large quantity of carbonic acid gas, and that, with the after-damp, did nearly all the mischief. The men died principally from the poisonous air.

Several of the overmen were examined, and their evidence went to show that no "shots" were allowed to be fired in the pit except in their presence; that none of the lamps had been tampered with, as they all had been recovered, and that none of the gauzes were broken. They stated that the mine was clear, and that no complaints had been made to them by the miners of gas in the pit.

John Nichol, Atkinson Morgan, and David Aynsley, heavers, gave evidence. They stated that there was gas in the pit on the day preceding the explosion, and it "took" the lamp. The seam was "bleeding" in the west face. They stated that the men usually fired their "shots" themselves. Every man had a wire to his lamp for that purpose, and they made their own "touch paper." They denied that the men ever smoked or used matches in the pit.

Mr. Coxon, Mr. Thomas Robson, and Mr. Peele, viewers at adjacent collieries, also gave evidence. They had examined the pit after the explosion, and failed to discover that a shot had been fired. The gas had fired at the westernmost south headway, and had come from a fallen board. Wherever it came from, it would be swept down upon the man working in front. The only supposition that Mr. Coxon could give for the ignition of the gas, was that the man who was working there, Richardson, had turned round and found his lamp on fire, and he had taken it up so hurriedly, and passed it so rapidly through the surrounding explosive atmosphere, as to communicate the flame through the meshes of the gauze to the gas surrounding. The general weight of evidence tended to show that the operation of the fan-blast was satisfactory.

Mr. Atkinson, the Government inspector, thought the gas had come away from the "fall" when the wall or board had been "holed," or from some other fall. He did not agree with Mr. Coxon with regard to the fire having passed through the meshes of the safety-lamp.

The Coroner having briefly summed up, the jury, after a quarter of an hour's consultation, returned the following verdict:-"That Jonathan Maddison and others did die on the 29th of October, 1866, from an explosion of gas in the Busty seam of Pelton Colliery, but the cause of the explosion we have no evidence to show. We are also of opinion that negligence has been manifested by the officials down the pit in not enforcing the rules, and also on the part of the men in not carrying them out."

NOVEMBER.

10. SHIPWRECKS ON THE IRISH COAST.-The screw-steamer "Ceres" with a general cargo, from London to Dublin, went ashore at Carnsore point, fourteen miles from Wexford, about six p.m. Out of fortytwo passengers twenty-nine were lost and nine of the crew. Thirtyfive bodies were washed ashore in the course of the next day. The "Ceres" belonged to Messrs. Malcomson, Waterford, and plied between London and Dublin, calling at the ports along the western coast of England. She left Falmouth on her way to Dublin on the morning of the tenth, her course being to sight the Tuska lighthouse, on the Irish coast. About noon a gale sprang up from the south, which increased as the evening drew on, the weather being thick and hazy. The vessel had her mainsail set, and was running with steam and sail at the rate of ten knots an hour, when, at about seven o'clock in the evening, she struck. The captain ordered the helm hard a-port, but this had only the effect of bringing the vessel's broadside to the beach. As no light had been seen from the time the vessel passed the Lizard, although the captain was on the bridge, and two men were on the look-out in other parts of the vessel, no one on board knew where the vessel was. A few minutes after she struck, her after-part gave way, taking with it the helmsman and all who were on the after compartments, among whom were four women and three children. The helmsman succeeded in

reaching the shore, but in a most pitiable condition, from cuts and bruises against the rocks; but the others in that part of the vessel were all lost. Fortuntely, the saloons, in which the passengers were located, were on deck, and the greater number of passengers were forward and amidships, so that, although the after-part of the vessel gave way, those in the remaining and still floating portion of the vessel escaped the death which would have inevitably been their portion had they been below. There were no rockets on board but the captain burnt a case of blue lights, in the hope of attracting attention on shore; but the effort was fruitless. He however, by this means discovered that he was on the mainland, and not a shoal of rocks. This discovery induced him to attempt the saving of the lives on board. The boats were first tried, but they were dashed to pieces in a short time. A rope was then lashed to the main-mast, and, as the tide was ebbing fast, and leaving the vessel on high, although not dry, land, the plan of getting ashore by this means seemed feasible, and so it ultimately proved. Several sailors made the attempt first, and succeeded, but the chief stewardess and a young lady named Routledge, who attempted to follow their example before the water had receded sufficiently, were unfortunately

