understood, in every system of natural history, that distinctions are drawn from the perfected individuals.

This arrangement breaks up, if the expression be allowed, the Linnæan Bulle; but a slight acquaintance with conchology will shew that this affords no solid objection, considering that very dissimilar shells are comprised under it.

3. The difference between Conus and Voluta is but in degree, and not so essential as to constitute a generic separation. The inner windings of the pillar of the former are as cylindrically rolled or voluted as those of the latter, and the bases in some individuals of both are alike, or nearly so*. If these be united by an adjective to the feature of assimilation (Columnovolutum) the genera repose upon the minor distinctions of furrowed or plain condition of that feature.

4. Those shells which are furnished with a rostrum or beak, seem classed in nature, and may be expressed by the term rostratum. The direction of this feature constitutes the divisions. This arrangement is proposed partially by M. Cuvier in his fifth table, but so mixed up with spiriform shells, and so connected with the consideration of the animals, that it does not interfere with this system.

5. The spiral form, being a permanent feature, constitutes the essential character of, and therefore unites many univalves. This, adopted as significant of a family, embraces Trochus, Turbo, Helix, Nerita.

These shells present great difficulties, it is true, in the attempt at more perfect arrangement and nomenclature, and they shew the impossibility of equalizing, in an artificial system, the profusion and individuality of nature. The generic feature seems to belong to all, and thus to constitute them a family ; but the minor qualities are not so apparent, nor so capable of discrimination. The turbinated shape, which is assumed in an ordinary acceptation by Trochus and Turbo, being, after the spiral, the more general characteristic, is a first division. The existence of two lips, or the double margin (formed by the edge of the columella), which is now the diagnosis of Nerita

The spires and apices are also similar in respect to their variety in both; the former sometimes exserted or retuse, the latter acute or papillary.

from Helix, is a second. The single lip, caused by the concealment of the columella from the roll of the body, is a third.

There are individuals of Strombus, Murex, and Buccinum, as strictly spiral as these, but their possessing the rostrum, a more peculiar and therefore more distinguishing part, are classed after it.

Shells that are open, partially or completely, and of a flat form, present, under such simplicity of construction, no feature for association; and hence a condition must be chosen. This, perhaps, is a departure from the precision and perspicuity which are the objects of all system, and make its chief value. But, next to the perfect arrangements, based on essential organs, must be reckoned that which is modelled from the assemblage of the whole, or from the peculiarity such may present compared with others. An essential condition is selected, when objects are thus contrasted, and the line, if not drawn by Nature herself, may be assumed as a circumscribing limit. This is raised far above that which is drawn from relation to other objects, and it is as much removed from opinion as such modification will allow.

Some systems of modern date tolerate this license of comparison, from the failure of discriminating features. The term Pachydermata is taken from a relation of one part only, and a relation which, literally considered, is not universally true. Rapaces, among birds, is from a mere quality, which, exposed as it is to opinion and opportunity of observation, is only a conventional term, and obviously an artificial bond of union.

The shells, then, of the Linnæan Haliotis and Patella, united by a distinguishing condition (apertum), may be formed into sub-genera by the presence or absence of the only secondary qualities which belong to them, namely, the presence or absence of a margin.

7. Although the inhabitants of tubular shells are not, on the authority of M. Cuvier, constituted like those of Testacea, yet, as calcareous productions, they have been considered within the province of the conchologist. This shape, being the common feature, forms the family, and unites, of course, Serpula, Dentalium, Sabella, and Teredo. The divisions arise from peculiarities which well enough designate the individuals, and may

be comprised under three heads: a, straight and open; b, straight and closed; c, contorted.

Having objections to the Linnæan classification and principle of nomenclature, I beg to submit the above, as at least preferable, though not perhaps the very best which the subject will admit of.

An Account of the Inundation of a Coal-work at Beaujonc, near Liege, belonging to Messrs Colson and Company, and of the remarkable escape of a number of the Miners*.

On Friday the 28th of February 1812, about half past 10 in the morning, the colliery situate in the parish of Ans, near the Brussels road, about a mile and a quarter from Liege, was inundated by a body of water, which forced itself past one side of the frame-dam, constructed in the Rosier seam of the Triquenote pit, which lies about a furlong off that at Beaujonc.

