White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1911-08-27


more carried a lantern, and the three
men proceeded to explore the drift
which leads to the Alpha shaft. The
trio had hardly disappeared from the
station into the turn of the drift,
when the men on the cage saw the
flames above them. There was no
time to recall the shift boss and his
men, and it was known that they
were safe, for their escape lay in
reaching the Alpha, and the men on
the cage signalled to raise the
structure.
The three men were found dead by
the rescuers; Gilmore, clinging to the
ladder with a death grip, his lantern
still burning as if lighting his soul
across the abyss of eternity; the
bodies of the other two lying together
in the manhole of the ladders below
the 400-foot point of the shaft.
From the position of the bodies, and
from the further exploration of the
drift, no doubt the fumes of smoke
and gases overlook the fleeing men
midway between the two shafts.
That this is SO is evidenced by the
fact that the bulkhead in the 1900
drift was found closed, and the men
must have closed it. The bulkhead
was installed during the running of
the drift, to prevent a flood from the
waters of the Alpha, and the men
now used it to shut off the gases
which were creeping upon them like
an insidious foe with the certainty
of death in the end. But the bulk
head which stopped the water could
not check the progress of smoke and
the gases from the burning timbers.
The smoke and the gas easily pene-
trated the chinks and crevices be-
tween the timbers and the walls of
rock, and the men realized that they
must ddNSl duichiy " ave thcni-
selves.
No one who is not used to the
underground working of a mine can
have any conception of this awful
race for life. Down there in the
bowels of the earth, with 1900 feet
of ladders between them and the
surface. the unfortunate miners were
hemmed in; but still a chance re-
NAMED. They did not fear reach
ing the Alpha shaft; the fear was
that of being overcome on that long
climb up the steep ladders. In the
silence of the tomb, the men, no
doubt, had little inclination to talk
among the echoes of the rocky walls.
But they reached the ladder in safe
ty, and then began the climb. Gill
more went first with his lantern,
Odolovich followed and Wilhelmy
came last.
There was no time for talking, for
it was an e~xhausting effort to make
the climb, each step becoming more
difficult in the ascent. And the in
sidious gases were climbing with
them and following in their wake.
One hundred feet of ladders is no
small climb, even to a man thorough
ly used to the experience, and these
men made the journey for nearly 500
feet. Each rung of the ladder was
becoming more difficult to grasp; the
feet of the men were becoming lead
en- in their weight; doubt and mis-
giving We're beginning to prey upon
them, the gases were overcoming
them and making them light in the
head.
God knows what thoughts occupi-
ed the minds of the brave fellows as
they felt themselves giving way to
the effect of the noxious fumes. The
profound silence and darkness of
that long and narrow chamber was
alone enough to make the stoutest
heart quail. 1t was Oppressive, the
stiffness of the shaft, filled with the
memories of the awful cave of the
winter of 1907, which caught two
miners in it's deadly embrace, and
imprisoned three more for 46 days.
Were there no gases with which to
combat that long, steady climb in the
still dark shaft was enough to tax
to the utmost the energy, the endur-
ance and the reason of the average
man.