drowned. Dr. Heard, his father, wife, and child escaped, but their nurse was lost. The place where the vessel struck, is called the Chour, near Carnsore point, on the South Wexford coast. The inhabitants, as soon as they heard of the occurrence, afforded the sufferers every assistance. Major Keane, who resides in that neighbourhood, distinguished himself by his humanity on that occasion. The vessel was a complete wreck, being broken in three parts. All the deck, luggage, and goods were strewn on the beach, but much of the cargo remained on the broken parts of the vessel.

On the same night the schooner "Argus," of Liverpool, was driven on shore at Clougher head, near Drogheda. After struggling for hours with the stormy elements the crew were saved and taken care of by the coastguard; but the vessel became a total wreck.

An inquiry was held under the authority of the Board of Trade into the circumstances which occasioned the loss of the "Ceres," and after examination of witnesses and full consideration of the facts of the case, Mr. Traill and his assessors pronounced their decision as follows:-"The Court, after an anxious consideration of all the circumstances attending the fatal disaster of the loss of the 'Ceres,' feels it to be its painful duty to pronounce Captain Pascoe, the master of that ship, guilty of a default. The 'Ceres' took her departure from abreast of the Longships, shaping her course N.N.E. to pass the Smalls. That course was expected to carry the ship to the westward clear of the Smalls and to the eastward, clear of the Tuskar. Not having sighted the Smalls, he kept that course till 5.40 p.m., when he hauled out a point to the eastward, upon which course he stood till the ship went aground at 6.20 p.m. on Carnsore point, a spot at a meridional distance of 20 miles from his supposed position at that time. To account for this deviation, it is surmised that there was an error in the bridge compass, by which the ship was steered. There is, however, no evidence of such error, and if it had existed it would in all probability have been discovered in the previous part of the voyage, when making the ports of Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Falmouth, or on sighting the Longships. It is indeed, possible that the ship may have been carried westward of her course by the tide, which was ebbing from 5.30 till past midday. It is precisely to counteract the risk of accidents from defects of compasses, influence of tides or currents, or other such contingencies, that the use of the lead is so indispensable when the weather is so thick that objects cannot be seen; and therefore, from whatever cause the deviation in this case arose, it will not furnish an excuse for the neglect to take soundings. The Smalls light was not sighted, and the master ought to have known that he was much to the westward, inasmuch as at the time he passed that lighthouse the weather was sufficiently clear to see a distance of some miles. It was therefore his duty to have sounded, at all events, before running his distance as far as the Tuskar, as, in the then state of the weather, he could not have expected to sight that light at any con

siderable distance. There is the less excuse for this neglect, as the proper channel from the Smalls to the Tuskar is marked by a well-defined line of deep soundings. A glance at the chart would have shown the master that if the soundings shoaled made 40 fathoms as he proceeded, he was running into danger. Had, therefore, a cast of the lead been taken at 5.20 p.m., when the mainsail was reefed, or afterwards, at 5.40, when the ship was hauled up a point to the eastward, or, lastly, when the engines were slowed to half speed, ten minutes or a quarter of an hour before the ship went ashore, he would have been warned of the danger in time to avoid it. The Court, therefore, is compelled to come to the conclusion that the loss of the ship must be attributed to the default of Captain Pascoe in not using his lead, which the circumstances of the case imperatively demanded. The judgment of the Court is, that the certificate of Captain Pascoe be suspended, and it is hereby suspended for the period of two years from this date. The Court would have given due weight to the high testimonials and character of Captain Pascoe, had this been a case that would have permitted them to do so.'

