CHAPTER XL.
A VISIT TO THE MINES.
Having rambled far and wide among the Piute Indians, I shall now ask the reader to accompany me in a ramble far below the light of day, to the underground regions of the silver-mines. During our trip through the lower levels of the mines I shall endeavor to explain all that is seen.
As all of the leading mines in the Comstock lode are opened and worked after the same general plan, a description of one mine will suffice for all. In singling out a mine, a description of the machinery and operations in which shall stand for all, I select the Consolidated Virginia as that in which is to be found all of the latest and most approved machinery, and in which all operations are conducted in a systematic and scientific manner. It will also be more satisfactory to the reader if he knows that what he is reading applies to a certain mine the name of which is known to him.
In giving a description of the various operations of mining, and of the machinery used, I shall find it necessary in but two or three instances to go outside of the Consolidated Virginia mine. In these cases I shall name the mine in which is to be seen what I am speaking of.
The popular idea of a silver-mine among most persons in the Atlantic States, appears to be that a deep hole in the form of a common well has been sunk somewhere on the side of a mountain, from the bottom of which is dug the silver ore. As the ore is dug up from the bottom of the shaft, they suppose it to be hoisted to the surface in buckets, by means of an ordinary windlass, or some such rude contrivance. What really is seen at the main shaft or entrance to one of the leading mines on the Comstock lode is very different.
When we approach the main shaft and hoisting works of the Consolidated Virginia Mining Company we find before us a main building of great size, from which extend several large wings. One of these wings is the boiler-house, in which are several sets of boilers, and from the roof arise a number of tall, black smoke-stacks.
Another wing is the blacksmith shop, containing several forges at which are sharpened the picks and drills used, and where is done a vast amount of work of all kinds required in and about the mine.
Then there is the wing in which is the carpenter’s shop, where the timbers used as supports in the lower levels of the mine are framed, and where circular saws, run by steam, are used in cutting and shaping the heavy square beams; also, a wing in which is a machine-shop containing a steam-engine which runs planers, lathes, and other machines for working iron. The main building is handsomely finished and painted with fire-proof paint, as are all of the wings. Rows of windows are seen in the several buildings, and from the roof of the main building and some of the wings, arise pipes from which white clouds of steam are constantly puffed.
In the mass of buildings before us we see nothing to cause us to think of a mine. What we have before us more nearly resembles a large iron-foundry or big manufactory of some kind. As we see on the grounds surrounding the buildings a number of immense piles of timber and lumber; in all, an amount sufficient to stock at least half a dozen ordinary lumber-yards, we should be more likely to guess that we saw before us a large planing-mill, or door, sash, and blind manufactory, than that we were approaching the main working shaft of a great silver-mine. Near the main pile of buildings, are detached structures, which are occupied as offices; one being the assay office, where the silver bullion is melted, moulded into bars, and assayed.
[Illustration: GRINDING AXES.]
Upon entering the main building, we are at once struck by the peculiar style of dress worn by the men we see grouped or moving about. They all wear grey or blue woollen shirts, caps, or narrow-brimmed felt hats, and blue cotton or thin woollen overalls. They are all serious-looking men, and their faces all seem bleached out to an unnatural and unhealthy whiteness. The whole building is floored as handsomely as though it were a church, and all the floors are scrupulously neat and clean. All overhead being open to the roof, forty feet above, and there being no partitions in the main building, the interior presents a most spacious appearance.
Almost the first object that attracts our attention upon entering the place, is the mouth of the main shaft. Toward this we are at once attracted, for the reason that we see rushing up through several square openings in the floor, great volumes of steam. This steam appears to be hissing hot, and rushes almost to the roof of the building. We are surprised to see men coolly ascending and descending the very heart of these columns of steam.
Looking for the first time upon the rolling and whirling clouds of vapor pouring up from the shaft, more than one dandy tourist, who but a few minutes before was very enthusiastic in his talk about exploring the lower levels, has wished in his secret soul that he had never hinted that he had the slightest desire to descend into the dark and dismal bowels of the earth.
Many back down squarely. They suddenly remember that they are subject to vertigo, are threatened with apoplexy; or—which is a very common disease at such times—palpitation of the heart. So many persons visiting the mines, and seeing the mouth of the shafts for the first time, have made serious mention of being greatly troubled with “palpitation of the heart,” that the old miner standing near finds it a difficult matter to keep a sober countenance upon hearing that ailment mentioned. Nothing can induce some persons to venture into the steaming shaft after they have taken one good look at it, while proper explanations speedily cure others of their vertigo, apoplectic symptoms, palpitation of the heart, or whatever disease it may be their fancy to affect.
When we inspect the mouth of the shaft more closely, we find before us an opening in the floor about five feet in width and twenty feet in length. This opening is divided into four lesser openings or “compartments,” by partitions which run from the top to the bottom of the shaft. Three of these are called hoisting-compartments, as in them the hoisting-cages pass up and down, just us does the elevator in a hotel. The fourth is known as the pump-compartment, as down it passes the pump column, an iron pipe from twelve to sixteen inches in diameter, through which the water is forced up from the bottom of the mine. The pumping machinery is the most pondrous about a mine, and the largest engine in the hoisting works of a mine is always that which drives the pump. The pumping apparatus, balance-bobs, tanks down the line of the shaft, the course of the water from the bottom of the mine to the surface, and the working of the several parts from the surface down, all are too complicated to be explained without the aid of many drawings.
