HORSES IN MINES.
[TO THE EDITOR OE THE 4.firscT.vros."J SIR,—In a late number of the Spectator, alluding to the very impressive letter of Mr. William Morgans to the Colliery Guardian, you forcibly endorsed his recommendation that the representatives of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals should have bestowed upon them the same legal right of access into mines that they now have to cattle markets.
The narration of an event which was occurring in a mine of this country at the time when you wrote, may serve further to emphasise your observations. The particulars are as com- municated direct from the close neighbourhood of the pit, and on authority too reliable and too well confirmed to leave any doubt of the accuracy at least of the main facts.
A circumstance occurred causing noxious gas in a part of this mine, and making it necessary to dam up a passage which was affected; but further on, and beyond the effects of the gas, there was a horse which could not be got out,the only passage high enough for the purpose being the one involved in the mischief. In another direction was a way through an old working large enough to allow the men to pass out, but too small for the horse. Now, as the dam was intended to remain for some days, it might have been expected that the horse would have been humanely destroyed, instead of being left to the risk of prolonged suffering after the usual means of reaching it with food and water had been out off, as also the normal air-supply. Instead of this, a bag of fodder was given to it, and it was left to take its chance, the men as they went away damming up this passage also behind them. After the lapse of four days, or, according to one account, of about a week, the mine was again entered, when the horse, which was in a position very easily accessible from the old working, was found to be alive, though, as might be expected, greatly exhausted from want of food. Another bag of fodder was given to it, and the men again left, expecting to be able to liberate it the next day. BM on penetrating further into the mine, they found the old mischief still existing ; so that the next day it was considered necessary to build np the dam again, this time for an indefinite period, likely to be very considerable, and the unfortunate horse, in- stead of being now at last put out of its misery, was un- doubtedly left to complete the process of starving to death, unless an advance of the noxious gas should release it first Ly asphyxiation. It is possible that some farther difficulty might have arisen since the preceding day, rendering it hazardous again to enter the mine ; but surely even in that case a con- tingency so likely to suggest itself should have been foreseen, and provided against, whilst yet there was time, by the destruc- tion of the horse. From first to last it appeared to be a case calling for investigation ; but so difficult is it to obtain this where only the fate of mine-horses is concerned, that the strenuous attempt made by one or two humane persons proved ineffectual for the purpose. It is terrible to think of the fate of this poor horse, whose sufferings must ere this have terminated ; but after all, the saddest consideration in connection with it is the inquiry how far it may have been a representative case.
Thera is now a Mines Regulation Bill before Parliament, and it will be cause for much congratulation if it should prove that success has crowned the efforts of some who hay e been labouring to procure the insertion of a clause empowering full and sufficient inspection in the interest of animals employed in mines. If, how- ever, they have not succeeded, it is earnestly to be hoped that the different Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animala.will never rest until, backed by a strong public opinion, they are 'ahle to obtain for their officers a right of entry into mines. For by what possible reasoning can it be made out that their presence is more needed in the cattle market and the public street than it is in the recesses of the mines, where animals are without the protecting shield of public observation P Let me add that there is also another domain which the P.C.A. officer should gain the right occasionally to enter, and that is the domain of the
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