Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1884-08-08
FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT
TWO Men Are Caught in a
Flooded Mine.

Their Desperate Efforts TO Escape
One Buried Deep Under Water
and Mud-Strange Survival OF the
Other.
Eureka and vicinity was visited yester-
day afternoon between 2 and 8 O'Clock
by a very copious and violent rainfall.
Such storm was never known here at this
season except as accompanying the cloud
bursts that have several times caused dis
astrous floods. So far We have heard of no
casualties resulting from the prodigious
fall Of water except one, but the details OF
that are painful and startling in the high
est degree. involving the shocking death
of one unfortunate miner and the scalp
ing OF another, whose ultimate escape
from death has to be recorded as simply
marvellous. These two men, Alexander
Mcdonald and John Ring, working at the
lowest depth Of the Williamsburg mine,
Adams Hill, for the brother OF the former,
Hugh Mcdonald, who had a pitch under
lease.
ENTRANCE OF II FLOOD.
In order to understand clearly the ma
ture OF the catastrophe, the reader must
know that there is an incline right in the
middle OF a canyon, which 10 a mile long,
running back from the Williamsburg
mine TO the Bowman. The mouth of this
incline, which is the entrance from the
canyon into the Williamsburg mine, re-
ceiyed the flood. The water descending
from four to six feet deep poured down
this hole. 1t went laundering down the
incline about 1870 feet; thence. coming
into the Williamsburg shaft. it fell 100
feet; thence it went down q winze 100 feet
at an angle OF As degrees. At the bottom OF
this Wine the two miners had been work
ing. Mcdonald had gone to the surface
to sharpen some picks and Ring was at the
bottom alone. He heard q noise like the
rolling Of a car and soon saw
his partner approaching him with a
candle in his hand and heard him exclaim.
LOOK OUT JOHN, THE WATER Is COMING"
"Ring was in a terrible place and he
knew IL, for the mine had once been flooded
before. Had he not moved at once he
would have been drowned like q rat in q pit.
he started up the Wine, Mcdonald few
feet ahead of him. Thirty feet up they
passed through q "man-hole," the water
following them and o%utrunning them, but
not yet deep. They started then in the
race for life along q drift $50 feet in length
towards the Titus shaft, their only exit to
the surface. Up to their knees in the
flood, their candles put out by the rush Of
air, they got to the end Of this drift and
clambered up 9 perpendicular upraise rs
feet. Feeling their way and half swim
ming, they then landed in another drift Of
200 feet in length which they had to trav-
erse in order to reach the Titus shaft.
They were trudging along together. Nc
Donald in the lead, she water rising slowly
but with frightful certainty all the time.
D THE FLOOD.
Ring, who tells US the story. says when
about 80 feet from the shaft, the flood
| covered him, He had lost sight Of
his partner and he had no thought
OF ever seeing the light Of day again.
He felt himself driven along under the
surface OF water, and had only presence Of
mind enough 10 put out his hands q
save his head from the rocks as he was
driven along. His breath was gone and in
less than a minute more he would have
been sutfocated. Just then he felt his
direction changed from the horizontal to
the perpendicular. He was literally shot
up the Titus shaft, into which he had been
driven,
LIKE A CORK FROM A CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE.
The pressure of the confined air and
water combined propelled him up on the
surface OF the ascending food as safely as
though his specific gravity had been no
more than that Of an inflated bladder.
When the water reached its level. he tool
hold OF the ladders and climbed out-a
dificult piece Of work, for the climbing
was bad and he had barely strength to
move, his boots being filled with sand and
his clothes weighted with mud and debris.
He worried up to the top, however. over
100 feet. the total depth Of the Titus shaft
being $50 feet, and when he got
out and sat down on the ground
10 thank God for his safe delivery, he
noticed for the first time that be had been
| s~calped-that the skin Of his entire top
head had been torn from the scalp aud
was hanging down behind in a great flap.
He was brought to town and his wound
was dressed by DR.. j. r. N. Owen, who
does not think the injury fatal. Poor Nc
Donald's body is buried somewhere deep
under the mud and water, and MIR. Kerr
meen, Superintendent Of the Williams
burg mine, to whom we are indebted for
the above measurements, thinks 1t cannot
be recovered this Summer. and not before
the water dries out Of the mine, as there
are no appliances for raising it from the
lower workings where the body probably
lies covered up.