upon the grass, after which the woody part, now become very brittle, is removed by the flaxmill, the nature of which is too well known to require any description. By these processes the fibres of the flax are weakened, and a considerable portion of them is altogether destroyed and lost. The flax, too, acquires a greenish yellow colour, and it is well known that a very expensive and tedious bleaching process is necessary to render it white. Mr. Lee neither steeps his flax, nor spreads it on the grass. When the plant is ripe, it is pulled in the usual way. It is then thrashed, by placing it between two grooved wooden beams shod with iron. One of these is fixed; the other is suspended on hinges, and is made to impinge with some force on the fixed beam; the grooves in the one beam corresponding with flutes in the other. By a mecha nical contrivance almost exactly similar, the woody matter is beaten off, and the fibres of flax left. By passing through hackles, varying progressively in fineness, the flax is very speedily dressed, and rendered proper for the use for which

it is intended. The advantages of this process are manifold. The expense of steeping and spreading is saved; a much greater produce of flax is obtained; it is much stronger; the fibres may be divided into much finer fibres, so as to obtain at once, and in any quantity, flax fine enough for the manufacture of lace. But the greatest advantage of all remains yet to be stated. Flax manufactured in this manner requires only to be washed in pure water in order to become white. The colouring matter is not chemically combined with the fibre, and therefore is removed at once by water. It is the steeping of the flax and hemp, which unites the colouring matter with the fibres, and renders the subsequent bleaching process necessary. Thus, by Mr. Lee's process, flax and hemp are obtained in much greater quantity, of much stronger quality, and much finer in the fibre than by the common method, and the necessity of bleaching is alto gether superseded. The great importance of such an improvement must be at once obvious to every

one.

ACCOUNT OF A DREADFUL ACCI

The mine was very much sub

LIERY NEAR NEWCASTLE.

(From Thomson's Annals of Philosophy.)

THIS

HIS Colliery is situated in the bed of coal called the high main. It is a considerable depth, about 110 fathoms, and the shaft is situated at the lower extremity of the mine. The shaft is divided by boarding all the way down, so that the same opening served for the up and down cast shaft. The seam towards the rise had been formerly worked as a colliery, under the name of Heaton Banks, by shafts distinct from the present working, which shafts, when the colliery was given up, were covered over with boards and earth. In the course of time these old workings had become filled with water; and the managers of the present colliery being well aware of the danger attending so large an accumulation of water, the workings were proceeded in with the utmost caution.

creep, which is a gradual filling up of the horizontal passages. It had been customary for some time past to bore in various directions upon the lines the men were working, in order to ascertain whether any body of water lay concealed in the adjacent cavities. This precaution was about to be put in practice at nine o'clock on Wednesday the 3rd of May; but before that time had arrived, (between three and four o'clock in the morning), a dreadful rush of water came through the roof in the north-west part of the colliery, and continued to flow with such rapidity, that only 20 men and boys were enabled to make their escape. In a very short time, the water closed up the lower mouth of the shaft; and that night it rose to the height of 24 fathoms. Some faint hopes being entertained that the men below would retire to the higher parts of the workings, which were said to be above the level of the water in the shaft, every exertion was used toopen a communication with them

by the old workings. Considerable difficulties, however, presented themselves. The rubbish which covered and choaked up the mouths of two old shafts, when deprived of the support of the water, fell in, dragging along with it some trees which had been, planted round the spot. An old shaft, in front of Heaton Hall, has not, however, presented a like impediment, and consequently every exertion is using to open a communication by that way.They had uncovered the pit, and reached the scaffolding on Saturday the 6th, which was five fathoms from the surface; and we understand their efforts are likely to be successful, if not prevented by an accumulation of inflammable air, with which the old workings appear to be filled. Ever since the accident, three large engines (one of 130 horse power) have been constantly employed in drawing the water from the pit, at the rate of about 1200 gallons per minute, yet on Friday morning it was found to have attained the height of 31 fathoms up the shaft. In the evening, however, the water had decreased about three feet, and we understand has continued to decrease since that time so that no doubt is now entertained of the colliery being, at some future period, again set to work. We now come to state the extent of the calamity. Mr. Miller (the underviewer, who has left a wife and eight children), 32 workmen, 42 boys, and 37 horses, have perished; and 25 widows, with about 80 children, are left to bemoan the sudden death of their husbands and fathers."

ANOTHER ACCIDENT AT THE SUC

CESS COAL-PIT, &c.
(From the Same.)

Another dreadful and destructive explosion of carburetted hydrogen gas took place in the Success coal pit, near Newbottle, in the county of Durham, the property of Messrs. Nesham and Co. on Friday, June 2, at half-past four o'clock, p. m. by which 57 persons were killed upon the spot, besides several wounded.

The immediate cause of this shocking catastrophe is not clearly ascertained; though it is generally believed that the pitmen had inadvertently worked into the old workings, or some place where there had been a large collection of inflammable air.

