Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1890-04-28
LOST IN TIE CoNSToCK.

of the party recalled the Comstocs horror
of two wears ago. W hen cave in the
Gould & Curry buried nine men alive.
Il h,:l 4 pretty ugly experience in the
mines myself eight wears ago" said one
OF the purity. an e: Nevadan.
II was a boy of fourteen or fifteen
thea. with about as Little sense of pru-
dence as most boys of that age. and l
had a chum about as old who WAS as
careless as myself.
I'VE lived toward the north end OF
Virginia City. and had big back yard
in which we always planned our expe-
ditions- One dav. in poking around tina,
biz ward. 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 hidden by
a couple of inches of dirt.
'When the first big excitement struck
tie Comst0ck everybody went 10 disging,
ard now the whole SHE of Mount David
son is as fun of abandoned shafts as a
Swiss cheese is of holes. Within the
town limits all the abandoned shafts are
filed up or covered SO as 70 keep belated
pedestrians out of them. The mine we
discovered i'll the corner of the yard had
been too extensively worked to allow of
its being filled NJ, and therefore had been
covered up rs described.
I'VE didn't lose much time in prying
up that cover and beginning the explora-
ton of what we found. The shaft was
evidently All uprdise from some drift OF
the lower mines, for it went down ut an
angle of about forty-tive degrees a.
soon as we had descended fifty f ct W,
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 Il
cave, for the workings We're very Old,
Some shovels and picks that We discnv-
cred were almost gone with rust. and
the tmbers where they still stood We're
bent and crushed ana rotten. BY guarded
inquiries we found that it was in the
and "A drift had probably been extended
to this place in an attempt 10 strike II
ledge to the west. We knew that the
oh workings must connect with it some
| where, for the air was good and there
was steady up draught.
FINALLY. the idea took possession of
us to 20 from our mine into some Of the
working ones and come up that way,
The Andes shaft was only "A few hun
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 ap-
PR i've. We thought that we might
ne. ,,. n for several hours, however, and
so took along "a number of extra candles
and some lunch.
Thus fixed we began to Chamber down
lie Oh shaft. A hundred feet below the
surface we found some more DRIFT, and
,pcht an hour or SO in them. but ;.li were
t'..Irr iluca.ed with caves or else stopped
in the so,ii !,sphyry. So we had to go
on clamb ring down the incline.
Ben was ahead, and saw him stop.
and then he shouted back to me:
This i, the bottom
ale stood clear of the walls and lifted
up his candle to examine the lace.
This Is the bottom. he repeated
"Ar, YOU sure. called back.
"Ie,; -
81 saw his candle disappear amid a
right and to come down, and cautiously