The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-19 00:00:00

COLONIAL.

TEA.—The market has remained inactive, but prices
generally are well maintained for all qualities.
SUGAR.—OnIy a moderate amount of business has been
transacted, and no change of importance can be reported in
prices. Refined descriptions, however, have been in more
request.
COFFEE,—The operations have been confined principally
to good and fine qualities of plantation Ceylon, which
realised previous quotations.
RICE.—The demand for East India has been rather
more active, but the business done was limited, owing to
the firmness displayed by holders.
SALTPETRE.—Business has been moderately active, and
good and fine descriptions have slightly advanced.
TALLOW.—The market has continued quiet, without any
material change in values. P.Y.C. on the spot is quoted
52s 3d, and spring delivery 53s per cwt.

FOREIGN MAIL PACKET LIST.

MAILS DUE.

Australia and Mauritius, via Southampton. Nov. 18.
via Marseilles Dec. 13.
Brazil and Cape Yards, by British packet. Dec. 4.
Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. Helena Dec. 2.
China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southampton Nov. 18.
_ ..._
via Marseilles Nov. 27.
-
Falkland Islands ..
Gibraltar, via Southampton .. Nov. 18.
India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton Nov. 18.
via Marseilles Nov. 27.
India (Bombay), via Southampton Nov. 25.
via Marseilles Nov. 20.
Lisbon Nov 21.
Malta, Egypt, and Aden, via Southampton Nov.lB.
.....

via Marseilles Nov. 20.
Newfoundland
Oporto and Vigo
U. S. and British N. America, by Brit. packet Nov. 21:
by U.S. packet
by Canadian packet Nov. —.
W.C. of Africa, Madeira, and Teneriffe Dec. 10.
Bahamas, via New York' Nov. 21.
Mexico .... Nov. 28.

All parts of West Indies, including Chili, Peru,
/ Nov. 28.
California,and British Columbia.

MIS DAY'S SHIPPING.

LONDON, Nov. 19.—Wind this day at noon—South.
Westerly ; moderate breeze and fine weather, with sharp
frost.

On, HURST CASTLE, Nov. 19. Arrived Ceylon,
steamer, from Alexandria.
NEWPORT, Nov. 17.—Wind E.—Arrived—Memento,
from Gloucester for Havannah. Sailed—Gustav Melan,
for St. Thomas.

QUEENSTOWN, Nov. 18.—Arrived--Africa, steamer,
from New York.

CARDIFF, Nov. 17—Sailed—Offer, for Hong Kong;
Theodore Koomer, for Rio de Janeiro ; Bahiana, for
Bahia.

SU NDERLAWD, Nov. 18.—Wind N.W.—Sailed—Heende,
for Shanghai.

PORTSMOUTH, Nov. 18.—Wind N.W.—Arrivod—Her
Majesty's ship Osborne, from Ostend; her Majesty's ship
Black Prince, from the Clyde. -

PLYMOUTH, Nov. 18.—Wind N.W.—Sailed—Venetia,
for Adelaide.

DARTMOUTH, Nov. 18.—Wind N.B.—Sailed—William
screw steamer, for the Mediterranean.
OFF COWES, Nov.l9.—Arrived—Fultona, screw steamer,
from New York, and proceeded for Hamburg ; left Now
York on the 3d.
FOWEY, Nov. 18.— Wind N.E.—Arrived—Royal Ade-
laide, from Quebeo.

(BY BIIBMAILINN AND MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.)
GRAVESEND, Tuesday Morning.
Arrived—Trident, steamer, from Terming.
DEAL, Tuesday Morning.
Anchored—Strathmore, from London. for Swan River' •
Daphne, from London ; Layard, from Sheerness—both for
Now York.

A master well-digger, named Lardin, met with
his death the day before yesterday under the following cir-
cumstances :—Several of his men were engaged in sinking
a well for a person residing at Villejuif. and had reached
the depth of 60 feet when he went down to examine the
work, and while there the sides fell in and buried him
under nearly 20 feet of sand. It required 20 hours' incessant
labour to reach the unfortunate man, who must have been
suffocated instantaneously.
GRAY'S INN, Nor. 18.—At a pension of the Hon.
Society of Gray's-inn, holden this day, Joseph Burgin,
Esq., and William Nicholson, Esq., were called to the de-
gree v barrister-at-law,

'Y«.

771 E RECENT TERRIBLE COLLIERY

EXPLOSION IN NORTH WALES.

