El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-03-25

cars, each Of which holds 10 tons OF
! ore It carries ESQ tons of gold bearing
| rock, and there is at least $500 worth
| OF gold in its cars.
All of the loading is done by gravity.
! The ore is blasted out in the great
! slopes, or caverns, which have been
! made along the eight levels above US.
! The Slopes are connected with the tun-
! nels of the various levels and the ore
| is brought in steel cars from them to
/ the chutes, from where il falls into the
! great ore bin above the main tunnel
| where we are now.
The leading arrangements are such
( that the mere pulling Of a lever viii
( drop a river Of ore into a car. Four
cars are loaded at once. and within two
minutes by my watch ] saw forty tons
put on the train, and within 10 or 20
/ minutes a whole train was loaded.
After this the cars carry the ore
straight TO the mills There IL is an
tOmatically dumped and the machinery
I is such that 1t is hardly touched by
mans hands until the gold has been
won.
But suppose we take trip through
the mine, visiting some Of the tunnels
and going into the slopes We are ac-
companied by @. 7. Jackson, the assist
ant manager of the company. and
3. B. NEEDING, the mine superintendent.
We climb into the cars, and ride
through tunnel after tunnel stopping
now and then in vain search for
gold in the rock overhead. Its color
might be called a battleship gray. 1t
is a drab slate with little veins and
stringers of quarts running through it.
1t is in the quartz that the gold. lead
and iron which form the minerals Of
the ore body are found. In some OF
the rich places you can see specks of
yellow. The veins run I'm streaks
through the slate rock, and the dia-
mond drills show that such streaks are
found everywhere in the great BODY of
ore not yet outlined by the tunnels.
BY and by we leave our electric en-
CINE and ride on one of the shaft ele-
vatOrs to the level above Our eIeva-
tor boy is giant over six feet in
height, and he wears a long Oilskin
coat which makes him look taller. AS
we pass from level to level we can see
the cars moving by: and finally at
1000 feet above where we started we
step out and tramp through a tunnel
TO visit stope where the miners are
working
Here ths darkness is almost Egyptian
and the path is as rough as that Of the
Hill OF DIFFICULTY. which so wearled
poor Christian to climb. We had
acetylene lamps to pick our way over
the beds Of ore underfOot, and we
crawled up and down over thousands
Of tons Of gOld-bearing rock before we
stood under the roof OF low chamber
covering more than an acre
We could now see the miners at
work. Each had his own light which
clone dim in the distance. They were
operating drills moved by compressed
air and were putting in the dynamite
for blasting the ore. At certain hours
the blasts are shot off. and the great
masses of rock are thus taken out and
broken for the cars and the mills.
Each stope or cavern is 400 feet long,
100 feet wide and 400 feet deep. Its
contents are equal to a solid block OF
rock with the base OF an acre extend
ing TO a height of 400 feet. or more
than two-thirds that of the Washing
ton monument
As I did so the superintendent told
me they had Is other slopes now being
worked.
Largest Mills in the World.
After les wing the mines I went to the
mills. They are said to be the largest
aid most modern Of any embarrassing
plant il the world. Within the past
year the company has spent $1,000. 900
upon them and nothing has been spared
to make machinery do every possible
part Of the work Everything is moved
by electricity. Electric cranes. some
of which will lift 30 tons. carry great
loads from place to place The same
force raises the ore and there are au-