The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1892-05-04
BELOW THE SURFACE
LIFE THOUSANDS OF FEET IN~ THE
BOWELS OF THE EARTH.

~~sfaA'tON1>
Doings in Great subterranean City
with Hundreds of Miles of Streets
Where Work Never Ceases
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
subterranean regions to which no ray of
sunlight ever penetrates. DIR. guile
says of the Comstock miner that when
he descends the great shaft, going down
| and still down from 900 to 5000 feet,
he leaves behind all the grand upper
world, so broadly and beautifully lighted
up by the sun. When landed at his sta
| ton from the car (eage) of his vertical
cable road he steps forth into quite a
different world--a 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-
icial world. On the contrary, the great
stations, the 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
i 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 1000 to
1000 feet beneath the cities on the sur
face = Virginia and Gold Hill The
great underground city-in which is-suf-
hcient 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 refiectors
(similar to the headlight of locomotive).
light up the station, which is an under
ground hall large enough for a first class
bah room; and the main drifts radiat-
ing from the station to different parts of
the level also have their lights, the line
| OF which extends SO far away that the
most distant seen seems mere spark or
point or light. like the most distant star
visible in the heayens-a mere pulsing
twinklerF -
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
4 many small lots of various other arti-
cles required ON the level. Also in the
station is seen huge cask of ice water
water in which several small icebergs
are floating -and against the side of the
cask hangs big tin sdipper; that is, it
90 hangs when it has moments rest,
but it is almost constantly in the hands
Of some thirsty soul
AT each level generally about 100 feet
down the shaft from the point where
ore is first encountered) there is such a
station as have described 1t is the
4
several points on the level there may be
at work in the ore breast considerable
i squadso of men. From such sections of
the mine at certain times come the
booms of blasts, sounding like distant
cannonade. When one is in drift in
the vicinity of the spot where one of the
big dynamite blasts is fired one feels
more than hears it. The conclusion of
the air in the marrow drift painfully
strains the drum of the ear, and even at
q distance the sensation is disagreeable
HIGH TEMPERATURE.
The mines of the Comstock are now
much better ventilated than before
drifts connected the several main shafts
and wines of the many levels Still the
work of the miner is often in hot and
sitting atmosphere. Very frequently
his work is at the face of long pros
specting drift, where the only air he has
| to breathe is the .scant supply pumped
down to him through pipe from the
surface, as though he were pearl diver
fathoms beneath the sea. The place In
which he works at tiInes shows a tenn
perature of from 100 to 40 5legs., or
even as high as 100 degs. In such places
he is stripped of all clothing but a
breech clout (heavy shoes protect his
feet and he wears cap to keep the sand
from the slaking rock out of his hair),
yet perspiration streams from every
pore of his body. But for the gallons
on gallons of ice water he swallows he
would be baked in his skin like potato
the very life blood would be dried in
his veins.
Though sweltering and gasping the
miner must still swing his pick or sledge,
must still handle shovel or crowbar for