Richland beacon. [volume] (Rayville, La.) 1869-1890, 1888-03-31
An OLD MINERS TALES.
Timbcrs Compressed 10 Walking
sticks and a Mountain Moving.

from the San Francisco Examiner.l
"Thero are many strange things CON
nected with the COmstock mines" said
an old resident of Virginia City yester
dav. "Iou must recollect that while
the main workings C-ytend from the
north of Gold Hill to Virginia. md be
low, distance of three miles, there is
total Of 252 miles of tunnels, drifts.
slopes, sumps, quips, and turns, making
up the interior workings as n total 90
think of it-252 miles; further by far
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 go as far
from Washington, -. c., rs to Balti
more and back again and YOU wouldn't
he much more than half through the
Comstock. Then when you think of the
great depth of these mines, the gigantic.
incomprehensiblo weight of the mass
resting upon the timbers, and the ira
Yelling mountain on which are these
mines, and on which is Virginia City,
you involve propositions again that have
stumped the deepest thinkers.
"FOr instance, queer polished sticks
as smooth as mohogany an1 no thicker
than my cane, are every once in while
being taken out of tho old workings.
They are rs hard and as heavy as iron,
and q knife will not make mark on
, them. Now, what are they. Originally
they were 12-inch solid timbcrs, and the
millions of tons bearing upou them in
all directions, perpendicularly rs well as
laterallv-for it is only in this way that
mines can be timbered-have pressed
them to this shape. They are found
sometimes in bits, sometimes i'll long
pieces, taken out where caves have Oc~
cured and the workings displaced. No
! known mechanism at the present nor in
any age of the past, so far as history re-
counts, has such power 90 compress and
work marvels with wood. The silent
old mine has stumped 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 scratching their heads. BY
the careful estimates of engineers il is
seen that Virginia City has travelled
down hill 10 feet in Is years, or about
twO-thirds of a foot a gear. Ii is con-
cluded that it is owing to the vast un-
derground workings, but just how it is
done is problematical. At any rate.
however, 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.
"In the Consolidated Virginia and
California mines of the Comstock was
another strange thing, too, that for
long time caused much deep study and q
vast expenditure of money. The fires
which broke out there on the 1,5OO-fOOt
level years ago and burned for years
seemed inextinguishnble. Every known
means was tried. There was a large
body of superior ore there, as many will
remember, and the owners were anxious
to get at it. 1t was no use, so they put
in seven solid feet of a bulShead and
shut it up. 1t burned for seven years,
and it was only year ago that carbolic
gas was injected by means of costly ma
chinery and the hidden fires put out.
The gas in there was so deadly that not
a man could approach it as it was escap-
ing. 1t would have been instant death.
Now the best ore Of the Consolidated
Virginia and California is coming out OF
that place where the unseen fires long
ragged"