ssful business
in merchandise, and, save for severe and very natural fright, she was got
out without sustaining further harm.

The news of the accident soon spread abroad, and reached Dolgelley, where
a great Eisteddfod was being held. From this assembly Dr. Hugh Jones and
Dr. Edward Jones, well-known medical men over the countryside, with
others, hurried to the scene. But the driver and fireman were beyond the
range of their skill. With bashed heads they lay, the former in the
tender and latter beside the "Pegasus," on the huge rocks that flank the
shore. Searching inquiry was made into the cause of the accident, and
though evidence was forthcoming that the utmost care was taken to watch
that section of the line, and Mr. George Owen, the engineer, and Mr.
Liller, the traffic manager, were able to show that all the
recommendations and regulations of the Board of Trade officials had been
complied with in protecting this awkward cutting, the jury considered the
place unsafe and hoped the Railway Company would "do something to prevent
occurrence of a similar accident."

Such occurrences, alas! are not entirely within the compass of human
power to control, but, as a matter of fact, no such "similar accident"
has during its history ever happened at Friog or anywhere else on the
Cambrian system. It was, indeed, not for more than fourteen years that
serious catastrophe attended the working of the railway, and then the
cause seems to have been as uncontrollable as ever. Late one Friday
evening in June, 1897, a Sunday School excursion train from Royton in
Lancashire, drawn by two engines, was returning from Barmouth, and, close
to Welshampton station, only a few miles short of quitting the Cambrian
at Whitchurch, left the rails, overturning several coaches and
telescoping others. The circumstances were the more pathetic by reason
of the fact that most of the passengers were children, homeward bound,
after a joyous day by the sea. Nine were killed outright, two died later
in hospital, and many others were more or less seriously injured. Dr. R.
de la Poer Beresford of Oswestry, medical officer to the Cambrian Railway
Co., and many other professional and lay helpers, rendered gallant
service, and the railway ambulance corps were a valuable adjunct in the
arduous task of dealing with the great work of tending the wounded.

There was some little difficulty in ascertaining the exact cause of the
accident, but the Coroner's