The hoisting-engines, and all the hoisting machinery, are at the end of the building opposite that occupied by the shaft and fifty or sixty feet away. Here we find the alert and keen-eyed engineers constantly at their post by their engines. Before them is a large dial, like the face of a clock. On this dial are figures, and there is a hand like that of a clock, which moves slowly round and tells the engineer exactly where his cage is at all times after it has entered the shaft and passed out of his sight. By watching the hand moving round the dial he can see exactly when his cage is at the 900, the 1,000, 1,200, 1,500-foot or any other station. Besides keeping his eyes upon the dial, he must also keep his ears open for the signals struck upon his bell.
The bell stands near him and is his only means of communication with those far down in the lower levels of the mine. A man 1,500 feet below the surface strikes a signal upon the bell, and the engineer unhesitatingly obeys it. By means of this bell the engineer receives nearly all his orders. He is told when to start the cage up and when to stop, if he is to stop short of the surface; is told to hoist slowly; that there are men on board; and a great many other things which he understands as readily as the telegraph operator understands the click of his instrument. Each engineer has his bell and knows its sound better than he knows the sound of his own voice.
[Illustration: CONSOLIDATED VIRGINIA HOISTING-WORKS]
The hoisting-engines and the engineers who run them, occupy a large platform raised three or four feet above the general level of the floor, and about this platform are placards inscribed:
“NO PERSON IS ALLOWED ON THE PLATFORM, OR TO SPEAK TO THE ENGINEERS WHILE ON DUTY.”
The lives of the miners are in the engineer’s hands every minute of the day and night. To turn his head to nod to an acquaintance might cost a dozen lives. The man who is trusted at one of these engines is always a man who is thoroughly known and who has a well-established reputation for sobriety, “eternal vigilance,” and good qualities of all kinds. In short, he is a man that can be trusted anywhere, and to say that Mr. Jones is engineer at this or that mine is to say that Jones is a man much above the average.
Over the mouth of the shaft stands a frame, made of very large and strong timbers, which is called the gallows-frame, probably from the huge cross-beam it supports. On this cross-beam are fastened the great iron wheels or pulleys over which pass the cables that extend down into the shaft and raise and lower the cages. These cables are not, as might be supposed from the name, round hempen ropes, like the cables of a vessel. The cables used in hoisting from the shafts of mines are flat, like a piece of tape, and are braided of the best quality of steel wire. They are five or six inches in width and about three-quarters of an inch in thickness. As they are constantly exposed to dripping water in the lower part of the shaft, the cables are all kept covered with a coating of tar to prevent their rusting.
Near the engine is what is called the hoisting-reel, and on this the cable is wound up or unwound, in raising or lowering the cage, just as a piece of tape would be wound upon a spool. The steam-engines revolve the huge reels, and the cage is let down into the shaft or is hauled up from its bottom just as is required.
The cages work independently of each other. One may be going down while another is coming up, or one may be in motion while the others are standing still. When there is no living freight on the cages, they are often raised and lowered at a frightful rate of speed, but with men on board they are moved less rapidly.
Owing to the intense heat prevailing in many places in the lower levels of the mines, visitors must divest themselves of every stitch of their ordinary attire, as the first step toward their underground journey. This being the case, a comfortable and commodious dressing-room is fitted up in the works.
Hanging upon the walls of this room will be found a great number of clean suits for the accommodation of visitors. A suit for the journey into the lower regions is neat but not gaudy. It consists simply of a pair of blue flannel pantaloons, a grey or blue woollen shirt, a pair of heavy brogans for the feet, and a felt hat, with a narrow brim, for the head. In a suit of this kind even the greatest dignitaries present a very ordinary appearance. A minister of the gospel of meek and lowly aspect, when in his suit of black, becomes such a desperate-looking villain on donning blue woollen pantaloons and shirt, brogans, and felt hat, that you would not meet him alone on a mountain trail for all the wealth of the big bonanza; a pompous railroad president to whom you would almost fear to speak while in his upper-world attire, upon presenting himself before you in lower-level rig looks so much like a sneak-thief that you feel strongly impelled to kick him out of the room.
Fat men have the advantage in dressing for a trip to the lower levels, as nearly all of the pantaloons appear to have been selected for the special accommodation of men of Falstaffian proportions. In thus dressing for a trip into the mine there is always great merriment; each man laughs at his friend, unconscious of the ridiculous, mean, or insignificant figure he himself is cutting.
In the dressing-room will be found a bath-tub, hot and cold water ready to hand by the mere turning of the cocks, an abundance of clean towels and all the convenience for taking a bath on coming up from the sweltering lower levels.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: HOISTING CAGE.]