The water coming from the Rosier seam, flowed over that of Petsay, and from this fell down the Beaujonc pit into the Marias seam, in which 127 men were at that time at work. The fall of water was therefore nearly 87 yards, which is the distance between the Petsay and Marias seams. The serrement, or framedam, is a sort of wooden dike, made to keep back the weight of the water which collects between the two estates, and especially in the seams which have been wrought out. The bure-pit or shaft is a great oblong well, having its angles usually rounded off. The seams are more or less thick, as well as the distances between them. The corf is a strong square box, which is borne by chains at the four corners. These are hooked to a great chain, which is moved by ten horses yoked to the machinery.

The moment a full corf had been drawn up, Matthew Laybeye, the filler, observed the water falling down the shaft, which, from the surface, is 185 yards deep. His fellow-workmen for a moment thought that the pipes of the steam-pump were choked, and that the water thus prevented from being drawn to day,

* The above interesting and affecting narrative is extracted from a French pamphlet, published at Liege, and communicated to us by Mr Bald.

JULY OCTOBER 1829.

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fell down the pit. He, however, dispatched Mathieu Lardenois in search of the oversman, Hubert Goffin, who was then in a mine about 540 yards off. He was almost immediately on the spot, and perceiving the danger to be real, his first care was to seek his son Mathieu Goffin, aged twelve years. No person had yet been drawn up: the water was not considerable, and Goffin might still have escaped the danger. He had even one leg in the corf, and his son standing close to him, when he exclaimed, "If I ascend, my workmen will be lost: I am determined to leave this place the last-to save them all, or to perish with them." So saying, he jumped out of the corf, and put Nicholas Riga, a blind man, into his place. The corf ascended rapidly, but, being suspended only by two of the four chains, it fell to one side, and some of the men not able to keep their position, fell into the water, out of which they were drawn by Goffin and his son, who had not left him.

The corf reached the bottom a second time, and the workmen rushed towards it in a crowd, but the force of the fall of water threw a part of them down, some of whom, by the depth of the water at the bottom, and the assistance of the brave Goffin, his son, and John Bernard, were saved. The horses of the machine being rapidly whipped round, the corf once more returned. The men had only a moment allowed to lay hold of it. perceived their danger; they, however, rashly disregarded him, clung to the corf, and in their ascent most of them fell and perished in the pit, which is two yards six inches deeper than the place of filling, where the water was already breast high.

Goffin

Not a moment was now to be lost. Escape by the pit became impracticable, the water having nearly reached the roof of the galleries. Goffin continued collected. The devotion of this father of seven young children had electrified Nicholas Bertrand, Mathieu Laybeye, and Melchoir Clavir, who, though they could have ascended, remained beside him. He had ordered N. Bertrand to make an opening in the air or upcast shaft, in order that the workmen coming from the dip or lowest part of the mine might turn round the downcast, and pass through the upcast shaft, to gain the rise-boards or galleries on the ascending part of the strata from the pit, every other way of escaping death being impossible. The upcast shaft is a pit of the same

depth as the principal shaft, having a chimney raised from it thirty-three yards high.

M. Laybeye was directed to secure all the candles, and to place the lighted ones against the props of the mothergate or main gallery of the mine, that the miners might see from a distance that they could no longer get to the shaft. Every excavation ought to be propped; that is, when the coal has been taken away, the roof should be supported by pieces of straight wood, to prevent falls. M. Clavir remained with Goffin, and assisted him in assembling the workmen, and in forcing them to the side of the rise-boards.

In the first place, Bertrand executed the order to unstop the bore-hole, which, from the reservoir of the steam-engine, leads to the workings that dip or incline downwards from the shaft. By this measure the workmen in the more distant boards were enabled to save themselves while the lower parts were filling with water. This disposition, in fact, saved the lives of many men who had time to join their brave leader. Unfortunately, some of them, deaf to his entreaty, remained in the filling place, near the shaft, in hopes of reaching the corf; these perished, victims of their imprudence. The corf descended several times in vain. The ladders placed for the use of the fire-engine seemed to offer another way of safety, but the unfortunate men who attempted to profit by it were thrown down by the violence of the waterfall.

The men and boys being drawn together, Goffin repeatedly said to them, "Lambert Colson will not abandon us; let us turn towards the Roisse; we shall go up the boards, he will understand where we shall be; and if we cannot escape hence by Beaujonc, we shall by Mamonster." The Roisse is a gallery which cuts the boards obliquely.

Only imagine the situation of these unfortunate creatures, buried in the bowels of the earth, at 185 yards deep-grouped together in a narrow space-deprived of food, and almost of vital air-with only a vague hope, and fearing to be drowned in the water which they saw increasing. It is only after having visited several coal-mines that we can form a just idea of the danger of the miners, who all their days traverse these labyrinths, where, often, they can only creep, are deprived of air,

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