Williams-The Romance of Mining 1905

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BOOKSEliLll^tATlONERS
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The Romance
of
Mining
Uniform with
this
Volume
gilt.
Crown
8vo.
Cloth,
THE ROMANCE OF
MODERN INVENTION
By Archibald Williams This volume deals in a popular way with all the latest inventions, such as Air-ships, MonoRail, Wireless Telegraphy, Liquid Air, etc. With 25 Illustrations
THE ROMANCE OF
MODERN ENGINEERING
By Archibald Williams Containing Interesting Descriptions in NonTechnical Language of the Nile Dam, the
Panama
Canal,
the
Tower
Bridge,
the
Brooklyn Bridge, the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Niagara Falls Power Co., Bermuda Floating Dock, etc. etc. With 24 Illustrations.
THE ROMANCE OF
MODERN LOCOMOTION
By Archibald Williams
Containing Interesting Descriptions in Nonof the Rise Technical Language and Development of the Railroad Systems in all Parts of the World. With 25 Illustrations.
THE ROMANCE OF
THE MIGHTY
A Popular
DEEP.
:
By Agnes Giberne
Account of the Ocean The Laws by which it is Ruled, its Wonderful Powers, and Strange Inhabitants.
With
9 Illustrations
Digitized by the Internet Archive

in
2011 with funding from
Boston Library Consortium
Member
Libraries
http://www.archive.org/details/romanceofminingcOOwill
The Romance
of
Mining
Containing Interesting Descriptions of the
Methods of Mining
all
for Minerals in
Parts of the
World
By
Archibald Williams
Author of
"
"The Romance of Modern Invention" "The Romance of Modern Engineering"

The Romance
of
y
;
Modern Locomotion
"
With 24
Illustrations
London
C.
Arthur Pearson, Ltd.

:
Philadelphia
J.
B. Lippincott
Company
1905
?,<\
Author's Note
The Author
him
gratefully
acknowledges the help given
in the compilation of
and
illustration of this
book
by the Proprietors
Harper
;
Cassiers
Magazine;
;
Messrs.
D. Appleton
& Son Messrs. A. Constable & Co. Messrs. & Son Messrs. Geo. Newnes, Ltd. the
;
;
Ingersoll Sergeant
Drill
Co.;
the
Brown
Hoisting
Machinery Co.; the Burma Ruby Mines, Ltd.; the

Bath Stone Firms, Ltd.; the Vulcan Ironworks Co.;
W.
R. Lawson,
Esq.; A. Kirk,
Esq.;
and W. G.
in-
Nash, Esq.
In addition he
acknowledges his
debtedness to the
many
writers
whose works have

in
been
laid
under
contribution
the
following
accounts of some of the most important branches

of mining.
"
Contents
CHAPTER
INTRODUCTORY
The Ages of
I
The
Man The
Age
Iron
The
Stone Age
Steel
lead, silver, quicksilver, was found so late Its metals and their influence
mining
Metallurgy and The scope of
on exportation Metallurgy and science mechanics The romance of mining Dangers of
The Copper Age The Bronze Age Age The discovery of gold, copper, and zinc Iron and the smiths Why iron effects on civilisation Coal The precious
PAGE
this
book
17
CHAPTER
Features of early mining
II
ANCIENT MINING
Riches of the ancients The Egyptian mines The earliest European miner The Etruscan mines of Campiglia The Phoenicians Zimbabwe The Romans as miners The Romans in Britain Aztecs and Peruvians The development of mining methods Ventilation Gunpowder Hoisting devices Comparative
comfort of modern miners
30
CHAPTER
The
III
"THE ELDORADO OF THE GREAT WEST

Sierra Nevada The result of altering a mill-race First discovery of gold in California Booty scented by the public Gold reaches San Francisco Sudden rise in wages Scenes in 'Frisco Off to the diggings The Mormons The mining outfit Scarcity of water Disappointed hopes " Placer " mining Panning-out The sluice Racial feeling Hardships and disease Riotous extravagance What the average miner got Rough justice Danger of wealth Incredible selfishness Trouble in San Francisco The trans-continental journey What Mark Twain saw Rapid increase in California's population The miner's restlessness The sad results Exhaustion of placers" Hydraulic mining Gigantic "flumes" How gold is washed out by the hydraulic jet Devastating effect on the country
'
'
...
44
Contents
CHAPTER
First discovery of gold in Australia
IV
THE GOLD-FIELDS OF THE ANTIPODES

up Hargraves finds the New South Wales deposits The " rush " Melbourne folk alarmed Gold found in Victoria Huge nugget found at Meroo Creek Its effect on the colony Victorian gold Wonderful "pocket" struck Overcrowding of Melbourne "Canvas Town" Rapid growth of Melbourne Illfeeling aroused by mining fees Ballarat riot Gold-field extravagance
coveries hushed
convict's
hard luck
Early dis
PAGE
Curious
transport
plight of South Australia Special The great nuggets of Australia
measures for gold70
CHAPTER V
WESTRALIA
Sterile character of
Australia Gold at Coolgardie lucky find Another lucky find The luck of "Hannan's" The Westralian fields Coolgardie Wind and Dust Want of Water "Dry-
blowing" "Hannan's
West
Brownhill" and "Great Boulder" The Coolgardie Water Supply A pipe 328 miles long Description of
the pipe line
Effect of Gold discoveries on Australia
...
85
CHAPTER VI THE GOLD-MINES OF THE WITWATERSRAND

Gold and War Value of these mines Nature of Tramvaal deposits The Witwatersrand Banket " Value of the "Banket" reef The
gold output The " Essential Kaffir" The labour supply Recruiting Chinamen imported How the mines are worked How the ore is treated The cyanide process Difference between Rand and other gold mines . . . . .
'
'
.96
CHAPTER VII THE ELDORADO OF THE NORTH

The
California upset The Yukon The early approaches thither Forty-Mile George CarA unique episode in gold-mining history The reward of laziness Wonderful earnings Melting the ground The " cleanup Fortunes made A rush to the Klondike The Chilkoot and White Passes Down the Yukon Terrible mortality among baggage animals in the White Pass Growth of Dawson H igh pri ces Dawson of to-day The Klondike " placers " Mining laws How Alaska being opened up The White Pass Railway Alaska's future .110
Excelsior arrives in 'Frisco Bay
district
mack's find
"
is
CHAPTER
properties
VIII
DIAMOND MINING
The high estimation in which the Diamond has always been held
Ruby
value as compared with that of the Diamond-cutting at Amsterdam The Carat Varieties of
Its
Actual properties
Mythical
IO
Contents
PAGE
diamonds Brazil a rival Minas Geraes Bahia An observant shepherd South African finds A child's toy leads to the discovery of the Kimberley fields The diamond "pipe" Early days in Kimberley Water invades the mines The Illicit Diamond Buyer De Beers, Limited" How the Blue Earth is disintegrated The Pulsator Kaffir labourers The Compound Work below ground Diamond market controlled by De Beers Value of Kimberley production Kimberley in the War Historic Diamonds The Great Mogul The Koh-i-nur The Pitt The Orloff The Cullman
Diamond India
the earliest source of
'
'

IX
132
CHAPTER
THE STORY OF THE COMSTOCK LODE

Discovery of the Lode Henry Comstock Silver ore cast aside as worthAn assay proves its true value " Rush " to the mines Difficulty less of treating ore Paul's reduction mill The timbering of the mines Litigation Bonanza times Mark Twain The Sanitary Flour Sack Extent of the minesThe overland telegraph The new highroad Rivalry between stage drivers Accidents DepresIts maintenance sion Labour troubles Water inroads The Sutro Tunnel A marHardships of tunnel-driving John W. vellous engineering feat Mackay The "Virginia Consolidated" Perseverance brings fortune The Big Bonanza Huge yields Wild speculation Scene in the mines High temperature A sad contrast The fate of the
Comstock
154
CHAPTER X
THE MINES OF LEADVILLE
Fifty years
ago
Valuable rubbish Second era Third and fourth eras
Significant names Early historyFirst era of mining Great profits A railway episode
182
CHAPTER XI THE MINES OF SILVERLAND

Mexico as a
silver producer What Humboldt found in 1802 The total production of silver Huge lumps of solid m^tal Sensational fortunes A lucky priest A millionaire fiddler Two fortunate peasants The " Good Success " Mine The mines of Zacatecas The mines of Guanajuato The Valenciana Mine The Marques de Rayas Mexican mining law about depth of claims Zacatecas wealth
189
CHAPTER XII THE REAL DEL MONTE

The Real
Early history Mexican mining laws Bustamente del Monte and Terreros The great adit Huge profits Kingly favour and great promises Water again causes trouble Decline of the Real English enterprise Mexican mining mania Great energy of newowners Their mistake Checked by water The crash Third chapter of the mine's history Below ground Thefts of miners The refineries The patio process Silver and Silverland
196
II
Contents
CHAPTER
The
XIII
PAGE
THE COPPER MINES OF THE RIO TINTO
Early company promotion Report on the Rio Tinto's resources Samuel Tiquet Thomas Sanz The Spanish Government hand The Marquis de Remise The Government decides to rights French invaders German invaders Doetsch, Sundheim, and Blum A gigantic payment The Rio Tinto Mine Separation of "Wanted" copper from ore Spain's future
tries its
sell its
its
natural riches of Spain Early miners The Carthaginians The Romans Blindness of Spaniards The irony of history The Rio Tinto Modern development Vallejo Vaillant Lieberto Wolters
....
211
CHAPTER XIV
OTHER FAMOUS COPPER MINES
The copper
solid
A The Burra Burra Mine British copper miningA decayed industry The Parys Mountains, Anglesea Concluding remarks
Lake Superior
copper found
contributions of different countries The United States The History of their discovery A large mass of deposits Sensational blocks of metal The Calumet and Hecla Mine huge shaft Machinery at the mine Refining bad speculation The Montana deposits at Butte The Anaconda California Mine Arizona The copper Bessemerising copper mines of Ashio, Japan Fahlun Rammelsburg Splitting rocks with
fire
224
CHAPTER XV
QUICKSILVER MINING
Characteristics of quicksilver Its uses Cinnabar Almaden Its early history The workings Dangers of quicksilver mining Poisoning New Almaden Its discovery 111 success of first company Separation of metal from ore Description of the mine The miner The carrier Sorting the ore Injuries to health Mexican mining superstition Figures relating to New Almaden
....

245
CHAPTER XVI
THE TIN MINES OF CORNWALL
Cornwall Its place in history Phoenician tin merchants The chief groups of mines Nature of ore-seams The Cornish miner Mining feats Carclaze mine Botallack submarine mine A storm overhead The Wheal Wherry Mine A persevering miner Carbonas Wheal Vor mine Patience rewarded at Old Crinnis Dolcoath Getting out the ore The man-engine Treatment of ore Uses of tin Tin statistics
..........
12
258
Contents
CHAPTER

XVII
COAL AND COAL MINING

The importance of coal Its origin Its formation The distribution of coal Some figures The coalfields of South Wales Of the Midlands Of the Northern Counties Of Scotland Statistics France and Belgian deposits German coalfields French perseverance The Some interesting stories about their coalfields of the United States
PAGE
discovery Popular prejudice against anthracite coal Efforts to overcome The poker trouble Growth of the coal industry in the Indian seams States The Connellsville coke
it
fields
274
CHAPTER
WORK
The
IN
XVIII
THE COAL MINES
nature of a colliery Better than it looks Former cruelty in the mines The Mines' Commission "Winning" and "getting" Prospecting for coal The diamond drill Methods of entering a seam English coal-beds Shafts Their construction Freezing the Depths reached How coal is "got" "Long-wall" and strata " pillar-and-stall " Ventilation of a mine Gigantic fans The
mechanical coal-cutter Electricity in the mine Transporting and hoisting the coal Winding devices Pneumatic hoisting Breaking, sorting, and washingWhat done with the fine coal and rubbish The distribution of coal by and vesselThe up-to-date
is
rail
collier
297
CHAPTER XIX
THE MINING OF IRON
The Jermyn Street Museum Natural distribution of iron Classes of iron ores The Edison separating process Roman mining The iron mines of Sussex Consequent destruction of forests The decline and
Coal used as fuel for English smeltingfurnaces Sturtevant Dud Dudley Abraham Darby The Bilbao deposits Ai'n Morka Dannemora Gellivare The Cerro de Mercado The Lake Superior iron ore beds Methods of mining The steam-shovel Remarkable prices Transporting iron ore to burg Other iron countries
fall
of the Sussex ironmasters
Pitts-
320
CHAPTER XX
MARBLE QUARRIES
Carrara Greek Marbles The town of Carrara The quarries How marble is blasted Bringing down the hillsides The lizzatura Road transport The miners of Carrara Marble in Britain, Algeria, and IndiaThe marble beds of Vermont Electricity in harness
338
13
Contents
CHAPTER XXI
STONE AND GRANITE QUARRIES
Bath stone Early users of it A stone for country mansions Ralph Allen and John Wood The quarries Their extent How stone is got
The quarry horse Its cleverness Portland stone Convict v. free labour A curious custom Granite The Aberdeen quarries The hardness of granite A record blast Sawing and turning granite
PAGE
346
CHAPTER XXII
THE BURMA RUBY MINES
The
value of the Oriental ruby Its composition And qualities The Burma ruby fields curious law Annexation by Great Britain Leased by the Burma Ruby Mines Company Their engineer's difficulties Attacks on the byon Spiders Hill Tagoungnandaing A fine stone found Operations in Mogok Valley Methods of working Testing the stones Native miners The ruby shops of Mogok Electric power Troubles from inundations
358
CHAPTER
Salt
Its
XXIII
salt
Brine springs value as a The industry in Cheshire, Staffordshire, and Worcestershire The salt mines of Wieliczka A subterranean cityArt and industry combined The day's work Searching the miners for The wonders of the mine The Letow ballroom Salt chapels A vast A railway station in the depths A saline Styx The chamber plains of Colorado Ploughing the salt A fine sight
salt
salt
SALT MINES dietetic And distribution Rock
salt
.
367
CHAPTER XXIV
SULPHUR MINING
The
occurrence The Sulphur deposits of Sicily Popacatapetl A romantic incident A perilous adventure Senor Corchado explores the crater The miners at work Mountains of sulphur in Japanese territory Its exploitation And removal Grim surroundings
uses of sulphur
Its
377
CHAPTER XXV
THE PERILS OF MINING
Dangers incurred by the miner
Falls
Fire, falls, poisonous gases, and disease for cages Fire-damp Choke-damp Whitedamp Ventilation the surest safeguard The safety lamp Electric lamps The Wattstown disaster One hundred and twenty lives lost Other notable disasters Extraordinary endurance of entombed
persons John Brown Giraud The Snaefell A dramatic account of the of

Safety catches
effects
lead mine disaster
white-damp
....
385
14
List of Illustrations
The Railway Station
in
the Third Level of the

. .
Wieliczka Salt Mines, Galicia
Frontispiece
Hydraulic Gold Mining
To face page
68
Drilling Blast-holes in a Rand Mine
with Ingersoll Sergeant Air-drills Cyanide Plant at the Rand Mines On the Way to the Yukon Goldfields, Summit of the Chilkoot Pass, with Impedimenta o^ Prospectors, April
1090
96
108
112
First Tourist Excursion, Pacific and
Arctic Railway, July 24, 1898. "Panning" at the Junction of the Eldorado and Bonanza Creeks, Alaska DlGGlNG-UP AND SCREENING THE KlMBERley Streets for Diamonds a klmberley mlne in the early days The Motino or Crusher, used in Mexican Silver Reduction Works for Breaking Ore into Small Pieces The Mexican Patio Process of Silver Reduction A General View of the North Lode "Open Cast" at the Tinto Mine
.
,,
120
128
...
.
,,
136
1
44
200
208
212
15
List of Illustrations
Open-air Calcination Heaps, or Teleros,
at the Rio Tinto Mines
.
To
face page
224
280
Mining Surveyor at
Work
in a
Coal
Mine The Entrance to a Branch-working a Coal Mine
in
304
Steam Shovel such as
Lake Superior
Mines
used in the Iron-ore Open-cast

is
320
Transporter for Transferring Iron-ore from ship to rail, or vice-versa Lowering Massive Blocks of Marble at the Carrara Quarries An Ingersoll Sergeant Channelling Machine at Work on a Bed of Marble A Huge Stack of Bath Stone at Corsham, Wiltshire, piled ready for Removal TO ALL PARTS OF THE BRITISH Isles and the Colonies An Oolitic Stone Quarry, Indiana,
U.S.A
Brown
328
338
342
346
352
The Upper "Lift" or Terrace of the Sharbontha Ruby Mine, Mogok, Burma Ruby Sorters at work in the Ruby Mines, Burma The Letow Ball-room, cut out of Salt
in
358
362
,,
the Wieliczka Mines
,,
372
16
The Romance of Mining

CHAPTER

I
INTRODUCTORY
The Ages of Man The Stone Age The Copper Age The Bronze Age The Iron Age The Steel Age The discovery of gold, copper,
lead, silver,
was found metals and

mining
quicksilver, so
late
Its
and
zinc Iron
on
and the smiths
effects
civilisation
their influence
Metallurgy and mechanics
The scope of
on exportation Metallurgy and science The romance of mining Dangers of
Why iron CoalThe precious
this
book.
Any
writer
on mining
in its general aspect
is,
when
casting about for a starting-point, driven to express
what others have said before him that the history of mining is the history of civilisation. If we try to
penetrate
into
the
period
when
metals were unall
known
his arts
to,
is
or at least unused by, man,

a
we
find of
few rough scratches on a cavern wall and some stone implements of defence and offence. So we call the era covering thousands, tens of during which the cave thousands of years, may be dweller depended for his livelihood on his power
of fashioning
in
flints,
the
Stone Age
synonymous
than the
our minds with a dark, brutish
existence of a
creature just sufficiently
more
intelligent
17

" beasts of the field " to survive their attacks and to
live
by destroying them.
ancients,
The
the
who
looked backwards rather than
forwards in search of an ideal existence, spoke of
Golden Age, the epithet All was then peace, Strife between man and man, plenty, and content. between nation and nation, had not yet arisen to Arguing from the social mar human existence.
of history as the
dawn
being
used metaphorically.
deterioration of their
far
back
in the past
nobler
stamp,
own time, they concluded that men must have been of a far and their lot cast in much more
pleasant surroundings.
To-day we know too much to take refuge in such While deploring the decay of timehonoured institutions and the virtues of the "good
imaginations.
old times,"
we
the
look confidently forward

choice,
and, were
we
given
should
not
like to
antedate
our existence by even one hundred years.

has steadily advanced
in spite
From
the
vantage-ground of knowledge we see that mankind

of
temporary
the
set-
backs, fighting circumstances ever
more
successfully
by means
of
the
weapons which
Arts
and
him to forge. The importance of metallurgy is shown by the very fact that, when we wish to divide human history into a few periods, we fly to the metals as
Sciences enable
the standards by which to measure man's industrial
development.
Age
then
tin is
The Copper Age succeeds the Stone found, and the Bronze Age begins.
18
Introductory
After the Bronze the Iron
Age
and,
live
last of all,
;
we
have the Steel Age,

at the present
in
which we
though even
day there
serve
are, in different parts of the
world, races
still
passing through the earlier Ages.

three
The
supply
secure
;
metals
important
ends.
life
They
;
man
with the means of making
beautiful
and comfortable. The first metal to be discovered was probably gold, which exists in its native, or pure, state in many countries, lies on the surface, attracts the eye, and can be easily secured. What nation first set value by gold we cannot say, but we may reasonably conjecture that the primitive folk, even of the Stone Age, may have beaten this metal, valueless for tools So that, in one sense, or weapons, into decorations. the Golden Age was contemporaneous with the dawn
of civilisation.
The value
of gold arose only

list
when
those
other metals had been added to the
of
mined and worked.

Copper, also
bined with other
to
found pure
though elements must have been

By
itself, its
usually
com-
known
man
at a
very early date.
uses were
was discovered and alloyed with it, the manufacture of bronze altered the history The stone-users were no match for inof nations. vaders armed with bronze weapons tempered to and where stone encountered extreme hardness Civilisation had now taken a metal, metal won. long stride forwards. Bronze could be used for
limited,
but
when
tin
the arts of peace as well, being fashioned into tools,
19

agricultural implements; ornaments,
and money.
So
well did the alloy serve
man
that for long ages he
was content with nothing harder and more stubborn. When the Spanish conquerors invaded Mexico in the sixteenth century they found the Aztecs quite ignorant of the uses of iron an ignorance which made possible the subjugation of a great race by a mere handful of bold adventurers. After bronze came lead, silver, quicksilver, and zinc. Silver was probably discovered at the same time as lead, since the two metals are often found
;
together.
This
fact
caused the alchemists of the

lead
as
Middle Ages to
silver,"
regard
the
" mother
of
and
to
endeavour to transmute the baser

Quicksilver, like lead
in
into the
more precious metal. and silver, is commonly found

sulphur, which
combination with
can be driven
off
by heat
and,
whether discovered accidentally or otherwise,

used by the ancients as a solvent for gold.
w as
T
Who
first
forged iron must ever remain a mystery.
Tubal Cain is mentioned in the Book of Genesis as " an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron." He may have lived 3000 years B.C. The African natives seem to have been acquainted with the use of iron for time immemorial, perhaps long before the days when, in Greece, iron was offered as a prize to the victor in athletic games. The importance of iron,
its
utility for
warlike as well as peaceful purposes,
The early workers were soon won it recognition. defined under the names of Vulcan, Hephaestus, 20
Introductory
Thor.
Legends cling round the ancient smithies,
associating the pioneer craftsmen in iron with super-
natural powers.
Wayland Smith,
of the Berkshire
Downs, has
left
behind him, in the pages of u Kenil-
worth," a reputation for magic.

equivalents in
The
family
of Smith, Smythe, Schmidt, Fabri, Lefevre,
names and their
many
other languages, testify to the

partly accounted
high rank of the armourer of the Middle Ages.

for
The by
late
employment
of iron
is
the circumstance that, though one of the most

it is
widely diffused of minerals,
cept in the form of meteorites
lumps
never found pure exof iron
which
have suddenly descended upon the earth from the

abysses of
heaven. The earliest iron tools were probably made from these " gifts of the gods," which
sizes
have been found in various

ounces up to
ranging from a few

is
many
tons.
it
Iron ore
so
little
sug-
gestive of the metal
contains that an inexperienced
it with the iron and steel commerce. And even when the relationship had been established by the ancients the extraction of the metal from its matrix was a matter of great difficulty, on account of the numerous impurities of the ore and the high temperature needed for its reduction. We may still see in various parts of the world China, Africa, the Malay Peninsula the primitive methods used to separate the iron a hearth blown by the winds or a pump of the simplest form and the beating on the anvil of a heated metal ball to squeeze out the impurities. Iron thus obtained was
eye would never connect
of
21

very valuable. Early warlike nations used it only for the " business edge " of their weapons, which
were otherwise of copper or bronze. Just as bronze overcame stone, so iron vanquished bronze in battle. The Romans, and, later, the
Alchemists,
called
iron
Mars.
after
all
In
the
Bible
we
read
the
how
the
Philistines,
their
conquest of
" There
Israelites,
carried off
the smiths.
all
was no smith found throughout

for the Philistines said, Lest the
the land of Israel;
swords and spears.

to the
Philistines, to
Hebrews make them But the Israelites went down

sharpen every
man
his
his
share,
and his coulter, and his axe, and Gibbon tells us that the Turks owed
slaves, they fashioned for their
mattock."
their position
as a powerful invading nation to the iron which, as

lord, the great
Khan
and
their
of the
Geourgen.
could
To quote
only
last
his
own
a
words, "Their
bold
for
servitude
till
leader,
eloquent, should arise,

that
to persuade his countrymen
the
same arms which they forged
masters might become, in their
own
hands, the insallied
from a sceptre was the reward the mountains (A.D. 545) of his advice and the annual ceremony, in which a piece of iron was heated in the fire, and a smith's hammer was successively handled by the prince and his nobles, recorded for ages the humble profession and rational pride of the Turkish nation." From that time onward victory has declared for the nations who have known how to combine discipline and 22
struments of freedom and victory.
; ;
They
Introductory
employment of iron. The Roman's short stabbing sword and protected shield against the shieldless barbarian the armourstrategy with invention in the
;
clad Spaniard against the naked Mexican
the fire-
arms
"
of
Europe
;
against the spear, arrow, and club

"
of savages
the armour-plated warship against the

walls
wooden
in
every
case
iron
suitably
civil-
fashioned wins the day.
Even among highly
ised nations every advantage of metallurgical science

is
eagerly seized to strengthen defences and
make
weapons more deadly.

prevent defeat.
Steel plates
Mere numbers do not now must be of the toughest;

greatest possible
cannon and
rifles
must belch out the
number of missiles with the greatest possible accuracy. The mechanism of war must be reliable in every way. As M. Simonin wrote some decades ago, " In the
contests which will unhappily long continue to take
place, victory will henceforth generally
remain with
and which were echoed by Mr. Andrew Carnegie when he said that predominance must be in the hands of the nation which can manufacture the cheapest ton of steel. Our age, the Steel Age, could not be better named. Whichever way we look, steel confronts us. We move over it, shaped as rails or bridges. It enters more and more into the construction of our houses. The machinery which transports us from place to
those
of
steel
who produce
the finest quality,"
words
in the largest quantity
place, clothes us, feeds us, caters for our luxuries,

is
wrought from
steel.
And
23
the wealth of nations
The Romance
is
of Mining
either directly
derived chiefly from
steel,
or in-
directly.
hand with steel advances coal, without which it would be impossible to make full use of the metal. Steam-power waits on both. In fact, the triumvirate of steel, coal, and steam mutually support one another. Steam raises coal coal smelts iron
in
;
Hand
ore
iron ore yields material for the steam-engine

circle again.
and so round the played by coal

equally with
So great
civilisation
is
the part
that
in
modern
give
the
"bottled sunshine" of past ages

steel
to
may claim name to the

effect of iron
almost
present
period in the history of mankind.
Enormous
fortunes of
as has
been the
on the
human
society,
we cannot
forget the im-
portance of the intrinsically more precious metals.
Their unalterability, their beauty, and their variety
have
as
won them a place in our regard which, so far we can see, nothing will ever be able to diminish.
Associated as silver and gold have been with princely
they appeal to our aesthetic sense. which stand out from history often, in part at least, owe their fame to the glamour of great wealth. What more striking personage has been immortalised by Holy Writ than King Solomon, in whose days silver " was nothing accounted of " whose palaces and thrones were decked with gold
magnificence,
The
figures
whose
argosies sailed
home
laden with the gold of
Ophir ? The precious stones and marvellous riches which loom so largely in the " Arabian Nights " con-
24
Introductory
tribute as
much
as personal -adventure to the fascina-
Gold has been the magnet that has attracted the conqueror and the explorer. Time after time, India, the land of gold and
tion of that book.
diamonds, has had to bow to the invader, informed through travellers' tales of the wealth of the
Gold took the Spaniards to Mexico and Gold drew hundreds of thousands to California, Australia, South Africa, Alaska. Unfurl the golden standard where you will, a huge army soon collects under the banner, and, after exhaustcountry.
Peru..
ing the minerals, turns to the agricultural develop-
ment of the country. But for the reputed riches "of Ormuz and of Ind," exploration and colonisation of the world by Europeans would have been
delayed for centuries.
The advance
of
science
has
been
so
greatly
stimulated by metallurgy, and in turn metallurgy owes so much to scientific discovery, that we can
hardly conceive of the one without the other.
The
alchemy of the Middle Ages, which vainly strove to change the baser into the nobler metals, laid the foundations for modern chemistry, which helps on the one hand to trace and extract metal from its ore, and on the other shows how metal may serve mankind in a thousand ways. The influence of mining on mechanical arts is no less striking. Out of the ladder and bucket has gradually been evolved the winding engine which whirls men and ore at twenty miles an hour from the depths of the
25

earth.
The
air
or water-driven
drill
has replaced
the stone or bronze

Electric
hammer
of
in
the ancient miner.

