, 1892-03-06
BELOW THE SURFACE
LIFE THOUSANDS OF FEET IN THE
BOWELS OF THE EARTH.

o ""fh Noso Seases
Very different is the life led by the
miner Of the Comstock lode when on
duty from that of the old California
gold washer. The scene of his labors is
hundreds of feet beneath the earth in
su~bterranean regions to which no ray OF
sunlight ever p~enetrates. DR.. guile
says of the Comstock miner that when
he descends the great shaft, going down
and still down from 1000 to 5000 feet,
he leaves behind all the grand upper
world, 80 broadly and beautifully lighted
up by the sun. When landed at his sta
ton from the car (cage) of his vertical
cable road he steps forth into quite a
different world-as world hewn out by
the hand Of man in the realms Of eternal
darkness, which, just beneath the sur
face crust, everywhere enwraps our
planet.
All is not dark and dismal in this arti-
fetal world. CT the contrary, the great
stations. tho main working drifts and
crosscuts and the large chambers of all
the principal levels are lighted up with
lamps and candles. In one of our great
mines there is neither day nor night; it
is always candle light. Absolute pitch
darkness prevails only in some far away
and little frequented drifts in distant
parts of a mine.
When landed at the station Of his
level, dinner bucket in hand, the miner
trudges away along a narrow subter-
ranean road to some drift or chamber in
which lies his work. When on duty in
the depths he knows not whether it is
day or night in the world above; whether
it is cold or warm there, calm or tenn
pestuous.
The miner Of the Comstock lode may
be said to live and labor in a city be-
meath a city. There are streets and
crosscuts through which he may travel
miles and miles at points from 900 to
1000 feet beneath the cities on the sur
face - Virginia and Gold Hill. The
great underground city-in which is suf-
icient lumber to build twenty towns,
each of 5000 people, has its busy places
as well as its lonely and silent hooks
and sections. At the stations of the
great hosting shafts, where many men
are employed On the several levels, cars
loaded with ore are seen arriving and
departing
IN THE DEPTHS.
Great lamps with glaring refectors
(similar to the headlight of a locomotive)
light up the station, which is an under
ground hall large enough for a first class
ball room; and the main drifts radiat-
ing from the station to different parts Of
the level also have their lights, the line
of which estends SO far away that the
most distant seen seems a mere spark or
point or light. like the most distant star
visible in the heavens-a mere pulsing
twinkler.
The station has much the appearance
of the store or lumber room of some big
factory of the surface world Along the
floor against the side walls are seen
coils of rope, boxes of candles, tools and
many small lots of various other arti-
cles required on the level. Also in the
station is seen a huge cask of ice water
water in which several small icebergs
are tioating-and against the side of the
cask hangs a big tin dipper; that is, it
30 hangs when it has a moments rest,
but it is almost constantly in the hands
of some thirsty soul.
At zach level generally about 100 feet
down the shaft from the point where
ore is first ~encountered) there is such a
station as | nave described. 1t is the
center of life On each level, though at
several points on the level there may be
at work in the ore breast considerable
squads of men. From such sections of
the mine at certain times come the
booms of blasts, sounding like a distant
c~anuonade. When one Is in a drift in
the vicinity of the spot where n of the
big dynamite blasts is fired one feels
more than hears it. The conclusion of
the air in the narrow drift painfully
strains the drum of the ear, and even at
a distance the sensation is disagreeable.
HIGH TEMPERATURE.
The mines of the Comstock are now
much better ventilated than before
drifta cannactad tho rauaral main cha ftn