The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1874-01-08

80 - = y
The Extelprtse, of Virginia City
New of recent date, prints the fol-
lowing About o'clock yesterday
morning. some OF the residents of tbs
western part of lie city were startled
by observing what seemed to be a col
umu Of fame fifty or sixty feet high
shooting up out of the shaft near the
old Ophir works. &c was at first
thought that the old timbers of the
mine were on fire, and three or four
men ran Co the spot to see what could
be- done tow ard sinothering the flames
On reaching the shaft, however, they
found that there was no smell of
smoke, and that also the supposed fire
was . light unlike anything they had
ever before seen, and It's q wierd " hite-
ness aud the strange c0fruses9ions of
its component particles. In the light
the faces of men wore q look of corpse
like palIor. Two or three of those
present we're miners returning from
work with dinner pals in their hands
and il was observed that the pals,
(tin1 appeared of brilliant steel blue
color. Their EIot hing aud hair also
partook in some degree of the same
ghastly and unnatural color. f The
light came up the full size of the large
square shaft, and seen at d distance,
as It rose np ahEDugh the fsil ling snow
closely resembIed one of the Shooting
spires seen In the aurora bBreaais, and
it seems 70 have something of the
same waving and Inconsistent motion.
Although the men felt creeping over
them sort of superstitious ave- they
haIt sHaicient courage t0approach the
shaft anEf gaze into it, A strange
sight was there seer The. whole ia :
teEloR Of the shaft eeenfed TO be at a
white heat and glowed like furnace.
The tlmheFs on the sides were partic-
ularly bFllliant, and each splinter, ex-
.crescence or bit of fungus seemed
dazzling rays that streained steadily
out IN all directions. A warm, steady
current OF air steadily ascended from
the sReitePing regions below, and
there was observed q siekening, mus
ty smell. A IL those who looked into
the shaft afterwards felt 9 severe pain
in the temples, ,iand two or three were
made sick sc the stomach. THIS sim
gular appearance lasted for nearly
half an hour after it was first observ-
ed, and before il was over eightor ten
men, mostly miners returning from
their work at various mines, Git being
about the time Of changing shifts1 had
collected about the shaft. The light
died out from the top downward, and
protuberances from the side continued
TO glow for some minutes after the
light was no longer visible above the
top of the shaft. The light would
seem to have been caused by the
belching forth of some kind of highly
phosphOrated gas from some of the
deep, underground cham bers of the
old abandoned works. The rush of
gas-for gas of some kind it must
have been probably caused by
n1extensiveic cave in some place where
the tiuGbers had rotted away. One of
the men who had the good fortune to
witness the strange phenomenon is of
the opinion that the mixing and min
Cling Of the gas from the mine with
the atmospheric air had something TO
do with intensifying the light, as he
observed IN the ascending current OF
pseudo fame myriads of small parti-
cles of some small substance, globules
of vapor, or something of the kind,
which appeared to flash and scinciI-
late rs they darted upward, and which
presented in the general column of
light, much the same appearance as
NOTES moving about in sunbeam.