The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-08-03

ever been steam or fire or heat / went
into the camps of my Piute friends and
questioned their elders. They nor their
fathers nor their fathers fathers before
them had ever heard Of a time when the
valley had spit steam or FIRE, and their
legends-told by father to son as they sit
by the camp fire and memorized with In
finite accuracy-date back to a time that
is earlier than the white mans history.
Shaft after shaft was sunk and sulphur
In plenty was found. Some of 1t was
crystallized and colored like a California
poppy. Elsewhere we found q snow-white
marvel OF sulphur-sulphur that only
turned yellow when q lighted match was
touched to 1t and was s5'per cent pure.
Now and then we came upon BLACK" sui
phur-that CLASSY, dark green sort that
nature makes in those moIds where the
pressure Is greatest.
Up and down. back and forth we pros
pected. sinking shafts where we could
tasting 1t. smelling II. testing 1t with
match. The whole district so far as we
investigated. is richly underlaid with sui
phur. but everywhere that we sunk on
the claims we found that strange heat-a
heat too great to permit our continuing
the work. Where the lava was encoun-
tered in the greatest quantities we uncov-
cred the home of the snakes, for 1t was
az full OF bubble holes as a honey comb
Ia of cells. There long. slim and entire
ly harmless snakes were housed in num-
bers that were appalling When the ex-
plosions or blasts disturbed them in the
winter rest they crawled to the walls of
the shafts. through the network of cracks
that underlie the district and. tumbling
down to-the bottom. cpiled and lifted and
writhed there. vainly trying to get out.
and unpleasant things to see.
The weather turned colds degrees be.
low zero. But the temperature under
ground was growing hotter and hotter the
deeper the shaft was sunk. At eighteen
feet each man who worked there suffered
from frightful headaches and the young
er man had to return to his home In San
Francisco. Their clothing-even their
buckskin gloves-rotted as they worked
and their skin burned and stung The
drills point in a few moments would be-
come so hot that it caused discomfort to
touch 1t with the bare hand. After a Sc
ries of blasts were put off and the smoke
had escaped from the shaft a cloud of
vapor would arise from the shaft where
the mercury marked zero weather at the
top. and the rock thrown from the bot
tom was so hot that 1t could not be ham
died at all with bare hands.
Extremes of Temperature.
Each night the giant powder .froze.
Each morning 1t was thawed In a few
minutes by throwing over 1t a wheelbar-
row of rock and ash from the bottom of
the shaft. Sometimes all the stocks of
powder in the box would be frozen to-
gether and the mass frozen to the box,
but by the time the drill hole was ready
for 1t the powder was thawed. Canteens
of water. carried by the men coming to
work, were frozen solid. Buried in the
hot rock a few minutes. they would i'm
mediately melt. By and by the drills be-
came so hot that their temper was de-
stroyed and the men could make but lit
tie Roadway in their work. Still they kept
on-changing shift every few minutes.
and being hauled to the top with faces
burning red, down which rivulets of
sweat ran.