The following the report of Mr. Higson, the
Government inspector of mines for the district, in
reference to the above dreadful occurrence :

Little or no progress has been made in re-open-
ing the South Mostyn colliery since the jury were
first summoned to inquire into the circumstances
which caused the death of 10 persons there on the
26th of September last. lam not, therefore, better
prepared now than I was then to give my opinion
as to the cause of the explosion, and Mr. Eyton, in
a letter addressed to me on the Bth inst., states that
although he has had a strong force of men at work,
they have not made one inch of progress for some
time, and that he considers it desirable to abandon
the old air courses, which are completely closed up.
If that be imperative, the object contemplated in
adjourning the inquiry from time to time will be
frustrated, inasmuch as an approximate description
' of the state of the workings and the ventilation of
the colliery, immediately before the casualty hap-
pened, can only be given after a careful inspection
thereof, when they have been restored to something
like the state in which they were at the time. As
the investigation now stands, the most material con-
clusion to be drawn, though unsupported by direct
evidence, is that the return air from the working
places in the mine below, when coming through the
fan, was highly imflammable, and that it was there
ignited, either by the engine man driving the fan
so fast after the :stoppage as to cause the shaft
thereof to heat to such an extent as to set the wood
partition that surrounded it on fire, the flame of
which might cause the return air, when vitiated to
a certain extent with explosive gas, to burn only
without exploding, or that it was ignited at a naked
or uncovered light. In either case the result would
be similar. If the return air contained the proper
mixture of inflammable gas, it would burn without
exploding, but as the flame approached the boun-
dary of the place that contained it the mixture
might become explosive. It seems, therefore, almost
conelusive, that when once ignited the flame would
rapidly make its way through the body of, inflam-
mable air even to the extremity of the workings, if
it extended so far; but upon coming in contact
with purer air then a more explosive mixture would
be formed, it would explode and not till then, and
this in some degree strengthens the evidence of
Thomas Meredith, wherein be states that some
time elapsed after discovering the fire before he
heard the second noise, which he says was very
loud.

" So far as I have been able to examine the works
and premises, it seems to me as if the explosion took
place in the return air course, as the stoppings are
blown outward from that into the inby air road,
and the communication that existed between the
pits completely closed.

" The immediate cause of the explosion may be
traced from the foregoing remarks, but the primary
cause is still too obscure to hazard even an expression
that might lead the minds of the jury from the
course they are legally and morally bound to adopt ;
still the presence of such an extraordinary quantity
of gas at the mouth of an upcast pit is a fact which,
for the sake of humanity, should net be dis-
regarded or passed by without the strictest
investigation, inasmuch as it is a very unusual cir-
cumstance, and one that should never be suffered
to exist.

" If the powar and efficiency of the fan were in-
capable of producing an adequate amount of ventila-
tion, or if it could only barely keep the works clear
of gas, with no margin or surplus power readily
applicable in cases of emergency, and a large quan-
tity of gas being constantly emitted, or perhaps
suddenly liberated, then stopping the fan for the
time mentioned by the witness Lloydd, in which,
as he was busily engaged in repairing the strap, he
might be mistaken (instead of stopping only 20
minutes it might be an hour or even more), was in
my opinion sufficient to cause gas to accumulate,
and to be drawn through the fan soon after it was
set to work again, where there can be scarcely any
doubt it was first ignited, and after burning from
there to the tail end of the accumulation, or the
train of the vitiated or inflamm6ble air, it exploded
in some of the roads or workings below.
" From the plan before you, which is sworn to be
a correct representation of the working and other
places now in use in the colliery, it appears the
working places lie at the distance of 1,000 yards
from the foot of the uncast pit, and they are ap-
proached by an horizontal tunnel from the down-
cast pit which orosses the measures at right angles
to the strike of from 600 to 700 yards in length, the
upcast being 110 yards on the rise of the downcast
pit, and only 60 yards deep, while the latter is
about 140 yards deep. The air entered by the
downcast pit along one tunnel into the workings,
and returned from thence along another tunnel and
inclined road to the uncast pit.

" There are at intervals, on the side of each
tunnel, openings into old and abandoned works
which were probably discharging gas into the
return air course in large quantities. If this were
so, the working places might be clear and appa-
rently safe, while a portion of the return air
course and the upcast pit were in an explosive
state. If therefore they were not in the habit of
inspecting those places constantly it might pass
unobserved."