St. Paul daily globe., 1895-09-08

tory of the world. These timbers were
were used in the square sets when, in
1S74-75-76-77, the Big Bonanza was
worked. But when they returned
some years later to iSFork the Bo-
nanza, instead of being 17x17 inches,
the tiLlt-o~ were about 4 inches in
width, because, while they had been
working on the lower level, the side
of the mountain had been sliding down,
imperceptibly; of course, but actually,
as subsequent comparison of the
condition of the first drift showed.
When the miners left the Square
sets on the 1,100-foot level in 1877
many of these side galleries had been
completely filed in with heavy tim
Der IN order to make solid the resist
ance against the encroaching weight.
AS result these little tunnels. in
stead of being filled with the original
ore which had been taken out, were
solid masses of timber. The proper
tlonate strength of the timber and the
ore was plainly shown in that the tim
Der was crushed to a consistency
Which made it lose all sembIance of
wood and take on the appearance of
stone or onyx, and if there had not
been surrounding this big body of
ore the dreaded creeping clay the
chances are that the side of the mount
ain would have remained decently still.
All OF the miners talk of the late Sen
ator Fair as Jim Fair" and it is said
That there is a line of compressed tim
per IN the Consolidated mine on the
Comstock lode that is Indicative of
Fairs unfailing memory. He had run
fX9-foo6 lead at about the 1,10O-foot
level and heavily timbered it. Some
TIME afterward a miner named Jim
Rule concluded that from the main
shaft he would rift off in a direction
where he pre-supposed the existence of
a large body of ore. He spoke to Fair
about it, who replied: "All right; YOU
go and drift over that way; but you
won md anything but an old drift
that L made some years ago.
Rule drifted over, and never found
anything except that at just about the
place Fair told him he would find a
tunnel he found a kind of fssure about
six or eight inches wide, and until he
remembered what Fair had said he
could not account for it.
ThlS was all that was left of Fair S
tunnel or drift. The heavily timbered
lX5-foot tunnel had been by the action
out of existence, and instead of heavy
timbers, there was nothing but a sub
stance that looked like stone, and the
creeping clay and the slide of the
mountain We're the cause.
1t is generally believed that this aw-
full power lof moving earth has been
noticeable in the entire Comstock lode.
principally because the lode is a vol
canic fissure and not quartz bed. In
many cases, even around the COM
pressed timbers, there has been found
a deposit of quartz, showing that nat
ure is still at work on this same lode.
but the knowledge of the direction of
her labors would mean a fair-sized
fortune to any man.
1t costs thousands of dollars to tim
per mine and millions of feet of
persistency of the side of the mountain
where the Comstock lode is situated,
the mines there require more than
usually heavy timbering, and in nearly
all of the cases where the heavy tim
bers have been necessary to prevent
the encroaching of the Creeping clay.'
it has been found afterward that the
wood has been subjected to so severe
a pressure that it looks more like stone
than wood.