large
lamps
have ousted
degree
the
Tramways do with ease what once caused basket-carrying men much toil and pain. The mechanical coal-cutter does the work of a hundred picks. Dynamite blasts into
candle and flickering oil-boat.
fragments huge masses
that
formerly would
have
been
cleft
laboriously with wedges.
In spite of his
conservatism the miner finally adapts to his use any

invention which has proved beneficial to those
who
work on the earth's surface. And in return he has shown how mountains may be burrowed through for the passage of the locomotive. The Simplon Tunnel and the prehistoric underground galleries of Italy and Spain are more closely related than one
romance in industry, what The story of the metals is bound up with phenomenal individual success, and equally gigantic failures. In a day the pauper becomes a prince, and he who fancied himself a prince finds himself a pauper. A humanity which takes pleasure in risking wealth on the cast of dice, on the running of a horse, or on the quotations of the Stock Exchange, cannot but be enthralled by the sudden ups and downs inseparable from the exploitation of new mines and virgin countries. Who has
see
a field does
may think. To those who can
mining open
not, at
one time or another,
felt
the desire to take

trail
pick and shovel and go on the
of the
miner
26
Introductory
hope that he may prove a Marshall, a Hargraves, a Godoy, a Gould, or a Drake ? From every corner of the globe come sensational, and often
in the
true, stories of
men who
in
a lucky
moment have
The
grasped a secret worth millions of pounds.
world
and for every fortune that has been made a hundred still remain for the prospector. Even when wealth has to be won by continuous and quite everyday work at the point of drill and
is
large,
pick the conditions of

the imagination.
life
are such as to appeaL to
The
great brotherhood of miners
the sturdy Cornishman, the lithe Italian, the stubborn,
German, the hardy, sombreroed Asturian, the Chilian barratero, calm and impassive, the excitable Frenchman, the thrifty, patient Chinaman is surrounded by perils and hardships. It was not without reason that the miners of the Harz peopled their mines with malicious gnomes, and prayed to Saints Nickel and Kobold before descending into
superstitious
the
depths.
Fire,
water,
poisonous gases, falling
roofs,
breaking ropes and ladders, are the terrors
which the miner faces without thought as part and

parcel of the risks of his calling.
sider the bravery
of the deepest to
" in the
Yet for the out-
and resource shown by the a toilers

presence of disaster help
hardships, mining has a
is
deep
weave a romance
that,
as real as that of the battlefield.

its
And
in
spite of
fascination
for the
of a
worker,
proved by the unhis calling in
willingness
miner to relinquish 27
favour of any other.

The
following
pages, while touching
the
chief
branches of the mining industry, must necessarily
omit reference to
of the world.
many
of the great treasure-houses
Special prominence has been given to
the
precious metals,
because
their
discovery
and
working has witnessed the most stirring scenes in mining life. As Mr. Fossett writes in his "Colorado" u There has been a fascination and romance
attending the search of
the
precious
metals,
and
time intensifies rather than diminishes
the feeling.
silver dis-
Under the magic

that
influence of gold
and
coveries a spirit of enterprise has been engendered
has
as
brought
about
as
the
accomplishment were
grand
peopled, states
of
results
unexpected
they
is
and
are
wonderful.
The
wilderness
founded, and almost an empire established where

the presence of civilised
man was unknown

will
but a
few years ago."
The reader
jewels,
also be glad to
hear of the source and supply of some of the most

valuable varieties of
clings even
round which romance

the metals,
more abundantly than round

had
;
since individual stones have
their histories.
We
have the whole world to roam over

are
so excursions
made
into those spots
where
typical or
prominent
instances of the mining of various minerals are to be
found.
Mining, here used in
its
widest sense, inas well as
cludes operations
;
on the surface
those
underground and extends to those substances which are extracted from the earth without recourse to shafts and tunnels. 28
Introductory
Enter a jeweller's shop and take note of the minerals ranged around. Could they speak, what
stories
they might have to

countries
;
tell
There
of
is
the gold
of
many
;
the silver of Mexico,

;
Nevada,
Spain, Bolivia,
Malacca
platinum
the
Mountains of the diamond of Brazil and Griqualand the ruby the turquoise of Persia the emerald of Burma the sapphire of Ceylon. Even in an of Peru ironmonger's the metal displayed hails from many lands the British Isles, France, the United States, Germany, Austria, Russia, Sweden, Italy, Spain, and In the stonemason's yard English sandSiberia. stone jostles Italian marble and Scotch granite and Welsh slate. On the grocer's shelves English salt
or
the
Mexico copper Colombia
the
of
tin
Cornwall
Superior
;
and
the
;
Lake
Ural
stands close to Sicilian sulphur.
Let us go and see

;
how
these diverse substances were discovered

;
how
they are
people
live
won to the use of mankind how the who exhume them and what are and
;
have been the
difficulties
encountered before Nature's
mineral riches are poured by land and sea into the

lap of civilisation.
29
CHAPTER
II
ANCIENT MINING Features of early mining Riches of the ancients The Egyptian mines European miner The Etruscan mines of Campiglia The The Phoenicians Zimbabwe The Romans as miners The Romans and Peruvians The development of mining in Britain Aztecs methods Ventilation Gunpowder Hoisting devices Comparative
earliest
comfort of modern miners.
Before embarking on
shall
detailed
accounts
of
the
various branches of mining as conducted to-day,
we
do well
to consider briefly the earliest stages
when it was being gradually evolved and organised by the old and great peoples of the
of the industry,
earth.
Three
facts
seem
to stand out clearly in respect

(i)
That India was the centre, at least in the Old World, from which radiated the first advances in the science of extracting minerals, to pass successively through Egypt, Phoenicia, and
of ancient
mining:
the Archipelago, to Greece and Italy,
whence they
Isles
;
penetrated to Germany, Gaul, and the British

(2)
that
among
the ancients mining was not con-
sidered honourable toil, and, therefore, had to be performed by slaves hence a nation had to become a conqueror before it could set up as a mine-owner (3) that gold was the metal to which the earliest
30
Ancient Mining
miners turned their serious attention, copper coming
second, and tin third.
iron
As we have already noticed, made an appearance very late, when metallurgy
had developed so far that the Egyptians and other races were able to perform many operations with bronze tools which, for lack of knowledge how to temper the copper alloy to a requisite hardness, we
could not imitate to-day without recourse to
steel.
We may
safely
assume
that mining
was practised
in eastern countries for three or four
before the Christian era.
Gold,
won
thousand years from the earth

is
by washing
alluvial deposits, just as
still
done
it
in
many
coffers
localities,
steadily
accumulated
in
the royal
of a
kingdom
use,
it
until,
in order to
put
to
some
practical
was fashioned
of
into
objects
of worship or the paraphernalia
a court.
" In
Babylon there were three great statues of beaten gold, two of them 40 feet high, and the third probably of similar dimensions, though sitting. Besides these there was an altar, 40 feet long and 15 feet broad, covered with gold plates and several From the weights given massive bowls and censers. it has been calculated that the raw metal in these constructions weighed about 2,700,000 ounces, or l We know, too, that Darius was about 1 1,000,000."
able to wring a yearly tribute of over .2,500,000 out
of his satrapies.
quantities
of
the
David and Solomon devoted huge metal to the adornment of the
temple and the royal palace.

1
The Athenians reared
Cassier's
Magazine.
31

over their citadel an enormous gold and ivory statue
of the goddess Athene.
In the
New World
the
same
accumulation went on through the ages, there being no gold currency to absorb the gold, so that the
Spanish conquerors on their arrival in Mexico and
Peru found vast treasure worth a desperate struggle

for
its
ownership.
as a
It
must not be supposed that the Old World

As we can see
at the
whole, or even contiguous countries, kept abreast in

the art of mining.
time,
present
some
races have retained the most
primitive
processes, while others have advanced.
The Chinahis iron
man
its
of the interior of
China extracts
from
ore in the same
way
as his ancestors did before
him
for countless generations.
The rock
exist
ponderous ore-crushing stamp

ously with the stone hatchet.
and contemporanedrill
Therefore, in speaking of ancient mining,
we should
and spas-
remember
that
its
development was
local
modic, though the general tendency throughout the
world was forwards.
We
naturally look to the Egyptians for the earliest
mining work that can be even approximately dated. The copper mines of Sinai are the most ancient of
which history makes mention. According to documentary accounts they were worked from 5000 B.C. to about 1200 B.C. There still exist the tunnels, furnaces, crucibles, and parts of the tools used by these toilers of the dim past. That the Egyptians knew of iron thousands of years ago is suggested by
32
Ancient Mining
sculptures of what are supposed to be iron smelting
furnaces, but as these particular sculptures
do not
date further back than

of iron would, even
is
if
1500 B.C., the introduction the treatment of that metal

left to
indicated,
of
still
;
be
very greatly posterior to the
mining
copper
and we are
in
wonder how
blocks that
the Egyptians carved the great granite
now attract tourists
crowds to the Valley of the Nile. The earliest European workings may have been the Among the copper lodes of the Asturias Spanish.
human
skulls of a prehistoric
type have been disflint.
covered near mining implements of

metallurgy was
When
dawning
in
the
Italian peninsula,
the old Etruscans drove galleries through the rocks

" There are/' says of Campiglia, in search of copper. H Underground Life," " excavations M. Simonin in
large enough to hold a six-storied house with ease. These vast chambers communicate with each other by means of narrow galleries, or rather passages, in
which a person can scarcely crawl.

rocks, left
The barren
as rubbish or waste in the excavations,
have hardened and become cemented together under

the pressure of the overlying beds, and by the earthy
debris of the mine. These artificial masses can only be broken by blasting, like those blocks of concrete which are thrown into the sea in the construction
of
breakwaters.
rotted,
The wooden props

carbonised,
are
still
in
place,
or rather
by a
;
sort
all
of
slow decomposition of the vegetable tissue

smell they give out
the
may
be recognised as that of the c 33
The Romance
grown
in the country.
of Mining
always
evergreen-oak and the chestnut, which are
Fragments of vases, lamps, and amphorae, which are found in the rubbish, are connected with Etruscan art. Wedges and bronze picks have also been met with in the mines, affording proofs that these works date from a period when iron was not commonly used for ordinary purposes.
.
. .
Enormous masses
of rubbish cover the flanks

pits
of the
mountains where the ancient
have been
opened, and over an extent of several miles follow
two
marking the outcrops of the In the valleys there are still enormous heaps of cinders on the very sites of the ancient foundries." Though these mines have not been worked for possibly 3000 years, they show a comparatively advanced stage of mining art. The very marks of the tools still remain in the rock, as fresh as if they had been
parallel courses
veins.
made yesterday. The Phoenicians played

spread
as the of
civilisation
so important a part in the

the
through
Mediterranean
countries,
and even beyond the
Pillars of Hercules,
ancients termed the Straits of Gibraltar, by

exploiting the mineral deposits
trading and
to them, that
known
we may pay
Phoenicians
special attention to their
operations.
Before
inhabitants
the
first
visited
Spain
the
had worked the

Huelva, Cordova,
silver, lead,
mines of
Seville,
and copper and Malaga, in
the southern parts of the peninsula.
The Canaanitish
and
to the
traders, getting access to the coast direct,
34
Ancient Minin g
inland regions
(generally called
Tarshish) by
trade
the
the
Guadalquiver,
natives in
drove
profitable
with
the
metals mentioned.
As soon
as they
had established themselves firmly they either comwork the mines for them, or imported slaves from their own territories bordering the Mediterranean. They must have obtained huge quantities of metal if Diodorus of Sicily is not
pelled the natives to
exaggerating
when he
states that
even the anchors of
from Spain were of silver a statement which reminds us of the silver cannon sent by Pizarro from Peru to Spain. The historian says further that "the avarice of the Carthaginians (Phoenicians) led them to seek for and work mines in all parts of the Peninsula, and that it was from this source they obtained the means with which to combat, and for a long period stubbornly resist, the It is, ultimately superior forces of mighty Rome."
ships returning
unfortunately, impossible to distinguish the Phoeni-
operations which immediately But we may be sure that many thousand tons of copper, tin, and silver were extracted during the Punic occupation, the zenith of
cian from the
Roman
succeeded them.
their
activity
probably being
the
period
when
Solomon
coasted
sent his ships to Tarshish.
Naturally adventurous voyagers, the Phoenicians
round the Atlantic shores of Spain and France, and finally reached the westernmost part of England, where they did a brisk trade in tin We shall refer to with the savage Cornishmen.
35
The Romance
this
of Mining
sphere of their activity more fully in a later

Rhodesia, at Zimbabwe, are ancient ruins of
extent,
chapter.
In
great
old mines from which large were extracted by the people that raised the huge fortress there. Legend has long associated this region with the Ophir of King Solomon and Mr. Rider Haggard, in his u King Solomon's Mines," has drawn an imaginative picture of the excavations driven through the mountains in the time of that monarch. More recently fact Mr. Theodore Bent, after a has succeded fiction. careful examination of Zimbabwe and its surroundof its ings, pronounced that during one period
and
quantities of gold
earliest history the
Phoenicians occupied Rhodesia,
and that to them are largely due the galleries and pits which can be counted by the thousand all over The gold was not merely won from the country. Shafts were sunk to a the " outcrops " of veins. depth of even 150 feet, and levels were driven from The Rhodesian miners also there along the veins. knew the use of fire to crack and splinter the rock, They brought up the before attacking it with tools. quartz, ground it in mills, and washed the particles
of gold out
of the rubbish
in
hollows
still
visible
along the river bed.
Bent found rows
of crushing-
stones and mortar-holes at which the African slaves
wore out
soapstone
their miserable lives.
The gold thus obtained was smelted and

moulds
for
cast in
coast,
conveyance to
the
36
Ancient Mining
whence
it
probably went by sea to the Red Sea, and
overland to Palestine.
When
at last the
Phoenicians
had to quit their South African colony they walledup the entrances to some of the mines before they
went.
" Outside others, heaps of quartz stand stacked
ready for removal.

of shafts, as
if
Tools are found at the bottom
abandoned by the workers in a panic, stone axes and wedges, as well as very ancient iron chisels, hammers, wedges, and trowels. The quartz-crushers are thrown down near their basins. A pile of skeletons at the Mundie
curious
flint tools,
ruins gives evidence of a flight or massacre

of
cakes
gold lying by their waists

1
may once have been

the Phoenician
held in a belt."
In Europe the
Romans took up
workings
their
after the destruction of Carthage.
During
occupation of Spain, from 210 B.C. to about

A.D.,
425
they busied themselves with the mining of
gold, silver,
Siberia, to
and copper. Spain became the Roman which slaves were sent by thousands to
Polybius
says
that
end
their
days in the mines.
40,000
alone.
men worked the mines of New Carthage From Pliny and Titus Livius we learn that
came annually from
is
20,000 pounds' weight of gold
the Iberian Peninsula.
Little
said of the copper
workings, though these, especially in the Rio Tinto

districts,
of
slag
must have been enormous. The heaps and cinders which, near the Rio Tinto
rise
and Tharsis mines, almost

1
to
the dignity
p. 262.
of
" The Romance of Modern Exploration,"
37
The Romance
hills,
of Mining
to
have
been
calculated
contain
of
30,000,000 tons of ore and rubbish.
upwards Gonzalo
took the
Tarin, a
Spanish expert, estimates that
it
labour of 10,000 slaves working for 45,000 days to
amass
of
this
huge quantity
of
"
dump
"
and
that
during the
Roman occupation over 10,000,000 tons copper were extracted from Huelvan mines. The
miles
of tunnels
Romans drove
Their mining
through the
hills,
and hollowed out great chambers in the ore-body. skill is suggested by the water-wheels and other devices found in the underground workings, and by the remarkable regularity of the excavations.
When
55
B.C.
Julius Caesar invaded
England
in the year
he wrote: "They [the

iron
rings of a
Britons] use brass
money and
upon the
quantity.
certain weight.
tin,
The
provinces remote from the sea produce

coast
iron,
but
is
the
latter
in
and those no great

their
Their
brass
imported."
After
of Spanish mines the Romans were encouraged to seek mineral treasures in " Ultima Thule." They have left traces of their activity in
experience
many
shire,
parts of the
kingdom.
In Cornwall they ex-
tracted tin.
In Northumberland, Derbyshire, York-
Cheshire,
Valley,
Nottinghamshire, Shropshire,
of
the
Wye
lead.
and the Forest

referring to
Dean, they mined

li
Pliny, in
this metal, says
It
is
extracted with a great labour in Spain and through-
out
the
Gallic
provinces.
But
in
Britannia
in
it
is
found
in the
upper stratum of the earth
such
38
Ancient Mining
abundance that a law has been spontaneously made,
prohibiting any one from working
more than
a certain
quantity of
it."
The Mendip
Hills,
Somersetshire,
slag left
are pitted with
Roman
lead mines.
The
by
the
Romans has been
re-smelted in recent years and
has yielded large quantities of metal.

raised near Oswestry
;
Copper was
;
gold
in
Caermarthenshire
iron in several counties.

of
Rude furnaces and masses
iron slag have
been found overgrown by peat

in Britain
or buried beneath accumulations of soil.
Roman mining
an
adit, or tunnel,
reached a
fairly
still
high
exists
hill
standard of excellence.
In Cornwall there
driven from the bottom of a
into a lode to drain off the water.
The work
it.
is
dis-
tinguished by the symmetry of the arch and the

careful
masonry
of the
stones which line
Passing to the
New
World, we find but few traces

Until the
extracting
of distinctly ancient mining.
coming
ore
of
Europeans,
America.
the
methods
in
of
mostly very primitive
both
North
and
were South
In the copper districts of Lake Superior
the aborigines used only stone
hammers and perhaps

off the great
bags of hide to remove the metal hacked
which here and there showed above the surface. In Central America tombs have been opened containing stone chisels, awls, and polishers, with which the old inhabitants of Panama attacked
of
it
lumps
the gold "placers," or surface deposits, ages before the arrival of the Spaniards.
The Aztecs
of
Mexico and the Peruvians had con39

knowledge of mining, though ignorant of With bronze tools they burrowed into the hills and took out gold, silver, tin, and copper in large quantities. Of the Peruvian methods
siderable
the uses of iron.
Prescott writes, "
They did not attempt
to penetrate
shaft,
into the bowels of the earth
by sinking a
but
simply excavated a cavern in the steep sides of the
mountain,
or, at
most, opened a horizontal vein of
moderate depth.
the knowledge of the best
They were equally deficient means of detaching

it
in
the
precious metal from the dross with which

united,
was
a mineral not rare in Peru as an amalgam to effect

this
and had no idea
of the virtues of quicksilver
decomposition.
Their method of smelting the
ore was by means of furnaces built in elevated and
exposed situations, where they might be fanned by

the strong breezes of the mountains.
of the Incas, in short, with
all
The
subjects
their patient persever-
ance, did
little
more than penetrate below

it
the crust,
the outer rind, as
were, formed over those golden

in the
caverns which
lie
hidden
dark depths of the
Andes."
Both nations managed, however, to amass much

treasure for their rulers.
spoils of
When
Cortes divided the
Mexico he had to deal with gold and silver plate worth .1,417,000; while Pizarro in Peru melted down three and a half million pounds worth It is probable that the treasure captured was but a since the vanquished would fraction of the total
!
" The Conquest of Peru."
40
Ancient Mining
have hidden
many
of their precious possessions as

for.
soon as they found what the Spaniards came
Under
the conquerors European methods increased
the yield of the mines so greatly that Spain took the
foremost place
among
the nations of the sixteenth
century in wealth and power.
The
science of
mining has advanced gradually

Until
with the increase of mechanical knowledge.

the invention of gunpowder,
and
in
many
places for
a long time afterwards, the shafts
and levels were The driven entirely by means of picks and wedges. labour must have been infinitely more tedious and painful than it is to-day, when, in spite of all our modern appliances, a miner's life is one of the As Dr. John A. Church has said 1 hardest possible. " The old mines were horrible working places. The galleries were low, tortuous, so poorly supported that accidents by caving of the roof were probably They were lighted by pine knots or by frequent.
lamps,
made only
pith,
of
oil
a clay saucer filled with
ill-
smelling vegetable
rush,
or tallow, in which a bit of
or
rag,
floating,
served for wick

off
and
they were without ventilation to carry
the dense
smoke from these lamps and the effluvia arising from Even after centuries of experience, severe labour. mining had become a great industry, the conwhen dition of the mines was deplorable." One of the greatest hardships was the want of a
current of fresh air to reduce the heat of the galleries
1
Cassier's Magazine,
March
1899.
41

and provide pure oxygen for the workers' lungs. In the sixteenth century rough ventilating fans were constructed sometimes edged with the vanes
feathers
to
create
draught
in
the
galleries.
About the same time pumps were

that
installed to free
mines of water, a task previously only possible, and
on a very limited scale, by the raising of buckets with windlasses or on men's backs. We may suppose that gunpowder was not used below ground until methods of ventilation were fairly perfect, since its poisonous fumes would have rendered stagnant air quite unbreathable for a long time after an explosion. The ladder still survives in many mines as the sole means of descent and ascent, involving an immense amount of extra fatigue. Steam power only was able to give quick transit, first in the "manengine," such as is still used in Cornwall, and afterwards in the rope-hoisted cage. Steam was also harnessed to ventilating and pumping machinery, and later to that for lighting. But for explosives and steam, modern deep-mining would have been
absolutely impossible.
feet
Man now
earth,
sinks shafts
5000
down
into
the
and from the bottom

sends copious currents
;
burrows horizontally.
if
He
of air to the lowest depths
pumps
out the water,
need
tricity
and leads compressed air and electhrough a maze of pipes and wires to work
be
;
machine-drills
which,
explosives, relieve the

toil
in combination with high miner of a large part of the
otherwise necessary to secure the minerals.
42
Ancient Mining
As we shall read in future pages, the underground workers of to-day have hardships and perils to encounter, but in comparison with
of those
the surroundings
who
first
is
explored the deep treasure-houses

a comfortable
of Nature, theirs
and happy
lot.
43
CHAPTER
The
Sierra
III
THE ELDORADO OF THE GREAT WEST

of altering a mill-race First discovery of The Booty scented by the public Gold reaches San in wages Scenes in 'Frisco Off to the Francisco Sudden diggings The Mormons The mining Scarcity of water Disappointed hopes " Placer " mining Panning-out The Racial feeling Hardships and disease Riotous extravagance What the average miner got Rough justice Danger of wealth Incredible San Francisco The trans-continental journey selfishness Trouble What Mark Twain saw Rapid increase California's population Exhaustion of " placers" The miner's restlessness The sad
Nevada
result
gold in California
rise
outfit
sluice
in
in
results
Hydraulic mining
the hydraulic jet
Devastating
Gigantic " flumes" How gold

effect
is
washed out by
on the country.
Parallel
to the coast of
Upper
California, at a dis-
tance inland of about
200
miles,
runs the Sierra
lofty range marked by a dominant peaks, many of which are over It has an average width of about 14,000 feet high. eighty miles, and its western slopes are more gentle than the eastern, which abound in precipitous declines. From the mountains many streams hurry westwards to join a main river, called the Sacramento, flowing into the San Francisco Bay. On their way these tributaries cut through mighty deposits of gravel, which in the course of the ages have been detached from the heights and distributed along the valleys.
Nevada, a continuous and

of
line
From
the latitude of San Francisco north to
Oregon
44
The Eldorado
of the Great
West
the strata of the range have received a liberal salting
with gold at the hands of Nature
has separated huge quantities of

strew
it
it
in the river courses
and
in
and the water from its bed, to gulches through
which streams no longer flow. This huge auriferous belt on the Sierra's western slope is the Eldorado of the West. One January day in 1848 a Mr. Marshall was making alterations at his saw-mill on the Americanos River, which enters the Sacramento at a point where the town of the same name now rises. The tail-race of the mill being too narrow to allow the water to run off in sufficient quantities to get full work out of
the wheel, he threw the mill-wheel out of gear,
and
suddenly
let
the whole
body
of water behind the
dam
loose into the race.
This operation consider-
ably enlarged the narrow channel, and a mass of
sand and gravel was carried

current.
off
by the force
of the
Captain Sutter, a neighbour, thus related

to Dr.
:
what followed
J.
Tyrwhitt Brooks, one of the

after this
pioneer miners
il
Early in the morning

left
took place, he was walking along the

stream,
first
bank
of the
when he
perceived something which he at
took for a piece of opal
a clear transparent
stone, very
common
there
glittering
:
on one of the
spots laid bare by the sudden crumbling of the bank.
He
1
paid no attention to this
but while he was giving

several
directions to the
Vide
foil.
workmen, having observed
"Four Months among
the Gold Finders in Alta California,"
p.
40
45
BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY CHESTNUT HILL, MASS.
The Romance
excited that he stooped
up.
'
of Mining
was so
far
similar glittering fragments, his curiosity
down and
said Mr.
picked one of them
Do you know/
I
Marshall to me,
'
positively
debated with myself two or three times

should take the trouble to bend
of the pieces,
so,
whether
to pick
up one
my back and had decided on

glittering
not doing
when, further on, another
morsel caught
before you.
my
I
eye
the largest of the pieces
now
condescended to pick it up, and to my astonishment found it was a thin scale of what appears to be pure gold.' He then gathered some
twenty or thirty similar pieces, which on examina-
were right. His first impression was that this gold had been lost or buried there by some early Indian tribe perhaps
tion convinced
that his suppositions
him
some
of those mysterious inhabitants of the west, of
whom we
have no account, but who dwelt on

cities
this
continent centuries ago, and built those
and
temples, the ruins of which are scattered about these

solitary wilds.
On
proceeding, however, to examine
the neighbouring
or less auriferous.
soil,
he discovered that
at
it
was more
it
mounted his would carry him with the news." Captain Sutter was soon convinced by the specimens shown that an epoch in Californian history had been opened. Of course the first thing for the two lucky men to do was to keep the discovery to themThey visited the mill and poked about among selves. the sand with such good results that they soon had
46
once decided him. He horse, and rode down to me as fast as

