some partly on the up and down lines. The two last waggons were heavily laden with gas-pipes, and in consequence kept the rails. All that is at present known is that by some

means or other a number of waggons, which were on what is called the Pontefract siding at the Barnsley station, suddenly left their positions. From Barnsley to Ardsley there is a descent of one in 100. This soon gave the waggons a high rate of speed, and at the time the collision occurred they could not have been going at a less speed than between forty and fifty miles an hour. On their way to Ardsley they must have passed several pointsmen, but, singular to say, they were not shunted, nor was any information given to the officials at Ardsley as to the runaway trucks. There is a conflict of testimony as to whether the passenger train, when the collision occurred, had actually started from the station, or whether it was still standing. There is however, very good authority for saying that the train was just on the move, and the guard, William Duce, was in the act of jumping into his van when he looked back and saw the runaway trucks coming towards him with fearful velocity. He instantly leaped back on to the platform, and immediately the trucks dashed into the rear of the passenger train with a terrible crash, which was heard at a great distance."

At the inquest the jury delivered the following verdict :

"We are of opinion that William Allerton and others have come to their death by a collision caused by the breaking away of a goods train from Barnsley station; that such goods train broke away owing to the guard, John Hathershaw, not having properly spragged the waggons, and to improper shunting. Also we are of opinion that the company, on all inclines where goods have to be shunted to form a train, should provide catch points immediately below the siding."

In answer to the Coroner, the foreman said their opinion was that John Hathershaw was guilty of manslaughter.

Bail was accepted.

ACCIDENT NEAR HATFIELD.-A third deplorable accident occurred on the 26th near Hatfield, which caused the deaths of eight persons, and injured, more or less, four others; but the sufferers were not all passengers, four-two of whom were killed and two injured-being persons who happened to be near the line when this unforeseen calamity occurred, and so shared in its dangers.

There was no mystery attending the accident, for the cause was traced to a simple breakage, and the circumstances can be stated with precision. The train to which the accident occurred was the one which left King's Cross at 4.25 p.m., being the fast train to Peterborough, timed to stop at Hatfield, which is twenty miles out of London. The train was made up, in the fore part, of a breakvan next to the engine-tender, a second and a third class following, and five other carriages with a guard's break at the end. The train travelled at good speed until about midway between Potter's Bar station and Hatfield station, near a place called Bell Bar, where

there is a level crossing guarded by gates, with a gatekeeper's house on the down-line side. The train reached this spot in about twentyfive minutes' travelling, and was going at the rate then of thirty miles an hour along a straight road. A gatekeeper named Henry Town was standing on the up-line side as the train was approaching, and he noticed that as the train came near there was a momentary jumping with the break-van, which, just after passing the crossing, broke suddenly away from the engine-dropped, in factand so snapped the couplings, and the engine went on. The crash that followed must have been terrible, for the two following carriages were literally smashed to pieces, and the one dashed over the other to such a height as to knock away a corner of the gatekeeper's cottage wall near the roof, at about fifteen feet from the ground. At the same moment the first carriage was pitched across the up-line, a portion of it dashing against the gateway on the up-line side with a force which must have been tremendous, for the strong iron gate was completely bulged out, while the two other carriages were split about on the down-line side in the direction of Hatfield. The fourth and fifth carriages were displaced from the line, but were said to be uninjured, and the sixth, seventh, and eighth remained quietly on the line. The guard at the rear took all precautions to prevent any additional calamity from a collision occurring on the London side, and a coal train which was approaching from Hatfield was promptly stopped by the engine-driver of the unfortunate train, who went on with his engine to Hatfield to obtain assistance and to stop all traffic.

