of the explosion, and although the frame and the brickwork of the regulating door for the district was removed, and the regulators in other parts of the mine contracted, no great quantity of air circulated in the district.

Mr. Kirkup, the agent, and Mr. W. Hedley, manager of Ravensworth Collieries, owned by the same firm, and who had been manager of Urpeth Colliery, and Mr. A. Thompson, manager of some of the firm's adjoining collieries, were soon present and assisted in the operations for the recovery of the bodies, as it was now apparent that none of them could be alive.

I was making an underground inspection in connection with a fatal accident at Blaydon Burn Colliery when Mr. Kirkup telephoned to my house. He was informed where I was and communicated with me after I came out of the mine. I left at once and arrived at the colliery about 5 p.m., and proceeded in-bye to the district, and wading through the water on the left-hand crosscut endeavoured with others to reach the face.

Mr. Hedley had then been able to reach the flat, and found there the body of the putter, but none of the other three persons had been seen.

When I found the difficulty was caused by after-damp I asked for a canary or mouse to be brought down the pit.

On reaching a point in the left-hand headway where the height, owing to the thick band, was about ten feet, some of the party were affected by the after-damp, and I lost the use of my legs and had to be carried out. It is probable that the cold fresh air travelled in next the floor at the point leaving a stagnant space above in which some of the after-damp lingered.

After waiting near the water in the left-hand cross-cut for an hour or two a successful attempt was made to reach the face. Mr. W. C. Blackett, a mining engineer in the district and agent for the Sacriston and Charlaw Collieries, and who always comes forward in the case of colliery disasters in Durham, had arrived with an electric lamp, and a canary had also been provided.

I carried the bird and cage forward at intervals of a few minutes, letting it rest on the highest point available, and it was not affected. I had then confidence that the after-damp was sufficiently cleared away for it to be safe for men to proceed, as the carbonic oxide, which is the dangerous constituent of afterdamp, saturates the blood of a small bird or mouse sufficiently soon to produce helplessness within of the time that is required to saturate the much larger quantity of blood of a man.*

When I was affected by the after-damp my lamp burned in the ordinary way and gave no indication as to the presence of any deleterious gas, a slight smarting or prickly feeling was felt about the eyes, no doubt due to the presence of traces of sulphurous acid in the air.

As the face was approached there was less evidence of force, but the canvas doors and some of the bratticing had been blown down. From the edge of the water in the left-hand cross-cut to the face there was evidence of flame in the shape of deposits of coked coal dust on the timber, coal sides and pack walls, and the dust on the floor had a cindery feel. Gas was also present in sufficient quantity to prevent an ordinary safety lamp being taken to the face of the stenton between the middle and right-hand headways, and a cap could be seen on the feeble air current generally near the face.

Barnes, the hewer in the left-hand headway, had been drilling a hole in the top coal on the left side of his place at the moment of the explosion ; he had moved the tub a few feet back from the plate ends to make room for the standard of his machine drill; his extinguished safety lamp hung on the lamp stand at the opposite side of the place. He was found just behind the tub on his face with his head out-bye. He was not burned, but his hair was covered with fine fluffy dust, the last to settle after an explosion.

In the stenton between the left-hand and middle headways the deputy's axe and saw, a shot stick, the explosive box and the detonator box were found, and in this stenton a supply of clay for stemming shot holes was observed.

The explosive box, a tin canister, contained the following cartridges of westfalite :—

11	Cartridges	weighing	4	ozs.	=	44	ozs.
13	"	"	3	"	=	39	"
3	"	"	2	"	=	6	"
		Total			=	89	"

and in addition there were in the shot box six detonators with electric wires. In the detonator box there were 10 detonators with electric wires.

The quantity of explosive in the canister was 9 ozs. in excess of the weight allowed by General Rule 12 (b) of the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1887, and the keeping of detonators along with the explosive was a breach of section 4 (b) of the Explosives in Coal Mines Order of 20th December, 1902.

Four yards down the middle headway from the stenton was the electric battery with the cable disconnected; one screw of the battery was missing. Within two or three feet on either side of the battery were the extinguished safety lamps of Greenwell the deputy, and Suggett the hewer, one lying on its side, and the other standing upright.

Twelve yards out-bye from the battery was the body of Suggett lying on his face with his head out-bye, and 4 yards further out, that of Greenwell in a similar position; both bodies were extensively burned.

From near the battery the cable extended into the face of Suggett's stenton, passing over a tub near the face Mr. Blackett went to the face of the stenton, holding his breath, and with his electric lamp, and observed that the cable was still connected to the wires of a shot in the top coal on the right side of the place.