This
The Eldorado
collected an
of the Great West
ounce of the precious metal. The next day they went further up the stream, and found that gold existed along the whole course, not only in the bed of the main stream, but also in the now driedup gulches and creeks leading into it. Indeed, gold appeared most plentiful in the ravines, for Captain Sutter picked out of a dry gorge with his knife a lump of solid gold scaling nearly one and a half
ounces.
Unfortunately for the discoverer and his friend, the
workpeople had scented booty. A Kentuckian, suspecting that " something was up," dogged the prospectors about, and searched for the object of
mill
their
wanderings, so
that
when they returned
to
the mill they were astonished, not to say disgusted,
by the labourers running up with flakes of gold, which an Indian, who had previously worked in a mine in Lower California, had immediately recognised as the "true stuff." The secret had thus become public property in a very few hours. Such a piece of news soon spread, and hard on its
heels
came
actual proof of
its
truth in the shape of
gold flakes sent

a
down
to
San Francisco.
On May
man
entered the town with twenty-three ounces of
gold.
once began with one voice to talk a Spanish term of nothing but the new " placers "
People
at
where gold is found mixed with Parties were formed at once to alluvial deposit. visit the diggings, and individuals started off alone with shovels, mattocks, and pans to dig the metal
signifying
spots
47
The Romance
out.
of Mining
All the
fifty
The
talk
soon bred a perfect furore.
workpeople struck.
Out
of
new
buildings in
course of construction only about half-a-dozen were not bereft of artisans

gether
;
the majority of
whom,
to-
with
lawyers,
storekeepers,
were bitten by the fever. On be seen a paper bearing the legend, " Gone
diggings."
and merchants, many a door could

to the
Wages increased by leaps and bounds. The people who remained behind could ask their own terms. Salesmen and shopmen got 2300 to 2700 dollars a
and even boys received salaries board which in the pre-mania days would have satisfied the But while many houses heads of large departments.
year, with
;
were being deserted, fresh inhabitants poured in by sea, many having come across the Isthmus of Panama
where they could take ship. Up spr?ng a host of canvas booths to accommodate the newIn the better parts of the town stupendous comers. taverns, gambling houses, and other buildings commanded huge rents anything up to 100,000 dollars " Skirting the beach," writes an eye-witness, 1 a year. " was a vast collection of tents, called the Happy since more truly designated the Sickly Valley where filth of every description, and stagValley In these tents nant pools, beset one at every stride. congregated the refuse of all nations, crowded toeight people occupying what was only space gether for two. Blankets, firearms, and cooking utensils were
to a point
; '
'
'
'
Mr. William Shaw.
48
The Eldorado of
the Great
West
Scenes of
the only worldly property they possessed.
depravity, sickness, and wretchedness shocked the moral sense, as much as filth and effluvia did the nerves and such was the state of personal insecurity slept without firearms at hand. that few citizens The constant wearing of arms by such a disorderly set, amongst whom quarrels were frequent, caused
;
'
many
disputes to terminate disastrously
but the un-
settled state of the country,
and the many desperate
characters prowling about,
the weaker party was only from oppression by a loaded revolver, as there was no assistance to be expected from others. Steel and lead were the only arguments available for redress, and bystanders looked on unconcernedly
for self-protection
armed
made
it
necessary to be
sheltered
at
acts
of
violence
the cause of the dispute, or
the justice of the punishment inflicted, being seldom
inquired into."
San Francisco had small chance of comfort. Even if he possessed a fairly heavy purse, it soon lost its weight in a city where a good meal cost three dollars, even if the owner kept clear of the many gambling hells which kept open house for the allurement of " greenhorns." In the 'fifties San Francisco was very inaccessible as compared with its position to-day at the termini
poor
arriving in
of
man
several
great
transcontinental
lines.
To
get
thither
from the east coast the traveller had a choice between a tedious sea journey round the Horn a partly sea and partly land route via the Panama D 49
;
The Romance
Isthmus
of Mining
which a road and subsequently a and a land march of some 3000 miles. Nevertheless, the distant Sierras soon teemed with a population of many thousands. Most of the immigrants, at least during the first two years, came in from the coast while a minority worked across the trackless plains, braving the and the many physical hostility of the Indians difficulties of a passage through a waterless, trackMany a bloody battle was less, and arid region. fought between the white gold-seeker and the scalploving Crow, Pawnee, or Sioux. Though the lighter
railway were driven
;
;
across
colour eventually prevailed, the natives, well skilled

in
the
arts
of
treachery
and
murdered
parties of their natural foes,
ambuscade, often and escaped
with their gory trophies into the fastnesses of the
mountains.
Shortly after the discovery of gold a large emigrant
band
for the
of
Mormons
entered
California
across the
Without wasting time they made straight Americanos River, and began washing out the golden flakes and dust which permeated the They did not have the valley bed of the stream. to themselves for long, since the miners from San Francisco were now on the march to the " Mormon Diggings," as they were called after the firstRockies.
comers.
The miners
fields
leaving San Francisco for the goldfor
often
banded together
mutual protection
and
help.
The
perils of the
journey were such as
The Eldorado of
risky business.
the Great
West
to render the passage of a solitary person a terribly
Before starting, the
more prudent
outfit
;
:
gold-seekers
spades,
equipped themselves with an

mattocks
;
viz., tent,
axe, blankets, hides
coffee, sugar, whisky,
and kettles. If funds permitted, a horse or two would be added to the list as beasts of burden, and any one who could afford it purchased a mount for his personal use. For some days the track up country lay through an undulating, park-like region, where sycamore, oak, and cypress offered grateful shelter from the Then the landscape changed, and burning sun.
brandy
;
knives, plates, forks, pots
bare
sand-hills
replaced
filled
the
the
green
eyes
vegetation.
and mouths hot winds parched their skin of the travellers and to these discomforts were it cracked till On one occasion a added the pangs of thirst. party met a straggler who offered them a flask of brandy priceless at the " diggings " in exchange The barter was for just half-a-pint of water. water was excessively refused, because scarce and the poor wretch learnt among the party
Horrible
dust-storms
;
that the necessaries of

its
life
are after
all
superior to
luxuries.
Here and there they fell in with men returning from the mines, broken in hope and health, who prophesied ruin to any one who entered the diggings, and advised a retreat before it was too late. Such advice, as may be imagined, was quite unheeded,
5*
The Romance
of Mining
appeared to blind
his luck at the
for the prospect of rinding gold
everybody who had not yet tried
game
to all considerations of possible physical collapse.
Travellers had to reckon with the Indians, ever
on the
and
day,
if
alert to steal a
horse or any other possession
of the white invader.
At night watches were

post,
set,
the guard, overcome by the fatigues of the

at their
nodded
an animal or two would

daylight returned.
let
probably be missing
when
The
strains of
;
such a journey often
loose evil
passions
and
men who had
started
from San
Francisco
stick to
bound together by solemn pledges to one another, would quarrel and separate,
first at
each endeavouring to be
the diggings.
;
But the roughest path has an end and at last weary eyes were gladdened by the sight of tents A canvas erection of lining the banks of a stream. unusual size indicated a " store," where Indians, Oregon trappers, with skin tanned to the consistency
of
buffalo's,
Spanish
Dons
of
the
as
old the
school,
eagle,
hatchet-faced
jostled
Yankees,
keen-eyed
one another as they exchanged their golddust for food and tools. We may now turn our attention to the gold-
methods saving " placers." At
employed
first
at
the
Californian
operations
were
confined
almost entirely to the shallow or surface diggings,
where the gold lay at, or just below, the surface. Not until the superficial stratum was pretty well played out was serious attention paid to the deeper
52
The Eldorado of
placers,
the Great
West
which could be worked only through long

principal implements used for shallow work-
tunnels and shafts.
The
and
ing are the pick and shovel, pan, cradle or rocker,

the
sluice.
The
pan, about
is
twelve inches
iron,
in diameter at the bottom,
of
stamped
and
much
resembles the ordinary dairy milk-pan.
To
extract gold
the pan
is
water
It
is
from the earth with which it mingles, filled with the " dirt " and taken into the
a stream, tub, or pool, as the case
may
;
be.
submerged, and the miner works the dirt with then, his hands until the lumps have crumbled
holding one side of the pan rather higher than the
other, he gives
it
a peculiar circular motion which
produces a rotatory current and causes the lighter

portion to pass over the
lip,
the heavier particles
remaining
gradually
behind.
eliminated,
The
earthy
element
is
thus
and the pebbles are picked
out
by hand, until only a small residue remains, which is either pure gold, or gold mixed with a
small quantity of sand.

fully
The
vessel,
residue
is
then care-
and the earthy dust can be blown away, leaving nothing but pure gold. Panning is slow and laborious work, so that those who had money or skill sufficient to provide
dried in an
iron
.
themselves
the Indians
tive
with
rocker
it
styled
resorted
six inches
or
" gold
to
this
canoe,"
less
as
primi-
method
of washing.
The rocker resembles a

from the top
is
child's cradle.
About
drawer, with a bottom of perforated iron.
Earth
53
The Romance
is
of Mining
thrown by one man into the drawer and well water to break up the lumps. A second miner rocks the cradle backwards and forwards till the finer contents of the drawer fall through into the sloping tray below, on which are
flooded with
cross bars, called
riffles,
to arrest the gold.
Much more
contrivances
is
scientific
than either of these simple

a
long,
slightly
in-
the
" sluice,"
clined trough, through which water flows rapidly.

Its
dimensions vary according to circumstances.

fifteen to
;
In
some
deep,
cases only a single trough, ten to twelve inches
twenty wide, and twelve
feet long,
would be used
its
but as each trough tapers towards
fitted one form a continuous sluice thousands of feet in length. The trough bottom is well provided with riffles, sometimes charged with mercury to catch the particles of gold the more mercury being needed the finer the separation of the metal dust. Sluice washing is, if possible, carried on without interruption day and night, for weeks, even for months. Then comes the u clean-up." The gold, either " free " or amalgamated with the mercury, is carefully scraped from the riffles and washed clean
lower end, any number can easily be
into the other to
in a pan.
Amalgam has
to be squeezed in buckskin or
canvas, which allows the liquid mercury to pass, but
amalgam. This is put into a retort, and subjected to great heat until all the mercury has vaporised and been led into a condenser, where it resumes its liquid form. The gold thus obtained is
retains the solid
54
The Eldorado of
very porous, or " spongy "
the Great
;
West
and must be melted

fit
down and run

In '49
into bars to be
for sale.
of the
and
'50 the rocker
and pan did most
The toil was severe, in the case of the pan, which required constant stooping, while the constant immersion of the hands rapidly macerated the skin and made them very painful. The rocker saved the hands this injury, and, by employing several sets of muscles, enabled the miner to keep on working without
work.
much
when
physical discomfort.
By a
rule of the diggings,
a party operated a cradle, a nugget weighing
over half-an-ounce was considered to be the private
property of the person
who found
of metal.
it,
and was not
added
to the
common
became
miners,
fund
acute.
Since several nationalities occupied the diggings

race-feeling
The Americans, who

their teeth to the
if
predominated numerically, showed

" coloured
"
and,
their
property were
worth the trouble, often drove them away. These ejectments sometimes resulted in serious fighting, as the injured party was always ready to resort to
stealthy retaliation
under cover
of night.
Nor was
gangs.
there
At the
the valley.
much love lost between the white Mormon diggings a quarrel broke
damaged
the claims lower
out over a sluice which
owners refused compensation to the injured diggers, who, accordingly, Knives, picks, rifles and raided the aggressors. Heads were smashed pistols were freely used. in, limbs lopped, bullets flew and in a few minutes
sluice
;
down
The
55
The Romance of Minin g

the ground had
battle-field.
all
the appearance of a miniature
No
truthful picture
of
these
early
camps
can,
unfortunately, be a pleasant one.
Even
in the hot
season the nightly dews were so heavy that blankets
would be saturated by the morning. In the rainy season a deluge fell, against which the frail erections of earth and canvas afforded little shelter. Owing to exposure, hard work, and poor food, disease
stalked in
many
shapes
among
the miners.
The
most prevalent complaints were dysentery, fever, and ague, for which little help could be procured, since
the
few doctors present charged exorbitant fees, and medicine was practically non-existent. Every now and then a poor wretch, mad in the delirium of his tent and fever, would rush frantically from
came in his way. " One Shaw, " I took a stroll round a most ominous silence prevailed of the the tents busy crowds not one was to be seen at work all was as still as an hospital. We had not been the sickness universally prevailed, seemonly sufferers
attack
anybody who
morning," writes Mr.

;
ingly as infectious as the plague.

sufferers
in various
least
In every tent lay

;
stages of
disease
out of two
hundred, at
twenty had died, and not more
than sixty were able to
move
those convalescent
in
would be seen Those who were too

sipation excited
gathered together
ill
the
stores.
dis-
to frequent scenes of
;
my
compassion
they lay huddled

cursing,
together
in
tents,
moaning and
56
many
of
The Eldorado
;
of the Great West
them dying, with no one to attend to their spiritual or bodily wants and I cannot but think that many died from sheer starvation, or mere want of attendance."
Side by side with this dreadful suffering existed

riotous
extravagance.
The few
their
fortunate
of
diggers
gambled deeply, staking

against the turn
of
bags
gold
dust
of
the cards.
Being
raise
men
no
the
education, they imagined that lavish expenditure of

their
easily- won
wealth would
them
in
estimation of their less fortunate fellows.

ingly, they
Accordbottles,
might be seen seated on rough benches,

the necks
of
breaking
off
champagne
to
quench the thirst arising from a lobsters, and other luxuries all,
diet
of
sardines,
of
course,
pur-
chased
it is
at
famine prices.
Under the circumstances
not surprising that the store-keepers,
who
never
did a hand's turn of gold-washing,

fortunes.
made
the largest
spade which cost originally one dollar

thirty
at
might fetch
the
diggings.
Thirty -four
pounds
fifty
of biscuit, salt beef,

;
beans, and flour cost
dollars
vailed,
one time, when scurvy preand fresh vegetables had run out, the lucky
and
at
importer of some potatoes sold them at a dollar

apiece, to be eaten raw, like apples
I
With respect
stories
reality.
to the richness of the diggings,
many
have been told which greatly exaggerate the In a few instances immense finds were unfifteento eighteen
doubtedly made by pioneers, but the average product

of
ahard day's work would not exceed
57
The Romance
dollars.
of
Mining
;
Of the thousands who visited the " placers " only about one-third became resident diggers and higher up in the Sierras, beyond what was afterwards recognised to be the limit of the gold-bearing
miner made long and wearisome journeys over the crests of snowy mountains, and
belt,
the
early
even
into
the
arid
deserts
beyond,
without
ever
seeing the colour of gold.
Thousands worked like slaves, and won their ounce or so daily from the river deposits but living was so expensive that these returns only sufficed to keep body and soul together. Many diggers, hoping for richer finds, stayed on until their small stores of dust had vanished into the store or saloon, and it became absolutely necessary to retire, beaten, from the struggle. Though robbery and violence were only too prevalent at the diggings, a very rough justice awaited anybody caught committing a theft. The first dozen men who came up constituted themselves into an informal jury, and passed summary sentence the loss of one or both ears, with hanging in reserve
;
:
for serious offences.
Sometimes the Indians made a night raid, massacred the occupants of outlying tents, and decamped with their food, clothes, and other possessions. A band of avengers having been collected, they went on the track of the depredators, guided by some old trapper well versed in backwoods craft. As often as not the Indians were run to earth, and treated with a severity that instilled 58
The Eldorado of
into
the Great
West
man
them so wholesome
a dread of the white
and
their
his " thunderstick," that the natives in certain
districts
ceased to raid, and entered the service of
former enemies.
if
Even
man amassed
wealth
it
was apt
to be a
source of great personal danger to him.
He was
of
watched and followed about on the chance

the way.
an
opportunity occurring of putting him quietly out of
Bands
of desperadoes
roamed the country,

Dr. Tyrwhitt
tells
ready to swoop
of a big
down on
the lucky miner returning
with his hoard to San Francisco.
amount
to his
American who had accumulated a very large and who suspected that every visitor tent was on robbery bent, and acting as a spy.
of gold,
in
Any harmless person who looked
accordingly reif
ceived notice to quit in a few seconds
he did not
wish to receive a dose of lead from the ever ready

rifle
or revolver.
gold-fever bred a selfishness that sounds almost
The
Help was refused to the dying. When death at last released the poor sufferer, his living comrades often refused to cease work for a few
incredible.
minutes to give the corpse burial, preferring to

it
let
become
the prey of the coyotes.
visitor to the
mines had good reason for arguing that when gold comes in at the door all human sympathy flies out
of the
window.
in
After the lapse of a few
brewed
San Francisco. 59
months serious trouble While labour was still

;
scarce wages reached fabulous figures
but with a
The Romance
of Mining
great influx of broken miners these prices could no
longer be maintained, though the cost of provisions
and other necessaries showed no signs

ing.
of diminish-
Discontent prevailed
among
at
the lower classes.
Nightly
meetings
took
made
fi
furious tirades
which agitators against employers and those

place,
sell
foreigners "
who
ventured to
their labour at
of
i.e.
cheaper rates than the

less
mob
approved
for
of
than ten dollars a day. Poor fellows suspected being " blacklegs " were taken to a high cliff,
called the " Tarpeian Rock,"
and hurled on
to the
beach below, used as a where the sand brought
common
in
burying-ground,
rising tide per-
by the
formed the office of sexton. Yet, in spite of all this inhumanity and villainy, the town was rapidly increasing, and in the face of labour troubles lofty warehouses rose to the very edge of the hills behind Fine hotels, huge business houses, and the towns. public offices were erected, and eagerly rented by far-seeing people whose sagacity told them that the gold-rush would be followed by occupations more
steadily prosperous than " placer " mining.
For five years the " rush " continued. Men poured in from all sides. The terrible trans-continental journey was undertaken by thousands of immigrants who started from St. Louis or Omaha on the Missouri, pushed along the Platte River, crossed the Rockies, encountered the horrors of the Great Salt Lake Desert, and, after a final struggle with the Sierra Nevada, dropped down into the Land of Promise, their 60
The Eldorado of
the Great
West
numbers sadly thinned by wounds, accidents, disease, Mark Twain, writing of this hunger, and thirst. route, and the Great Desert in particular, said " It was a dreary pull, and a long and thirsty one, From one extremity of this for we had no water. the road was white with the desert to the other, It would hardly be an bones of oxen and horses.
:
exaggeration to say that

forty miles and
step
!
we could have walked

feet
the
set
our
on a bone
at
eveiy
was one prodigious graveyard. And the log-chains, waggon-trees, and rotting wrecks
desert
of vehicles
The
were almost as thick as the bones.
think
we saw
to
log-chains enough rusting there in the desert
reach across any State in the Union.

relics
Do
not
these
fearful suffering
to
something of an idea of the and privation the early immigrants " California endured ?
suggest
is
It
impossible to say
at
how many
at
is
miners were
actually
work
in
California
the time of the
greatest excitement, but 50,000

for 1850.
the figure suggested
number had pronew-comers found the rich deposits of surface gold ready to hand the total output of these years marked the highest level of the Californian output, some 65 million dollars' worth " per annum. Memorable among the richest u strikes
In 1852 and 1853 this
;
bably doubled
and
as the
of those days are those of the Stanislaus, Americanos,
Yuba, and Feather Rivers, where the fortunate owners washed out from one to five thousand dollars a day
1
" Roughing
it,"
chapter xx.
6l
The Romance
like
of Mining
But such spots as these were very limited in area, the rich u pockets " found in the mountains, where gold had accumulated most amazingly. One of the pockets yielded 60,000 dollars in two weeks another just double that amount in three months
while smaller deposits, laid bare in several instances
by rooting hogs, panned out 5000 dollars and upwards.
As soon as the worked over, a

miners,
richest bars
spirit
and gulches had been

affected
lt
of
restlessness
says,
the
who
were, as
Mark Twain
no simper-
ing, dainty,
less
kid-gloved weaklings, but stalwart, daunt-
young braves, brimful of push and energy, and endowed with every attribute that goes to up a peerless and magnificent manhood make
royally
the very pick of the world's glorious
ones."
Mr.
Twain
is
evidently here referring only to the
more
respectable part of the population, as the immigrants

certainly contained a high
percentage of thorough-
going scoundrels, who,
if
not villains to begin with,
rapidly developed into such under the deteriorating

influences of gold-mining.
in those of
Yet
in his pages,
and
Mr. Bret Harte, we are able to detect
the kindliness
that often concealed itself under a rough and forbidding exterior. The man who was ready to draw his " gun " on little provocation, could also lend a helping hand to a mate in time of need. These folk, wrought to a pitch of nervous frenzy by the myriad reports flying about, were only too easily induced to leave a locality of moderate wealth,
62
The Eldorado of
and
to plunge into the
tains.
the Great
West
the
unknown beyond
moun-
After
li
months
of fruitless searching for the
advertised
return
those who had
inexhaustible focus of gold/' they would
not succumbed to privation
poverty-stricken and ragged, to find the claims they
A great left already occupied by fresh arrivals. "rush" of this description took place in 1855, to the Kern River, 250 miles south of San Francisco. Three years later 20,000 men picked up their traps and stampeded to the Fraser River, denuding California of a large proportion of her workers. The
had
sufferings of this misguided
mob were
terrible
their
success very moderate.
By 1855
exhausted.
the " shallow placers'' had been almost
The pan and rocker no longer brought enough gold to render their use profitable. There remained, however, the deeper placers and
out
the
" lode "
gold,
embedded
in
quartz
matrix.
thousand little mushroom mining cities, deserted by their busy population, crumbled into
So, while a
ruins
amid the deathly silence of the valleys, a hundred more rose elsewhere, occupied by men bent on continuing the search with a more scientific equipment, and a different organisation of labour.
We
will therefore turn
our attention to
Hydraulic Mining,
with which
is
connected the second chapter of Calithe valleys the

prehistoric glaciers
fornian metallurgical history.