The passengers who were uninjured, and there were some thirty or forty, quickly descended into the snow, and they were declared by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood to have behaved nobly, both sexes and all classes, in rendering aid in this terrible scene, assistance being doubly needed from the extreme cold and heavy snow then falling. A most striking feature of this accident was that the dead far outnumbered the wounded, the reverse being more generally the case in railway accidents, and the mangled bodies of the killed, then numbering seven, were laid out on a bank by the passengers, and three of the five wounded persons found under the broken carriages were distributed among cottages in the neighbourhood. Dr. Dredge, of Hatfield, and Dr. Osbaldiston, of the same town, were quickly on the spot, and the latter gave his attention to a man who was mortally injured, and who kept crying out to be put near a fire, but he lived scarcely half an hour. From the examination then made an opinion was given that all the occupants of one carriage were killed, with the exception of one, who was severely wounded. The extent of the calamity was soon ascertained. Every care having been bestowed upon the wounded sufferers, seven of the eight dead were removed to Woolmer-green, a village some half-mile distant, where the bodies were placed in coffins under the direction of Mr. R. Williams, the superintendent at King's Cross.

The cause of the accident was then sought for, and it was not far to seek. It was found in the total breakage of a patent tire, of the best steel, a description of tire which has hitherto been held in the highest esteem, and counted as the most secure, from its supposed holding power in case of breakage. It was considered that if the steel broke in one place the wheel would still hold together, but this tire was in several pieces, and as the wheel broke down the axle snapped, the severance from the engine followed, and this terrible loss of life was the result. The permanent way was, owing to the hard frost, quite uninjured, and the broken carriages having been cleared away the train went on to Hatfield, where many of the passengers broke their journey.

The passengers who were killed and injured were all second-class passengers, no first-class passengers having sustained injuries. The others killed and injured were four persons who were walking on the line to a signalman's box.

9. FEARFUL EXPLOSION AT BIRMINGHAM.-A most awful explosion occurred at Birmingham between twelve and one o'clock this afternoon, at the cartridge works of Messrs. Ludlow, at Witton, the scene of previous similar catastrophes. The accident occurred in a large field adjoining the embankment of the South Staffordshire Railway, shortly after it passes Aston. At this place there were erected some nineteen sheds, in which about 500 persons, chiefly girls and boys, were employed in the work of making and priming cartridges, their particular task at the time of the accident being the manufacture of Enfield cartridges for the French Government. It was in one of the priming sheds, in which a good deal of powder was necessarily lying about, that the first explosion occurred, and from this it extended to two other sheds, the nearest of which was not more than from ten to twelve yards distant. The result was the entire destruction of the three sheds, in which some hundreds of persons were at work, and a frightful sacrifice of life. Seventeen persons were killed outright, and fifty-three others, all women and girls, so seriously injured that most of them could not be recognized, and had to be removed to the General Hospital. The scene in the vicinity of the accident was most distressing, the field for yards around being strewn with the mutilated remains of human bodies. Heads and limbs and fragments of clothing were scattered about, and the appearance of many of the charred and blackened survivors was horrible. It was rumoured among the workpeople that the apron of one of the women caught fire as she was standing before an open stove, and that the flame spread to the powder on the benches. The following is a more particular account of this dreadful catastrophe.

The site of the explosion was a low-lying field, bounded on one side by a railway embankment, and fenced off on the others from neighbouring fields and from the main road, Witton-lane, which at this point, some three miles and a half from Birmingham, passes under the railway. On this patch of ground stood some nineteen substantial wooden stalls, averaging about 40 feet long by 20 feet

