St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1871-05-12
"CHr ,I'--.I Miners !SfOrU.

Lur,tirr into ILc cabin ,vhrrr I was lei.
ur,ly ca,in. L,c,kC,s, ,rJ r.oTna IL,
now. r.,n som. or L,,, ,n,r,., ,-,,,,,.
that were ra,lod ON III. ,,II ..rb,
orouod La. r;,vcJ, /, r.me Jnynm;.ht,
sudden and little Jimmy was nt tn
h.cust. WIS further ont in III. dritt
and had the start of if hu! !, made src!
, cIu.n ,.,lI C,r ~, ,l,..t L.,,,y Lo ,,,-
:, cot k,tchcd"
Ill technical ,,,,,.,,, r..,o,l, / :, -,
th,. fact ;I,o, nur mime I,I c,v.J an,
had hui,,l ON. or our romn,u;,rs fn,
.T,rlc Jimmy. WIS u,t m infant. but :,
ma--a miner and a friend. lie ha,
been WORKING at the ,,brcast' or lnrti,cs
cnI ni the ..,IrilI " Lpt vo. r,vv merriam,
,Ir.ru, hi. last : I.rp IN tbc b,s,n, 81
thn mn,hrr of rs oll
Th,,, wears fcE,rc This v. had com,
to hi. creek We had ur,.spc,.icL tb,
..>ide nnlches" and the bars. and lnund
"color," everywhere. Indications w,r,
favorable. 50 we ",takcT' a body OF
ground alone the main creek. i.uilt cab,
iuS, cr.anizcd a company, of which tho
writer was elected president. and went
to work TO oIcn eur claim.
Those three wear, had been wears of
toll and urivation. We were in the
hoart of thc Rocky Muuntains. Gur
camp was pitched in a little basin IF =
valley. vaIm and smshiny. and inst at
fine entrance of - dccn and nlnumv ,.,u ~
which we nomcd ..T'bc D,,ir. Gotc "
and throunh which uur snarkIiru littic
stream lnamcd and tumblcd down TO that
orrat liver tie Missouri. Our nruunl
was deep and very wet. Drainage was
necessary. and we had driven a tunnel
for this nurnos. throuuh tEc earth and
handlers ,I,l, tiIIrJ ,hn nrim,v,I he'd of
tLc creek. up,il we huI attained 4 hori
zontaI distance or :, thousnnd wards but
th, >Inur of the ouIrh WAS 81 mradu1l
that w. h,J unt reached tb,. ..irJ rorL,'
,yhc,, vvo Loncd tn t;uI ,hn uoIJ I,iJ IN
bcap.. Bed Rock" bri. ,Ie ohiec,,vr
mint must hc reached 50 we sank :,
Shaft at the head Of our tunnel and be-
took ourselves to a pump.
As il was a couple thousand miles To
afford TO await the completion of thc
North Pacific Railroad. n pump under
thr circumstances WA. = urohIcm. 81 |
VIII tell how we cot enc We had black
smiths anil crrnenirr's tnuls which most
nC u. rnulJ usn ,hrr, v,s ,l.uty nC,im-
I,r orow;u, ou ,Lc mountains. .rI ,
pair Of dilapidatcd freight wagons sup
piled our stock of iron. Great slabs or
scsmen.S were cut from tir-lrees, and
hcwn and dressed ON one side to a
smooth plane. The other side was round
ed to an are or convex surface. So that
whcn fuur such sc"mcnts were placed to-
ortbcr Icnuthwi,r. secured with pin- at
thr c,Incs which wcr. first .ouorrd and
,Lru made nnraaIlcI. iL,v f;,rm.I , lnno
hollow trunk or barrel. ionr-.ur.arc with
in. bat outside cylindrical, and tarcrinr
SLIGHTLY from one end TO tine other. Up
ON this were driven hoops or bands o.
iron which forced the Joints close like
those of a cask. and thus we had pumps
or pincs of considerable lcnnth and solid
itv. 1t was easy to fit item with valves
and pistonS, and to work them with a
wooden walkin@-bcam movcd by the
crank of a wafer wheel This crank was
= mo.tcrpicce. 1t had arm or leverage
of two feet. and was formed from the
ron axle of one of our wagons, and its
cudneons or hearings were turned in a
lathe of our own contlivin". This was
a heavy job for our resources, but it was
finished after an anc Git seemed 10 u>) Of
toll. nuZzliur. and pcrsriration and we
had nroducrd machinery that was capa-
lie Of ra;,inu to = hcioht of nearly thirty
feet many tons of water per day, and
which answered all our requirement Tor
draininn: 50 that We were able TO reach
that Ion. sought bed rock" at Il depth
of ninety feet below thc bed OF the creek.
| will mention here that our pump was
twelve inches square inside, and had Il
stroke Of four feet, raising the water
tvcnlv-ninc feet into our drain tunnel,
wlicrCc il flowed out to the surface Il
,housand wards downthc canon.
We boi reached s.bed-rock" hul had
n,t >.-t,ucl !, vrrv rich and were RIM.
,;nc, - dr;f M t.,nuI an sbcd rock''
across and M the cnlch in search of the
"nav-strrak'' which we were hoping
cvcrv d;;v to find, when tie announce
mcnl of a startling accident was made,
Here was the ruin Of oar hopes and the
Lp,tL of our friend for there was little
r,n,n to Lu,,a for any other r,sult.
I, must not u, supposed that much
fine WA. wasted in snch reflections. for
tclliuo BilI to reuse the entire camp, |
rushed Oft to tie mine. Such of the men