In
some
of
63

accumulated beds of gold-bearing gravel to a thickness probably unparalleled in the rest of North America. Inasmuch as the greater part of the gold
sinks to the
disintegrated, washed, and carried off by water. If you have ever watched a fire-engine at work you must have been impressed by the force with which the water jet strikes an object against which Imagine such a jet turned on to a it is directed. bank of crumbling gravel, and you have the essential
by shafts some manner
bottom of a bed, it can be reached only and tunnels, unless the whole mass is in
idea of hydraulic mining.
In order to carry out such operations successfully
an abundant supply of water under very high pressure

is
needed.
To
this
end special companies were
formed in California to bring water long distances from mountain lakes or rivers, through ditches, As the troughs, or pipes, to the scene of operations.
on a much gentler gradient than that which it runs, by the time it reaches the mine it may have a " head " of some hundreds of feet. From the end of the channel the water is led down through pipes of decreasing
channel
is
built
of the valley along the sides of
diameter to nozzles, three to
six
inches in diameter,
which fire it against the gravel bank with enormous An expert has stated that a strong man power. could not possibly strike a crow-bar through a sixinch jet of water coming out under a 300-foot " head " This is extraordinary, though a fact and 64
!
The Eldorado
of the Great West

killed
by the jets at a distance of 200 feet or more from the nozzle! The " flume " companies expended huge sums on this kind of work in the 'sixties. In Nevada County is the Grand Trunk line of the Eureka Lake and Yuba Canal Company, running from four small lakes near the summit of the Sierra to North San Juan, The Eureka lake supplies most sixty-five miles away. of the water. A granite dam two hundred and fifty feet long and seventy feet high was built across the valley to impound 930 million cubic feet of water. The main trunk carrying the water to the mines is eight feet wide by three-and-a-half deep, and has
a
fall
men and animals have been
of
Not
far
about one foot in a hundred. away runs the South Yuba Canal, sixteen
It
miles of which cost about 600,000 dollars.
passes
through
dollars
dollars.
several
tunnels.
"
One
of
these," writes
Mr. T. F. Cronise, 1 " sixty

;
feet in
length, cost
6000
another, 3800 feet long, having cost 112,000 The flume, seven miles long, runs for one
and a-half miles through a gallery worked into the side of a precipice of solid rock one hundred feet high the cliff being so impending that the workmen had to be let down from the top to commence drilling and blasting, an expedient not at all uncommon in the construction of these works in other parts of the
state.
From
the
ramify,
carrying
water over
main trunk ditch-branches an immense tract of
country, supplying a vast

1
number
65
of mills, hydraulic
"The
Natural Wealth of California."

and
sluice claims.
This
of
company has thrown dams
across the
outlets
four lakes situated near the
summit
of
the Sierra,
using them as reserves for
supplying their canals in the dry season.

these dams, constructed
of solid masonry,
One
of
high and 11 50 feet

of
42 feet long, has increased the volume
Meadow Lake more than tenfold formerly a mere pond, now being, when
This
this
full,
lake,
more
their
than a mile and a quarter long by half a mile wide."
company spent 1,130,000
dollars
on
works, but in twelve years netted 1,400,000 dollars

in receipts.
Placer
River
dollars
County
Canal,
;
boasts the Auburn and Bear 290 miles long, which cost 670,000
a 400,000 dollar ditch
Amador County has

;
Calaveras County, a 50 miles ditch, of 66 miles which cost 350,000 dollars and in Tuolomne County runs the 40-mile Big Oak Flat, and the 3 5 -mile County Water Company's aqueduct, costing 600,000 dollars and 550,000 dollars respectively. Since 1870 even larger pipe lines have been laid; in most cases with a very good result to the owners and users. Having secured water, the hydraulic miner has done only part of the work preparatory to an attack on the gravel-bed. The whole of this must be detached, broken up, robbed of its gold, and carried right away, without any cessation of labour. When the mining ground has been selected, a tunnel is driven into it from a neighbouring ravine 66
;
The Eldorado
through the
of a large
of the Great West

a
rock,
approaching the gravel on

feet in height
steady up grade of about one in eight.
The tunnel
and
as
working measures 7
;
many
in
width
its
length ranges from a few hundred In the latter case

it
becomes a big engineering feat, accomplished only by the help of scientific calculations and proper rockboring tools, and necessitates a heavy capital outfeet to several miles.
lay.
This
will
account for such tasks not figuring
in earlier Californian
mining days.
is
The upper
its
part of the tunnel a
so
driven that
below the gravelit, and the " way out" is clear. All along the bottom of the tunnel and far down the ravine into which it empties is laid a large sluice, 2 J feet wide, and of sufficient height to handle all the water that the hydraulic pipes can deliver. Between the blocks the miners
lies fifty to
end
hundred
feet
bed.
shaft
is
then sunk to meet
pour tons
of
mercury
to catch
and absorb the
fine
particles of gold.
round under the continuous action of this enormous mechanical force, quickly crumbles away, and falls into the shaft. Even big boulders weighing half a ton or more are shifted,
jet
is
The
now
directed against the earth
the
shaft's
mouth, which,
and make the plunge, splintering themselves and anything on which they alight, thus acting as an auto-
matic crushing machine.
deep trench
is
gradually
opened along the bed, and then the walls receive If very lofty, they are attention. worked in two 67
The Romance
stages, the
of Mining
may
have
to
upper crumbling easily, while the lower be blasted with explosives before the
water can affect it. Tunnels are driven horizontally through it, and from them shafts right and left to receive the explosive, which breaks off huge masses
and disintegrates them ciently to be affected by the jet. Every month or so comes the " clean-up."
of the conglomerate,
suffi-
In
some
ups of
cases the
returns
are very heavy, averaging
a thousand dollars
and upwards per diem. Cleanone hundred thousand dollars are recorded.
is
And
the metal
won
comparatively cheaply, each
cubic yard treated costing but one-hundredth of the

labour-bill
as in other
for
panning.
Of course,
in hydraulic
forms of gold-getting, there are failures, which are ruinous in proportion to the outlay on
preliminary engineering.
The effect of hydraulicing on the country is, from the scenic point of view, appalling. " Tornado, flood, earthquake, and volcano combined could hardly make greater havoc, spread wider ruin and wreck, than are to be seen everywhere in the
track of the larger gold-washing operations.
of the interior streams of California,
ally
None
though natur-
pure as
crystal,
escape the change to a thick
yellow mud, from this cause, early in their progress
from the
Missouri.
their
hills.
The Sacramento
channels,
in
is
worse than the
Many
or
of the streams are turned out of
original
either
directly for
of
mining
purposes,
consequence 68
the great masses
The Eldorado
of soil
of the Great West
and gravel that come down from the goldThousands of acres of fine land along their banks are ruined for ever by the deposits of this character. A farmer may have his whole estate turned into a barren waste by a flood of sand and gravel from some hydraulic mining up
washings above.
stream
in
or garden stands working of a rich gulch or bank, orchard or garden must go. Then the tornout, dug-out, washed to pieces and then washed over side-hills, masses that have been or are being
;
more,
if
a fine orchard
the
way
of
the
subjected to the hydraulics of the miners, are
the
of
very devil's chaos indeed.
The country
is
full
them among the mining districts of the Sierra Nevada, and they are truly a terrible blot upon the face of
Nature."
This picture
is
who
traversed the country in 1868,

still
from the pen of an author i and what he saw

larger scale.
then can be seen to-day on a

tensively
as
it
Pro-
bably in no part of the world has water been so ex-
employed
to maltreat Nature's
arrangements
has in California, the
home
of hydraulic mining.
Of the quartz mines nothing need be said here since the methods of separating gold from rock will
be
of
fully treated in
a following
of
;
chapter
except
has
to
refer to the
huge amounts
yielded
metal that the lodes

especially the
the Sierra have
Great
Quartz Vein or " Mother Lode," which

traced for
been
80 miles, and has been worked to an
enormous depth.
1
Mr. Samuel Bowles,
"Our New West."
69
CHAPTER
discovery of gold in Australia
IV
THE GOLD-FIELDS OF THE ANTIPODES

First
A convict's hard luck Early Hargraves finds the New South Wales deposits The "rush" Melbourne folk alarmed Gold found in Victoria Huge nugget found at Meroo Creek on the colony Victorian gold Wonderful "pocket" struck Overcrowding of Melbourne " Canvas Town " Rapid growth of Melbourne aroused by mining fees Ballarat Gold-field extravagance Curious plight of South Australia Special gold-transport The great nuggets of Australia. measures
discoveries hushed
up
Its
effect
Ill-feeling
riot
for
convict working in New South Wales during the 'thirties produced one day a small lump of gold which he professed to have found in the earth but
;
being unable to point out the spot to the people,
he was haled before a magistrate and awarded one hundred and fifty lashes as the penalty of having The magistrate apparently melted down a gold watch. did not reason that a man who had stolen a watch would hardly be fool enough to publicly exhibit the
gold of
its
case as metal discovered in
its
natural state.
But those were days when suspicion and punishment

walked hand-in-hand among the " ticket-of-leaves." Thus inauspiciously began the discovery of gold
in Australia.
Sir
In 1839 Count Strzelecki reported to
G. Gipps, the
then
Governor
of
New
South
Wales, that in the Vale of Clwydd he had found a

deposit of auriferous sulphuret of iron, containing an
70
The
Gold-fields of the Antipodes

repay
insufficient proportion of the precious metal to
the cost of extraction.

Clarke,
a
Two
years later Dr.

detected
W.
in
B.
the
Sydney
resident,
gold
;
vicinity of the
New
on
South Wales capital

account of the
but, like
the Count, he was asked by the Governor to keep

the
find
secret
difficulty
of
maintaining order
among 45,000
convicts that
would
ensue were the news spread abroad.
At
this
time Australians were occupied with the
pursuits
of
sheep and cattle raising.

to light.
They knew
shepherd
nothing of gold-fields, for the Californian treasures had

not yet
come
When,
therefore, a
now
and then walked into a town with a few ounces
which he had laboriously picked out of the was regarded in much the same light as the unfortunate convict, and set down as a robber.
of gold
rocks, he
The
better
educated
little
colonists,
that,
who owned
they went
large
their
sheep-runs,
knew
as
rounds, they were

a Mr.
literally
treading on gold.
Eight
years before the actual discovery of gold in
1851,
sheep-
H. Anderson, while walking over
his
station at Ballarat with a neighbour, noticed a small
piece of shining white quartz

tering yellow substance.
streaked with a glit" Here's gold " he cried,

I
lump to his companion, who said, man, golden nonsense " and made Mr. Anderson so mistrustful of his own judgment that he heaved the quartz at a pair of laughing jackasses near by, and thought no more of the matter.
handing
the
" Tut-tut,
I
The
scientific
statements
7
1
made with regard
to the

by Count Strzelecki, Dr. Clarke, and Sir Roderick Murchison during the 'forties might have produced no results for many a long day, had not gold been discovered thousands of miles
existence of gold
away
in California,
whither a large part of the Aus-
had migrated. Among the goldwas a Mr. E. H. Hargraves, who noticed the resemblance between the geological formation of the Californian deposits and certain districts with which he was acquainted in Australia. In 1850 he returned home to prove whether the pickaxe and cradle could not be used with good effect in the Antipodes. Working at Summerhill Creek, near Bathurst, in February 1 85 1, he discovered gold, and applied to the authorities for a reward in compensation for the hardships and expenses which he had had to meet. The Governtralian population
seekers
ment, only too anxious to check the emigration to
him a handsome sum if he would show the gold-bearing locality and on his referring them to the Lewis Ponds, Summerhill, and to the Macquarie River, a. sum of money was given him, which two years later was increased to .10,000 and a pension. As in California, the first scent of a gold-field was the signal for a " rush." From Sydney a mob of men, women, and children trooped through the
California, offered
;
Blue Mountains, leaving whole
streets deserted, to
be bought up by foreseeing speculators, who in a few months got their money back tenfold. Sydney became a second San Francisco, with the same
tremendous
rise
of prices for both labour
and the
72
The
country.

life.
necessaries of
Servants vanished into the back
Government salaries were doubled to keep the various staffs from unavoidable debt and insolvency.
In short, only a few persons remained
behind, and those few had to be well paid.
So great was the emigration from Victoria
to
New
South Wales that the Melbourne authorities became Something must be done to check the alarmed. A draining away of all labour from the colony.
reward was offered to any one

to claim the
who
should find gold
within 200 miles of the capital.
People soon came

at
money.
Gold had been discovered
the Plenty River, on the Yarra-Yarra, in the Pyrenees
Range, and
August 1851 at Ballarat. Melbourne and Geelong were at once overtaken by the fate of Sydney in an aggravated form. They became like deserted villages. Geelong was so stripped of its males that women crowded to the doors to view any stray man who might happen to
finally in
pass through
the
case
of California
exactly
re-
versed
There
men
peep
paid heavily in gold dust for the

at a
privilege of a
member
of the gentler sex
through the cracks of a shanty.
In four
months the
i
population of Geelong sank from 8291 to 2850 souls

as emigrants
This state of things existed only for a short time,
from China, Tasmania, South Australia, and Europe soon began to pour into Melbourne at the rate of 2000 a week. Of these immigrants a
large proportion were very
undesirable,
being ex-
convicts from Tasmania,
men
73
returned from Cali-
The Romance
fornia,
of Mining
Disorder
and the scum

rife
of adjacent colonies.
where a wild forest, "honeycombed with hundreds of thousands of ready-made graves/' tempted the villain who envied
at
grew
the
gold-fields,
a lucky digger to hurl him,
wounded
Sandhurst,
foci
to
death, into
the hole from which he had scooped a fortune.

Ballarat,
Bendigo,
or
and
Alexander were the great

terrible
of attraction.
Mount The
roads leading to these diggings turned into
dust or
of people, all
beneath the tramp of tens of thousands on treasure-hunting bent. Accounts of huge nuggets unearthed from time to time kept the excitement at fever pitch. Hungry crowds settled like locusts on claims, and without waiting, in many cases, to obtain a licence, began digging for dear life, aided by the rocker or pan. Fortunes were made quickly, as Australia, and particularly Ballarat, is notable for the coarseness of its gold, which seems
in this continent to
mud
have largely escaped the grinding
powder so noticeable in California. One man, who had saved up îoo, invested the sum in as many acres of land, which two years later he sold to the diggers for .120,000! and there are plenty of instances recorded in which a single stroke of the pickaxe or blow of the spade enriched the worker for life. One of the most remarkable nuggets came to light very early in 185 1, at Meroo Creek, New South Wales. An Australian black, employed as a shepherd by Dr. Kerr, amused himself with gold-seeking while tending the sheep. He happened to see a speck of
to
74
The

glittering
some substance
and
there,
on the surface
of a quartz
boulder, and chipped off a piece with his tomahawk,
which,
9 oz.
a value
New
embedded in when placed on

of over
the rock, lay a
mass
of gold
the scales, weighed 102 lbs.

sterling
1
^4000
nugget in Bathurst the centre South Wales industry produced a furore which has been thus described by a local newspaper " Bathurst is mad again. The delirium of golden fever has returned with increased intensity. Men meet toarrival of this
The
of the
one another, talk incoherent nonsense, and wonder what will happen next. Since the affair was blazoned to the world several gentlemen of our acquaintance have shown undoubted symptoms of temporary insanity. Should the effect be at all proportionate in Sydney to its population, the inmates of Bedlam Point may be fairly reckoned as an integral part of the population."
gether, stare stupidly at
Victoria has
contributed by far the largest pro-
portion of gold found in Australia.
The
diggers got
from the
than 2,738,404 oz. in 1852, and 3,150,021 oz. during the following year. To quote totals, between 1851 and 1895,
alluvial
less
workings no
Victoria
was responsible for 60,155,047 oz. New South Wales for 11,421,544 oz. while Queensland, which only entered into serious competition as late
;
as
i860,
came
in a
good
third with
10,604,031 oz.
two colonies 1851 and 1852 were the golden years, since they witnessed the working over of the rich alluvial deposits. Probably the best
For the
first
75
The Romance
A
party of five
of Mining
Mount Alexander.
six holes to
record for washing comes from
men had sunk
depths
;
ranging from thirty to sixty
feet,
without
success
and they were so disheartened that they determined Before the to give up after one more attempt. hole was three yards deep they " struck it seventh
rich/' with a vengeance.
In
eight hours
120
lbs.
troy weight of virgin gold was amassed, giving the
lucky
men ^5000
u strikes "
to divide
between them
were, of course, the exception Such and October 1851 saw many folk returning disgusted people who were unfit for the busito Melbourne who had tried their hands, and found that, ness, instead of getting gold easily by merely scratching the surface, they must work hard for it, experiencing meanwhile much hardship and privation. Yet even
;
their dismal accounts did
little
to
stem the
tide of
all
immigration.
Melbourne could not house
the
new-comers who poured in by every boat. Hotels and lodging-houses overflowed. A city of tents rose on the south side aptly named Canvas Town "The scenes in Canvas Town of the Yarra-Yarra. were such as to jar upon the feelings of even the unrefined and in that huddled assemblage there were many delicate and sensitive persons plunged by circumstances into a vortex which the master of the For the watertent or hut had not anticipated. police, and the female immigrants who arrived under contract, hulks were secured in the bay." 1
G.
W.
Rusden, " History of Australia."
76
The
it

of this
The hardships
needed a refuge.
mode
of
life
soon rendered
imperative to provide decent shelter for those
who
Public and private subscriptions
were raised to build an u Institution for Homeless Immigrants." The buildings, though rough, were a
cleanly contrast to the disgusting confusion of Canvas
Town, and were

in
gladly used by nearly 8000 people
one year.
All this
had lasting effects. Before twelve months had passed, Melbourne had doubled her numbers in a decade she rose from a small town of about 25,000 souls to a large city of
of population
;
movement
190,000 inhabitants.
cost .68 per acre
at
;
Land which before
" the n rush
changed hands, thirty years later, and to-day is scarcely purchasable. A .80,000 writer speaking of the 1857 Melbourne says "Only
:
three short years ago, this undulating surface (North
Melbourne) was covered with

with
grass,
and dotted over

sallied forth to
gum
trees.
The
traveller, as
he
the bush, in those days gone by, would turn his nag
when
at the
highest spot, to take a
last
view of the
thriving capital of Victoria
and the bright blue water
beyond, where some considerable shipping already

well
attested the
progress of a flourishing
all
colony.
into
Since then, however,

wild
young had been changed
and tumultuous development. The waters of Hobson's Bay were scarcely visible beneath a forest of five or six hundred vessels. The grassy glades of North Melbourne were now a hard and dusty surface, cut up everywhere with roads,
a
77
The Romance
to the interior."
1
of Mining
of the traffic
and disturbed with the incessant noise
No
country has been more opened up by
its
gold
Gold brought settlers, who, after the first rushes, turned from precarious metal-seeking to more monotonous, but at the same Immense time more certainly productive pursuits. sums were spent on roads, railways, and other public works, which dotted the country over with large towns distinguished by their fine buildings, streets, parks, gardens, and reservoirs. The very areas on which a solitary shepherd earned a scanty meal by tending vagrant flocks, and where the emu stalked, or the kangaroo listened for the approach of an enemy, are now busy centres of industry, whose history opens with the word " Gold," but now records the advance of many-headed Industry. An unfortunate feature of the early mining days was the ill-feeling aroused by the collection of digging fees. The goldfields swarmed with people only
industry than has Australia.
too ready to applaud the fiery eloquence of the professional agitator, devoted to the breeding of quarrels
between the miner and the Government Goldfields

Police.
Many men
to
refused to take out licences
others grumbled at the amounts which they were

called
upon
a
pay
and so acute became the
excite-
ment
that in
scene of
October a
1
1854 Ballarat won notoriety as the armed collision. On the 6th miner named James Scobie was killed in
serious
William Westgarth, "Victoria and the Australian Gold Mines."
78
The
a scuffle
;

and public suspicion fastened
itself
on one
kept a
Bentley, an ex-convict from Tasmania,
who
disreputable public-house called the Eureka Hotel.
A mob
burnt his house, and would have lynched the
proprietor had not the police stepped in and rescued
him, to be afterwards tried and sentenced to three

years'
Three persons, who had on the charge of burning the Eureka been arrested but the Hotel, received much lighter punishments
penal
servitude.
;
Ballarat
people,
considering
the
this
sentence
unjust,
demanded
agitators
their release.
On
being refused, the

sedition,
got
to
work and spread
which
the
terminated in a conflict between the

military forces
mob and
under Captain Thomas.
Several pri-
soners were taken by the soldiers.
mass meeting
unanimously chose an Irishman, Peter Lalor, as and on the 30th November all the popular chief work was suspended preparatory to a second attack
;
on the Government forces. The rioters fired into Three days later Captain Thomas took the camp. the offensive, carried the Eureka stockade, behind which the rebels had entrenched themselves, and
made 125
Melbourne
prisoners, besides killing a
few dozen of
the defenders.
The
;
prisoners were despatched to
for trial
but instead of being awarded
the penalties they so richly deserved they were pro-
nounced " not guilty " by the twelve " good men and who saw in their conduct not an act of treason but the deeds of heroes. So low had law and order
true,"
fallen in Victoria
79

Goldfield history, like other history, repeats
itself.
Melbourne and Sydney were formidable San Francisco and the inland diggings
scenes
quietly
of
rivals
to
in
their
extravagance.
Though
some
miners
class acted
amassed wealth, the majority of the lower up to the saying " Easy come, easy go." Mr. Rusden in his interesting volumes gives us a
sketch of
the Australian spendthrift.
u For-
vivid
tunate gold scrapers flung their
money
broadcast in
scenes of luxury and debauchery.

that
many
of
barber
for the
when
day pay
;
tossing
them scorned to him a pound
were told take change from a

Stories
sterling
;
that a
roughly dressed
man
it
called a cab
which he required
that
when
the driver replied that the
more than he would pounds the novus homo threw to him ten pounds, and told him to light his pipe with and that in the very drunkenness of the difference their wealth many diggers lit their enjoyment of The shopkeepers did a pipes with bank notes." *
could not have
like
man
seven
;
unless for
roaring
trade,
especially
with
men
about
to
be
married, whose one ambition was to deck their brides in the most expensive silks, satins, and laces that money could buy. The more civilised criticism,
"That is very dear," gave place to the complaint, "Haven't you anything dearer than that?" and the shopman was, of course, equal to the occasion. One
of the
rush
most peculiar features

the
of the Australian gold-
strenuous efforts
1
made by
ii.
the different
" History of x\ustralia,"
543.
80
The
colonies

to
keep their population

hinted
at.
at
home
has
of in
already
been
Adelaide, the capital
South Australia, was deserted by thousands who

1 1
Houses 85 were abandoned, property became unsaleable, and As the business of all kinds was utterly strangled. emigrants carried with them all the cash they could raise, the banks, drained of gold, had to contract
started
for
the Victorian
diggings.
their circulation.
And when some miners
returned
with 50,000 pounds' worth of the metal, they found
themselves in the extraordinary plight of being unable

to sell
its
it,
because there was no

!
money
available for
purchase
The Government,
to cut the
Gordian
knot, authorised the issue of notes against the ingots,

at the rate of
seventy-one shillings to the ounce, the

;
notes to be legal tender
and
in the following year
permission was obtained from England to coin gold

tokens of five pounds, two pounds, one pound, and ten
shillings respectively.
Paper money then decreased,
while credit and confidence were at once restored.
To
into
facilitate
the return of the population, and to
ensure the influx of goldw on by South Australians

their own colony, the authorities cut a road through the " scrub " for a hundred miles, and organised a system of convoys to escort gold from Victoria to South Australia. Crowds of emigrants
willingly paid
the two per cent, charge

first
made
for
transport.
convoy returned with 6000, the second with 19,235, the third with 28,206 ounces so that this colony, which in forty-five years mined
;
The
81

only half a million ounces from her
quickly amassed wealth which,
over, led to a rapid
own
territory,
when
the rush was
development
of the
of the country.
Australia
gold.
is
as rich in u lode " gold as in " free
mountains has yielded very remarkable returns ever since the miners overcame their antipathy to improved machinery. Occasional
veins carried so
The quartz
much
metal that the use of a mere
hand hammer proved remunerative. The Mount Lyell lodes contained from fifteen to twenty ounces The quartz quarried on the to the ton of rock. surface was not, at first, sent to mills to be crushed. Only fragments from which gold peeped received attention and even after mills were erected the methods of treatment were so imperfect that only the richest quartz yielded a profit. But with improved processes as much as .4000 a week became
;
quite ordinary earnings for a well-situated mill.
Australian
gold-mining
owes
so
much
of
its
romance
Victoria,
to the large
nuggets which, especially in

fortune to
brought sudden
some miners,
that a page or
two
will
be devoted to these interest-
ing masses of metal.
The formation
various ways.
of nuggets has
been explained
in
Some
authorities suppose
that they
have grown in the alluvium, and have been gradually increased by deposits of metal from the chemically
charged water which for ages percolated the stratum.

Others are unwilling to accept
this
theory
preferring
to believe that nuggets are the result of fusion.
The
It
problem has not yet received a 82
definite solution.
The
is

however, that Australia's nuggets are never
size.
certain,
likely to
be surpassed in
Appended
1
:
is
list
of
the largest specimens, the date and

discoveries,
place of their
and
their respective weights
Nugget.
Date of Discovery.
Place.
Weight
in Oz.
i.
"
1
'
The Welcome Stranger " Welcome Nugget " ...

"
Feb.
5,
1869
Dunolly, Victoria
Ballarat
" Blanche Barkly
June 15, 1858 August 27, 1857

Jan. 31, 1857
2268 2217
1741 1619 1363 1286 1272
1 177
Kingower, Victoria
Ballarat
4
5 6
1857
7 8
9 10
ii
1858 July 1851 Sept. 8, 1854

i,
Nov.
Dunolly Bursadong, N.S.W.

Bathurst
Ballarat
,,
Jan. 20, 1853
June 1855
Jan. 22, 1853
Maryborough
Ballarat
1117 1034
IOII 1008
12
Heron Nugget
March
29, 1855
Mt. Alexander
Ballarat
13 14
is 16
August i860
March 1857
i860
Kingower, Victoria
>>
i>
834 810
805
11
February 1861
Oct. 22, 1856
17
18
19 20
May May
1856 1858
n Daisy Hill, Victoria Taradale, Victoria

.1
11
782
715 648 648
645 625
Oct. 22, 1855
Mclvor, Victoria
Ballarat
21 22
23 24
Feb. 1, 1854 April i860
Castlemaine, Victoria
600
573 571
October 1852
'
Bendigo
Ballarat
,,
25
'
Nil
Desperandum
"
March 6, 1855 November 1857

Jan. 15, 1858
26 27
23
Maryborough
Taradale, Victoria
Ballarat
,, ,,
1856
March 1855
1853
540 537 524 480

37i
29 30 31
32
33 34
February 1853
1851
Bathurst
368 366
338 338 304 288
"Dascombe
"
January 1852 1854

i860
Bendigo
,,
Castlemaine
35
1852
Bendigo
i860
36
May
Compiled from a
list
Kingower
230
made by Mr. William Birkmyre.
83

It is
unnecessary to describe
life
in the goldfields,
because what has already been said of the Californian

diggings applies in a large degree to their Australian
counterparts.
The
parallel
is
continued into the

;
later history of the
two countries
for a large proto seek gold re-
portion of those people
who came
of
mained on which the

to
take
up sheep farming and

real
agriculture,
prosperity
both
Eldorados
ultimately rests.
84
CHAPTER
WESTRALIA
Sterile character of
Effect of Gold discoveries on Australia.