wide, and separated from each other by intervals of from 10 to 20 yards. The interior arrangements of these sheds may be said to have consisted generally of wooden benches, running round the walls, and narrow tables disposed longitudinally in couples on each side of the centre, which was left free for locomotion. It was in the centre that the heating stove was usually placed, and that was its position in the "shop" or shed where the explosion originated. This latter shed, technically known as the "Enfield loading shop," and used for completing the "loading" of the cartridges the most dangerous part of the manufacturing process-stood at a distance of some 80 or 90 feet from the road fence. About ten yards from this, in an oblique direction, was another shed used for charging the cartridges with powder, and some seventeen yards farther off was a third shed, appropriated to a similar purpose. In the three sheds there probably were employed altogether about 100 persons, chiefly women and girls, and of these scarcely any escaped without injuries more or less serious. At the moment of the explosion the manager or overseer of the works was quitting a magazine in another part of the field, and had just stepped out of the door, when he saw a dazzling sheet of flame shoot out from beneath the Enfield shop, which was immediately rent asunder with a deafening roar. In a minute the wreck was a mass of fire, and the blazing fragments by the force of the explosion were scattered far and wide. Some of them apparently fell upon the neighbouring "shop," which must have been partially burst in by the force of the concussion, as it exploded almost instantaneously under the shower of live sparks from the first shed, and in its turn communicated the fire to shed No. 3. The most destructive of the three explosions was the first, in which out of some twenty-five workwomen seventeen were killed on the spot, or devoured by the flames in view of the spectators, without a chance of rescue. From the other two sheds the workpeople for the most part contrived to scramble out unaided, burnt, blackened, bleeding, and blinded, but still alive. Many of the poor women who staggered out moaning and shrieking into the road, where they fell down, had scarcely a strip of clothing left on them, and the ground for yards around was strewed with the burnt and tattered and blood-stained fragments of female dress. Help was, happily, soon at hand, both from the neighbouring works of Messrs. Kynoch and from the houses in the road, and in an incredibly short space of time no less than fifty-three women and girls whose injuries demanded medical treatment were removed in cabs and cars to the General Hospital. Seventeen others who had been engaged in the Enfield loading shop were burnt almost to cinders, and their charred remains were removed to neighbouring premises to await identification.

Five of the least disfigured corpses were identified, but even in their cases the features were entirely obliterated, and the only clue to their identity was some ornament or fragment of apparel. One of the first bodies identified was that of a girl, who was recognized

solely by one of her boots and a button of her dress. Another body was claimed by no less than three different people, one being the supposed husband of the deceased, whose claim, however, was overruled. Another was identified by a piece of flannel round her throat, and another by a ring of peculiar form; but the great majority of attempts at identification were futile, and the sorrowing survivors had to depart without even the melancholy satisfaction of claiming the remains of their relative. One man who had lost both a wife and a daughter contrived to identify the former by means of a belt she wore, but the daughter's body was not distinguishable. Another man, an old one, with whitened hair and tottering steps, was so overpowered by the ghastly sight in the shed, where he came to seek his child's corpse, that he fled from the building with a shriek of horror. All accounts concurred in attributing the accident to the awkwardness or inadvertence of one of the work women, whose dress caught fire as she stood near the open stove where her dinner was warming. On discovering her peril the poor girl was said to have rushed screaming to and fro, and her companions apparently had not the presence of mind to throw her down and crush out the fire before it communicated with the loose powder lying about. From the benches, the sheet of flame would easily extend to the "hoppers" or reservoirs of gunpowder from which the cartridges are fed, and this would explain the statement of one of the survivors, that the flash" came down the whole side like lightning." The stove which caused the mischief was said to have been recently fixed for the purpose of warming the shed-a truly perilous comfort.

At the end of the year the number of those that died from their injuries in the hospital amounted to about thirty-three, making with the seventeen who were killed on the spot, fifty who lost their lives by this terrible calamity.

Notice was given that a Government inspector would thoroughly investigate the cause of the accident.

22. ECLIPSE OF THE SUN.-The long foretold eclipse of the sun was distinctly seen in London. Owing to the cloudy state of the atmosphere the sun was not at first visible, but at a quarter-past twelve the sky became very clear, and after this time the progress of the phenomenon could be distinctly watched to the end. With a telescope of moderate power the sun presented an interesting appearance. His disc was reduced to a sickle of light, having its convexity upwards, and its two points nearly on a horizontal line. The breadth of the sickle resembled that of the moon when about four days old.

Two large sun-spots, or rather a double group of spots connected by a relatively narrow zone of penumbra (or half-light) had come into view above and towards the right of the moon's disc. Numbers of minute and very dark spots could be seen around the two large ones, and along the connecting streak of half-shadow. It was worthy of notice that this remarkable group of spots was the same which was seen by so many with the naked eye when the sun was seen like a globe of red-hot iron through the fogs of last November.