As all the unfortunate labourers were instantly killed, and the explosion and consequent very rapid return of the atmospheric air after the explosion destroyed the headings and air courses, the whole of the colliery became so completely altered, that no correct idea of the cause from appearances could be formed. It is also the opinion of well-informed persons, who were present at the time of the accident, that from some unaccountable circumstance the atmospheric air could not be sent down in sufficient quantity, and in a proper direction, after the explosion, to those persons who might have escaped the destructive power of the explosion, who might live till their scanty supply of atmospheric air became exhausted.

When the explosion took place, 72 men and boys were at work, at the depth of 108 fathoms; and

though the greatest endeavours were made to relieve those distressed persons, only 15 survived, some of whom are in a very precarious state. The explosion was so great as to carry every thing before it, till it was impeded in its progress by a large waggon, which, with the driver and horse, were dashed to pieces.

Several men in the colliery, after they had escaped this tornado of fire, endeavoured to reach the shaft; but death arrested them on their road for breathing an atmosphere surcharged with carbonic acid gas, their destruction now became inevitable.

Some of the men survived till they were brought up the shaft into the atmosphere, when they died, perhaps unable to bear the stimulus of the atmospheric air after the state of exhaustion in which they had previously lived for some time.

After a considerable explosion takes place in a coal-mine, the pitmen are often drenched with water, which is probably occasioned by the rapid combustion of hydrogen gas in such a confined situation, as may be readily understood by persons conversant with chemistry. At the same time all the partitions and divisions being broken down, whilst the aircourses are converted into a complete wreck, and the whole at mosphere of the mine so much agitated, it is to be expected that the carbonic acid gas will be distributed through the bottom of the mine, and suffocation become the fate of those persons who escape the immediate effects of the explosion. Out of 19 horses only six died..

It is melancholy to relate, that in the short space of a month, 132 useful and laborious persons have been numbered with the dead at Heaton and the Success collieries, leaving nearly 300 widows and orphans to be subsisted by charity and parochial assistance.

It is curious, and perhaps worthy of remark, that Robson and Miller, accomplices with Edward Smiles in the robbery at Mr. Cuthbert Pye's, Scaffold Hill, some time ago, are amongst the killed in the late accidents at Heaton and Success collieries; and upon the 3rd inst. the day after the latter accident, Mr. Cuthbert Pye himself died at Scaffold Hill.

The efforts at Heaton colliery, though very considerable, have not yet been so far successful as to remove the water, and permit the interment of the unfortunates who were lost in that colliery.

On Monday, June 5th, another explosion occurred at the Tyne Main colliery, by which one man was severely, though not fatally, scorched.

As most of the explosions in coal-mines have taken place in the summer season, it appears desirable that particular care be taken during the hot weather, which, perhaps, by expanding such an elastic fluid as hydrogen gas, may afford a facility to such dreadful accidents.

Newcastle, June 12, 1815.

ANOTHER ACCIDENT AT A COAL

MINE NEAR NEWCASTLE.

(From the Same.)

On Monday, the 31st of July,

another melancholy accident happened at Messrs. Nesham and Co's colliery, at Newbottle, in the county of Durham. The proprietors had provided a powerful locomotive steam-engine, for the purpose of drawing 10 or 12 coalwaggons to the staith at one time; and Monday being the day it was to be put in motion, a great numberof persons belonging to the colliery had collected to see it; but unfortunately, just as it was going off, the boiler of the machine burst. The engine-man was dashed to pieces, and his mangled remains blown 114 yards; the top of the boiler (nine feet square, weight 19 cwt.) was blown 100 yards and the two cylinders 90 yards. A little boy was also thrown to a great distance. By this accident 57 persons were killed and wound. ed, of whom 11 were dead on Sunday night, and several remain dan gerously ill.-The cause of the accident is accounted for as follows: the engine-man said, "as there were several owners and viewers, there, he would make her (the engine) go in grand style," and he had got upon the boiler to loose the screw of the safety-valve, but being overheated, it unfortunately exploded. It will be recollected, that at the fatal blast which recently took place at this colliery, the first who arrived at the bank, holding by a rope, was a little boy about six or seven years of age. The poor little fellow is among

the number dead.

VOLCANO OF ALBAY IN THE

INDIAN OCEAN.

volcano took place on the 1st day of February, 1814.

This volcanic mountain is situated in the province of Camarines, on the southern part of the island of Luçon, or Luçonia, one of the Philippine isles in the Indian Ocean.

Five populous towns were entirely destroyed by the eruption; more than 1200 of the inhabitants perished amidst the ruins; and the 20,000 who survived the awful catastrophe were stript of their possessions and reduced to beggary.

The following account of this awful visitation was drawn up by an eye-witness, and intended as an appeal to the charitable feelings of the inhabitants of the Manilla Islands.

"More than 13 years had elapsed, during which the volcano of Albay, by some called Mayon, had preserved a continued and profound silence, without giving the least sign of its existence. It was no longer viewed with that distrust and horror, with which vol. canoes usually inspire those who inhabit the vicinity. In the year 1800 its last eruptions took place, in which it emitted a great quantity of stones, sand, and ashes (as had always been usual), and occasioned considerable damage to the same villages that it has now completely destroyed; rendering useless a great number of fertile fields, which thenceforth were converted into arid and frightful sands. In the latter part of Oc tober of that year, the last eruption happened, and caused more damage to those villages.

"Since that time we had not re