Rapid
as
West Australia Gold at Coolgardie A lucky find The luck of " Hannan's " The Westralian fields Coolgardie Wind and Dust Want of Water "Dry-blowing" ''Hannan's Brownhill " and "Great Boulder" The Coolgardie Water Supply A pipe 328 miles long Description of the pipe line
Another lucky
find
has
been the development

first
of
Eastern
Australia since the
discovery of gold, an even

of
more remarkable
the
rate
progress
is
till
comparatively lately
waste
transforming
expanses
of
the most western colony.
At the time when diggers
first swarmed into New South Wales and Victoria, West Australia was a mere No Man's Land, uninhabited except by aborigines and a handful of
convicts
and probably only a very few people ever

that
suspected
among
the
sandhills
lay
treasure
which, thirty-six years
later,
should open for Australia

the most northerly part
a second era of gold-mining.
The Kimberley
of
field, in
was located in 1882, and lt proclaimed" in 1886. But it was not till May or June of 1892 that Messrs. Bayley and Ford, starting from Southern Cross, set out on their memorable journey which resulted in the discovery of the Coolgardie
the
colony,
goldfield,
where
they
obtained
2000
ounces
by
85

merely smashing up the quartz with rude implements. Though their search was deliberate, the
actual find was, as so often happens in the history
of mining, a matter of pure accident. Bayley had long prospected without success, and was returning to
Perth,
the
capital,
very
mouth," when the lucky

kick
much "down moment arrived.
in
the
His
horse became restless in the night, and began to
and plunge so vigorously that Bayley went out to coax the animal into quietude. Whilst on his way he stumbled over what he at first thought to be a stone, but which proved on examination to be a huge mass of pure gold A claim was at once pegged out, and in four weeks .10,000 had been
!
realised.
This claim stands near the centre of the

after the inevitable
town which,
like a
"rush/' sprang up
people
mushroom and was

familiar to the ears of
christened Coolgardie, a
name
little
many
who
take
interest in
mining
affairs.
The
coast,
Pilbarra
Goldfields,
half-way
up the west
an equally trivial incident. Mr. A. G. Charleton, in The Engineering Magazine, " that a discerning youth of tender years picked up a stone to throw at a cow (some say a crow), and, noticing that it contained
their origin to
owe
"
It
appears,"
says
gold,
reported
the
fact
to
the
'
Warden.'
This
gentleman was so excited

the intelligence
at the news that he flashed by wire to the then Governor of the Colony, informing him that a lad had picked up a stone, to throw it at a crow but forgetting to add
86
Westralia
that
he had seen gold

but
in
it
The Governor, much

curiosity,
surprised,
'
moved with
explanations
wired
?
'
back
pro-
Yes
and what happened

elicited
to the
crow
led
(or cow).
This
which
to
the
clamation of the district as a goldfield, and in conse-
quence of the rush that followed in the same year

(1888) 3493 ounces of gold were obtained." Twenty-four miles from Coolgardie is Kalgoorlie
mine, otherwise
known
as " Hannan's," the scene of
that
many wonderful " finds," of a man who, to

a rich " pocket."
notable
while
among which was

his
away
time one
Sunday, began to prospect under

excited that he gave
his tent
and struck
Unfortunately for him, he was so
away
the secret before he
had
to
pegged out his claim, and therefore forfeited all rights ground other than what his tent actually covered. Through accidents such as these West Australia, shut off by the desert from the eastern diggings,
came
into her
own, despite the prophecies

colony could not, according to
of geoloscientific
gists that the
laws, contain
any gold whatsoever.

fields
There are now
seventeen
recognised
Pilbarra,
Hill,
in
West
Australia
Kimberley,
West
Pilbarra,
Ashburton,
Gascoyne, Peak
Murchison, East Murchison,

Coolgardie, Yilgarn,
Mount Margaret, Yalgoo, North

Coolgardie, Broad Arrow,
East Coolgardie, North-
East Coolgardie, and Dundas.
Each
field
contains
many
mines, and between them they cover a total
area of 324,569
square miles
eight times that

!
of
England
So much
for the geologists
87

The Coolgardie
fields,
on which our attention
will
lie
be centred in the following pages of this chapter,
about 350 miles east of Perth, on a plateau elevated more than 1200 feet above sea level. The plateau
is
crossed
by
succession of
sandy ridges,
are
its
their
crests
separated by shallow valleys running north
and south.
backs.
aborigines,
Sandstorms and
spring
flies
chief
draw-
Whirlwinds, called
" willy-willies "
by the
up suddenly, spin madly along, seizing in their vortex dust, paper, and any other small objects which they may meet, and as suddenly
down. Unpleasant as they are, the high winds, which blow continuously for weeks together, are worse. An idea of their effect on the population may be gathered from the fact that fences four feet high have been completely buried by the sandparticles they sweep along in less than two years. The great need of Western Australia is water.
die
The annual rainfall averages but a few inches. Hence mining has, in many districts, to be carried on in a fashion accommodated to natural conditions.
Water being absent, but wind very present, the shallow diggings are worked by the " dry-blowing
' ;
method.
the
After the alluvium has been well shaken
to bring the larger
lumps
workman pours
at
to the surface for removal, a panful of the u dirt " from a
height of four or five feet into a second pan on the
ground
his
feet.
He
fall
stands edge-ways to the
wind, which blows away some of the dust but allows

the heavier gold to
perpendicularly.
The
pro-
88
Westralia
cess
must be repeated
until
only a
little
rubbish
Then the miner begins is left. blow with his mouth, and as soon as he has removed what he can in this manner, he finishes off
containing the gold
to
the separation
with
little
of
his
precious water.
Corresponding to the cradle of river gold-washers is the "dry-blower," consisting of a couple of slanting frames fixed on legs so that the miner can shake
the contents backwards and forwards, like a servant
The dirt, fed into a and cinders. hopper having a bottom pierced with large holes, passes down the inclined screens, on the way losing its finer particles, which fall through. The coarser stuff passes over the end, while the gold flakes and nuggets collect behind the riffles placed to catch them. The fine matter is treated by hand in the manner already described. Twelve hundredweight of dirt can be treated by a " dry-blower " of this kind in one hour. More elaborate patterns, fitted with bellows to produce an artificial air current, handle several tons in the same time. u Hannan's Brownhill " and " Great Boulder " are two of the principal lode mines. Their yields have been prodigious. In "The Land of Gold" Mr. Julius Price describes these two properties as he saw them a decade ago, when operations had only recently been begun by the proprietary companies. He descended the main shaft of Hannan's Brownhill, and, he says, " I was astonished to find that the whole place was positively sparkling with gold. I
sifting
ashes
89

had often pictured
be
like,
to myself
but
in
my
wildest
what a gold mine would dreams I had never
imagined anything to equal
this.
The man
(a
miner)
must have knocked out at least a hundred pounds' worth of ore during the few minutes I had been
watching him in
absolutely
of the
I
this veritable
Aladdin's Cave.
to
It
made my mouth water
take
up some
whilst
lumps
of stone lying loosely at
my
feet,
could not help trying to realise the feelings of
poor digger, finding himself quite alone and surrounded by all this untold wealth which he was getting out for the benefit of others, whilst he himthis
self
was only earning

visit
time of his
the
At the .3, 10s. per week!" manager had under lock and
!
key from twenty to thirty tons of pure gold brief This brief account of Westralian mines
must
be,
through limitations
of space
may
it
fitly
con-
clude with a glance at a huge engineering feat which
has been performed in the interests of the goldfields.

In almost
all
other gold-bearing districts of the world
the metal has been found not far from a stream or
natural reservoirs.
We
have already alluded to the

of pipes
great Californian system
and flumes
of these
and
for
of
to
the reader will
remember
great
that
some
aque-
ducts
are
of
length.
Unfortunately
Western Australia, the climate and configuration the ground are such as to make it impossible
reach of the mining centres.
dust
store rain water in sufficient quantities within easy
from
gravel
For separating gold and sand wind may serve 90
Westralia
but the quartz-crushing mills cannot do their work
without a plentiful supply of water.
Furthermore,
where a
fever,
is
scarcity prevails, disease, especially typhoid
rampant.
therefore
The Government
determined to fetch
pure water from the nearest copious springs.
happen
three
to be in the Darling
Range
These
near the coast
hundred and
thirty miles distant.

is
The
difficulty
of piping the liquid
seriously increased
by the
fact
that the Coolgardie district lies very high, practically a thousand feet above the source of supply
;
not to
mention the existence of intervening

greater altitude.
belts of
even
Truly an immense undertaking, the execution of which ranks among the greatest engineering feats of an engineering age The contract for the piping, which figured at went to two Australian firms, Mr. .1,025,124 Meysham Ferguson, of Melbourne, and Messrs. Mr. Ferguson inG. & C. Hoskins, of Sydney. vented the " locking-bar " pipe, used thoughout on the scheme. The peculiarity of this form of pipe
!
is
that
it
is
made
of steel
plates
of
semi-circular
section fastened together along their edges
with two
longitudinal " locking-bars " of soft steel, the flanges

of
which are pressed on to the edges

is
of the plates
until a tight joint
effected.
Owing
to the absence
is
of rivets
and overlapping
plates this type of conduit
quickly
made and
offers
remarkably small
it.
frictional
resistance to
water passing through 9i
In
com-

parison with cast-iron or
" built-up " pipes
it
also
scores under the heads of water-tightness, strength,
and economy
in
hauling and handling.

the proprietors of
Cassier's
By
the
courtesy of
Magazine we are permitted to quote the following

description of this colossal work.
The Helena River was

at
the
site
chosen to provide
impounded Mundaring Station and Seventeen about twenty-five miles from Perth. localities in all were inspected, and the position of the present dam site, where the hills converge to a narrow space and the country for miles round is flattened out, was apparently the best. The top of the dam is 753 feet in length, traversed by a neat iron lattice bridge over the crest, which is 100 feet above the bed of the river. The dam tapers in thickness from 75 feet at the river bottom to 10 feet at the top. As a maximum the sheet of water will be thrown back six or seven miles. The
the supply for the fields, the flow being
a
point five miles from
quantity
gallons.
of
water
is
set
Alongside the
down at 4,600,000,000 dam is a tower which gives
access to a
number
at
of valves allowing the water to
be drawn
off
various levels, while at the foot of
the wall a scour valve permits the removal of any

silt
which may accumulate. Exterior to the dam and a

is
little
lower
down
the
gully
the
first
pumping
is
station,
and the second

it,
one
is
only a mile and a half from

it.
but 400 feet
above
Here
situated a receiving tank with a
92
Westralia
capacity
close
to
half a
million
stations
gallons.
In
all
there are eight
pumping
and eleven tanks

is
or reservoirs, with capacities from half a million to
12,000,000 gallons.
miles
The main
the
service reservoir
dam, and its capacity is 308 The minor service reservoir 12,000,000 gallons. Coolgardie holds a million, and the Mount at Charlotte reservoir at Kalgoorlie, two million gallons. Receiving tanks of one million capacity were built
at five of the
from
pumping
stations.
reserve tank for
railway purposes was also built at a point along the

route,
and there are two regulating tanks holding

level
500,000 gallons.
The
the
of the water at the lowest off-take at

is
dam
is
reservoir
340
feet
above the
sea,
but so
little
rough
feet is
the country and rising, that within a
over three miles an altitude exceeding a thousand

reached.
the regulating tank
Twenty-four miles from the dam is 1065 feet above sea-level, and
drops
then
it
gradually
100
feet
in
the
is
12-mile
interval.
feet
The next
for
regulating tank
only
above the sea.
After this the water flows

until
it
476 by
the
gravitation
reservoir,
42 miles
is
empties into
700 feet above the sea. The next pumping station, 63 miles away, is 980 feet above sea level, and 32-J miles farther on is No. 5 pumping station, 1293 feet above sea
level.
which
The
section
station.
level
varies
only 32
feet
within
the
next
of
46
miles,
which
terminates at
No. 6
In another short length of 32 miles
93
The Romance
a rise of 56 feet
is
of Mining
last.
No. 7 section is 45 miles, and finds a rise of only 26 Twelve miles feet to No. 8 pumping station. farther is the site of the main service reservoir, at 1 6 10 feet above the sea, and 1270 feet above the lowest take-off of the Mundaring reservoir.
experienced over the
From
there the Coolgardie reservoir
is
10J
miles,
and the level 15 15 feet above the sea, so that the water will drop 95 feet to Coolgardie, and from there to Mount Charlotte at Kalgoorlie, 27 miles away, there is a further drop of 160 feet, for the last
reservoir
is
1325
feet
above the
sea.
Here, at a
they will
distance of 325 miles from the dam, the pipes at

terminate, but before extended " farther east."
present
long
be
the
Through
world
the
30-inch pipe
the longest
in
five
million gallons flow daily into the heart
of the
sandy desert. Coolgardie folk paying
We
2s.
shall hear
no more
of
6d. per gallon for their
water, or of store-keepers guarding the water-bottle
more
jealously
than
the
whisky-jar.
Abundance
to
;
has been brought from

separating
a distance equal
that
from Berwick-on-Tweed not to a huge metropolis, but to a mining town of a few thousand inhabitants. And what was the wizard which conjured up the scheme ? Gold already the creator of railways from the coast into the far
;
London
interior.
The magnetic
influence of the precious
metal has in half a century opened up Australia in

a
manner even more
striking than the
development
94
Westralia
West after the Californian discoveries. Open your map of Australia and trace the railways. You will then follow in the steps of the gold-seekers,
of the Great
who plodded painfully on foot where now snorts with its heavy burdens.
the iron-horse
95
CHAPTER
VI
THE GOLD-MINES OF THE WITWATERSRAND

Gold and War Value of these mines Nature of Transvaal deposits The Witwatersrand " Banket "Value of the " Banket " reef The gold
is
output The "Essential Kaffir" The labour supply Recruiting Chinamen imported How the mines are worked How the ore treated The cyanide process Difference between Rand and other
!
gold mines.
South Africa
These words spell two things for the world in general and for Englishmen in particular Gold, the producer of War War, the consumer of Gold. Search the pages of history through and through, and where will you find a conflict approaching the great Boer war in magnitude, which can be directly traced to the hatred bred between nations by the rich treasures that have for ages lain hidden beneath
the earth
The
rights
and wrongs
of that dreadful struggle
between the unprogressive, but by no means despicable, Transvaal farmer, and one of Europe's
greatest powers, here.
we
are not called
upon
to discuss
Both nations fought with the courage of their convictions, determined to decide, whatever might be the cost, whether South Africa should belong to the Boer or to the Englishman. The wounds, physical and mental, received by the combatants are scarcely
96
o -^Q
<o
5
5-1
;o
.3
<a
Gold-mines of the Witwatersrand

yet closed.
Severe commercial depression has
fol-
lowed behind the chariot of the war god, and years must still pass before the echoes of the contest have died away. For the regeneration of exhausted South Africa to what do we look ? To agriculture in the future but to Gold for the present At the outbreak of the war the capitalisation of
;
the Witwatersrand gold mines totalled .70,000,000
and at market prices more than double that During 1898 no less than 4,295,609 ounces value. of gold were mined, representing ;i5>i4i;376 sterling. While the fighting lasted, these wonderful mines lay idle in most cases, the prey of inleaking water which there were no pumps to stem, for the workmen had either fled from the country or were carrying rifle and bandolier in its defence. Dividends fell to zero point. Thousands of shareholders found themselves forced to sell their scrip at a
at par,
ruinous
the
loss.
pumps
got to work again

to
;
But with the advent of British rule stamps were repaired

;
and added
accumulated
all
available
labour
its
amount
;
sadly diminished
as
by the wealth
that the Kaffirs
camp
followers
collected
had and
the Transvaal goldfields entered on the second era

of their history.
The Transvaal mines
are practically
all
reef mines.
We
have, therefore, no romantic stories of wonderful "finds" such as play so large a part in the annals of
Orange Land and
of the Antipodes.
The Lydenburg
G
97
The Romance
goldfields
of Minin g
1876.
district first attracted notice in
The De Kaap
were discovered in 1884; and in 1885 a Arnold, working on the farm Langlaagte, broached the riches of the marvellous Witwatersrand deposits. Johannesburg, city of dust and gold-dust,
man named
was founded the following year, and in one decade a community of a few hundred people had swelled to a large town, which the census returns estimated to contain 107,000 inhabitants. Land increased prodigiously in value. Boers who had hitherto lived frugally on their farms suddenly blossomed
out as the favourites of fortune.
What, then,
is
this district with the

is
long
name
The Witwatersrand
a range of hills running east
and west, which separates the Limpopo basin on the north from the Vaal basin on the south. At some
period
early
in
the
earth's
history
subterranean
bent that their
agencies heaved up the surface of the plateau, until

the strata were broken and so
much
edges were exposed.
The
strata consisted of quartz,
sandstone, and igneous rocks, sandwiched between
which are layers of conglomerate, which from their appearance the Dutch named " banket/' or almondrock. The conglomerate contains very finely-divided gold, auriferous iron pyrites, copper, zinc, and anti-
mony.
At the " outcrop
"
i.e.
the points at which the
edges of the sandwich are exposed the conglomerate is easily reached, and surface working is possible
;
but the farther the miner gets horizontally from the
98

outcrop the deeper he must go before he strikes the
gold-bearing deposits.
Owing
to the
il
banket " strata
being
fairly close together, a single vertical shaft
may
cut through several in succession at various depths.
For the
first
year or two in the history of the
Rand
goldfields deep-level mining was practically ignored, because the ore was not considered to be worth the expense of sinking deep shafts. Accordingly, attention was confined to claims within a few hundred feet of the outcrop. But when the conglomerate proved very rich, and when, in January 1890, the May Deep Level shaft struck the main reef at a considerable distance from the outcrop, the price of deep-level claims rose rapidly, and "the dividing line between valuable gold-mining claims and valueless 1 veldt receded farther and farther from the outcrop." Experts have estimated that at 5000 feet from the
outcrop the vertical depth

at
will
be only 2000
feet
;
feet
8000
feet,
rather
more than 4000
and
at
a "
distance
of
three miles
about 7000
feet.
The
Simmer and
it
horizontally
struck
Jack," sunk from a point 4000 feet from the outcrop of the Main Reef, when the shaft had reached a depth of
2400 feet, or rather less than half a mile. As conditions in the Transvaal appear to be very favourable to deep mining, there are no physical difficulties to prevent the sinking of shafts one and a-half miles deep. So far as operations have been
carried, the reef has
1
proved very
reliable,
being struck
''The Gold Mines of the Rand," Hatch
&
Chalmers.
99

within a few feet of the calculated depth.
Mr. Hays
Hammond, one
of
the greatest authorities on the
metallurgy of the Transvaal, contributes the following opinion to Cassiers Magazine

"
It is
estimated that for every mile in length along
the course of the reefs,
down
to a vertical depth of
reefs,
iooo feet for the dip of these

of about
gold to the value This

to
is
.10,000,000 will be extracted.
conservative
estimate
at
least
as
applied
the
central section of the
Rand. If we assume these conditions to obtain to a depth of 6000 feet vertically, we have the enormous sum of .60,000,000
It
is
for each mile in length.
not unreasonable to
will
suppose that these conditions

along most
of ten miles, in
be
maintained
auri-
of the central section, say for a distance
which case we would have an

of
ferous area, within practicable mining depths, containing

It
is
upwards
safe to to
;
-600,000,000 value of gold.

prediction of the gold
east
less
make any
is
product
sections
be
it
expected
from the
safe
and west
but
perfectly
to
say that the
output of these sections would very greatly augment

the
Hatch and Chalmers, well known engineers of extensive South African experience, compute the available gold from
I
amount
have named.
Messrs.
these portions of the
Rand
at .200,000,000."
!
During the eight the Boer war in 1899 the Witwatersrand produced 12,405,032 But for the necessary stoppage of the sterling.
treasure well worth winning
months preceding the outbreak
of
100

mines the year's take would have touched twenty
millions sterling, a figure that rivals
those of the
most palmy days

less
of California
and
Australia.
No
than 71 per cent, of the yield came from the
central (Johannesburg) section of the
Rand
and 24
per cent, was raised from the deep-level workings.
The
total
gold product of the
Rand
in that year
represented a quarter of the gold mined throughout

the world;
and with
steady development South

first
Africa will undoubtedly take
place
among
all
Eldorados.
From
in
other goldfields those of the Transvaal differ

particular, viz., in the labour used.
is
one important
all
Here
purely manual, and some skilled work,

natives.
performed by
The
Kaffirs,
as they are universally called in
or "boys," South Africa, drill,

oreas
shovel, lay tracks,

sorting,
fitters,
do the timbering, tramming,

&c.
Skilled
stoking,
labourers,
such
of
carpenters,
engine - drivers,
are
white
nationalities,
and command very high wages.
The
" Essential Kaffir " well deserves his adjective.
Without his help the gold-mines could never have been developed, as the climate, though healthy, soon tells upon the European or American who has to do hard physical work below ground. There is the further difficulty that where white and coloured men are engaged on the same job, the nature of their respective duties must be clearly separated, the white
directing, the others obeying.
Kaffir
If
well supervised, the
can use the pick or
drill as effectively as
he did
101
The Romance
his assegai before the white
tribal raiding.
of Mining
put a stop to inter-
man
A
to
problem which African mine-owners have had face from the beginning is that relating to the
labour.
supply of
By
nature the Kaffir

till
is
a lazy
fellow, well content to
rather, let his wives
till it
his little
sit
maize plot
or,
in the sun,
and smoke.
His one incentive to labour under the sway of the

white
will
man
is
the desire to accumulate wealth which
or more wives if he be already married an estate, and the finery in which he loves to deck himself out the " top-hat " of civilisation forming an important item in his wardrobe. Before the war over 100,000 natives
enable him to buy wives
were
at
work
in
the
mines.
frightened most of these away, or gave
The war either them em-
ployment
as bullock-drivers.
Those who went stayed
away
those
sufficient
kraals.
who remained in the Transvaal earned money to retire for a long time to their So that when the fighting was over labour
scarce.
became very
of
Experts estimated the shortage

to reach
hands
It
for the
mines alone
129,000
and
agriculture to be proportionately handicapped.
establish a Native
had been found necessary, as early as 1893, to Labour Department for providing an adequate inflow of workmen. The northern parts of the Transvaal were first tapped by white men who travelled about engaging the Kaffirs to work A under contract for stated periods of service. depot was established at Pietpotgieter's Rust another
;
102

at
Zandfontein, and a third at Pretoria, the intervals
being broken by buildings to serve as shelters and

rest-houses for the gangs travelling south.
recruit
Every
had
to
be vaccinated,
Pretoria the Kaffirs
and housed. were carried by train

fed,
From
to
the
Rand, where they occupied the compounds adjoining The system worked very well, as it protected the natives both on their journeys and
each mine.
when
" in residence " at the gold-fields.
But, unfortunately, licences for the sale of alcoholic drinks

rities
were freely granted by the Boer autho-
to traders in the
compounds, who did
a brisk
is
business with the Kaffir, to

the
whom
" fire-water "
summum bonum
of
life,
and
to be indulged in as
freely as funds permit.
some men made fortunes out

other the efficiency of
on the one hand on the native labour was so much

So, while
of the traffic,
impaired as
to
provide
the
u Uitlanders "
with
genuine grievance against the Boer Executive, which

looked callously on.
The
with
its
recruiting system has been revived, but not
For two years depression the mines were many, but the labourers were few. At the end of December things had become so desperate that Sir George Farrar moved a resolution in the Transvaal Legislative Council to the effect that the Government should introduce an Ordinance " providing
former success.
reigned supreme in Johannesburg
;
for the importation of indentured unskilled coloured
labourers to supplement the labour supply of the
103
The Romance
Witwatersrand."
of Mining
referred
to
The matter was

after
the
Home
the
Government, and,
of
warm
discussion in
House
Commons,
the Transvaal received perthe " yellow

;
mission to introduce Chinese labour under certain

restrictions.
Round
violent
the question
of
invasion "
controversy
has
raged
those
favouring the importation of Celestials urging that
without some such measure the Transvaal must lapse

into
bankruptcy, and the supply of African labour

not
possibly
could
Kaffirs
meet the demand
their
op-
ponents warmly upholding the view that with time
meanwhile underground of made labour-saving machinery, which is strikingly absent from some South African mines. Anyhow, a batch of 1047 Chinese arrived on June 10, 1904, en route to the New Comet Mine, and before the end of the year 19,444 pigtails wagged in the compounds of the Rand. There is no workman in the world to beat the Chinaman for docility, quickness, and industry. He has already made his mark on the output and very probably the Kaffir, seeing that he no longer has the mine-owner at his mercy, may become scared and seek a job before all
would
flock in,
and that
in the
much
greater use might be
the berths are filled up.
From
let
the labour question, which has

to
become the
wares on,
peg for partisan orators

the mines.
hang up
their
us divert our attention to the actual working of
The Rand
is
dotted over with
tall
chimneys, huge
104

wheels, and ugly buildings containing mills, hoisting
engines,
shafts,
and pumps. These indicate the mouths which are vertical or inclined, according
of to
the position of the property.
We
typical
will
suppose that the particular mine taken as

the
is
of
Rand
at
reefs,
u propositions,"
as
Yankee
would
say,
a distance of
500 feet from the
outcrop of the
runs 2000 feet east and west,
and 1000
feet
north and south.
Being so near the
outcrop, the portion of the reef underlying the property dips at a

big angle to the horizontal.
The
;
the
manager therefore sinks a vertical mainshaft near boundary vertically nearest to the reef and
the reef has been struck continues the shaft
it.
when
parallel to the reef in the stratum beneath
From
the shaft, at different levels, usually 150 feet apart,

cuts " are made north and south into the and from these again " drives " are cut east and west through the reef itself. The drives are connected by "winzes," which, together with the
" cross
reef,
drives, divide the reef into
blocks
called
" stopes "
of ore.
The operation
of cutting out the blocks,
removing the valuable
parts,
and
filling
in
the
cavities with the rubbish, or with
material lowered
tl
from above,
is
termed " stoping."
stoping signifies the method of from an upper drive to the drive below, while " overhand " stoping expresses the reverse process. In the first case underhand stoping is most usual on the Rand as being more easily learnt by unskilled
Underhand " working downwards
105
The Romance
labourers
of Mining
down
the nearest winze
the ore
is
shot
to the level below,
where
the
section
it
is
-
caught in cars, and

cuts
to
transported through
cross
the
shaft.
The
latter
has
varying
in
dimensions
within timbers from

;
by 5 feet to 26 feet by 6 feet is strongly timbered at the sides, and divided into several compartments for skips and
feet
cages.
the level
Should overhand stoping be adopted, the roof of is strongly timbered or protected by a strip of reef left over it. The miners then get to work, hacking at the roof, passing good stuff through a
vertical " ore pass " into the cars in the level below,
and building up a sloping bank of rubbish which has its upper face parallel to the lower surface of the stope. Sometimes " breast stoping " is preferred,
i.e.
attacking the block almost vertically, so that
it
may be termed
a very perpendicular variety of the
underhand method. Ore is loosened with the aid of dynamite placed in the bottom of holes drilled by hand or machinery. The high price of this commodity, when the Boers held the monopoly of supplying it, was one of the chief causes of friction between the Uitlanders and the Pretorian Government. The " banket " is made up of white quartz pebbles cemented together by a bluish substance containing iron pyrites and gold. In the beginning of things the three materials were probably merely mixed
without adhesion
;
but at some
later period,
when
106

the granite pushed up the reefs, great heat forced
and combined them
into their present condition.
When
to
a reef
is
very thin
a few
a
inches
the
sometimes
it
dwindles
miners are obliged to
hack
away
sufficient
both sides to give
amount of the native rock on them room to work in. A part

form "
stulls,"
of this useless material serves to
or
supports, between the walls of the lode.
From
carry
it
the mines the ore
is
wound up
in skips
tipped automatically into ore bins or trucks,

off to
and which
fed
at a
the sorting-house.
There
it
is
into a hopper, washed,
and dropped, a
little
time,
on
to
the sorting table or sorting conveyor,
according to the practice of that particular mine.

feet or
The former more

all
is
a circular, revolving counter,

its
30
in
external diameter
being an open space 6 yards in diameter.

