The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-03
The SutrO Tunnel.

even to advise, their course.
The SutrO Tunnel.
From the N. Y Tribune.
The application of Adolph Sutro and his as
sociates in the Sutro Tunnel Company to Con-
gress for the loan OF Government bonds to the
amount of S., 600, 600, to aid in boring tunnel
for draining and removing the ore from the
celebrated Comstock Lode in Nevada, calls for
a grant of novel character. We are opposed
to aiding public or private enterprises of any
kind unless there are the most unequivocal
proofs OF the necessity, profit, and safety OF
doing so, and we have therefore examined this
project with every predispOsition to oppose it.
Ii our pIeiudices have been reversed by in
vestigation, it is probable that the same facts
which have convinced us of the propriety of
such grant may convince others.
The Comstock Lode is, geologcally, fssure
vein Cor chasm created by a volcanic convul-
sion, rending the earth's crust and filling the
rent by injection from below filed with mine
raj quartz bearing both gold and silver in the
proportion Of 81 in silver to 81 of gold. 1t ap-
pears upon he sur'ac3 for several hundred feet
i'll width and several miles in length, running
north and south, and dipping, at an angle of
45 degrees, to an indefinite depth. Upon this
ledge, some thirty or forty mining companies
have claims, forty-seven shafts have been
sunk, some of them to a depth of eight hun
dred or nine hundred feet, and within six
years past over $50, 900, 600 of gold and silver
bullion have been extracted, while the present
annual yield exceeds $4,000, 900. But the
best geologists certify that the Comstock is
larger and more regular and permanent
vein than either the great POtosi mine of
Bolivia which yielded 81, 300 000,0 900, the
Veta Madre of Guanajuato, $500, ,0000 600, or
the Veta Grande of Zacatecas, $3.50, 600, 600
the two last being the richest mines of Mexico.
1t is fair to assume that the wealth of the
Comstock Lode has only been tapped at the
surface; and yet the shares of the mining COM
panies are declining in value, the mines are
upon the verge of suspending operations and,
if unassisted by the Government, must shortly
reach the limit beyond which every dollar of
ore extracted will cost more than dollar to
extract. This is because, first, as the shafts
descend, the cost of pumping up the water,
eXpelling the foul vapors, and raising the ore,
increases in almost geometrical ratio; and,
secondly, the companies working separately
are each compelled to pay for separate engines,
works, fires, and to sustain separate set of
workmen and officers. The expense OF each
company draining its own mine exceeds any
cons Olidated system which would drain all
the mines, as in a city the expense of each
householder building his own water
works, sewers, gas-works, ETC., would ex-
ceed the expense of having water, gas, and
sewerage, furnished by one source. These
expenses have so increased that the three
hundred tons of gold and silver extracted last
year, worth 10000, 900, were mined at a cost
of $l5, 100000, leaving only 100000 profit
which would be very moderate interest on
the capital invested. Indeed, careful
computations show that the shafts cannot be
sunk to a depth of one thousand nine hun
dred feet without increasing the cost of
pumping to five million dollars per annum,
and that, long before this stage should be
reached, the works will have to be wholly
abandoned. Nor is the increase in expense
the only objection to pumping. The pumping
works introduce into the mines vast quantity
of woodwork and machinery, which soon rots
and wears out, and requires replacing. Mean
while, the mines are always heated damp, and
dangerous to the lives of the miners; while
any cessation in the eXhausting and proitless
labor of pumping fills up the mines and de-
stroys the results of the capital and labor pre-
viOuely expended.
The Sutro Tunnel Company proposes to
drain the mines, both of water and ore, by a
nearly horizontal tunnel, seven miles long,
running from the base Of the mountain and
striking the lode at point 1000 feet below the
surface, with side galleries so constructed as to
serve all the companies operating on the lode.
The tunnel would be twelve feet in width ana
ten in height, which would afford sufficient
space for railroad for ore each wsy and the
stream of water underneath, with a descent OF
one inch per hundred feet. The moment the
tunnel is complete, it drains and ventilates all
the mines perfectly by the force of gravity.
Such enterprises are familiar to the miners
of Europe. Little SaxOny has constructed
more than a hundred miles of mining tunnel;
Hanover nearly as much. Some of their tun-
nels are nine or ten miles in length. The
SutrO Tunnel will pierce three or four conside-
rable lodes before striking the COmstock, aud
the amount of mineral wealth which it will
make available is almost incalculable. 1t is
reasonable to suppose that it will increase the
production of the Comstock Lode alone to
$4,000 600 year. From the great depth at
which it strikes the lode, it will drain the
mines for hundred years. The Tunnel Com
pany has obtained agreements from the pro-
prietors of all the mines to be drained, for the
payment of royalty of 81 per ton on all ore
extracted after the tunnel strikes the lode;
which would insure the Company an income
it is believed, of S2 600, 600 per year, the whole
of which is pledged to the payment of the
Government bonds loaned to aid theeOmpany.
1t is expected that the tunnel would be COM