The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-09-02
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A YISIT 10 THE CLIFF NINE.

The following accurate and interesting description of a
visit to the famous Cliff Copper Mine we take IRON re-
cent correspondence of the Albany journal ;
The first sight Of the Cliff Mine surprises you. AT the
foot Of bluff some five hundred feet in height is built
up in the midst of the woods, considerable village
Neat houses to the number of hundred strangely sim
lar in shape and size and large enough to accommodate
two families each, the sandy clearing Here rises
church spc there the smoke pipes Of the mining en-
gines This whole village of some thousand Inhabitants
belongs to the Cliff Copper Company and has been bnt
by them for their five hundred miners and their Families
Everything indicates order system, and THRIFT. The
president informed that the company had then
in their hands some 900 of wages saved by the
miners and left with them for safe keeping The work
shops Of the mine, situated above ground arc iull OF IN
tercst Here six OF seven steam engines largest
of l5O horse power employed in drawing the buck
cts of earth and copper up the shafts, in stamping the
rock in which the copper is for the most part found
and in the various operations Of the mine. by these
means G40 tons of copper raised and prepared or
market in the year 1857, of which 66 per cent was in
pure and solid masses The annual expenses OF the mine
amount nearly $250,000 Shafts are already sunk to
the epth 500 feet below the foot Of the Gill; or 900
feet below its summit where two Of the shafts have their
opening into the upper air The sinking OF these shafts
work of immense labor and expense, and though the
company has been, the whole successful it has
thrown away half million dollars in the unsuccessful
sinking of single shaft
We finished inspection by descent into the bow
els of the earth We aaycd ourselves in miners shirts,
pants coats and boots, and put wooden caps on our
fastened by piece of moist clay No ragged Irishman,
imagined ever looked half as comicaI we, every
man's head shining like travelling light house. We
squeezed ourselves through hole in the ground and de-
sccnded as WE'LL the space of ladder lengths
making in all three hundred feet. The damp,
black rock tckled with water, the Dir was cold, and
unuterable blackness stared at before and behind.
From the bottom of the ladder followed our
guides through low passage way, cut in solid rock,
now and then cyeing fearful chasn, cambering
down some rocky gorge, till reached the wonderful
mass pure copper which has been lately discovered
and on which the miners engaged This mass is
estimated to weigh hundred and fifty tons, and
to be worth from fifty to seventyve thousand dollars
dozen kegs of powder the other day put under it
and fired without ectng its separation from the adjacent
rock Twenty six kegs then tried with but partial
success one end being still left hanging to the rock
The blast shook the mountain, however, and demon
strstod, at least, the use of gunpowder Some four
months will be required to cut up the mass into pieces
which can be raised to the surface
Silver Is also found mingled with the copper although
the miners are said to pocket the greater part OF it, One
of them Is said have sold in Detroit silver to tho
amount Of $500, which from time to time he had Sc
cured The temptation is strong the work is hard, for
it II carried ON by night well by day. and the wages
of the miners not greatly above the wages of common
laborcrs, being on average ten slillngs per day.