stand
the centre " "
Boys
round
on both sides and,

all
as
the table
slowly revolves, pick off

is
the rubbish.
scraper
continually shooting what passes their inspection
about the
which pounds it into lumps road-mending granite. In some mines the table is replaced by an endlessbelt conveyor, an American invention.
into a crushing machine,
size of
After the
preliminary crushing the ore
is
trans-
ported by trucks or indiarubber belts to the mills,
where great stamps stand in a double row, each stamp fed by its own bin. A heavy vertical bar, shod at the bottom with a steel shoe 9 inches in diameter, and furnished with a projection near the 107
The Romance
top,
is
of Mining
raised
cam on
a horizontal revolving bar.
and dropped 90 times a minute by It falls about

the
ore, fed
9 inches, and crushes
by
hopper,
against a steel die of equal diameter.
Altogether,
the pestle weighs upwards of 2000 lbs.
The
pulverised material, called pulp, passes through
fine screens
on
to inclined
copper plates coated with
mercury, which swallows most of the fine gold, and,
when
fully saturated,
is
retorted to separate the metals.
About 40 per cent, of the gold stays in the " tailings," which have to be treated chemically. They are first shaken in a u Frue " vanner, an endless belt which is given a lateral and a progressive motion simultaneously, while a stream of water passing over the stuff
removes the
lighter portions
called " slimes."
The
lifted
" concentrates,"
or
heavier parts, are
now
by buckets on the circumference of an enormous wheel into a trough, through which they flow into the cyanide vats, of a capacity of some hundreds
of tons each.
The
vats are filled with a solution
containing 2.25, 2.0, or 1.0 per cent, of cyanide of potassium, which, like mercury, has a great affinity
for gold.
After soaking in this solution for a week,
the concentrates are drained, the solids being cast
out on to the tailing heaps which plague Johannes-
burg sadly during high winds, and the solution

taken to the precipitation boxes.
is
The gold must

it
be separated from the cyanide, with which has chemically combined. So to the potassium
now
is
thrown food which
it
likes
even better than gold,
108
zinc
And
and
as
it
absorbs
dried
this
it
lets
go
of
the
more precious
deposit,
so,
metal.
is
The gold
settles in a
shining
which
at the
and melted
in
crucibles.
is
end
of several days, there
seen
a solid ingot containing 80 per cent, of gold
and 10
vastly
per cent, of
silver.
This short account shows the reader
how
more complicated reef mining is than placer mining. The simple pan, rocker, or sluice, have been replaced by machinery of a high order, and by chemical processes discovered after
search.
of the
much careful laboratory reThe prevalence of machinery, the absence individual miner working for his own hand, the
good supply of water, the abundance of provisions and other necessaries, all distinguish the Witwatersrand from the goldfields of Australia and America. Almost from the very first days, the Transvaal gold has been attacked by companies backed up by capital, under conditions which lacked the usual
hardships of the goldseeker's
lot.
109
CHAPTER
The
Excelsior arrives in 'Frisco Bay
VII
THE ELDORADO OF THE NORTH
California upset The Yukon Forty-Mile George Carmack's find A unique episode in gold-mining history The reward of laziness Wonderful earnings Melting the ground The "clean-up" Fortunes made A rush to the Klondike The Chilkoot and White Passes Down the Yukon Terrible mortality among baggage animals in the White Pass Growth of Dawson High prices Dawson of to-day The Klondike "placers" Mining laws How Alaska being opened up The White Pass Railway Alaska's
The
district
early approaches thither
is
future.
One
that
of
July day in 1897 a small steamer, the Excelsior,
steamed into San Francisco harbour with a cargo would have shamed many a Spanish galleon
old
times.
faces
scarred
their
About
this
The passengers were miners, their by much hardship and privation. personal appearance there was beyond
;
nothing remarkable
but they brought

tins,
with
them, tied up in sacks, skins, old clothes,

pots,
it,
jama
and every imaginable
article that
would hold
millions of
gold dust,
precious
gold dust and nuggets,

that
full
ton in weight.
From
moment
tongues began to wag about the marvellous

Tiddler's
Tom
ground in where gold could be got almost for the trouble of picking it up. So the report ran, and gossip soon bred a fever which caused men of all classes to quit
Alaska and North-West Canada,
no
The Eldorado
their
of the North
to
work and hurry
off
secure in the distant
few months' labour, enough wealth to furnish them with a comfortable livelihood for
goldfields, after a
the rest of their
lives.
The
" rushes " to California
and the Australian

sical
goldfields in
if
the middle of the
century were paralleled, even

obstacles
not surpassed.
the
Phy-
could
not deter
adventurer
or
aristocrat,
clerk,
mechanic, government
official,
the thirst for the precious metal blinded his
eyes
coming and well-known terrors snow-clad mountains. Off he went,

to the
of precipitous,
full
of
hope,
outfit,
but often miserably supplied with a proper

destined, in
passes,
many
cases, to
of
leave his bones in the
or at
the bottom
their
the swirling
Yukon.
The lucky few made

years of the
fortunes in these early

few.
boom, but they were the

they are to-day,
of
let
Before proceeding to an account of the

goldfields as
Yukon
gold-
us glance at the
of
early
history
the
discovery
the
vast
bearing gravel regions which cover

of square miles
many thousands
mighty Yukon,
on both banks
of the
a river ranking very high
among
the great streams of
the world in point of both length and volume.

sixteen
For
hundred miles the Yukon
is
navigable by
craft of the size of the largest Mississippi steamers,
and
flank
for five
hundred miles above

Rising in the
St.
that
by boats
of
half that size.

of
lakes
at
on the north
the
Elias
Range,
about the 6oth
parallel of north latitude, the
river
makes
huge
sweep northwards
at
Fort Yukon, 350 miles north,
in

just touches the Arctic Circle
again to
sea
is
and bends southwards About 1600 miles up from the the great gold-scattered tract to which men are
;
its
mouth.
hurrying, 300 miles nearer the Pole than St. Peters-
burg.
At
midsummer twenty-two
out of the twenty-
four hours are brightened by the sun, shining
down
with almost tropical heat.
At midwinter darkness
not slackened
claims an equal proportion of the day, and cold lays
an icy grip on the country which

for
is
months. Herein lies the main difference between the early Klondike and the other great goldfields of the world. A man might be lost in California, Africa, or Australia, and yet manage to find But not so here, " Once in always in," his way out. after the winter had commenced and to lose one's way was to perish. Until recent years the Klondike region as large
;
as
France
was
practically a terra incognita, traversed
by a few Esquimaux, Indians, and half-breeds, and The here and there a white fox-hunting trapper. bears had the district pretty well to themselves. In or about 1878 the first gold-prospector entered the country, and from that time onwards small
parties of
miners made their way into the Klondike

at the
over the Chilkoot Pass from Dyea

the
head of
Lynn Canal.
its
From
the outset gold was found
in the bars of
the Lewes River (the upper Yukon)
and
tributaries, but generally in
unremunerative
amounts,
considering the
conditions
in
under which
so
re-
mining had to be conducted 112
a region
45
SO
^ ^s
cP *-
~
^2
co-
ts
g
00
<s
-.
o o?^
SS ^
^
co CO
Co
<
J<=o a*
The Eldorado of
mote from
and
the
five
the
North
civilisation. In 1881, however, paying " placers " were discovered on the Big Salmon River,
autumn
years later the Cassiar Bar was tapped. In of that year miners struck u coarse
gold on
Forty-Mile Creek, a feeder of the
Yukon
which enters it just to the east of the boundary line between Canada and Alaska. "The gold/' afterwards gave his name wrote Dr. Dawson who
to the chief city of
the region
often
"varies
much
in
character,
but
large
is
quite
coarse and nuggety,
amounts have been taken out in favourable places by individual miners. Few of the men mining here in 1887 were content with ground yielding less than 14 dollars a day, and several had taken out nearly 100 dollars a day
and very
for a short time."
up at Forty-Mile, whither 200 out of 250 miners of the district hastened: and another at Circle, 100 miles lower down, in Alaska. These soon expanded into places more worthy of their title. A year which will always remain famous in mining history is 1896, when a miner named George Carmack, who had been diligently searching for eleven
years,
" city " quickly sprang
tapped
the
riches
of
the
Klondike
River.
While roaming about with

friends,
his
Indian relatives and

the
he started
digging
on
banks
of
the
Bonanza Creek, and soon found enough gold in his pan to convince him that here was a fortune.
He
at
once hurried
off
to
Forty-Mile to register
113

his
claim,
and
after
giving
some
old acquaintances
This was in August, just which would effectively bar the people of the outer world from entering, had begun. In a few days all Forty-Mile was on the way, and soon 350 men who had the place all to themselves were shovelling at the richest-known gold deposits in the world. Never had miners had such a chance They knew that for several months no one could Fortunes were made at an arrive to share the spoil. Carmack and three companions astounding rate. washed out 1200 dollars in eight days while on the same creek two other men took 4000 dollars Newcomers staked out Creek claims in two days. farther and farther from the main stream of the Klondike, until the people from Forty-Mile had all Presently the Yankee miners from been served. Circle City got wind of the find, and rushed up, suffering terribly on the way from cold and hunger. One of the most curious things connected with this strike was the rich reward that attended an act
the hint, he started back.
as the winter,
of sheer laziness.
An
ex-bar-tender of Forty-Mile,
too sluggish to go up to the top of the Bonanza Creek, turned aside into a subsidiary Creek, the famous Eldorado, out of which he made nearly
-600,000.
who was
was the " pay dirt," that as much as was taken out of a single pan. On one ^160 claim a nugget was picked up worth ^51, on another one worth ^46. 114
So
rich
The Eldorado of
The gold took
the
North
a lot of getting out, however, the
ground being frozen hard as iron. Yet the digging must be done in winter, since after the spring thaw set in every shaft became a well, owing to the leakage from the upper gravel stratum, and because, though it would be impossible to wash the dirt when the thermometer was many degrees below zero, the abundance of summer water would make While sinking the the " clean-up " an easy matter. shafts the miners had to use big fires to soften the By the time a fire had burnt out, the gravel. ground below it was thawed to a depth of several Pick and shovel removed all the loose dirt, inches. which was thrown on to the "dump," ready for Alternate firing and digging washing in the spring.
gradually penetrated the crust of gravel to within
a few feet of the
unworkable bedrock below, and

rock,
then the real excitement began, for the rich pay-
which has caught all the gold washed through the ground by centuries of rain and movement.
streak rests
on the
The
by
last
eighteen inches or so
of
gravel
is
laid
on the dump and treated with special care, dust and nuggets which it contains may In deeper claims, i.e. those where the be secured. rock is overlaid by very deep gravel, it would be
itself
that the
too troublesome to dig out all the super-incumbent " poor dirt " and small shafts are sunk to the rock, and horizontal " drifts " run from the bottom through
;
the rich strata.
The frozen condition

IJ 5
of the earth
The Romance
of Mining
here aids the miner, by saving him the labour of
supporting the roof of a drift with timber props.
long the miners burnt and dug, up great heaps of the precious dirt. With the spring began the " clean-up," which yielded most sensational results. Some men made money at the rate of seventeen dollars a minute, and fortunes of hundreds of thousands of dollars came out in a couple of months. One miner was found looking very disconsolate, and on being asked what ailed him he replied that for the last day or two he had been making only 60 dollars per pan washed, in
All the winter
piling
place of the
100 dollars that his earlier washings
produced
Of all the 300 claims staked out on Bonanza Many fortunes Creek not one proved a failure. and even were found in the sluices and pans among the refuse thrown away enough gold remained to bring wealth to any one who cared to work it over again. At the end of the " clean-up " a large proportion Yet, by a of the miners were li made " men for life. strange irony of fortune, they were so pinched by want of food that one man offered half his wealth in exchange for a single good square meal. The first steamer down the river carried on board nearly a hundred lucky miners, who, as mentioned above, "As reached San Francisco safely with their spoil. the United States Mint was closed for the day," writes a witness of the scene in the New York 116
;
The Eldorado
Tribune, "
of the North
arrived,
when
the
miners
they
their sacks of gold dust to Selby's office.
packed There a
picturesque collection of bags was produced.
Some
were made
of deer hide,
and held
as
much
as .2500.
Several of the miners ran out of even canvas bags,
and were forced to put their gold in tumblers and fruit jars, which they covered with writing paper. They looked like fruit or jelly put up by country All the bags were weighed, and then, housewives. as fast as the weight was recorded, they were slit open with a sharp knife and the contents poured upon the broad counter, which had a depression in the middle. The heap of gold dust looked like
a pile of yellow shelled corn."
Thousands of gold-seekers of both sexes and all classes were soon hurrying to Pacific ports, bound for Klondike, not caring how they should reach the happy hunting-grounds, as long as they got there. The mining towns of Colorado and California were deserted by their inhabitants, who turned what they The fever could into money and joined the rush. spread rapidly to inland towns, even to Europe and Men of all ranks threw up their ordinary Australia. At Seattle, occupations and shipped for Alaska. Washington, half the police force resigned, and the street cars had to cease running for lack of drivers.
came in fresh accounts of the Klondike wonders, some doubtless very greatly exaggerated. The following, which appeared in the Manchester Guardian of October 17, 1897, is, howevery mail
By
117

ever,
the
statement
of
responsible
person,
Mr.
William Ogilvie, a Canadian Government Surveyor, " Talking of the and as such may be trusted.
reports of wonderful accounts of gold taken out in
a single pan, Mr. Ogilvie gave
periences.
some
of his
own
ex-
He went
to
into
one
of the richest claims
and asked
gold.
be allowed to wash out a panful of

pay-streak
The
was then
all
very
rich,
but
it
standing at the bottom of the shaft, looking at
by the
the
light of a
candle,
that could be seen of

dirt,
pay-streak
was a
yellowish-looking
little
with
here and there the sparkle of a

Ogilvie took out a big panful
it
gold.
to
Mr.
and began
wash
out, while several
miners stood about guessing as
to
the
result.
Five hundred dollars was the top
guess of the miners, but

dried,
and weighed,
it
when came
the gold was washed,

to
little
over
590
dollars."
were the gold-seekers to reach the land of Though no fewer than nine routes were practicable in the summer, three only were generally employed. The easiest and longest was an all-water route, by steamer to the mouth of the Yukon, and thence up the river, a distance of 4000 miles in all. This occupied any period up to a month, though, if the river steamer were unlucky, a much longer time might be required to pilot her through the many
promise
?
How
snags
and
sandbars
lurking
in
the
unsurveyed
channel of the Yukon.

preferred
the
Impatient people therefore

route
overland
some
2500 miles
118
The Eldorado
shorter
St. Elias
of the North
via the
Chilkoot and White Passes of the
If he meant to utilise one of these, booked a passage to Juneau, where the outfit mining tools, cooking apparatus, clothes, guns, and large quantities of provisions sufficient to last for six months must be purchased. Having
Range.
the adventurer
laid out his
money
to the best advantage,

at the
he pro-
ceeded to Dyea or Skagway

koot or the White Pass.
the shallow anchorage,
head
of the
Lynn
Canal, according to whether his choice was the Chil-
At either place, owing to

the traveller often
had
to
wade
ashore.
Then he
rigged up a tent, and sought
porters to carry his goods to the foot of the Pass.
We
will picture the fortunes of
an 1897 gold-seeker
in the Chilkoot.
First
came
to
a nine-mile
at
tramp over
journeys
very rough ground to Sheep Camp,

mile an hour. over this piece
if
the rate of a
He had
carriers
make
several
were few and his baggage bulky. This took about four days. At Sheep Camp wood was scarce and a fire sorely needed. Porters having been engaged, the mountains proper must be
tackled.
Absolutely no vestige of a trail existed over snowy plateaux which rose in front, cut across by deep crevasses, the work of some raging mountain
the
If
stream.
often
a blizzard overtook the party
had to stop, roll themselves up as best they might, and wait until the storm abated. The last part of the ascent was terrible, an almost perpendicular climb up rocks where a boulder might easily be dislodged and sent crashing 119
happened
they
as very
BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY CHESTNUT HILL, MASS,
The Romance
down on some
roughed
past
it,"
of Mining
below.
1
luckless
person
in
have
in
said
Mr. Harry de Windt,

in Siberia,
I
"for the
that
fifteen
years
Borneo, and
describe
severest
Chinese
Tartary,
but
can
safely
climb
over the Chilkoot as
the
physical
experience of
my
life."
In 1898 an aerial wire-rope

lished to transport
rate of a cent a
tramway was
estab-
baggage up
this precipice, at the
pound.
to
From
the top the descent inland was so precipitous
that sleighs
had
be " given their head," as
it
was
impossible to hold them back.
Then came
a suc-
cession of journeys to Crater Lake, from which place
Lake Lindeman, the first of a chain, was soon and a couple more days brought him to reached Lake Bennet. The traveller's troubles were by no means over, for he must now build a boat, raft something to carry him five hundred miles through lakes and
;
rapids.
fessional
This was a
difficult
job even for a pro-
boat-builder, as trees
must be
felled
and
cut into planks before he could think of beginning
work on his craft. If fortunate, he might possibly pick up a ready-made skiff for 100 dollars or so. Ten chances to one there was not such a thing for sale. Of course, if the outfit did not include all proper tools and materials for caulking the boat's seams, an advance became almost impossible. Here is a picture of Lake Bennet in June 1898 "It was
:
Strand Magazine, October 1897.
120
2^
si
3t2
^
o
5
5e *-
^>
a Kq
The Eldorado
a
of the North
out
more boats in a given time than probably any other town in The skilled and the the world, large or small. unskilled were hewing and caulking, all bent upon the one common theme of having a boat, and by means of it reaching Dawson or some place in near proximity to the goldfields. No more inspiring lesson teaching man's ingenuity and determination
busy shipbuilding
port, turning
could be found than
this
One and
than two
all
seemed
to
one of Nature's shipyard. have got suited and fitted,
and within a period of some two months not less thousand craftsail boats, scows, and canoes, many of the lighter ones brought bodily over the passes were launched upon the still icy waters of Lake Bennet." *
Leaving the
lakes, the
voyager entered the Upper

suddenly conhigh,
Yukon, and soon reached the Grand Canon Rapids,

nearly a mile long, where the river
tracted to a width of
is
little and if the chance of getting out, as the sides are sheer rock. From here to the White Horse Rapids, known as " the Miner's Grave," from the many casualties that
The waves run boat should be swamped, there is

ioo
feet.
have taken place
in their turbulent
waters,
is
very
bad going. At the Rapids a portage must be made. Lake Le Barge is next reached, a lovely piece of water with practically no current flowing through it. Then the river again, and its strong stream
carrying the boat sixty to seventy miles a day.
1
On
"Alaska and the Klondike," A. Heilprin.
121

past
Little Salmon River to Five Fingers Rapids, Rush Rapids, and Rink Rapids, after which the
dangers of travel are pretty well over, and the Klondike

is
reached
at last.
Should the White Pass have been chosen, the difficulties of the mountains were lessened, partly
because the gradients are not so severe, partly because
it
has an altitude of over iooo feet
less
than
the Chilkoot.
The
distance, about forty miles
from
Skagway, the port of landing, could, under favourable circumstances, be covered in a day and a half.
same as that already described. During the "rush" of '98 this Pass was largely used and sad traces of man's " The Desert cupidity remained to mark the event.
the route
is
From Lake Bennet
the
of Sahara," writes
Mr. Heilprin, after crossing the

its
Pass in 1898, "with

of
lines of skeletons,
can boast
no such exhibition of carcasses. Long before Bennet was reached, I had taken count of more than a thousand unfortunates (horses) whoje bodies now made part of the trail frequently we were
;
obliged to pass directly over these ghastly figures

of
hide,
and sometimes, indeed, broke

in
into
them.
picture
Men whose veracity need me that what I saw was

were
to
less
not be questioned assured
no way the
full
full
of the 'life' of the trail; the carcasses of that time
than one-third of the
number which
to the route
out,
for
this
in April
and May gave grim character
new Eldorado. Equally spread number would mean one dead animal
the
every
122
The Eldorado
sixty feet of distance
!
of the
North
succumbed
The poor
beasts
not so
at the
much
hands
to the hardships of the trail as to lack of
care and the
of their owners.
inhuman treatment which they received Once out of the line

of soft
of the
mad
rush, perhaps unable to extricate them-
selves
from the holding meshes
snow and
of
quagmires, they were allowed to remain where they

were, a food offering to the
army
of carrion eaters
which were hovering about, only too certain of the meal which was being prepared for them. Oftentimes pack-saddles, and sometimes even the packs, were allowed to remain with the struggling or sunken
animal
such was
the
mad
race which the greed of
gold inspired."
1897 rush Dawson, the "Francisco of it has been called, sprang up on the right bank of the Yukon in the angle between that river and the Klondike. On the opposite side of the Klondike is the town named after it. Early in 1897 Dawson was only a small group of huts, housing a few hundred miners. No less than 5000 entered the Yukon country in the summer of that year, and
After the
the North," as
about
40,000
of
autumn
"
summer following. By the 1898 Dawson counted at least 20,000

in
the
and had all the usual features of a That is to say, most of the buildings were of a somewhat ramshackle nature and
inhabitants,
boom "
town.
prices ruled
larly
high.
Supplies
came
in very irregu-
by steamers from St. Michael's. The population was not a mere horde of prospectors intent 123

upon acquiring gold at all costs, but a medley in which Counts, naval and military officers, scientists, lawyers, pressmen, and storekeepers jostled one another. You had your choice of three weekly
newspapers, several theatres (of a
unlimited
sort),
an almost
number
of saloons,
life
The
to
insecurity of
and a couple of banks. and property usually associated
with mining towns did not exist here, thanks mainly

the efficiency of the Canadian
trust
Mounted
Police.
one another, that if a purchaser entered a store, he said what he wished to have, threw his bag of gold-dust on the counter, and turned his back while the storekeeper weighed it out. To watch him would have been flagrantly " bad form," as implying mistrust of his honesty.
So much did people
One
storekeeper
;
did take
mean advantage
of
was promptly removed in a manner resorted to in communities where rough justice and revolvers form judge and executioner. A Dawson hotel was not much to look at in those days but what it lacked in comforts it made up for in charges. A guest-room was generally innocent
customer
and
he
of
looking
glass,
washing
apparatus,
candlestick,
it
window-panes (replaced by canvas). But for what could boast in the way of a bed 26 shillings a Board cost about 20 shillings night might be asked.
a day.
is
more
figure
Yet as regards the commissariat the

excessive
details
in
not
view of current prices.

of
Mr.
Heilprin
some
;
these:
oranges and
;
lemons 75 cents apiece
apples 25 cents
potatoes
124
The Eldorado
the
;
of the North
;
and onions 75 cents the pound butter 1 dollar pound eggs, presumably fresh, but ordinarily
;
with a stale inheritance, 2J dollars per dozen Bass's ale 2\ dollars a pint sugar 30 cents a pound.
;
Water-melons, for which the Yankee has a loving

tooth, could not be
bought for
less
than 25 dollars
prices
each
and
in
scarce times a
cucumber fetched
dollars.
Hay touched tremendous
1400
dollars per ton.

All this has, of course,
provement the middle
in
methods
of
May
till
been changed by the imcommunication. From the middle of October about

of
fifty-five stern-wheel steamboats ply between Dawson and St. Michael's. The pilots know the snags, bars, and channel-ways of the Yukon as well as those of the Mississippi. As the river in its broader parts has a current of only three miles an hour, the powerful engines drive the boats up the 1600 miles in about nine days, and down in a much shorter time. When
the river freezes, the sleigh traffic begins over the
smooth ice at its edge, both from St. Michael's and from the upper lakes inside the passes. Marvellous indeed is the change that has come
over the township.
The World's Work, speaking of the year 1903, " a splendid
It
"
has," says a writer in
system of waterworks, a local telephone system, and long-distance connections with the principal mines
;
communication with the world, churches of every denomination, large Federal and Municipal buildings, and good schools. The streets are
telegraphic
.
. .
I2 5
The Romance
all
of Mining
Lines of steam-
thoroughly lighted by
at
electricity.
boats along the wharves, loading and unloading, and
steam dredges
habitants of
work
in the river, give
an animated
in-
aspect to the water-front.
Three years ago the
Dawson lived principally on dried and canned meats and German sliced evaporated potatoes.
To-day fresh meat is brought in, frozen in winter, and in refrigerator cars to White Horse in summer, and all vegetables are grown in market gardens near
by.
to
Nothing pleases the Dawson

entertain a
sceptical visitor
citizen
more than
at
from the South
table with lettuce, asparagus, green peas, or celery,
cabbage and carrots, according to the grown in his own rear-yard." 1 About three miles up the Klondike River from Dawson is the Bonanza Creek, the scene of the first important finds. Following the Bonanza thirteen The trail miles or so the Eldorado Creek is struck. formerly used by the miners was much impeded by
cauliflower,
season,
morasses, through which the

his
pedestrian
ploughed
way,
trusting
to his high waterproof boots to
keep out most of the wet.
much improved
reaches
his
since
then,
But matters have been and the claim-owner
property
without
much
trouble.
In
winter sleighs are largely used over the streams, up which a good dog-team will make the journey to Eldorado in three hours. A few words about the Klondike " placers " or surface claims. To the prospector the Eldorado
1
November
1903.
126
The Eldorado
looked unpromising
of the North
its
enough, with
growth
of bushes, trees,
and moss.
He
dense overmight easily
have passed through the valleys without suspecting that under that shaggy mantle lay vast quantities of
" gravel "
chipped off the rocks of the and worn to smoothness among region by water which lurked mingled clay and gold, the latter in-
pebbles
,;
creasing in bulk at bed-rock level.

i.e.
" creek
is
claim,
feet
one including a length of the stream,
250
long,
measured
If
in the general direction of the creek.
The breadth
either side.
varies with the nature of the slopes
on
the slopes are gentle, the line
drawn
horizontally at a level three feet above the edge of
the water,
may run
several
is
hundreds
reached.
of feet before
the rim-rock of the slopes
So
maximum
breadth of 1000 feet has been fixed by the mining

laws.
" river " claim
can be staked out on one
side only of the stream, and has the
same maximum
claim
is
area as the creek claim

larly restricted.
and a "
hill "
simifeet
All other placer claims are
250
square.
The Canadian Government
reserves every alternate
ten claims, which can be disposed of in the
advantageous to the authorities.

a
way most Any trespasser upon
Crown claim
loses
such rights as he
secured previously in private claims.

discovery, any miner or party of
may have To encourage miners who strike
a new mine gets claims of double size up to two members. Though no miner can receive a grant of more
127
The Romance
than one claim
in
of Mining
he
is
one
district,
at
;
liberty to
and many fortunes have been made by individuals who bought what the previous owners considered to be worthless
purchase the
claims of other
people
properties.
of to
In order to prevent useless occupation

it
a claim
is
stipulated that
if
an occupier
fails
work
his claim for
seventy-two consecutive hours

it,
he
forfeits his rights to
unless a satisfactory reason
can be assigned for

It
his absence.
would be tedious to enumerate the dozens of other rules and regulations prevailing in the district and it must suffice to add that illegal " jumping " of claims an unsavoury feature of the Californian and
;
Australian goldfields
is
unknown
in the Klondike.
Bonanza and Eldorado, which by now have been largely worked out, the primitive method of panning has been replaced by scientific sluicing and high pressure hydraulicing. The output of the Klondike region showed, at least till 1902, some
the
fluctuation, but very large totals.
On
In 1899 the miners

in
won 16
1900, 22J millions; 1901, 18 millions; and 20 millions in 1902.

