To Mr Drake Q.C - I worked in the south of England in three or four different mines before I came here. In some of them they work with safety lamps and in others they did not. In this mine here as long as the air kept travelling it was safe enough. There was no cross cut in my stall. I have worked up at the roof of my stall but found no gas there; I have no idea as to the cause of this explosion. There appeared to be the usual quantity of air on the third of May. I have been down [?] in the mine [?] that day but not exactly with an exploring party. I went down in the [?] [?] with the exploring party to get my tools in my stall. A good deal of coal had fallen and there was [?] in there like in the other places. I found my tools in my stall. I could not [?] [?] of or form any idea of the evidence of the explosion from what I saw there. I did not [?] whether [?] were blown out or not.
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