THE TOLL OF THE MINE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXII, Issue 9022, 9 December 1907, Page 2

THE TOLL OF THE MINE.

OVER 400 MINERS KILLED. Press Association—Copyrigh t. Received Dec. S, 4.42 p.m. New York, Dec. 7. A mining disaster occurred yesterday at Monongah, near Fairmount, Western Virginia. Tho sceno of the catastropho was the Baltimore Consolidated Coal Copy's mine, where, through an explosion, two pits mutually connected, and situated on opposite sides of the west forth of tho Monongahela River got on lire. Some hundreds of men wove at work in the mine, and a number of them were hurled through the ventilating shafts. The actual loss of life is not yet kuown, but it is feared that 425 have perished. Tho fumes of carbon dioxide were so dense that members of search parties who onterod tho mine were unable to penetrate the work-

Some of the bodies discovered by the explorers were so mutilated as to bo qui to unrecognisable. All tho passages of tho mine have been blocked by the fall of debris displaced by the exploding lire-damp, and it will be a miracle if any of tho entombed men are saved. Tho force of the explosion was so great that it shook all the houses within a radius of eight miles. Received December 9, 8.57 a.m. New York, December 8. Eighty-five bodies have been recovered at Monongah. The explosion carried a block of concrete weighing a thousand pounds across tho " river, embedding it in the hillside. Officials believe that the blockage of the entrance a few • hundred feet beyond the main opening interrupted the ventilating system this killing the entombed in a few minutes. Monongah has 0000 inhabitants. Throughout the night a hundred men stood at the month of tho pit. Women crowded the hillsides, finally crying themselves to sleep on the frozen ground. Fivo men have been rescued. All are injured and unable to give details of the disaster. Parties of ton men each are working in short relays owing to the accumualti on of gases.