million dollars; in
Doubtless the time will
come when more
capital
than at present
beds,
will
be spent on large dredgers to
scoop up the deposits of the sand-bars and river
and pass them through sluicing-boxes.
With
of
an
effective
bucket-dredger, a very small yield
gold per cubic yard more than repays the cost of

working.
The method has been

128
used, as
we have
seen, very successfully in California.
"
Panning
" at the junction of the Eldorado and Bonanza Creeks, Klondike. The gold-seeker partially fills the fan with gold, dirt, and water, and by a peculiar circular motion flips the lighter stuff over the Up of the pan, while letting the gold remain at the bottom.
[To face
p.
128.
The Eldorado
a Miners
of the
North
done more
not for the
gold-minershave
of
always
than any other class of people toward developing

the
resources
the West.
Were
it
discovery of gold in California of
1849 there would
not have been built a trans-continental railway until
many
great
years after 1868, and to-day much of the country west of the Mississippi River would
These words/ written North-West Canada and Alaska. The development of the huge tract, as large as all Europe, Russia excluded, during the last decade has been nothing short of phenomenal.
be practically a wilderness."
of California, apply equally to
Alaska, like other sub-arctic countries,

great extremes
of
is
subject to
temperature
to
95 Fahrenheit in
the
summer, 70
8o below zero in the winter.
person travelling up the Yukon in the warmer months would be astonished by what he saw after what he had read. Not a vestige of snow in sight,
but flanking the river matted, luxuriant vegetation.
of fine quality
Wheat
stock.
is
now
raised in Alaska, also
Besides gold, there are rich deposits of iron,
nickel, copper, coal, only awaiting the advent of the
railway to be mined in large quantities.
Already the
iron
horse
has
arrived.
In
June
1898 a syndicate of English capitalists began work on what is now known as the White Pass and Yukon Railway, running from Skagway through the mountains to Lake Bennett. Though its length is but 112 miles, it ranks high as an engineering achieve1
Engineering Magazine, July 1903.
129
The Romance
;
of
Mining
railway
ment possibly it was the most work ever performed. While

horses
into
difficult bit of
clearing the trail for
the track the navvies had to collect about 2000 dead
heaps and burn them with kerosene.
Parts of the railway cost ^50,000 a mile, the total
So much needed was the road, however, that the first two years' running showed profits of .400,000 and shares which at one time had been going begging at 6J dollars
expenditure reaching -1,000,000.
;
sold at 750 dollars apiece
The
line
track-builder
is
hard
at
work
in other parts
of Alaska.
has been
of
From Nome to Anvil Creek a five-mile laid, "The Wild Goose Road," which
its
in
spite
title
has also proved
a very
good
dividend earner.
Seward Peninsula, on which Nome,

is
a city of 25,000 inhabitants,
built, will
shortly be
gridironed by railways leading to and from the prin-
and forming the western feeders of main trans-Alaskan system. In 1902 a track 82 miles long stretched from West Dawson to Stewart River, from which point to the Lakes the iron horse
cipal gold-mines,
probably soon be running. A railway has also been planned from Valdez, the most northerly icefree port of Alaska, to Tanana on the Yukon, 430
will
miles
away
and,
more ambitious
still,
a great artery
running southwards to join the Canadian trans-continental metals.

it
When
these schemes are completed
will
be possible to travel continuously from Ottawa

to
or
New York
point of Alaska,
Nome, and on to the westernmost whence a submarine tunnel under

130
The Eldorado of
the Behring Straits
of several
the North
still
would provide a
mosquito
longer run
thousand miles to Paris.
Alaska
may be
is
cold,
infested, fly-bitten,
but she
well worth the .1,430,000 paid
by the
lies
United States to Russia in 1867. A great future before her, one in which the gold industry may
into
eventually recede
the
background.
Yet the
day when George Carmack lit his camp fire, burnt away the moss, and discovered the rich gravel, is that from which the new era will be dated. As
and Australia were " boomed " by their gold rushes, and have since gained the larger part of their wealth from agricultural and grazing purCalifornia
suits,
so
may
the
Yukon
district
be
known
to
our
descendants as one of the great wheat and timber-
producing countries of the world.
J3 1
CHAPTER
The high
estimation in which the
VIII
DIAMOND MINING
Diamond has always been held Mythical Actual properties value as compared with that of the Ruby Diamond cutting at Amsterdam The CaratVarieties of Diamond India the source of diamonds Brazil a Minas Geraes Bahia An observant shepherd South African finds A child's toy leads to the discovery of the Kimberley The diamond " pipe " Early days in Kimberley Water invades the Diamond Buyer " De Beers, Limited " How the mines The disintegrated The Pulsator Kaffir labourers The Blue Earth Compound Work below ground Diamond market controlled by De Beers Value of Kimberley production Kimberley in the War
properties
Its
-
earliest
rival
fields
Illicit
is
Historic Diamonds The Great Mogul The Koh-i-nur The The Orloff The Cullinan.
Pitt
Round no substance in the world has romance woven itself more thickly than round the Diamond. The mere mention of this precious stone, "The Unconquerable/' conjures up thoughts of royal of glittering assemblies where the rich vie with jewels
;
one another
of the
in the splendour of their ornaments of Sinbad, marvellous " Arabian Nights "
;
Roc-borne into the valley where riches gleamed on every side of the battles and struggles from which
;
an historic jewel has emerged,

obscurity.
to
be
lost,
maybe,
in
The diamond has taken such
a hold on
the popular imagination that, were the stories collected
as their theme, a small library
which have the fortunes of this precious stone would be the result. No
132
Diamond Mining
wonder, then, that ignorant folk have attributed to
it
many
curious properties.
:
" In his " Natural History
Pliny writes
the diamond,
perfectly.
The most valuable thing on earth is known only to kings, and by them im"
It is
engendered
in the
;
purest gold only.
Six
different
kinds are
known
laid
among
these the
Indian and Arabian, of such indomitable, unspeakable hardness that
when
It
on the
anvil
it
gives
the blow back in such force as to shiver the
hammer
it
and
steel
it
anvil to pieces.
can also
resist fire, for
is
incapable of
being burnt.
This superiority over
and fire is subdued by goat's blood, in which must be soaked when the blood is fresh and
;
warm
then only
when
the
hammer
is
wielded with
such force as to break both it and the anvil will it yield. Only a god could have communicated such
a valuable secret to mankind.
When
l
at last
it
yields
by means
of goat's blood,
it
falls
into pieces so small
that they can scarcely be seen."
Behind these curious ideas there is a modicum of truth. Exceeding hardness is the most peculiar quality of the diamond, which can be scratched by no other substance, while it will make its mark on any body over which it is drawn. As regards its
unbreakableness,
we can only say
that
many
a fine
test
;
gem
has been spoilt by the anvil-and-hammer

its
and, so far as
heat-resisting properties are conto ash

if
cerned, a
to
diamond soon crumbles

of
1
submitted
Its
the temperature
the electric arc.
com-
vol. xxxvii. 15.
133

bustibility
was
first
established in
Florentines
the
who
directed on
1694, by some some small specimens
concentrated
heat
of
very powerful burning-
glasses.
Later scientific research has clearly estab-
lished the chemical character of the stone as pure
carbon, a cousin of coal, which is consequently termed " black diamonds." The extreme hardness of the diamond has made it an extremely useful ally to the geologist and
engineer,
who arm
feet
with
it
the tip of the circular

eats
its
hollow boring tool

thousands of
which
way through
any
In a
of the toughest rock before
replacement of the stones becomes necessary.
more humble way the glazier uses a tiny of diamond mounted in metal to cleave the
of glass.
splinter
surface
This very property militated for centuries against

the estimation in which the
Until
its
diamond
is
now
held.
surface has been shaped into those wonder-
ful facets
"
which sparkle with refracted light the gem Only after Ludwig van is not much to look at." Berquen discovered, in 1476, the method of polishing and grinding it by means of its own dust, did the diamond step into the foremost place which it now occupies among jewels not that it is the most
valuable weight for weight, since the
Oriental ruby
far transcends
it
in this respect.
is
the great centre of diamond cutting and polishing. That town contains over sixty factories. Every diamond passes through three processes before
Amsterdam
134
Diamond Mining
it
is
fit
for sale as a jewel, viz. splitting,
performed
quickly by very skilful

knife
;
workmen
sharp
with
in
a
a
diamond
similar
"brilliant"
cutting
;
off
the
angles
manner
is
and
polishing
by machinery.
against
a
given fifty-eight facets, a " rose " twenty-four, the
workman
oil
pressing
it
wheel coated with
and diamond
care,
dust.
All three processes
demand
the
original
great
for
false
stroke
a
might
reduce
its
value of a stone to
but
fraction of
worth.
The word
carat,
signifying a standard of weight
for precious stones, will be used so frequently in the
following pages that a few words about

sary.
it
are neces-
Carat
is
probably derived from the name of
an African bean, which, when dried, is very consistent in its weight, and therefore was employed in remote times by African gold merchants as their The English ounce Troy is equivalent standard.
to
1
5 1J
carats
so that a single English carat equals
In foreign countries the weight about 3.174 grains. varies from 105 milligrams in Spain, to 206.13 milligrams in Vienna. For our purpose the English
carat
is
always used.
purest
In
its
condition
the
If
diamond
its
is
quite
colourless
and transparent.
blue,
red,
slightly tinted
with
de-
yellow,
green,
or
brown,
value
creases, but deeply coloured
prized.
gems are very highly From Borneo come black diamonds of

and
will
great
beauty
such
hardness
that
ordinary
diamond dust
not polish them, and the adage
135
The Romance
"
of Mining
if
diamond
cuts
diamond
"
holds true only
their
own
dust be used for the purpose.
For many years India was practically the sole The eastern side of the source of diamonds. Deccan, Madras, and the country round Nagpore, have yielded most of the finest Indian specimens, including the individual jewels which have each a The Great Mogul, romantic history of its own Koh-i-nur, The Pitt, The Nizam, The Great The Most of these have been won Table, The Orloff. from alluvial deposits by poor miners of a very low Golconda, caste working for the princes of the land. a name associated with the diamond, is an ancient fortress to which the miners brought their finds, to receive some trifling reward in return.
Presently a rival country appeared.

Brazilian,
In
1727
Bernardino Lobo,
who had
seen rough
diamonds in India, was struck by the resemblance between these and little hard stones which the
gold-diggers
of
Minas-Geraes,
Brazil,
occasionally
found and used
as counters for card-playing.
He
took a number of them to

their valuable nature
Portugal for
the
was
established.
lest
and The Eurosale,
pean merchants, frightened

should prejudice
dustriously
their
new
the
discovery
trade
report
in
Indian gems, inthat

of
spread
the
Brazilian
specimens
were
only the refuse
Indian stones
export.
imported into Brazil for
subsequent
In
reply the Portugese sent their
gems
to India,
where
they were labelled as Indian
stones,
and obtained
136
Diamond Mining
Indian prices.
In two centuries Minas-Geraes proof
duced -9,000,000 worth

covery
of
diamonds.
stones,"
"The
a
dis-
these
precious
writes
great
"in 1746 proved a great curse to the poor inhabitants on the banks of the diamond rivers. Scarcely had the news of the discovery
reached the Government ere they tried to secure
the riches of these rivers for the Crown.
this the inhabitants
authority, 1
To
effect
were driven away from their homes to wild, far-away places, and deprived of nature herself seemed to their little possessions
;
take
part
against
them,
for
dreadful drought,
succeeded by a violent earthquake, increased their

distress.
Many
of
them perished, but those who
lived to return
were benevolently reinstated in their rightful possessions. Strange to say, on their return
the earth seemed strewn with diamonds.
After a
in
heavy shower the children would find gold

streets
the
and
in the
brooks which traversed them, and
would often take

diamonds.
their food,
home three or four carats of One negro found a diamond at the root
Poultry, in picking up
of a vegetable in his garden.
swallowed diamonds, so that their viscera
required searching before being disposed of."

Attention
was
the
presently
diverted
from
of
Minas-
Geraes
to
rich
diamond-fields
Bahia, the
old capital of Brazil.
Minas-Geraes negro, emplace, searched the

and Gems."
ployed as a shepherd, noticing the similarity of the

soil
to that of
1
his native
sand
Mr. E. Streeter in " Precious Stones
137

for precious stones
and soon amassed 700

sale to
;
carats,
which he took for
distant city.
Such
wealth led to suspicion and the negro was arrested and returned to his master, who had him watched, and learnt his secret. Before a twelvemonth was out, 25,000 people had flocked to Bahia, causing
a panic in
Minas-Geraes.
Business there
ceased,
and the price of diamonds dwindled to one-half. But Bahia's evil day arrived also, when the precious stone was first found, in 1868, in South Africa, henceforward the chief source of the world's
supply.
The
story of the
wonderful
Kimberley deposits
Boer child, which amused itself by collecting pebbles from the river. One of these was so bright that it caught the eye of the child's mother, who took it indoors and showed it some time afterwards to a neighbouring farmer, Schalk van Niekirk. He, not knowing its true character, but thinking that it might have some value, offered to buy it the woman laughingly said he was welcome to have it for nothing. Niekirk in turn submitted the stone to an English trader, Mr.
begins with the action of a
little
:
J.
O'Reilly,
who
offered to take
it
down
:
to the coast
and let the experts have a look at it he to share any profits with the owner. O'Reilly, while passing through Colesberg, cut his initials with the stone on one of the hotel windows, and pronounced that he had got a diamond but the people present were so incredulous that one of them took the thing and
;
Diamond Mining
threw
after a
it
into the street,
long search.
a
whence it was recovered only At Grahamstown scientific tests
diamond. The stone, which was sent to the Universal Exhibition in Paris, and afterwards found a purchaser for the sum of ^500. We may only hope that the poor Dutch fi vrow " never got to know the full history of the pebble which she had so lightrevealed
genuine
weighed
21^
carats,
heartedly given away.
This stone was discovered
at
Orange
West.
veldt's
River,
in
the
district
Hopetown on the named Griqualand
Many
seekers soon began to turn over the
and to paddle in the Vaal River. An organised party under Mr. J. B. Robinson established themselves at Hebron, and systematically set to work to trace the stray stones to their origin, which was ultimately established near Kimberley in
surface,
the dry diggings

Bultfontein,
known
as
Du
Toit's Pan,
De
Beers,
and Wesselton. But this happened by accident. A farmer, named Van Wyk, was surprised to find diamonds embedded in the clay of which his house walls were built. Arguing that the place from which the clay had come might reasonably be expected to yield more stones, he began to dig, and so opened the famous
Du
Toit's
Pan, fourteen miles south of the Vaal

of to
River.
The discovery of the diamondiferous nature the Du Toit's Pan caused an immediate rush
the farm,
now surrounded by
139
a suburb of
Kim-
The Romance
berley,
of
Mining
supplied with
town 650 miles north of Cape Town, all the comforts and luxuries of life. In Kimberley itself are the Kimberley and De Beers mines the Du Toit's Pan and Bultfontein mines lie two miles south and the Premier Mine (formerly
a
; ;
Wesselton)
is
three miles to the south-east.
Geologically, the
diamond mines
are unique.
Vol-
canic action has burst open

shale,
" of
the overlying quartz,
ney
it
and igneous rock, and squirted up a " chimdiamondiferous rock, called blue-earth, though
is
extremely hard.
elliptical
The chimneys,
or pipes, are
roughly
of feet
or circular in section, their area
varying at different depths.

across.
;
How
far
Some are thousands down they reach is unthe fiery
certain
very
probably they extend to
core of the earth.

of
Some
pipes are absolutely barren
diamonds
but those
themselves so rich that

of the world's
named above have proved they now supply nine-tenths

and completely control
annual
yield,
the market value of diamonds.

In 1872 miners began to peg out claims in the
Kimberley pan,
thirty feet square,
when he
roadways
road-ways
felt
so disposed.
and each man dug Between the claims ran

dirt.
for the
purpose of transporting the
it became evident that the and also the less energetically mined claims would prove a danger to the workers on claims which had been sunk to a considerable depth. Every now and then there was a landslip, burying tools, machinery, and sometimes human beings. 140
After a very short time
Diamond Mining
This
asking
resulted
in
endless
lawsuits,
the
one party
his
compensation for the entombment of
property, the other seeking damages for the undercutting of his higher ground.
As the general level of the excavation sank, the removing the " earth " increased and, the roadways being useless, platforms were established on the rim of the crater to which buckets
difficulty of
;
could be transported on wire ropes.

the
trouble to a certain extent
in
;
This got over
but
when water
It
appeared
large quantities
the miners were con-
fronted with an extremely
awkward problem.
itself
was
at
once nobody's and everybody's business to

out the intruder which distributed
pump
a case, ings
partially
among
the claims
im-
and, as
in
is
is
usual in such
nobody took the matter fell in, and to-day there
hand.
a
The work650
feet
is
crater
deep, which, as Mr. Stafford
probably the largest
open hole During the claim- working days the Kaffir labourers pilfered stones in great quantities and sold them to that obnoxious individual, the Illicit Diamond Buyer,
Ransome remarks, 1 ever made by man.
known
for short as " I.D.B."
It
is
said that at least

;
diamonds found were thus disposed of so that mining, which otherwise would have been profitable, soon proved a dismal failure. The individual miner therefore sold his rights these in turn to syndicates or small companies amalgamated into large companies, to be finally
half of the
;
"
The Engineer
in
South Africa,"
p.
248.
141

all
"
De
swallowed up by one gigantic concern called the Beers Company/' which controls the industry
to
an
At
extent
unparalleled
in
other
branches
of
mining.
the
De
Beers,
Kimberley, and
Bultfontein
mines the blue-ground is worked by deep shafts down through the rock outside the pipe. The Premier mine has already reached the stage
driven
when open mining

too will soon have
getting out the
said, as
lars.
it
ceases to
shafts.
its
be advisable and About the process

;
it
of
diamondiferous rock
little
need be
resembles coal-mining in most particu-
notice, however, that, owing to the huge capital possessed by the Company, every improvement in machinery is eagerly adopted. Out-
We may
of-date tackle soon finds
its
way
to the scrap heap,
might suggest a terrible 2000 waste of good stuff. The shafts are so deep that high-speed windfeet and more in some cases
which
to the uninitiated eye
ing
becomes important.
Skips
fly
up and down
with 4-ton
hour,
loads at nearly twenty-five miles an and automatically discharge their contents into the head gear bins, from which they pass down shoots to the ground level. The method of separating the diamonds from their matrix is most interesting. Fortunately for the proprietors, blue-ground rapidly disintegrates when exposed to the action of heat, cold, and water. So before introduction to the crushing mills, the material is spread a foot deep over rectangular 142
Diamond Mining
areas
known
as " floors"
measuring
all
400 by 200
yards, previously stripped of

stones.
grass, bush, or loose
A harrow is occasionally drawn backwards and forwards over the rock by steam engines to aid
crumbling, water being squirted freely
" the ground,"
if
the
the
weather remains dry.
At the end of a year

crushing,
separates
is
now
fit
for
washed, and churned

heavier
in a mill
which
the
from
are
the
lighter
portions.
pulsator,
it
The
an
" concentrates "
taken
to
the
automatic
diamond-finder,
and
from
" are
allowed to drop by means of a carefully regulated

feed on to the highest of a series of inclined trays,
arranged in the form of a shallow ramp or

case.
stair-
These trays have a pulsating, or vertically movement, which gives its name to the machine. The upper surfaces of these trays are covered with a thickish layer of Stauffer's lubricant, which has for its object the retention of any diavibrating
monds that may come into contact with it." The important discovery of sorting diamonds by
1
adhesion arose from noticing that the stones stuck

to
any grease that fell into the old-fashioned washing A test was made with very small stones aggregating 6601 carats, out of which only in carats escaped the grease. With coarser material
pans.
only 40J out of
19,031
carats
got
away; which
likely to
proved that the larger stones are lost than the smaller. Apart from
1
less
its
be
effectiveness,
" The Engineer
in
South Africa,"
p. 255.
143

this
system does away with native labour and the
need for a great amount of supervision.

trays
grease and its adherents are scraped off the and consigned to a melting-pot, which quickly sends the stones and the rubbish to the bottom.
off,
The
The grease runs
leaving the deposit free for in-
spection and sorting, done by highly trained experts.
The
stones are then
washed
in
in
sulphuric acid and
sent to the head

perfectly classified,
sorters here "
office
Kimberley, to be more
and stored ready for sale. The work in a carefully locked office, to which the visitor is only admitted on production of a pass, and after being scrutinised suspiciously through And when he gets ina little grille in the door. side this Holy of Holies, he finds himself railed off from the counters on which the piles of gems are
being sorted, in case the sight of such vast riches
should cause his cupidity to get the better of his

morality."
1
ployed in the mines.
and 2500 whites are emThe nature of their work necessitates a strict guard being set on the Kaffirs, To let them for they are the expertest of thieves. go in and out of the mines would mean the loss of
About 15,000
Kaffirs
many
valuable stones
they are therefore obliged to
sign a contract for a period of at least six months'
work, during which no egress from the mine com-
pound
is
permitted.
Once
in
in,
always
in,
till
their
term has been completed.

1
Not
that they fare badly,

p. 257.
" The Engineer
South Africa,"
144
Diamond Mining
since stores in the
may wish
a hospital,
to buy.
compound furnish anything they They have clean, neat houses, swimming baths, and a chapel where a
native preacher holds forth
an interpreter
who
translates
on Sundays, helped by his dialect into one

It
is
more
of
all
readily understood
by the audience.
to
the credit of the
De Beers Company
the
that intoxicants
mises
kinds are
rigorously forbidden on the pre-
a great contrast to
drink-sodden com-
pounds of the Rand before the war. With no less than .4,000,000 worth
occurs in spite of the utmost vigilance.
of
diamonds
theft
lying in the disintegrating blue-ground,
some
Guards are
fenced
always
patrolling
the
boundary,
strongly
with barbed wire entanglements.

arc lamps light
pilferer
At night strong
up the floors, so that any would-be may be seen by the watch. " The Kimberley
are covered with a wire netting to preit
compounds
that
vent the throwing out of diamonds,

old tins and
similar articles
this purpose,
being found
utilised for
were
on the chance
of picking
1
them up
out-
side the walls after dismissal."
The amount
mines
is
of material raised
from the diamond
astonishing.
"
Up
10,325,989 been removed from the

equivalent to
loads
of
sixteen
May 1, 1883, cubic feet each had

to
Kimberley
mine
alone,
3,824,440 cubic yards of solid rock, at a cost of ;i,545>35 8 In l88 3> 1,688,914 loads of reef were removed in 1884, 711,033
-
Cassie^s Magazine.
145
The Romance
from work done
loads
this
of Mining
one mine. 1 ... An idea of the in the De Beers mine in one fortnight may be obtained from the following figures During the first two weeks of November 1897, there were used 8|- tons of dynamite, 65,100 fuse (equal to 12I miles), and 32,500 feet of blasting-caps, and during the previous month the record hoisting was made of 182,040 loads, or 145,632 tons, through one shaft, and from the 1200
foot level."
2
The u boys
thirty
"
work
under
below ground
the
direction
in
gangs of
a
lit
or
forty,
of
white
miner, or boss.
ventilated,
is
The mines
;
being well
and the drives
of large size, their

is
and work
not unpleasant
but there
one thing which
they fear, as a coal-miner fears fire-damp

rush.
early
mudthe
The huge open excavations made

days form natural
sinks
in
reservoirs
for
spring
or
of
rain water, which, together
with
fine
particles
matter,
down through
If
cracks in the form of

it
a thick paste.
terrific
this is
" tapped "
rushes with
and speed through the galleries, carrying trucks, rails, and timbers before it irresistibly. Sometimes there is loss of life and the authorities
force
;
have
the
now
instituted a
system of draining the overof
lying stratum
by means
pumps, so
as to prevent
accumulation of water.
From
;
the
;
De
Beers
mine 5000 gallons per hour are pumped from the Kimberley double that quantity and the gradual
1
Cassier's
Magazine.
Cassier's Magazine.
I46
Diamond Minin g
decrease in the
efficacious.
amount proves
that the
method
is
Reference has already been
made
to the
control
exercised by the De Beers Syndicate over the diamond markets of the world. It has been shown by statistics that about four and a-half million pounds sterling are spent yearly on this class of precious
stone.
If all
the year's product were suddenly offered
would probably follow a "slump," or general fall in prices. Then, again, the fashion changes now, single big brilliants, costfrom time to time now ing hundreds of pounds each, are in demand
for sale, there
; ;
much
numbers
smaller stones set closely together in large while in " bad times " people will not
;
invest in very costly jewels, but there
is
a consider-
able public
a few
who do not mind the expenditure of pounds on cheaper stuff.
So the De Beers people carefully regulate the supply to meet the demand, keeping stored away under lock and key huge quantities tons, in fact of jewels, and waiting for the moment when any one kind may be needed. If the reserve becomes
unwieldy, they simply decrease the
number
ideal
of their
employes.
at
Hence
the Syndicate has a unique, and
present unchallenged position,
an
the
one from
the seller's point of view.

a rival
is
The
nearest approach to
the Jagersfontein mine, notable for having
produced
carats, or
what
about
is
probably
diamond ever mined by man,

six
second
It is
largest
a monster of
!
971
flat,
and a half ounces 147

almost
thick
rectangular stone, about

to
and from seven-eighth inch

;
two inches long, one and a half inches

of
of
a blue-white tinge,
very fine colour,
and
which cannot be computed. By the end of 1904 the total value of diamonds exported from South Africa reached nearly .90,000,000.
of a value
How much
may
may
this
amount
will
be increased before the

say.
mines stop working we cannot

or the depth to which
it
The blue-ground
;
prove poor in stones as the mining proceeds
can be profitably worked

this
turn out to be more limited than at present

;
appears probable
or,
and
is
the most uncertain
element of
richness
all
to reckon with,
mines of even greater
may be
discovered elsewhere, in the un-
explored parts of Asia, Australia, or America.

all
For
land
we know
away
rise
wild animals
may be browsing on
in
cities
far
in the
Pamirs or Andes which
time will
see the
of
diamond
even greater than
Kimberley.
This chapter would not be complete without a

short reference
to
during the war.

