The Shasta courier., 1863-11-14
SHASTA COURIER.
shafts vs.. Tunnels


There was time in the history of our Terri
tory when tunnels were all the rage. A COM
pany that was only sinking a shaft didn't
amount to ~mucfI-in fact was looked npon as
rather a one horse concern, and one that few
but green horns would invest in. man that
was not interested in some half dozen mines,
toward which as many tunnels were running.
thought himself out of luck Everybody were
running tunnels. and every mine, no matter how
situated was to be worked through tunnel
Even the 0phir Company was for a time affiict-
ed with the tunnel mania. Tha Company COM
menced a tunnel which would have been, had
it been completed, over one mile and a fifth
in length with air shaft upwards of 400-feet
deep Bat on a sober second thought, the work
was dis. ontinued. A tunnel would be of no
great use as a medium of discharge for the GO
ing out and return of an ore-car would occupy
twice the time that would be required to hoist
twenty times the amount of ore perpendicular
to the surface. The tunnel on completion
would have been of use MS 4 means of drainage
for the mine. and this means rather costly
when we consider that the interest o. half the
sum required to build the tunnel would be more
than sufficient to keep the mine pumped. We
do not deny that tunnels are a very proper
means for tapping and draining mines in cer-
tain situations. In case lead is situated on
the side of a steep mountain, where a tunnel of
an inconsiderable length will tap vein at a
great depth, it is doubtless good economy to
run tunnel. But because tunnel is good
in some situations, it Is no evidence that a tun-
mel should in every case be used. The day of
tunnelng for the working or drainage of indi-
vidual mines has nearly passed. The only very
long tunnels that are profitable are those for
Of in, which
leads do not appear on the surface, or where
run as galleries or efiux for the drainage of a
whole mining district is practiced in the
German mines. Where the exact location of
vein is known, (without its situation is pecu-
liarly favorable for tunneing) tunnel is not
needed. We have seen tunnels in these mines
some hundreds of feet that wrre not much
deeper when they struck the mime for which
they were run, than at their starting point.
These tunnels were too long for the discharge
of ore, and soon become of no use for drainage
purposes-therefore a dead loss of capital.
Thus many tunnels have become useless in
three months that cost three years to build. 1t
will only pay to run out ore in cars a short dis
tance; hosting is more speedy and cheaper.
Gradually this has come to be known and ac
knowledged and now we see most of our COM
panies putting up hosting and pumping APP
pafftuS. NNefe Il SNOTl tunnel VIII top IL vein,
or where long one will drain whole district
10 a uniform and profitable level, tunnel is
the thing: but where long tunnel is run for
the benefit of single mine, it Will be found
much more expensive than pumping or hosting
through shafts. Tunnels are often run by COM
panies of men of limited means fer prospecting
purposes, for the reason that the assessments
required to be levied are made comparatively
light by being distributed through period
from two TO four years whereas, to raise at
once half the sum actually expended on the
tunnel, for the purpose of procuring machinery
for going straight down, would be thing next
to impossible. Here is where rich companies
have a great advantage over poor ones-so
great, indeed that we are sometimes almost
ready to say that poor companies have no busi-
ness to attempt to mine. After a poor compa-
ny have battered their tunnel forward for two
or three years, and have at last reached their
lead, they may find that they not yet deep
enough 10 get pay rock, and are no better off
for drainage than when they started. Water
stands in the way of further downward pro-
gress. If they would see what lies below. they
must go back and bring up another tunnel-a
little job that will take, say three to five years.
And all this time they must wait to fud out
what lies but ten feet below their last work.
In months time, company armed with
pumping and huisting apparatus, would have
gone down Il hundred feet deeper than our poor
tunnel men would have done in all the weary
years they have been battling at the stubborn
granite before them.-Territoriat Enterprise.