Douglas Island news., 1899-03-29

stairs are huge bins that hold tons of ore. In these bins the orc is dumped from iron cars that are brought from the mines, about mile and d quarter further up the creek. From the bins the ore is fed automatically into the stamp mills where it is ground as fine flour. It is thoroughly mixed with wa ter and pours on down into the concen- trators. There is both gold and silver in the ore handled at the Sheep Creek mines. But the noise of the mill. Oh, it is simply terrible, but we stood 1t long enough to learn that the mill is a splendid plant and complete in ali it's details.
 Leaving the mill we were attracted by the pulling of an engine and we sCampcred up onto the track. Three cars were attached to the little locomo- tive and they had just been unlcaded and the train was about to leave for the mines.
 T would like to ride out with you," said the News man.
 "AII right; climb on," said the. fire man and he gave us his seat in the cab. The engineer was outside oiling up, but soon he.was iDside-w with his hand on the throttle, which lie gave pull aud away we went The track is built on trestle all the way. It didn't look strong to- US, but it was. The track was not very smooth, and not very straight either. When we had gone but little ways he gave the throttle another pull and the little engine commenced to fly There we were way up on the trestle and the little machine ee-sawed and cavorted around until we expected to see it fly the track at the end of every rail. Scared? We'll, 1 guess we were. We were in a car oEce that turned a com plete revolution down forty foot em bankment-We carry scars to remind us of the time-we thought of second accident we were to go through. We got onto that engine with many, and we, hope honorable, gray hairs on our head, but the number was more than doubled when we got off, Did we ride back on that engine? No indeed, we rode on a flat car that kind providence appar- antly ordered the engineer to fasten on the rear of the engine for our special benefit.
 But now we did see something. 1t was the manner of getting the ore from the mines to the building where it is loaded onto the cars. Way up in the mountains on the left one can see three buildings. On the right of these there is another. The structures are probably mile away and are up on the mountain side thousands of feet. Steel cables are stretched between these buildings and the building where the ore is loaded onto the cars, and on these ca bles the ore is conveyed in huge sbuCk cts, which are constantly going and coming, there being some eight or ten of the cables in all, and which are un- der the perfect control of the machin- cry. Supt. Hammond designed and constructed this part of the plant and ! it is indeed a creditable piece of work,
 "Did we go up to the mine?" No, and we probably never will. The prospector that first went up there and discovered the mine must have had some good truck in him. His successors may write up the hole in the mountain, but we have no desire to do so
 But this is not all of the Sheep Creek mines. At the power house, the super intendent has a beautiful residence There is also large boarding house, office and store building Then there ! is the power of which we have said noth- ing thus far. The drills in the mines are, of course, run by compressed air, but the stamp mill is run by electricity the dynamos being run by water power. There are two of these plants-one midway between the wharf and the mill and the new one on the beach a 1 little ways south of the wharf. The i first one we did not visit, but the sec ond is first-class in every respect. The water that propels the wheel is con veyed in pipes leading from above the stamp mill and the fall is some 300 feet giving terrible pressure. The build- ing is, large and it is the intention of ] the cnmnanV to abandon the use of the