Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1874-01-08
A COLUMN or FLAME.
A Singular Phenomenon in Nevada
A Column Of PhosphOrescent Light
sixty Feet High - Awe-strlcken

1,s.n Cotsmn n OF fnoSp"oreseens % .,HI iIEns
The Enterprise, of Virginia City,
New, Of recent date, prints the fol-
lowing: About l O'Clock yesterday
morning, some of the residents of the
western part of the city were startled
by observing what seemed a column of
fame fifty or sixty feet in height shoot
ing mp out of shaft near the old
Ophir works. It was at first thought
that the old timbers of the mine were
on fire, and three or four men ran to
the spot to see what could be done
toward smothering the flames. On
reaching the shaft, however, they
found that there wasn0 smell Of smoke,
and also that the supposed fire was .
light unlike anything they have before
seen. In the light the faces of
men wore look Of corpse-like pallor.
Two or three of those present were
miners returning from work with din
ner pals in their hands, and it was
observed that the pals (tin) appeared
of brilliant steel-blue color. Their
clothing aud hair also partook in some
degree of the same ghastly and un-
natural color. The light came up the
full size of the large square shaft, and
seen at distance as it rose up through
the falling snow, closely resembled one
of the shooting spires seen in the
aurora borealis, and it seemed to have
something of tho same waving and in
consistent motion. Although the men
felt creeping over them sort of super
stitious awe, they still had sufficient
courage to approach the shaft and gaze
into it. A strange sight was there
seen. The whole interior of the shaft
seemed to be at white heat and glow
ed like q furnace. The timbers on the
sides were particularly brillisnt,
and each splinter, excrescence, or
bit of fungus seemed dazzling
rays that streamed steadily out in all
directions. A warm, steamy current
Of air steadily asoended from the swell
tering regions below, and there was
observed sickening, musty smell. All
those who looked into the shaft after
ward felt . severe pain in the temples,
and two or three were made sick at the
stomach. This singular appearance
lasted for nearly half an hour after it
Wa0 0Ibt OU0eIV0U, 0Uu D01OE0 ~ Wa6
all over eight or ten men, mostly min
ers returning from their work at vari.
GUS mines lit being about the time of
changing shifts) had collected about
the shaft. Thelig ghtdied out from the top
downward, and protuberances from the
sides of the shaft 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 belchlng forth of
some kind of highly phosphorated gas
from some of the deep, underground
chambers in the old abandoned
works. The rush of CASTOR gas of
some kind it must have been-was
probably caused by an extensive cave
in some place where the old timbers
had rotted away. One of the men who
had the good fortune to witness the
strange phenomenon is of the opinion
that the mixing or mingling of the gas
from the mine with tho atmospheric
air had something to do with intensi
flying the light, as he observed in the
ascending current of pseudo-halne
myriads of small particles of some
small substance, globules of vapor, OF
something of the kind, which appeared
to fash and scintillate as they darted
upward, and which presented in the
general column of light much the same
appearance ss notes moving about in
q sunbeam.