The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-02 00:00:00

THE EDINBURGH CATASTROPHE,

The full extent of the catastrophe occasioned by
the fall of the house 109, High-street, Edinburgh,
on Sunday morning last, has now been ascertained.
Thirty-five bodies have been recovered from the
ruins, the remains of persons of all ages, from 90 to
sucklings found on the mother's breast. The num-
ber of the escaped and rescued is, so far as can be
ascertained, 32. The bodies last extricated were
those of David Skirving, cabinet maker, and his wife
and daughter, which were found on Thursday. The
daughter was the first of three discovered, the body
slipping down from a corner of the building on
some wooden beams being remove 3. The remains of
Skirving and his wife were found about five fee'
below the surface of the street, the very cellarag(
having been choked with the ruins. This family re•
sided on the second floor, in the corner of the build-
ing last cleared, the walls of the house being con-
spicuous after the clearance by a large coloured
priut of her Majesty adorning the chimney-piece.
The excavations were continued until Friday night,
when the foundations of the house were laid bare,
about 18 feet below the level of the street. The cause
of the catastrophe was at last disclosed. There was
a concealed stone wall, three feet thick, which ran
parallel to the front and back walls, in the middle
of the huge building, but which was not carried
into either of the gables, and it was found that on
the west side it had been to a large extent under-
mined to make way for a boiler, the heat from
which had helped to crumble the thin remainder of
the wall. The boiler had been there probably 30
or 40 years, but of late it bad been very little used.
The wall had been further weakened by hallowing
out a chimney for the boiler, and by carrying through
a door. On the east side the wall on the shop floor
had been partly removed, it is believed, in 1814, to
open the shop from front to rear, two pi:lars of the
wall only being left for support. This wall was
not only undermined, but was utterly decayed;
and it not merely fell, but was shattered to pieces,
one considerable fragment of it only being found
remaining. The timbers, also, were perfectly rot-
ten with age. On Friday—the sixth day after the
catastrophe—a cat and a dog were extricated alive,
both much emaciated. Some of tho animals dugk
out alive from the ruins, including two birds taken
down from the walls in their cages, having been
since sold for considerable sums, one gentleman
giving £2O for a little mongrel previously not worth
as many pence. The fund for the relief of the suf-
ferers amounts to about £1,200 or £1,500, and
would have been much greater but that large con-
tributions have not been encouraged, from the fear
of embarrassing the committee with a surplus, as
has been the case with several fire funds. There is
no doubt the fund will be quite ample, but many
are displeased that the ready bounty of the public
should have been repressed either by example or
advice. On Saturday men were engaged in taking
down the eastern gable, from a scaffolding and
ladders raised on the roof of the adjoining house.
The inmates have been allowed to return to the
hb ouni
lsdeisn
27.:1 butth ethwaet s to
nand
es o u t h sides of h
east
side
e has .the
been
fallen
ren-
dered uninhabitable. The late accident has caused
a strict investigation by many proprietors into the
condition of their properties, and in the case of
three or four other large buildings the tenants have
been warned out, and the tendency of this move-
ment for the present is only to crowd still more
tho habitations of the poorer classes. In other