Bisbee daily review., 1907-01-25
SILVER ORE USED FUR BALLAST|NG
 RAILROAD
Canadian Government Is Now Guarding Roadbed Which Has Been Discovered Covers Silver Ore Used as Ballast,

Of all the odd chronicles of railroad building told-by railroad builders, says the Pittsburg Gazette, chronicles or hardship. romance and adventure, true tales of personal experience brought from all corners in the world and re- lated in the famous rooms of the Western Society of Civil Engineers, the strangest has just been told. It is of a railroad unwittingly bailasted for many miles with silver ore.
 The Canadian government built the railroad and is responsible for the bal lasting. It is now guarding the road bed from the cupidity Of men who else would defy winters snow and cold to steal the very rock from beneath the ties.
 Government railroad engineers from the Philippines have related their sto- ries of incredible obstacles overcome. Other builders have modestly explain ed how they chise1ed a trackbed from the precarious sides of the Andes. The story of the Florida East Coast rail- road. which is now being built for miles out to sea, from reef to reef and key to key. has been told. Now comes Poynter Standly. recently re- turned to Chicago from British govern ment service among the diamond mines of South Africa, and more re- gently from the vicinity of the dla- mond prospects south Of Hudsons S Bay. and relates the odd good fortune of the Temiskaming & Northern sEur of the Canadian Pacific system.
 When that spur was hastily built through the northern neck or the On tarfo proyfnce.r said Mir. Standley, it
 how came first to hand. Much of the sur face of the region between Lake Tenn agami and the Montreal river Is cover ed with a thin soil over Huronian rock great surfaces of 1t. ft is desolate land in appearance, although in summer nature does her best to hide the bare, forbidding but treasure hearing rock. Carload after carload of ballast was hurriedly dumped on the sleepers and shoyeled into place hy Iaborers who knew silver ore only by name. and who wanted only to get away as soon as possible. They neT- CT suspected that much of the rocR they shoveled and tamped was sliVeF bloom, and 1t was not until a re" weeks ago that the discovery was made.
 .aThInk of it-length after length oi rails were stretched across the silver ore. some of which has been found to contain values as high as s6Oo to the ion Train after train had rattled over the ore-balasted track, the ehglh' eer's gaze fixed on the distance, scorn' ing inc dull, seemingly worthless stones, which 1t proves are WorIn many times the cost of the railroad its rolling stock and it's gross earrings for many years to come. c.l
 ..T saw many strange things in South Africa. much of which still remains a land of mystery. but the short stretch oF track south of the Montreal river is inc most curious thing l have mel with The explanation is not hard to find The Montreal river is now De Iiavad to run in a bed of silver ore and the ballast easiest to secure Was o douhtIess that from the vicinity or the river. That whole region Is now Iouho to he yeined with rich ore or Varlous minerals, but with silver in greaIeS quantities. ..-t.. .n Do
 Like the great project or the hG man archapologist, Rudolph Lancianl that of dfyertfng the river Fiber iron ite he'd to recover the submerged rel ics of days of Roman greatness, IS th' nIon by which It is hoped to recover inc wealth in the bed of the Montrea river where the rock ballasted railroad crosses it. The project has been pu m to the Ontari government by th' Coha1t Portage Mines, Ltd, for th' channel of the entire river must b' changed. This will require the cut +ing only of A diversion canal througl hanks some twenty feet high to HOO! basin which has a natural outle' The company which proposes 10 u this is A Chicago concern. 1t mas en gineering difficulties to overcome, Du the project, understand, Is likely U receive the 1sproval Of the Canadiai authorities. Meanwhile IL IS dlgslh ont the ore on its 20-acre tract.
 The discovery of the silver ballaste roadhed of the Temiskaming & Nortf ern found to be typical of the regio tannc by it. The discoveries ther have been rich and have occasione the peopling of localities swhere ! summer the sun shone upon gray llct ened rock and infrequent vegetation and in winter upon a great waste c deep, dazzling snow.
 TWO years have seen towns and VI lages spring up. Energy such as e' hibited in the project of the Chieag men in. changing the very channel or swift and deep river to get at hidde treasures. has been manifest in must room towns and cities. There nav been disasters, notwithstanding the Q ement of insurance to investors con prised in the Ontario's proviRce's law its rigid inspection and assay, befoT mining claims can be granted. Som disasters have been due to manipuli ton, such as the recent slump in Nil issing stock when the Guggenheim ruthlessIy knocked the price dow temporarily by ostentasiously refusin to complete its purchase. But th discoveries, as the railroad ballast illustrates, are so numerous that th new mining camps are certain grow-and even to boom"