366 Mr. Buddle's Narrative of the Explosion
and faculties, although burnt in the face and hands, with three ribs and the small bone of his leg broken, and his eyes so filled with small coals that he did not recover his sight till the 24th; he is a robust man in the prime of life. He was onsetter at the north shaft, and was in the act of hooking on the third or lowest corf of the set, having previously hooked on the other two; three corves being drawn up at the same time. This is only known from the circumstance of all the three corves being found hooked on, and not drawn away, as Brown had no recollection whatever of the circumstance. He neither heard, saw, nor felt any thing, nor was
conscious that any thing had happened until he recovered his senses, when he found himself lying across a rolly at the bottom of the shaft. His first idea was that the pit had fired, and that all the men and boys had gone to bank and left him, and he knew nothing to the contrary until Moralee went to him, as already stated.
Mr. Atkinson, who went down the north shaft with half a dozen men, as soon as a passage was opened through the wreck of the brattice at the main-coal seam, found these people, and sent them to bank without delay. The father of the boy Middleton was one of the party, and John Brown told him that his son was alive, as he had been with them, but had gone he did not know where.
On proceeding up the west Mothergait from the north shaft, Mr. Atkinson heard a weak voice singing, and on listening, Middleton recognised it to be the voice of his boy. They followed the sound to the entrance into the first north-west district, d, where they found the boy lying under a rolley, where he had crept. He knew his father's voice before he saw him, although in a state of delirium; he was in a state of entire nudity, having pulled off all his clothes.
At the time of the accident, this boy was with his horse and a train of rollies in the first siding west from the north shaft, and about twenty yards from it. He was severely burnt, and continued delirious, with short intervals, for several days, so that no account, which could be depended on, could be got from him. When he became perfectly cool and collected, he stated that he was at the north shaft getting a drink of water, having left his horse in the first siding to the west. He was just turning round to return
