That a shot had been fired in the main haulage road at the point 148 yards inbye from Staple Curve, with the object of removing a projecting stone, but it could not be definitely determined by whose hand, or under whose orders, although the master shifter was (as his dead body proved) present within a safe distance of the shot and from the men whose duty it would have been to assist, if properly engaged, in such firing.

That there were no special instructions to fire such shot given either to the under-manager (Dowson), by the manager (Grieves), or by either of them 'to Rogerson, and if such shot was fired by Rogerson it was in distinct contravention, not only of the General and Special Rules, but of a verbal instruction given to Rogerson three or four months before.

That the weight of evidence was decidedly in favour of the presumption that the explosion was brought about by ignition of dust unmixed with firedamp. and also in favour of the view that such ignition was by means of a flame given out by the shot, which was intended to remove a stone, or a section of it. And that the improper position of the hole, and a close joint in the stone, had rendered such charge (which was half a pound of compressed gunpowder, and not otherwise an over-charge) to be in the result an overcharge, or a non-effective shot, and so had flamed out as an over-charged shot would do, and thereby became the cause of ignition of dust in the vicinity of such shot.

That the place where the shot was fired, in the general technical sense in which competent miners have understood the rules (both General Rule 12 of the 1887 Act and Sp. Rule 114 of the colliery), was not in a dry and dusty place, but it was a place where dust would, and did, actually accumulate. both on the roads and sides and roofs, to some extent.

That notwithstanding the opinion so held that it was not "dry and dusty," yet no sanction or authority was asked or given either to remove the projecting stone or to fire a shot. That the manager's views as to the non-danger involved by such shot-firing had recently been modified, as was borne out by the alleged discontinuance of the authority to fire shots in main haulage roads of the master shifter and the under-manager as from December the the result of the agreement between the agent Weeks and the agent Greener, of Peases' West.

That although it was generally admitted that there was no such apparent dryness, with dust adhering to sides and roof of main haulage ways, as to attract special notice, or to cause its removal, or additional hand-watering, yet it was evident that such dust did in fact exist in sufficient quantities so as to attract flame, ignite, and become (on distillation) the active medium in explosions of great violence, extending in all directions along the air courses, and generated force enough, in its passage, to wreck the mine, and that such results were demonstrated in spite of expert opinions as to the presence of dampness in the air courses in the immediate vicinity, caused by lying and percolating water, and in spite of opinion that it was not a dry and dusty place.