News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-04-17

LOST In A MINE.
They were talking about the re-
| cent mining disaster at San Leandro,
that brought the conversation around
to mining accidents generally, and IL
nally one of the party recalled the
| Comstock horror of two years ago,
when cave in the Gould & Curry
buried nine men alive.
II had a pretty ugly experience in
the mines myself eight years ago."
said one of the party, an ex-Nevadan.
Il was boy of fourteen or fifteen
then, with about as little sense of pru-
dence as most boys of that age, and
had chum about as old who was as
careless as myself.
1--WE lived toward the north end of
Virginia City, and had big back
yard in which we always planned our
| expeditions. One day, in poking
around that yard, we found near an
old shed a big iron ring. This was
fastened to heavy plank cover that
hid the mouth of an old shaft. This
cover was hid by couple of inches Of
dirt.
when the first big excitement
struck the Comstock everybody went
to digging. and now the whole side of
Mount Davidson is as full of abandoned
shafts as a Swiss cheese is of holes.
| Within the town limits all the aban-
boned shafts are filled up or covered
SO as to keep belated pedestrians out of
them. The mine we discovered in the
corner of the yard had been too extern
sively worked to allow of its being filled
up, and therefore had been covered as
described.
I'VE didn't lose much time in prying
up that cover and beginning the ex-
ploration of what we found. The
shaft was evidently an upraise from
some drift of the lower mines, for it
went down at an angle of about forty
five. As soon as we had desc ended
fifty feet we saw the working had been
very extensive indeed, for drifts and
wines went off from the main shaft in
every direction. We went into sew
eral of these, but always found our
selves stopped by cave, for the work
ings were very old. Some shovels and
picks that we discovered were almost
gone with rust, and the timbers where
they stood were bent and crushed and
rotten. BY guarded inquiries we found
that it was in the ground of the Ophir
Mining company, and drift had prob
ably been extended to this place in an
attempt to strike a ledge to the
west We knew that the old working
must connect with it somewhere, for
the air was good and there was steady
up draught.
Finally the idea took possession of
us to go from our mine into some of
the working ones, and come up that
way.
The Andes shaft was only a few
hundred yards from our mine, and we
knew they must be connected. We
knew enough about the mines to take
what we thought were SUFFICIENT pre- |
cautions against getting lost. The
rections as surely as a compass, so we
we're not all apprehensive. We thought
that we might be down several hours,
however, and so took along a number
of extra candles and some lunch. Thus
fixed, we began to Chamber down the
old shaft. A hundred feet below the
surface we found some drifts, and
spent an hour or so in them, but all
we're either blocked with caves or else
stopped in the solid porphyry. So we
had to go on clambering down the in
cline.
ben was ahead, and I saw him
stop, and then he shouted back to
me:
This is the bottom
He stood clear of the walls and
lifted up his candle to examine the
place.
This is the bottom he repeated.
"'Are you sure?' I called back.
"Yes; /"
81 saw his candle disappear amid
crash. He called to me that it was all
right. and to come down, and eau
tiously followed. though l could not
see his light anywhere. Soon / found
out what was the matter. The miners
had built . platform across the shaft,
probably to prevent things from roll
ing down, and my companions weight |
had broken through the plauks that |
had been placed in position SO long be-
fore. He had only slid few yards |
down the incline. and. barring few
scratches. was unhurt. A very little
way below the old platform we struck
the 2o0-foot level of the mine. and
started off to explore the tunnels
After following crooked old tunnel |
we came to point where it forked.
1--WE entered the left-hand tunnel, |
but found that it extended less than |
twenty yards. When we came to
standstill against the wall of rock Ben
put his candle close to the wall to OBJ |
serve the grain of the porphyry. He |
made an exclamation of surprise. By |
the grain of the rock we had been
almost north, when we
thought we were making progress
to the south. When or how we had
got turned around we could not tell,
but there was no possibility of doubt
about it.
1--WE lost no time in retracing our
steps, but to our surprise, when we
came to the crooked tunnel again we
saw the mouths of three drifts instead
he right and were gratified to find
that it turned to the south after few
yards. 1t ended in an incline some
hing like the one by which we had
entered the mine. Down this went
Ben, while / waited above, so as to be
able to direct him back with my voice.
Soon l heard him calling to me, and
followed.
"Look here said Ben, putting his
candle close TO a clammy timber.
Il looked and saw chalk mark.
We've gone round in a circle some
how" said Ben. There is the wheel
barrow you fell over. We had better
follow our marks back and try it again
some other time
81 was willing, and we walked back,
occasionally stopping to see the marks
on the timbers.
81 didn't notice those things before,
did youP" said my companion, as we
passed half a dozen rusty picks that
must have been lying there decade,
at least.
II hadn't noticed them, either, and
soon we bumped our heads against an
old lantern hanging from the top OF
the drift. We hadn't met this before.
Then we saw more unfamiliar things,
and we noticed that there was water
beside the old car track, while the
drifts by which we had come were all
dry as bone.
I'VE look at one another and evi.
IDENTIFY the same thought passed through
both our minds, but we kept on, and
soon our fears were realized. The
tunnel ended in what had been years
before, a cooling station, place where
the miners ate their lunch and rested
and cooled off when they were in the
MATCHMAKING drift. We had followed