leave the ground to fall in:  after a year or two this ground becomes so hard as to make a good safe roof, and then they work away the other half:  thus they avoid much of the danger and difficulty of working the thick bed all at once.  The ventilation of these mines scarcely ever requires fires, and then only what they call “lamps,” those little fire-places which are used for giving light at night. (In the Northumberland and Durham pits, they constantly have immense roaring fires to make a draught.) Then we came home through Dudley.

* * * * *

During his stay in Russia, there was a great desire manifested by the astronomers and scientific men of Russia that he should be presented to the Emperor.  This would no doubt have taken place had not the movements of the Court and his own want of time prevented it.  The following letter to the British Ambassador, Lord Bloomfield, relates to this matter: 

         &nb
sp;                                                    PULKOWA,
                                                1847, August 25th.
          
                                      Wednesday evening.

MY LORD,

I had the honour yesterday to receive your Lordship’s note of Sunday last, which by some irregularity in the communications with this place reached me, I believe, later than it ought.  From this circumstance, and also from my being made acquainted only this afternoon with some official arrangements, I am compelled to trouble you at a time which I fear is less convenient than I could have desired.

The object of my present communication is, to ask whether (if the movements of the Court permit it) it would be agreeable to your Lordship to present me to the Emperor.  In explanation of this enquiry, I beg leave to state that this is an honour to which, personally, I could not think of aspiring.  My presence however at Pulkowa at this time is in an official character.  As Astronomer Royal of England, I have thought it my duty to make myself perfectly acquainted with the Observatory of Pulkowa, and this is the sole object of my journey to Russia.  It is understood that the Emperor takes great interest in the reputation of the Observatory, and I am confident that the remarks upon it which I am able to make would be agreeable to him.

I place these reasons before you, awaiting entirely Your Lordship’s decision on the propriety of the step to which I have alluded.  I am to leave St Petersburg on Saturday the 4th of September.

I have the honor to be
My Lord,
Your Lordship’s very faithful servant,
G. B. AIRY.

Lord Bloomfield, &c., &c.

* * * * *

It was probably in acknowledgment of this letter that in due time he received the following letter with the offer of the Russian Order of St Stanislas: 

MONSIEUR L’ASTRONOME ROYAL,