13. THE GREAT METEORIC SHOWER.-The fiery shower foretold by the science of America and Europe for the night of 13th-14th of November in this year was seen in full splendour on the morning of the 14th, between the hours of twelve and two. From about eleven o'clock occasional meteors might be seen gliding along the sky from east to west, but these were only the avantcouriers of the great legion that followed at a later hour. The numbers increased after twelve o'clock with great rapidity. From Paddington-green, a fairly open position, 207 meteors were counted between 12 and 12.30, and of these the greater number fell after 12.20. The next hundred was counted during the six minutes that succeeded the half-hour. Soon after this it became impossible for two people to count the whole that were visible from this station; and doubtless from positions with a purer atmosphere, and a wider horizon, the spectacle must have been one of surpassing splendour. Indeed, from a window at Highgate looking N.N.E., but with a circumscribed view, an observer counted 100 meteors in the four minutes between 12.32 and 12.36, and no less than 200 in the two minutes between 12.57 and 12.59. As the constellation Leo rose over the houses north of Paddington-green and cleared itself of haze, the divergence of the meteor-paths from a point within it became obvious, not merely in the directions of the streams that shot from or through the zenith, but in those that left their phosphorescent-seeming trails in the sky towards every point of the compass. Sometimes these rocket-like lines of light would glide out like sparks flying from an incandescent mass of iron under the blows of a Titanic hammer, but with the distinctive features-first, of those lingering lines of illuminated haze in their tract, and secondly, of their rarely appearing as if they originated in the region of the sky from which their courses

evidently diverged. Sometimes the meteor was orange and almost red in its colour, whereas the luminous trail seemed almost always (probably by contrast with the surrounding light) of a bluish hue. In one splendid instance the trail, after having nearly disappeared, together with the rocket-head that had produced it, became again lit up and visible coincidently with a sort of resuscitation of brightness in the body of the meteor. Now and then a little illuminated puff-ball would appear in the middle of the constellation Leo, generally more or less elongated or elliptic in form, as it seemed to be more or less distant, and at the same time convergent from an imaginary point that seemed about three degrees S. by E. of the star n Leonis; and one, as near as could be estimated to such a point, was simply a star that waxed, and waned, and disappeared as one looked at it. Sometimes a minute point of light, like a firefly, would dart with an angular jerking motion and zigzag course hither and thither, but still as if away from Leo. Only about three meteors were seen during an hour and a half to take a direction manifestly opposed to that of these diverging multitudes. The meteors which shot towards the western horizon seemed more brilliant and larger in their courses than those which dropped into the eastern; indeed, very few seemed even to reach the roofs of the houses from behind which Leo had arisen. This was possibly only an effect of perspective, or it may have arisen from the curtailment of the view. As regards the long lines of light that lingered in the paths of the meteors, it seemed that generally they were more dense and brightest towards the middle of the visible path of the meteor, while the meteor itself seemed brightest just before its extinction, an effect possibly due to an obscuration in the middle of its course by matter thrown off from it. The meteors seemed also to lose velocity as they went, but this might have been the result of perspective in those passing through the zenith. One singular feature in these celestial fireworks was the rapidity with which the maximum of frequency came on and went off again. About two o'clock the meteors seemed to have become as scarce as they were at twelve, though they continued in smaller numbers till the verge of daybreak. From half-past twelve or a quarter to one until about a quarter past or half-past one, the heavens seemed veritably alive with stars rushing in many parts of the sky, in groups of two or three together or in immediate succession on each other, seeming as though racing over the blue vault, except that their courses so rapidly diverged. The cloudless beauty of the night near London was a happy circumstance for the watchers

of the skies.

The following account of the remarkable meteoric phenomena of the 13th was furnished by the Rev. Robert Main, the Radcliffe observer at Oxford::

"As early as the evening of November 12th a strict watch was kept up for the appearance of the meteoric shower, but the night proved unfavourable, the whole sky being overcast, with the ex