sanctuary, we arrived at the narrowest of the
openings through which we had found so much
difficulty in making our way on the first day of
our imprisonment. It was about four feet
high, rather less than that in width, and from
fifteen to twenty feet long. Looking through
this tunnel, I could see the poor animal's head
and shoulders thrust into the other end of it.
There the fire evidently had reached. To delay
the progress of the fire as much as possible, it
was decided to block up this opening as far as
was in our power, and this we succeeded in
doing with the rubbish which had fallen from
the roof.

We were so much exhausted by the labour, in
our weak condition, that we could scarcely
crawl back to the place whence we had started.
It will be remembered that I was just about to
ascertain the point reached by the gas, when we
had been alarmed by the cries we had heard, but,
though I had not forgotten this, I was unable
to move any further just then. As soon,
however, as I felt myself capable of performing my
task, I took the light, and rousing the miner
whose turn it was to accompany me in place of
the poor fellow who had finished his work in
this world, we moved slowly along the path I
had traversed so many times. We had not gone
far, before we began to feel as if we were being
suffocated, and we were forced to hurry back with
all our might. The advance made by the gas
had been so rapid since our last visit, that I felt
that if something were not done to check it, our
death was certain within the next two or three
hours. I told the miners of the state of things.
They all rose, and we almost instinctively
arranged the blocks of coal in the form of a wall
in the narrowest part of the workings, and
filled up the space between, with dust and
rubbish. When we had finished we returned to
our den, and, after I had trimmed the lamp and
filled it with oil, I knelt down in the place I had
been occupying, and sought in prayer for
resignation to death. I believe the others did the
same. Every now and then, I fell asleep, or, at
all events, became unconscious. Then I woke
up a little, and tried to prepare myself for the
change that was coming. Soon, these intervals
of consciousness must have left me altogether,
and I must have become totally insensible.

At the first return of sensation, I felt myself
going up and up, always upward, seemingly
through space. The light which surrounded
me was dazzling, as though I was approaching
the sun. I have no idea how long this seemed
to last; but, when I became sufficiently
conscious to note things as they were, I found
myself being carried slowly and carefully along on
a mattress by four miners. I could not keep
my eyes open for more than an instant, on
account of the light; but I was able to comprehend
that I was once more on the surface of
the earth.

By careful nursing I was gradually restored
to health. It will not require many words to
explain how I came to be rescued from the pit.

At the earliest moment after the explosion,
parties of miners descended into the pit. In
one place they found it to be on fire, but it was
at a point so very distant from the shaft, that
they blocked up the passage behind it and left
it, to continue their search in other directions.
They, of course, knew that I, and the manager,
and others, were in the pit somewhere; and as
they had not found our bodies, they concluded
we must be in a part of the pit which was as
yet unapproachable. Workmen were employed
night and day, in restoring the apparatus for
ventilating the mine; but so great had been the
force of the explosion and the amount of damage
done, that it was not until the fifth day after the
accident that we were found, and then there
remained alive, only myself and two others.

MARINE METEOROLOGY.

METEOR is derived from a Greek word,
signifying lofty, sublime, overhead; meteorology
is, therefore, the study of things aloft. The
meteorology of the ocean embraces the
conditions which not only are essential to safe
navigation, but which render navigation possible at all
for sailing vessels. Steamers, indeed, and galleys
with oars, might make their way across a
breezeless sea; but cutters and schooners would
remain motionless hulks on waters over which
no winds blew. Again, the most ignorant landsman
will comprehend the difference between a
wind dead ahead, blowing straight in your teeth
—a side wind, from the right or left—and a fair
wind, blowing exactly in the direction whither
you want to go. Their continuance in, or their
shiftiness from, those quarters at various seasons
of the year; their force, whether so gentle as
scarcely to fill the sails, or so violent as to tear
a vessel into shreds and splinters, are of vital
importance. All these questions, and many
others, are so ably discussed by Captain Maury,
as to make his book an indispensable addition
to every library in every maritime country
throughout the world. Even inland countries,
like Switzerland, will find it full of valuable
teachings that are applicable to their own special
circumstances.

What is the cause of the winds? Aqueous
vapour, or steam, assists in at least five
(perhaps six) ways to put air in motion and produce
winds. First, by evaporation the air is cooled;
by cooling, its specific gravity is changed; and,
consequently, here is one cause of movement in
the air, as is manifest in the tendency of the
cooled air to flow off, and of warmer and lighter
to lake its place. Secondly, excepting hydrogen
and ammonia, there is no gas so light as aqueous
vapour, its weight being to common air in the
proportion of nearly five to eight. Consequently,
as soon as it is formed, it commences
to rise; and, as each vesicle of vapour may be
likened, in the movements which it produces in
the air, to a balloon as it rises, it will be readily
perceived how these vaporous particles, as they
ascend, become entangled with those of the air,
and so carrying them along, upward currents
are produced.  Thus the wind is called on to