Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1888-06-10
WILD WESTERN TALES.
A Mountain Travelling Eastward Wfth
Town Upon It's Back-No Correspond
ing Decrease I'm Taxes-
R,rfs, Hfpfpo Journal.

A Mountain Travelling Eastward WIN
Town Upon It's Back-No Correspono
ing Decrease I'm Taxes.
Butte Mining Journal.
'There are many strange things con
nected with the Comstock mines" said Al
old resident of Virginia City to Sar
Francisco Eramiser man. ''You mus
recollect that while the main workings eI'
tend from the north Of Gold Hill TO VIZ
ginia and below, distance OF three miles,
there ia a total of 252 miles Of tunnels,
drifts, slopes, sumps, quips ana turn
making up the interior as total.
Think of it-252 miles; further by la
than from the Golden Gate TO the Nevada
line, and further than across the great
State of New York. Why, look around
little. You might 90 as far Is from Wash.
ipgton to Baltimore and back again and
YOU wouldn't be much more than half way
through the Comstock. When you think
of the great depth of these mines, the
gigantic, incomprehensible weight OF the
mass resting upon the timbers and the
travelling mountain, in which are these
mines and on which is Virginia City, you
involve propositions again that have
stumped the deepest thinker.
For instance, queer, polished sticks ~
smooth as mahogany and no thinner than
my cane are every once in while being
taken ont of the old workings. They are
as hard and as heavy as iron, and knife
will make no mark on them. Now, what
are they? Originally they were l2.inch
solid timbers, and the millions Of tons
bearing upon them in all directions, per
pendicularly rs well as lsterslly-for it ia
only in this way that mines can be tim
bered-hays pressed them to this shape.
They are found sometimes in bits, some
times in long pieces, taken ont where
caves have occurred and the workings dis
placed No known mechanism at present,
nor in any age Of the past, 80 far as history
recounts, has such power to compress and
work marvels with wood. The silent old
mine has stumpsd the scientists.
"You have asked me If it Is really true
that Mount Davidson is slowly travelling
eastward, with the town of Virginia on her
back and her mines within. 1t Is true, and
this again has set our ablest men to scratch
ing their heads. By the careful estimate
of engineers, it is seen that Virginia City
has travelled down hill 10 feet in Is years,
or about two-thirds of foot year. II is
concluded that il ia owing to the vast I'M
derground workings, but just how 1t is
done is problematical. At any rate, how.
ever, the people of Virginia City are not
afraid of the trip they are taking. They
have been with it too long to get alarmed
about it now.
I'm the consolidated Virginia and Cali
fornia mines of the Comstock was another
strange thing, too, that for long time
caused much deep study and vast expen-
diture Of money. The fires which broke
out in the 800. foot level and burned for
years seemed inextipguishable. Every
known means was tried. There was large
body of superior ore there, as many will
remember, aud the owners were anxious to
get ut it. 1t was no use, 80 they put in
seven solid feet of bulkhead and shut II up.
1t burned for seven years, and 1t was only
a year ago that carbolic gas was injected by
means of costly machinery and the hidden
fees put out. The gas in there was so
deadly that not man could approach it as
it was escaping. 1t would have been in
slant death. Now the best ore Of the Con-
solidated Virginia and California ia COM
ing out of that place where the unseen fires
lonv RACED ~