The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-30 00:00:00

FATAL COLLISION NEAR MANCHESTER.

A railway collision, attended by the loss of one life
and serious damage to several others, took place yester-
day (Thursday) morning, at a quarter past 10 o'clock,
at a station recently opened upon the Lancashire and
Yorkshire Railway, called the Newton-heath station,
between three and four miles from Manchester, and
intended for the accommodation of the inhabitants of a
large manufacturing population at Newton-heath, a vil-
lage on the road to Oldham. The details of the acci-
dent are in themselves quite simple. The train for
Yorkshire left the Victoria station at Manchester at
9.45 a.m., and reached the Newton-heath station
within a quarter of an hour of that time. It con-
sisted of an engine, tender, and four carriages, the
last having the guard's van incorporated with it. The
carriages were tolerably well filled. It stopped at New
tonheath to take up some passengers, that being usual,
and Mr. Whittaker, the station-master, says, that as
soon as it arrived he went to his signal-post and turned
on the double red light, signifying, " a train at the sta-
tion." Notwithstanding this precaution, however, in
less than a minute after a train for Oldham came rushing
along the same line of rails, at the rate, as near as can
be calculated, of 15 miles an hour, and without stopping
dashed into the Yorkshire train with such force as to
propel it 50 yards beyond the station, and to bring itself
to a stand-still. The signal which Whittaker put on
is 400 yards on the Manchester side of the station,
and there will therefore be two things to be examined
into—whether the signal was put on by Whittaker ;
and if so, why the engine driver of the Oldham train
paid no attention to it. The morning was foggy, and
the account now given is, that he did not see it.
The result to the Yorkshire train was, that the
last carriage was completely broken up, and all the pas-
sengers were scattered about upon the line or thrown
down an embankment, on which the rails run at that
point. Henry Tidy, the guard, was in his box, and he
was picked up labouring under severe concussion of the
brain. Jane Sykes, a girl aged about 17, on her way
home to Lindley, near Huddersfield, was found in an
insensible condition, and expired in the station a few
minutes after she was conveyed there ; her grandmother,
with whom she was travelling, Ellen Lord, wife of
Richard Lord, tailor, of Syke's-hill, Preston, was taken
to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, dreadfully cut up ;
and seven other persons received serious bruises and
personal injuries. We hear that much blame attaches
to the company for their arrangements in respect to this
station. It is said that the Oldham train, which does
not stop at the Newton-heath station, only starts five
minutes after the Yorkshire, which does stop at the
Newton station, so that there is a continual danger of
accident arising from that source.

SNOWSTORM IN THE WEST.— Winter has set in with
extreme rigour in Worcestershire, Gloucestershire,
Monmouthshire, and South Wales, and at the present
moment the ground is covered with snow to the depth of
nearly a foot. The snow began to fall on Tuesday, and
continued without intermission until night. It wax
accompanied by a biting north wind, which increased
occasi6nallv on Tuesday and Wednesday to a brisk
breeee, and has drifted the snow considerably in exposed
places. Tuesday night was fine, and the thermometer
has been ever since Monday night several degrees below
the freezing point, and the sunshine on Wednesday
made no impression on the snow. The road traffic is
much impeded, but the railways are clear, though the
slipperiness of the rails and the usual incidents of severe
weather have caused the trains to be generally behind
their proper time.
AN EXTRAORDINARY (TREE.—The Gardeners' Ciro
nide announces the discovery in Calilbrnia of altnos *nag
nificent coniferous tree, 300 feet high. " This magnifi-
cent evergreen tree, from its extraordinary height and
large dimensions, may be termed the monarch of the Cali-
, fornian forest. It inhabits a solitary district on the ele-
vated slopes of the Sierra Nevada, near the head waters of
the Stanislau and San Antonio rivers, in lat. 38 N., long.
120 10 W., at an elevation of 5,000 feet from the level of
the sea. From 80 to 90 trees exist, all within the cir-
cuit of a mile, and these varying from 250 feet to 320
feet in height, and from 10 to 20 feet in diameter. Their
manner of growth is much like Sequoi (taxodium) sem..
pervirens, some are solitary, some are in pairs, while
sonic, and not unfrequently, stand three and four to.
gether. A tree recently felled measured about 34
feet in length, with a diameter, including bark, 29
feet and 2 inches, at 5 feet from the ground ; at 18 feet
from the ground it was 14 feet 6 inches through ; at 100
feet from the ground, 14 feet ; and at 200 from the
nne
ground, 5 feet 5 inches. The bark is of a pale cinnamon
and fromround, l2
somewhat
w 5
hiantc
are pendent,ein thickness.
resemblingT
The
h
s
bbyraownenh, lets are
a cypress or juniper. The leaves a
pale grass green.
Those of the young trees are spreading, with a sharp
acuminate point. The cones are about 21 inches
long, and 2 inches across at the thickest part. The
trunk of the tree in questi •
on was perfectly solid,
from the sap-wood to the centre ; and judging from
the number of concentric rings, its age has been esti-
mated at 3,000 years. The wood is light, soft, and of a
reddish colour, like redwood or taxedium sempervirens.
Of this vegetable monster, 21 feet of the bark, from the
lower part of the trunk, have been put in the natural
form in San Francisco for exhibition ; it there forms a
spacious carpeted room, and contains * piano, with
seats for 40 persons. On one occasion 140 children were
admitted without inconvenience. An exact representa-
tion of this tree, drawn on the spot, is now in the
hands of the lithographers, and will be published in a
few days." What a tree is this ! of what a portentous
aspect and almost fabulous antiquity ! They say that the
specimen
felled at the junction of the Stanislau and San
Antonio was above 3,000 years old—that is to say, it must
have been a little plant when Sampson was slaying the
Philistines, or Paris running away with Helen, or
.Eneas carrying off good pater A nehisie upon his filial
shoulders. And this may very well be true, if it does
not grow above two inches in diameter in 20 years,
which we believe to be the fact. At all events we have
obtained the plant. The seed received by Messrs.
17( itch has all the appearance of vitality, and since the
tree is hardy and evergreen, it is a prodigious acqui-
sition.