The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-01-05
LOST IN A MINE


Two Thou and Feet Below the Surface.
"All set?"
"All set, SIR
We dropped fifteen hundred feet, and
stood breathless on the hot underground
station, blinking at the lights by which
the miners worked; but only for mo-
ment, for we we're going down to the
2,000-foot level, below which the mine
had been drained twenty-five feet So
we clambered into the giraffe" the
clumsy continuance which carried rock
and miners up and down the incline
shaft. The incline had been run down
to the 9, 400-foot level, but now nearly
four hundred feet was flooded. The
foreman gave long, slow, steady pull
on the signal rope, and the engineer on
the surface lowered us to the 2,000-foot
station.
"We 60 along this lateral drift some
distance" said the foreman, "before
we strike that east cross-cut you want
to examine 1t will be hard travelling,
as the water has left slippery sediment
on the floor of all the passages, and
timbers have fallen across the drifts
and cross-cuts in many places. Follow
me close, because this level was honey
combed with prospect drifts in every
direction when it was first opened, and
it's an easy and bad level, too, to get
| lost on"
Ineeded no caution to keep close
to my guide, for was already nervous,
| freely admit. The sights about the
| incline level were calculg ted TO impress,
or perhaps | should say, depress, any
one. The level had loEg been sub
merged, and the water had left the
great timbers swollen and distorted in
to fantastic shapes. The nearly naked
miners were battling hard to keep the
Roadway made on the hot flood, which
the Earring, ponderous pump was lifting
day and night in an unending stream
to the surface.
HOT WORK.
The water stood in the incline about
twenty-five feet U,.Cw the station. A
gang of miners, leaving the cooling
room on the station, would 90 carefully
down the incline to the. waters edge,
while the gang they relieved would
come up, dripping with perspiration,
and rush to the cooling-room for n re-
viving breath of fresh air, forced down
from the surface. The gang which
went down travelled carefully, | say,
for the night before one unfortunate
man missed his footing and fell into tho
water He was taken out in q moment,
scaldcd TO death.
AS near the water as they could work
the men extended the fresh air and wa
ter pipes and the compressed air pipe;
laid the track on which the giraffe was
to run, repaired the incline timbers,
and cleared the incline of rubbish and
sediment. They worked for few min
utes, and then came back TO the cool
ing-room, to be replaced by q fresh,
gang. Such is the character of work in
the depths of the Comstock flooded
mines, where the solid rock offers the
least resistance to the reach for gold,
when compared TO the hot, sitting air
and hotter floods
followed my guide along the drift,
in which progress was made slow by
pools of water, misplaced timbers and
mud. We travelled on in silence, l
keeping as close to him Us could until
one Of the big brogans | wore was held
so fast in the mud that left it imbed-
ded there in lifting my foot
Hold on till | fix my shoe" | said;
and sticking my dirk-like candlestick
in q timber, | iished out tho shoe and
fastened it on my foot, after some time
and trouble.
"This wouldn't make good barefoot
travelling" | said, and took my candle
stick in my hand again.
received no reply
''Hello. foremanr' said in louder
voice. was conscious Of an uneasy
feeling as peered into the blackness of
the drift both ways and saw no light. l
was uneasy because Irealized that did
not know which way we had come or
which way we had been going. In
STOPPING down to fasten my shoe had
become turned around some way. and.
unfortunately, had drawn my CANDLE
stick from the side timber before my
uncertainty of mind had occurred.
Hello! hellor' cried; but the only
answer was the dismal dripping of the
water In the darkness, and sound as
though the uneasy spirits Of ahost Of
gnomes were crying out In torture and
anguish at their dreadful confinement
Although my heart beat fast at the aw-
| full sound, j knew II was the noises
mado by the mysterious force that
swells the ground and brushes and splint-