The bodies and lamps were found about 10 p.m., and were brought to the surface soon after.

Further inspections by Mr. Abbott on the 18th December and 2nd January, by Mr. Nicholson on the 19th December, and by myself on the 19th and 27th December and 6th February, disclosed the following facts.

It was found that the bottom coal in the face of Suggett's stenton was kyrved right across the place ready for a couple of band shots; the top coal left on after the firing of the last band shots had been blown down right across the place, by two shots fired by Greenwell, but had left two noses of coal at either side in which parts of both shot holes remained, and in addition a bridge of coal six inches deep extended right across the place next the roof connecting the two noses. To the wires of the right-hand shot a portion of stemming just inside the nose was hanging, and in the noses about one foot of stemming remained, with the wires, in the portions of holes left on; none of the stemming was of the clay provided for the purpose, but was small coal and dust in contravention of General Rule 12 (d) of the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1887. The brattice was only partially blown down. The rails were on the left side, then the brattice, and between the brattice and the right or return side of the place was a pack wall about three feet high and extending to within a few feet of the face.

Coked coal dust was observed on both sides of the timber for six yards up the stenton.

Timber within three yards of the entrance to the middle headway had coked dust on both sides of the props and crowns, and a slight trace was observed on the in-bye side of a crown six yards from the face. The face was undisturbed so far as a judgment could be formed.

In the last stenton between the left-hand and middle headways there was coked dust on both sides of all the timber, including that standing where the water already mentioned stood on the floor.

The piece of wooden bratticing next the roof of the brattice leading into the left-hand headway was covered with coked dust on both sides opposite the stenton, and coked dust was sticking to the coal side.

Coked dust was observed at the entrance to the left-hand headway, but it did not extend into the face.

In the middle headway about where Greenwell and Suggett were found there was not much appearance of force, but coked dust was observed on both sides of the timber, and this condition continued along the last connected stenton between the middle and right-hand headways, but coked dust did not extend into the right-hand headway in bye of the stenton more than four yards; there was water on the floor here. Near the face the brattice was not disturbed.

As the explosion had passed out-bye by all three headways it increased in force, and the deposition of the coked dust was more observed on the out-bye side of the props and timber.

At the junction of the left-hand headway and left-hand crosscut there was a heavy fall of roof, and further out in the left-hand crosscut near the water some timber had been displaced by force travelling out-bye.

In the middle headway the force developed by the explosion was greatest near the flat, where there was a fall of roof caused by timber being blown out, and the stenton, through which the driving road passed from the middle to the left-hand crosscut, was blocked by a fall.

In the return crosscut directly opposite the flat, and in a stenton connecting it with the middle crosscut, there was much evidence of force in the shape of displaced timber and heavy falls of roof; a fall in the return blocked the road and was no doubt the cause of the diminished air current.

Perhaps the greatest exhibition of force was observed in the right-hand crosscut, near the termination of the explosion, where the return air road passed from the Busty seam into the Towneley seam. Here, at the troubles, the roof stone was bad and had been supported by iron girders, old tramway rails, cut into lengths of 6 to 7 feet and weighing about 70 lbs. per yard, resting on running balks which in turn were supported by props; the props had been blown out and some of the running balks and seven of the girders were carried out-bye for distances varying from 13 to 18 yards. A heavy fall of roof had followed, nearly closing the road and restricting the air current.

All the three crosscuts were examined from the out-bye side, that on the left hand being used constantly after the explosion as the only road into the district: in the centre and right-hand crosscuts it was found that the explosion had not extended far beyond the falls already mentioned.

A number of observations were made as to the deposition of the coked coal dust, and it appeared that near the origin of the explosion the deposition was on both sides of the props and crowns, but as the explosion had progressed out-bye it was mostly on the out-bye side of the surfaces, or that it had been deposited in the direction opposite to that in which the explosion had travelled, but where the road was high coked dust was observed on both sides.

Dr. Bedson kindly analysed samples of dust from the district of explosion and the results are given in an appendix.

It was quite clear that the explosion was started by the flame of the second shot fired at the face of Suggett's stenton, and no other theory was advanced.

The only other known source of flame in the district was the flame of the safety lamps. The lamps of the persons near the face were all found intact, locked, and in good order, and when tested after the explosion in the lighting gas and air mixture in the testing machine in the lamp cabin on the surface, did not pass flame.

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* See report to the Secretary of State on "the causes of death in Colliery Explosions," by John Haldane, M.D., 1896, page 20.