The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-13

| one of the levels, and we catch a glimpse
| of candle the opening. Now our ears
are dnned by the shooting of blast and
| the sound so shakes the air that our can
! dies are blown out. We light them again
| when fall to the next level, and the
| faces of the miners about us look weird
| and ghost-like in the Pickering glare 1t
makes one shudder, and you feel at times
| as though you were the edge of the
| grave. At least / felt so when the ele-
vator was stopped at the sixth level, and
| there 600 feet below the earth a miner
| stepped on with a box of dynamite cam
! dies. 1t was no bigger than a soap box. It
| could not have been more than two feet
square, but it contained enough dynamite
| to have blown up the Capitol building at
| Washington and to have torn the State,
| War and Navy Departments into atoms.
! There was no top TO the box. and the
miner placed it close to my feet, thought
/ of the terrible possibilities Suppose a rock
| should drop from the top down upon that
| dynamite! Suppose a spark from candle
| or bit of wick should fall into it! A
! sudden jar might throw one of us upon it.
| I could feel my hair rising and my face
whiten. I asked as to the danger, and was
| told that it was comparatively small but
| that the box contained 10 per cent of nitro
| glycerin I was much relieved when it
was taken away.
A FOREST AND A RIVER.
And so we went on down to the bottom,
where we were to visit one of the greatest
feats of mining engineering known to the
world. This is the famous Ontario tunnel,
which has just been completed at cost of
$500, 900, in order to draw the water off of
the mine. The Ontario is wet mine, and
a river of water flows through it's tunnel.
1t is. in fact, great subtarranean passage,
SO wide that you could drive a buggy
through it, and so high that we walked in
it without STOPPING. The three-mile tun-
mel has floor running through it's mid
die. upon which there is railroad, by
which the ore and men are dragged from
one part of the mine to another by mules.
AS we walk over the road we hear the
rushing of water, and look down between
the boards. There is a torrent flowing I'M
der 1t comes from the mine at the rate
of ten thousand gallons a minute, and as
listen we hear the water falling, fall
ing, as it comes from the levels above.
There was not an ounce of silver in the
rock which was dug away in order to make
this tunnel, and it gives you some idea of
the cost of mining when you learn that
this half million dollars was spent for dead
work and solely to get water away from
the other parts of the mine. Until this
tunnel was built oil of the wssyer had to be
taken out by means of pumps, one of the
pumps used costing the enormous sum of
100000. 1t had capacity of two thousand
gallons minute, but it is now lying idle
and useless, its work being done by the
tunnel.
1t is the water that necessitates the wall
ing of the tunnels and the slopes with logs.
II,
in, and without timbers the mine would not
last for an hour. The force is SO great
that it sometimes grinds these great pine
logs-many of which are as large around
as your waist-to powder. Some of the
highest priced men employed in the mines
are those who take care of the timbers.
who walk through the mine daily, looking
out for weak spots. The best of timber is
required. and that used in the Ontario mine
comes from the forests of Oregon
A DYNAMITE EXPERIENCE.
And so we go along from tunnel to tun-
mel. Now we climb into one of the slopes
and watch the men at work. We have
candles in our hands and we crawl along
almost bending double, the water dripping
down upon us. At last we enter cave
Here a half dozen miners are working.
Some are taking the out with picks
IHelE wire cdnuleSllCkS are stuck into the
rocks beside them as they dig away at the
pile of stone which has been blasted out
by dynamite. Some are loading ore. They
push it into the chutes with long-handled
shovels and we heard it roll down and strike
the iron bottom of the car beneath In
other places men are drilling in order to
blast. They cut out holes by means of dia-
mond drills, compressed air furnishing
the force which turns them. There they
have the work done and half dozen holes
are ready for the explosives. Note how
carelessly the miner seems to handle that
dynamite! He picks up one of those dyn-
amite candles, cuts it in half with his
knife and slices it down at one end He
then puts a fuse as big around as lead
pencil and about three feet long into the
powder He next pushes the candle into
the hole in the rock and fills what is left
of the hole with mud and dirt pounding
it close in about the fuse handling his
tools with great care. strike too hard
might send off the candle and blow him into
eternity. Other holes are prepared in a
similar manner, and the charge is now
ready for lighting. The miner hands me
the candle and tells me to start the explo-
sion. l hang back a moment but finally
consent and touch the candle to the end of
the fuses The powder at once begins to fig
and the miners, well as ourselves run
for dear life. We get just around the
corner and into a chamber or Slope when
there is immense report. 1t is dull
heavy and cannon-like. It blows out our
candles and following it we hear the falling
and crushing of ore. We go back to the
scene of the explosion. The dynamite has
torn the rock out of the earth and a great
mass of silver-bearing ore has been loos-
ened from the slides of the mountain AS
we stop the miners show US the VEIN 1t
runs from six inches to forty feet in width.
the average being fifteen feet and the ore
streaks ranging from two and a half to
three feet in width.
THE ONTARIO SILVER MILL
But let us follow the ore to the mill. TT
is now little more than d lot of rocks. It is
put into the steel cars, raised to the surface
and carried in wagons to immense frame
buildings further down the mountain. First
it is run through crusher, which chews
the rocks between its teeth until thew he
come no larger than pebbles, and fits then,
for the dryer. The ore, as it comes from
the mine is wet and the drying is done nv
means of an immense iron cylinder about
one hundred feet long, through which
stream of fire runs. The cylinder is inclined
at a short angle. The ore is put in at the