From the 8th of July to the 19th of September, the heart-rending scene of mothers and widows examining the putrid bodies of their sons and husbands, for marks by which to identify them, was daily renewed; but very few of them were recognised by any personal mark--they were too much mangled and scorched to retain any of their features: their clothes, tobacco-boxes, and shoes, were therefore the only indications by which they could be identified. The total loss from this terrible accident was ninety-two pitmen; while forty widows, sixty girls, and twenty-six boys, comprising in all one hundred and twenty six persons, were thrown upon the benevolence of the public. It was impossible that an event of such awful magnitude should not have deeply affected every humane person resident in the district. Nothing, in short, could exceed the anxiety which was manifested on the occasion; but, most unfortunately, there existed an invincible prejudice against every proposition that could be offered, from a general impression as to the utter hopelessness of any attempt to discover a remedy. A few philosophic individuals, however, did form themselves, as we shall presently learn, into an association for the laudable purpose of inviting the attention of scientific men to the subject, and of obtaining from them any suggestions which might lead to a more secure method of lighting the mines. To the Reverend Dr. Gray, the present Lord Bishop of Bristol, who, at the period to which I allude, was the Rector of Bishop-Wearmouth, and one of the most zealous and intelligent members of the association, I beg to offer my public acknowledgments and thanks for the several highly interesting communications and letters with which his Lordship has obliged me, and by means of which I have been enabled to present to the scientific world a complete history of those proceedings which have so happily led to a discovery, of which it is not too much to say that it is, at once, the pride of science, the triumph of humanity, and the glory of the age in which we live. In a letter I had lately the honour of receiving from that learned prelate, his Lordship says, "It was at a time when all relief was deemed hopeless, that Mr. Wilkinson, a barrister in London, and a gentleman distinguished for the humanity of his disposition, suggested the expediency of establishing a society for the purpose of enquiring whether any, and what, methods of security might be adopted for the prevention of those accidents so frequently occurring in the collieries of Northumberland and Durham.