The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1871-03-02
From the Southern Magazine.
"CAVEDD--A MINERS STORY.

lGlSulCiy CdIiuS D4CcnAeA7o o 49, So q 2
the news from some last years papers
that were pasted on the wall. The
ground has caved! It came down all
of sudden; and little Jimmy was at
the breast. I was further out in the
drift, and had the start of it; but it was
such a close call for me, thatl know ne
must "a got ketched."
This technical jargon revealed to me
| the fact that our mine had caved, and
had buried one of our companions-for
HLittle Jimmy" was not an infant, but
q mana miner and a friend. He had
been working at the breast" or far
thest end Of the drift" but was now,
perhaps, sleeping his last sleep in the
bosom of the mother of us all.
Three years before this we had come
to this creek. We had prospected the
"side gulches" and the "bars," and had
found "colors" everywhere. Indications
were favorable, SO we "staked" off body
of ground along the main creek, built
cabins, organized company, OF which
the writer was elected president, and
went to work to open our claim.
Those three years had been years of
toll and privation. We were in the
heart of the Rocky Mountains. Our
camp was pitched in little basin of a
valley, warm and sunshiny, and just at
the entrance of deep and gloomy can
yon which we named Devils Gate, !"
and through which our sparkling little
stream foamed and tumbled down to
that great river, the Missouri. Our
ground was deep and very wet. Drain
age was necessary, and we had driven
tunnel for this purpose, through the
earth and boulders that filled the pri-
meval bed of the creek, until we had
attained horizontal distance of thou
sand yards; but the slope of the gulch
was so gradual that we had not reached
the bedrock" where we hoped to find
the gold in heaps. Bedrock being
the objective point, must be reached;
so we sank shaft at the head of our
tunnel and betook ourselves to a pump.
AS it was couple of thousand miles
to the nearest foundry, and we couldn't
afford to await the completion of the
North Pacific Railroad, a pump under
the circumstances was problem; so |
will tell now how we got one. We
had blacksmith's and carpenters tools,
which most of us could use; there was
plenty of timber growing on the noun
tains, and pair of dilapidated freight
wagons supplied our stock of iron.
Great slabs or segments were cut from
fir trees, and hewn and dressed on one
side to smooth plane. The other side
was rounded to an arc. or convex sur
face, so that when four such segments
were placed together lengthwise, Sc
cured with pins at the edges, which
were first squared and then made par
allel, they formed long hollow trunk
or barrel, four-square within, but out
side cylindrical, and tapering slightly
from one end to the other. Upon this
were driven hoops, or bands of iron,
which forced the joints close, like those
of cask, and thus we had pumps of
considerable length and solidity. 1t
was easy to fit to them valves and pis-
tons, and to work them with wooden
walking-beam moved by the crank of
water-wheel This crank was a mas
ter-piece. 1t had an arm, or leverage,
of two feet, and was forged from the
iron axle Of one of our wagons, and its
lgudgeons, or bearings, were turned in
a lathe of our own continuing. This
was heavy job for our resources, but
it was finished after an age Git seemed
to us) of toll, puzzling and perspira-
ton; and we had produced machinery
that was capable of raising to hight
of nearly thirty feet many tons of wa
ter per day, and which answered all
our requirements for drainage, so that
we were able to reach that long sought
bedrock" at depth of ninety feet be-
low the present bed of the creek.
will mention here that our pump was
twelve inches square inside, and had
stroke of four feet, raising the water
twenty-nine feet into our drain-tunnel,
whence it flowed out to the surface q
thousand yards down the canyon.
We had reached !" bedrock" but had
not Struck it very RICH" and we were
running a drift, or tunnel, on bedrock,
across and up the gulch, in search of
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