Douglas Island news., 1917-06-08
TUNNELTNG THE
 COL DI LANA
Former Trcadwell Mining Engineer Accomplishes Wonderful Feat
 in Europe

count of the taking of the Col DI Lana, which is described by Colonel ."Peppino" Garibaldi as ca true gran ite Alp among the splintcrod Dolo- mites a fortress among cathedrals lift was outstanding, the dominat- ing feature in a panorama which was made up Of the mountain chain .along which wrigglcd Che nterlock- ed lines of the Austro-ltalian battle front"
 The giant mountain mentioned above was tunnelcd and mined and later practically blown from the face of tho earth, enabling the Itul- ian army Co capture not only a large body of Austrian soldiers. but much Ivaluable Austrian territory as well. The Great Garibaldi gives tho credit of the feat of tunneling and mining Of Col Di Lana, the mountain in question, to Gclasio Caotani an Italian mining engineer. who was employed at Trcadwoll for a period few years ago and who is well re- mcmbercd by Manager Bradley and others still here
 Extracts from Garibald's dcscrip- tion of the victory which came Go his army through the ingenuity Of the former Trcadwell cnri oor are very interesting, a few of them be- ing herewith appended:
 But while there was nothing new In the idea of Che mine itself iu carrying out an engineering oper- auon of such magnitude at SO great an altitude and from a position constantly exposed to intense artill- cry fro there were presented many problems quite without precedent. It was these problems which gave us pause; but finally. despite the prospect of difficulties which we fully realized might at any time be- come prohibitive it was decided to- mako the attempt to blow up that portion of the summit of the Col di Lana stnl held by the enemy.
 "Tho choice of the engineer for thc work was a singularly fortunate one. Gclasio Caotani-ho is a son of the Duke Of sermoneta had op- crated as a mining engineer in the American West for a number of years previous to the war, and the practical experience gained in Cali fornia and Alaska was invaluable preparation for the great task now before him. His ready resource and great personal courage were also i'm calculable assets. (As an instance of the latter l could tell you how, Co permit him to make certain inn pcratiye observations. he allowed himself to be lowered over the side of a sheer clin at a point only par uaEy protected from Che encmy's hreJ
 "WcI, the tunnel was started about thc middle of January, 1916. Some of my men Italians who had hurried home to fight for their country when the war started had had some previous experience with hand and machine drills in the mines Of Colorado and British Co- umbia, but the most of our labor had to gain experience as the work progressed. Considering this, as well as the difficulty of bringing mp ma terial Cto say nothing Of food and munitionsJ. we. made very good progress.
 "Tho worst thing about it an was the fact that it had to be done un- der the incessant fire of the Aus trian artillery. I provided for the men as best could by putting them in galleries, where they were at least able to get their rest in com parative safety. My own head quarters were in a little shed i'm the lee of a big rock. When the enemy finally found out what we were up to they celebrated their discovery by steady bombardmcnt which lasted for fourteen days without intcrrup- tlon. During certain forty-two hours Of that fortnight there was, |by actual count. am average of 3S shells a minute exploding on our little position. With all the protec- tlon it was possible to provide, the strain became such that I found it advisable Co change the battalion holding our portion of the summit every week. Did | have any respite myself? We'll hardly; or, rather, mot until | had to.
 "Wc were constantly confronted with new and perpleXing problems things which no one had ever been called upon Co solve before
 most of them in connection with transportation. How we contrlved Co surmount one of these I shall never forget. The Austrians had performed a brave and audacious feat in emplacing one of their bat teries at a certain point, the fire from which threatened to make our position absolutely untenable. The location of this battery was SO cum ningly chosen that not one of our
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