The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-04-14
FAR UNDER GROUND
Thrilling Experience Of Two Boys
in an Old Working of
the Comstock.

ObH va R0Af aAOAl W AZ
ing accidents generally, and finally one
of the party recalled the CoAlstock horror
of two years ago, when D 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-Neyadan.
II was a boy of fourteen or fifteen
then. with about as little sense of pru-
dence as most boys of that age, and /
had a chum about as sid who was as
careless as myself.
1--WE lived toward the north end of
Virginia City, and had a big back yard
in which we always planned our expe-
ditions. One day, in poking around that
big yard, we found near an old shed a
big iron ring. This was fastened to a
heavy plank cover that hid the mouth of
an old shaft. This cover was hidden by
a couple of inches of dirt.
when the first big excitement struck
the Comstock everybody went to digging,
and now the whole side of Mount David
son is as full of abandoned shafts as a
Swiss cheese is of holes. Within the
town limits all the abandoned 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 extensively worked to allow of
its being filled up, and therefore had been
covered up as described.
"We didn't lose much time in prying
up that cover and beginning the explora-
ton 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 degrees. As
soon as we had descended fifty feet we
saw that the workings had been very ex-
tensive indeed, for drifts and wines
went off from the main shaft in every
direction. We went into several of these,
but always found ourselves stopped by a
cave, for the workings were very old.
Some shoyeis and picks that we discov-
the timbers where they still stood were
bent and crushed and rotten. By guarded
inquiries we found that it was in the
ground of the Ophir Mining company,
and a drift had probably been extended
to this place in an attempt to strike a
ledge to the west. We knew that the
old workings must connect with it some
where, for the air was good and there
was a steady up draught.
Finally. the idea took possession of
us to go from our mine into some of the
working ones and come up hat way.
1.-THE Andes shaft was only q few hum
dred yards from our mine, and we knew
they must be connected. We knew
enough about the mines to take what we
thought were sufficient precautions
against getting lost. The grain of the
rock showed us the directions as surely
as a compass, SO we were not at all APP
prehensive. We thought that we might
b. down for 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 more drifts, and
spent an hour or so in them, but all were
either blocked with caves or else stopped
in the solid porphyry. So we had to go
on clambering down the incline.
'Ben was ahead, and / 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.
"sThis is the bottom, he repeated.
care you sure" I called back.
eyes; p
81. saw his candle disappear amid a
crash. He called to me that it was all
right and to come down, and I cautiously
followed, though / could not see his light
anywhere. Soon I found out what was
the matter. The miners had built a plat
form across the shaft, probably to pre-
vent things from rolling down, and my
companions weight had broken through
the planks that had been placed in posi-
ton so long before. He had only slid a
few yards down the incline, and, barring
a few scratches, was unhurt. A very
little way below the old platform we
struck the 200 foot level of the mine and
started off to explore the tunnels. After
following a crooked old tunnel we came
to a point where it forked.
"We entered the left hand tunnel, but
found that it extended less than twenty
yards. When we came to a standstill
against the wall of rock, Ben put his
candle close to the wall to observe the
grain of the porphyry. He made an ex-
clamation of surprise. BY the grain of
the rock we had beeif travelling almost
north, when we thought we were max
good progress to the south. When or
how we had got turned around we
could not tell, but there was no posi-
bility Of doubt about it.
"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 of two.
We took the tunnel that led to the right,
and were gratifiedt to find that it turned
to the south after a few yards. 1t ended
in AN incline something like the one by
which we had entered the mine. Down
this went Ben, while I waited above, so
as to be able to direct him back with my
voice. Soon | heard him calling to me,
and / followed.
".Look here said Ben, putting his
candle close to a clammy timber.
81 looked and saw q 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
.r II - - ~ T. 7