15,
Diamondopolis From October 1899 till February

the
siege
of
all
"
"
1900,
it
stubbornly resisted
it.
efforts
of
the
Large numbers of the inhabitants took refuge from shells in the old workings of The De Beers Company, headed by the mines.
Boers to reduce
Mr. Cecil Rhodes, did its utmost to relieve the caused by scarcity and bad quality of proand also took an active part in the fighting. visions Their workshop staff, under the supervision of Mr. 148
distress
;
Diamond Minin g
Labram,
and with
built the big
a reply to the "

it
gun named " Long Cecil," as Long Toms " of the besieging force
hurled shells into the Boer trenches.
Before quitting the fascinating subject of diamond-
mining some historic stones

rapid review.
may
be
fitly
passed in
The
Great
Mogul.
This
magnificent
of
stone
was
it
discovered
century.
about
Its
the
middle
the
seventeenth
weight of nearly 800 carats places
next to the " Jagersfontein " and " Cullinan " jewels.
Tavernier, a French traveller, was
shown the jewel
by
its
owner, Shah Jehan,

that
at
first
piece
Aked Khan
in
keeper
Agra, in 1665.
of
"The
king's
the
jewels
hands was the great diamond, and very high on one side. On the lower edge there is a slight crack, and a little flaw in it. Its water is fine, and weighs 319J ratis, which make 280 of our carat. ... In the rough state it weighed 7 87 J carats. ... It was Hortensio Borgis who cut it, for which he was also badly paid. When it was cut he was reproached for having spoilt the stone, which might have remained heavier, and instead of rewarding him for the work the King fined him 10,000 rupees, and would have taken more if he had possessed more." After the sack of Delhi by the Persian, Nadir Probably Shah, the stone disappears from history. it during the sack, or at the death of was stolen Nadir, and split up into a number of smaller stones.
placed
is
my
which
rose-cut, round,
149
The Romance
The Koh-i-nur.
Its
of Mining
of all
;
The most romantic

unknown
it
diamonds.
early antecedents are

it
but tradition
mentions
in
as the property of a prince
who
lived
57
B.C.
Like the Great Mogul,

treasury,
had
a place in
in that of
Shah Jehan's
Aurung-Zeb.
not find the
that the
and subsequently
Nadir Shah, on entering Delhi, could
gem
until a
it
woman
it ?
betrayed the secret
emperor wore
the story
concealed in his turban.
How
thus
could he get hold of

tells
:
Mr. Edwin Streeter

availed
"
He
skilfully
himself
of a time-honoured Oriental custom, seldom omitted by princes of equal rank on state occasions. At the grand ceremony held a few days afterwards in
Delhi, for
the
of
purpose
Delhi)
of
reinstating
of
Mohammed
his Tartar
(Emperor
ancestors,
on the throne
Nadir suddenly took the opportunity of
asking
ciliation,
him to exchange turbans, in token of reconand in order to cement the eternal friendship that they had just sworn for each other. Taken completely aback by this sudden move, and lacking
leisure
the
even for reflection,
Mohammed
found
inleft
himself checkmated by his wily rival, and was fain,
with as
much
grace as possible, to accept the

Indeed, the Persian conqueror
for
sidious request.
him no
option,
he
quickly removed
his
own
national sheepskin head-dress, glittering with costly
gems, and replaced

potentates,
it
with the emperor's turban.
Maintaining the proverbial self-command of Oriental
Mohammed
betrayed
his
surprise
and
chagrin by no outward sign, and so indifferent did
150
Diamond Mining
he seem to the exchange that for a moment Nadir began to fear he had been misled. Anxious to be relieved of his doubts, he hastily dismissed the Durbar with renewed assurances of friendship and devotion. Withdrawing to his tent he unfolded the
turban, to discover,
with selfish rapture, the long

hailed the sparkling
'
coveted stone.
the exclamation
'
He
<
gem
with
Koh-i-Nur
signifying in English,
Mountain of light/ " But possession brought misfortune to the possessor. Nadir bequeathed it to his son Rokh, who was overthrown by Aga Mohammed and tortured to
reveal the hiding-place of the stone.
All sorts of
ghastly devices failed to extract the secret.
Rokh,
blinded and maimed, gave up the great ruby which Aurung-Zeb had worn in his crown yet he clung Before he died he to the diamond as to life itself. gave it to Ahmed Shah, founder of the Durani Afghan Empire, as a reward for help against
;
him
from it passed to his son Taimin Zaman, deposed and blinded by a brother, Shuja, who got hold of the stone by the merest accident. While in captivity Zaman concealed it in a crevice in his cell, and covered it with
;
Mohammed. From Ahmed

to his son
plaster.
The
plaster
fell
off
a glittering corner
;
protruded and scratched a courtier's hand

jewel
and the
came
into history once again.
Shuja was in
" Lion
of
turn deposed by a younger brother, and withdrew

to
the
court
of
Runjit-Singh, the
the
151
The Romance
Punjab,"
tried
of Mini n g
him
kindly, but later
who
at first received
to
extort
his
treasures
the Koh-i-nur, and at last
from him, especially succeeded. He wore it
on
the
all
public occasions. the English, in
When
Lahore
1840, took possession of Treasury, the Koh-i-nur became the

a present
to
property of the East India Company, and was sent

to
England
its
as
transference
changed
from East to power for evil
Queen Victoria. Its West appears to have

one
of
for
into
good, as
it
arrived during the early years
England's most
8
glorious reign.
When
And now
it
reached Europe
preserved
it
scaled
TV carats;
carats.
subsequently reduced by re-cutting to

it
106^
is
among
the Royal Jewels at
Windsor, a model in the jewel room of the Tower

acting proxy for exhibition purposes.
The
Pitt,
or Regent.
Found
it
in
1701
in the Parteal
it
mines on the Kistna, by a in a hole made purposely in

the coast and gave
that he should transport
slave,
his
who concealed leg. He escaped
to
to a sea-captain
on condition
him to a free country. The captain took the jewel, and threw the poor slave into Eventually it came into the hands of the sea. Thomas Pitt, who paid 20,000 for it, and afterwards
for
French Regent, the Duke of Orleans With the great profit Pitt restored the fortunes of his ancient house, which afterwards gave England two of her most distinguished statesmen. In 1 79 1 it was valued at 480,000. 152
sold
it
to the
135,000.
Diamond Minin g
Treasury, but
it disappeared from the French Royal was recovered, and pawned to the Dutch Government by Napoleon to raise money. Afterwards redeemed, it found a last resting-place in the now disused crown of France. Said originally to have formed the The Orloff. eye of an idol in a temple in Brama at Srivangam and to have been stolen by a French Grenadier, who He in sold it for ^2000 to an English sea-captain.
During 1792
turn sold
it
to
it for .12,000 to a Jew, who disposed of Prince Orloff, a courtier in the household of
Catherine
it
II. of
;
Russia, for
-90,000.
Orloff gave
to Catherine
and
it
afterwards became the chief
ornament
il
of the Imperial sceptre.
The Cullman." Discovered early in 1905 Premier Mine, Transvaal. The stone, which
far the largest
in the
is
by
ever found, weighs

lb.
3032
It
carats, or
nearly one and a-half
avoirdupois.
is
measures
4J
in.
by 2J
in.
Its
value
incalculable.
153
CHAPTER
IX
THE STORY OF THE COMSTOCK LODE

Discovery of the Lode Henry Comstock Silver ore cast aside as worthAn assay proves its true value " Rush " to the mines Difficulty less of treating ore Paul's reduction mill The timbering of the mines Litigation Bonanza times Mark Twain The Sanitary Flour Sack Extent of the mines The overland telegraph The new highroad Its maintenance Rivalry between stage drivers Accidents Depression Labour troubles Water inroads The Sutro Tunnel A marvellous engineering feat Hardships of tunnel-driving John W. Mackay The "Virginia Consolidated" Perseverance brings fortune The Big Bonanza Huge yields Wild speculation Scene in A sad contrast The fate of the the mines High temperatures Comstock.
To
a few barren acres on the western slopes of the

Sierra
sterile
Nevada belongs the honour of having yielded mankind a greater bulk of riches than any " The other area of equal size on the earth's surface. Great Comstock Lode " is synonymous, to those who know its history, with enormous fortunes, wild speculation, heroic struggles against
adverse circumstances,
Aladdin's cave realised, hopes disappointed, chagrin
unfathomable,
of
the
lowest
depths
of
commercial
trickery, gigantic
games
of chance, marvellous feats
engineering,
money
spent
like
water, water in-
rushing
the
like a flood,
labour conducted under terrible
conditions.
at
All these ideas flash
through the mind
mere mention
of the silver
seam which
for
154
The
markets.
Story of the
Comstock Lode
twenty years was the cynosure of the world's money
The Comstock Lode
revealed
itself
very quietly.
Just a decade after the discovery of gold in California,
when men were

Eldorados,
penetrating the Sierra to seek
new
two miners, Patrick McLaughlin and Peter O' Riley by name, dug a water hole in a gulch of the Carson River Valley. The earth thrown out was a yellow sand, mingled with small lumps of quartz, and friable black rock, which they were unable to recognise as stuff of any value, and cast carelessly aside. However, with the instinct of the and from habit rather than with any prospector, definite hopes, they washed out a panful or two of the " dirt," and to their surprise and delight saw the welcome " colour." Again and again they washed they were on the gold accumulated in their wallets highroad to fortune. They had knocked at the doors of the Comstock's treasure-house, and found riches even on the scraper. Notice this that, while the great Nevada deposit is renowned chiefly for the silver it has produced, it was the intermingled gold which brought it to light. But for those superficial specks of gold the millions of tons of silver ore might have lain undiscovered for many years to come. Nature had, as it were,
; ;
:
scattered a trail of recognisable metal to lead

into a
men
branch of mining hitherto unpractised

at
in the
United States.
While McLaughlin and O'Riley were hard

155
work,

there stumbled on
them one Henry Comstock, whose
otherwise contemptible personality will go

history
down
to
because
it
gave
its
name
to this wonderful
restless,
mine.
lazy,
An
ex-trapper and
fur-trader,
yet
he had wandered about for years, taking up a

it
claim here and there, to soon quit

prospecting.
and resume
his
One evening he chanced
to find the
two Irishmen cleaning-up

eye took in the situation
trespassing
at
their rocker for
the last
time before stopping work for the day.

a glance.
His practised
With matchless
effrontery he informed the lucky pair that they were
on his land and by sheer talking prevailed upon them to concede his claims Thus it was that, though the true discoverers have been forgotten, the name of Comstock has survived. Other prospectors soon arrived, and pegged out their lots, while McLaughlin and O'Riley opened up the pocket. They were much hindered by a seam of black rock which made its appearance at a depth of three or four feet, and increased in width as the trench deepened. The looser earth on each side yielded, however, sufficient gold to keep them at
; !
work.
Presently curious visitors began to carry off bits of
the black rock,
and
in
due course some specimens
got into the hands of a Placerville assayer, whose test
showed
in
a value per ton of

;
600
in silver
and ij$
gold
and the
tidings spread that a lode of silver
sulphurets had been struck on the eastern slope of
Mount Davidson
in
Western Nevada. 156
The
Story of the
silver
Comstock Lode
new
thing to the
passes
Though
mining was a
the
Sierra
Californian miner,
became more
of fortune-
and more thickly choked by a stream

hunters.
" Rough-haired
little
'
mustangs,
'
gaunt
mules,
and sure-footed
burros
climbed the sierras

flour, kettles,
loaded with stacks of blankets, bacon,
pans, shovels, and other articles of a miner's outfit.
The
and brown hillsides were dotted with a Thin wreaths of smoke rose from restless swarm. hundreds of little camp-fires on the hills, and the sharp strokes of falling picks startled the lizards from California was on their hiding places in the rocks." 1
ravines
its
way
to
grasp the treasures of Nevada, hitherto
by the thousands of immigrants who had trampled them unawares in their haste to reach the gold deposits of the Sacramento River. This happened in the " fall "of 1859. Not much prospecting could be done that year and the early
missed
;
arrivals spent a cheerless,
hard winter waiting for the

in
time
when work might begin

of
earnest.
Fierce
whirlwinds howled through the gorges and

sides
down
the
Mount Davidson, unroofing
the miserable
huts,
and sweeping off flimsy tents. The occupants swore and erected other dwellings. What were the cold, hunger, and fatigue of to-day by comparison with the coming riches of to-morrow ? Meanwhile the exhibition of silver bars in San Francisco had rekindled the fever of 1849 and
;
1850.
1
"The
treasures
of the
of
Potosi,
the
ransom
of
" Monograph
United States Geological Survey."
157

a host of vague
sight of these
Montezuma, the deep-laden galleons of Spain, and memories were awakened by the
masses of bullion.
closed
their
;
The
fever spread
-
rapidly
merchants
left
counting
houses
and
ships
clerks
their
desks
sailors
deserted their
;
and mechanics their workshops the ranchmen from the plains and the restless swarm of
gold-placer miners swelled the migration not unlike

the train of children
drawn on by the entrancing
notes of the piper of Hamelin.

silver ledges
How
to reach the
;
was the absorbing thought far beyond the sierras the riches of their dreams appeared and neither inexperience nor poverty before them could deter such passionate pilgrims from joining the odd croop which began its march over the mountains while the passes were still impassable." 1 So, early in i860, every boat which left San Francisco for Sacramento was packed with miners and their outfits. From the latter town the army pushed up the old emigrant trail to Placerville, and thence over the Johnson Pass to the valley Snow blockaded the broken track. of the Carson. Hundreds of tons of freight accumulated in the Californian town, waiting until teams could be found to carry it through the Sierra. At last, in March, the caravans began to pour into the mining camp on Mount Davidson, and soon crystallised into Virginia City, where for months vice and rowdyism flourished unchecked. The true work;
" Monograph
of the United States Geological Survey."
158
The
Story of the
Comstock Lode
jackal -wise,
ing miners were far outnumbered by the floating
the
scum of California, who followed, movements of the metal seekers.

flocked
in,
Volunteers
for the Indian War, demoralised by guerilla warfare,
lolled at
the gambling-tables,
of the
swaggered about the
streets, the terror
and more
peaceful portion of the community.
A
metal
mining
it
difficulty
;
soon
arose.
Ore could be
Transate
raised with ease
but the extraction of the precious

for
contained was a serious problem.
portation to
San Francisco
;
treatment
up
most
of
the profits
while the lack of fuel
made
on the spot almost an impossibility. However, Almorin B. Paul, an enterprising millowner of the city of Nevada, saw his opportunity, raised the necessary capital, and entered into contracts with various mines to smelt all their ore at a fixed rate per ton and, what was more, to comreduction
;
mence smelting within

of the contract.
sixty
days of the signature
Every pound of material used in the machinery had to be brought from San Francisco, partly by water, partly overland, along a track where the waggons sank to their axles in the mire, and the mules, urged on by blows and curses, had to exert all their power to keep their
cumbersome
the
freights in motion.
The
-
cost of trans-
portation exceeded the actual cost of the machinery
lumber used
prices.
last
fabulous
mills touched Yet Mr. Paul was undismayed

in
the
reduction
and on the
day allowed by the contract the 159

Washoe Gold & Silver Mining Company, No. i," began to crush ore. So successful did the first
"
crushings prove that mine
-
owners who had preore
viously ridiculed the project gladly sent their

to the mills,
and Mr. Paul entered upon the reward
he so justly deserved.
Difficulty
number two now appeared.

it
As the
at
lode
a
descended
grew
steadily
broader, until
depth of
dimensions
did not
Such 175 feet it was 65 feet wide. being without precedent, the miners
to proceed.
know how
To
leave pillars of
ore to support the roof was of no avail with a roof
crumbled in. Spliced timbers bent and broke. owners at last found themselves surSo rounded by riches which they could not carry away except by risking their lives in doing so. Mr. Philip DeideExpert advice was sought. sheimer, manager of a Georgetown quartz mine, came, examined, and designed a system of timbering which exactly suited the particular needs of To refer again to the authority the Comstock Lode. already quoted: "This was to frame timbers together in rectangular sets, each set being composed of a square base, placed horizontally, formed of four timbers, sills, and cross-pieces from 4 to 6 feet long, surmounted at the corners by four posts from 6 to 7 feet high, and capped by a framework similar to the base. The cap-pieces forming the top of any set were at the same time the sills These sets could or base of the next set above. 160
that that the
The
readily
Story of the
be
Comstock Lode
extended to
any required height and

sets
like
over any given area, forming a series of horizontal

floors, built
up from the bottom

of
the suc-
cessive
storeys
house.
The
spaces
between
or with
the
timbers were
filled
with waste
rock
wooden
braces, forming a solid cube
whenever the
maximum
degree of firmness was desired/'
So the delving was continued to two, three, four hundred feet. The Gould & Curry, Gold Hill, and For a couple Ophir mines poured out their riches. of miles north and south ran the lode, fifty to eighty Over so feet wide between its walls of solid rock.
rich a prey there was, as
may
easily
be understood,
plenty of quarrelling; and from i860 to 1863 the

litigation
arising out of disputes as to limits, water
rights,
courts,
of claims, &c, choked the local where many an advocate, hitherto unknown,
validity
made
of
a fortune out of his fees.
Into the intricacies
these
:
actions-at-law there
is
no inducement
to
enter
for
only to the they
persons
immediately con-
cerned
could
possibly afford
much
interest.
They
serve, however, to
show
a
of people settle
down on
in
where a number rich spoil they can no

that
more dwell together

vultures engaged
unity than
number
of
at
on rending the same carcass. The years 1863 and 1864 were the "bonanza" i.e. fair-weather times. Mark Twain has drawn with his facile pen a remarkable picture of how
this
period
men made
l6l
each
other presents
of
" feet
" in
mines
just as in other localities
one might L
The Romance
offer
of Mining
:
a friend an apple or a pinch of snuff

of
tricks
how all sorts who wished to

property
and were resorted to by those

melted
It
turn a worthless shaft into a saleable
" salting " with genuine ore or even
silver coins
being included
as
among
these devices.
may come
news
his
to admirers of the novelist
who
have not read

with two
the
" Roughing
;
It,"
that Mr.
Twain
himself took a hand at mining
and
in conjunction
friends struck a " blind lead "
which crossed
unfortunate
Wide West
vein at an angle, pegged out claims,

millionaire.
and was a potential

misunderstanding
selves
By an
all three partners absented themfrom the claims, each thinking that the other two would do the work necessary to keep the property in their possession. When, at the end of nine days, they became aware of their danger, two of them hurried back, to find that they were just a few minutes too late, and that eager onlookers had used their rights to re-locate and " jump " the claims. "We would have been millionaires," he u if we had only worked with pick and spade says, one little day in our property, and so secured our I can always have it to say that I ownership was absolutely and unquestionably worth a million
!
dollars, once, for ten days."
was during this first boom " that the Sanitary Flour Sack went its round of the mining towns of the Comstock district. The great Civil War had
It
li
broken out, with the terrible suffering inseparable from such conflicts and the hearts of the citizens 162
;
The
fields.
Story of the
to the
Comstock Lode
battleset
went forth
Sanitary
relief
wounded lying on distant Fund had therefore been

of the
share,
sufferers
;
on
foot
for the
and Nevada,
in
anxious to do her
raised
money
many
At Austin a sack of flour was put ingenious ways. up to auction the proceeds to go to the fund and knocked down at 5300 dollars. It then passed onto Silver City, which bid 1800 dollars; to Gold Hill, where the purchaser had to pay 65 87 J dollars to Virginia City, which advanced to 13,515 dollars. From Nevada willing hands carried it down to Carson thence over the Sierras to California. It finally found a haven in San Francisco, but not until it had enriched the fund by ^30,000 sterling This was the miners' play. They could also work hard. At the close of 1862 no fewer than forty companies had erected houses of some sort over their shafts, and in several instances steam machinery was already installed for hoisting and pumping. Seen from the top of Mount Davidson, the heaps
of
debris
raised
appeared
to day.
like
ant
hills
gradually
growing from day

deserted,
Some
the
hills
were almost
California,
but
all
round
Mexican,
Gould
&
Curry, Potosi and Chollar
claims,
horses, mules, and
oxen swarmed.
this
blocked by vehicles hurrying
The streets way and
men, were
that.
Below the surface an army of sweating miners burrowed along the lode, which, like the Rand gold
reefs,
sank
at
a considerable angle to the

a
dicular.
Every day they advanced 163
perpenfew more feet,

propping up the dangerous roof with a huge skeleton of timber, each balk of which had but a short time
before been braving the strong winds of the Sierra.
The haphazard methods

well
leries,
ordered plan of
of i860 gave place to a working by cross-cuts, gal-
and winzes. In 1862 the Gould & Curry had over five and a-half miles of li dismal drifts and tunnels " and the Comstock as a whole could boast thirty miles of subterranean streets, thronged by 6000 workers. By 1866 the borings had increased to fifty-seven miles, which represents but a fifth part
;
of the ultimate total in after years.
Nevada produced .5,000,000 worth of bullion in 1863, the year of " nabobs," who flew up and down
the
ladder
of
fortune
like
so
many
shuttlecocks.
its
The Gould & Curry mine, bought from
original
owners for an old horse, a bottle of whisky, some blankets, and 2500 dollars in cash, was four years
after the
purchase valued
at
7,600,000 dollars.
and won might easily for the history of the Comstock is but a be made, record of Peter impoverished and Paul raised to
long
list
of fortunes thus lost
millionairedom.
Two
of
great engineering feats

silver-mine.
mark
the
the earlier years telegraph

line
the
The
first,
from Omaha over the Rockies to Fort Churchill, where it met a second line extending from San Francisco through the Sierra Nevada. The Americans, with characteristic energy, put up
carried
570 miles of
this electric
thread in four months
164
The
record
that
its
Story of the
all
Comstock Lode
in
the
more remarkable
Thus
in
view of the fact
route lay through the dreary wastes of the
great Desert.
1861 Virginia City, the nervecentre of wild speculation, was in touch with the civilisation of two coasts. The news of a big " find " on the lode became common property in San Francisco
and
New York
good
almost before the discoverers

fortune.
had
realised their
The second
that of
via the
service rendered
by the engineer was
making a fine highroad across the Sierras "During 1861 and 1862 Johnson Pass. toll grants were obtained, and a small army of labourers was at work on both slopes of the range from foot to summit. The steepest grades were cut down and smoothed gullies and ruts were filled with compact layers of broken stones and loam ; bordering rocks were blasted away or rolled aside and the narrow, dangerous, wretched trail, scarcely
;
fit
for the passage of sure-footed pack-mules,
a broad, compact, well-graded highway,

fairly
became which might
be likened to an old
torture/
of
Roman
a
road.
The
.
. .
stage-
coach ride across the mountains, which had hitherto
been a
built
became
hill-sides
pleasure.
The
turning-points
the road were
broad platforms
the level surface
up from the
with outward curving
base-walls of well-joined rocks.

of
On
these bastions an
eight-mule
team could turn
without slacking their traces, and loaded waggons
could pass one another without

difficulty.
at
all
points on the road
When
165
snowdrifts
blocked
the

passage in winter, a well-equipped party of
men and
watering
horses sallied from every station and cleared the
way with extraordinary

carts, passing
despatch,
while
from
station to station, laid the dust
summer, so that the road was like a well-kept 1 in a mountain park." Great as the expense of making the road was, the builders soon reaped a harvest. Every vehicle paid a toll and at times the mule teams stretched in a
in
avenue
continuous procession for miles.
among
the stage-drivers, for
whom
Rivalry ran high " a fresh " record
ranked above the safe delivery of their charges. Special coaches, with many relays of horses, covered the 130 miles between Virginia City and Sacramento
in
12J hours, a speed of travel which
fairly eclipses
the performances of the Bath
Road " cracks."

survivors.
Every
"
now and
then this time-cutting led to a serious acci-
dent, taken in
good part by any

falling
When
an wreck was stayed by chance in the spreading arms of a large pine tree, the bruised passengers looked down upon the bottom of the abyss, 1000 feet below, and congratulated themselves on their good fortune without censuring
a Johnson's Pass stage toppled over the brink of
embankment, and the
the
travel, arising
coachman even in thought." The excitement of from the possibility of such incidents being repeated, was increased by the frequent hold-up of a coach by masked desperadoes, who turned out the passengers and stood them in a row, with their hands
1
" Monograph of U.S. Geological Survey."
166
The
Story of the
Comstock Lode
Have we not
?
over their heads, while their persons and the coach
were searched thoroughly for booty.
read of these incidents in the pages of Bret Harte
With the
fall
latter half
of
1864 came the

mining shares.
inevitable
in the inflated prices of
Some
of
the most valuable stock tumbled to one-fifth of the
holders
previous year's quotations dragging down the sharein " wild cat " schemes to absolute ruin.
;
The need for severe retrenchment of working expenses became imperative, and the mine directors naturally
lowered wages, which in the "
fixed
at
boom
" times
had been
to
four dollars a day.
The miners, unable
must take its share showed their teeth. John Trembath, the stalwart Cornish foreman of the Uncle Sam mine, being suspected of sympathy with the proprietors, was seized while in one of the lower levels, bound hand and foot, and lashed to the hoisting cable of the shaft. His captors then tied to him a label with the words, " Dump this waste dirt from Cornwall," and thus mummified, the wretched man was lowered and hoisted twice. From this rough
see that labour as well as capital
a
in
general depression, soon
horseplay the miners passed to organised processions, and the formation of a " Miner's League," which
pledged every
less
member never
to give a day's
silver.
than four dollars in gold and
work for The League
wilted under the economic effects of continued depression,

It
and
practically
went
to pieces within a year.
revived, however, with the return of prosperity to

is still
the Comstock, and
a power 167
in the district.

hillside, water,
With these huge excavations being cut through a the bugbear of mining, had by 1864
a serious hindrance to
become
progress, notably in
the case of
the
Ophir mine.
air,
At the higher
levels
horizontal shafts, or adits, were driven through the
and these served for a time to drain off the water. But when the shafts reached a depth of a thousand feet or more pumping became the only method of clearing the mines, unless a great combined effort were made and a main drainage tunnel driven right through the hill at a level which would tap the whole lode nearly 2000 feet below the
wall to the
open
surface.
In 1865, Mr. Adolph Sutro formed a
company
to
construct a tunnel extending from the foot-hills of the
Carson Valley into the lode, a distance of nearly four miles. He urged that all mines sooner or later reach a depth where the constantly increasing cost of mining exceeds the yield, and that the Comstock lode would, before the lapse of many years, provided no other
means
and working the mines were adopted, become practically valueless and deprive one hundred thousand people of their occupation and Such works had already means of subsistence. been carried out successfully and profitably in the Claustal mines of the Harz Mountains, where a
for
draining
ten-mile tunnel entered the 900-foot level
at Frei-
burg, with
its
eight-mile tunnel
where the Emperor Joseph

miles.
adit
and at Schemnitz, burrows for nine
168
The
Story of the
Comstock Lode
In 1865 the companies interested signed a contract
whereby they agreed to pay the Tunnel company a royalty of two dollars per ton on all ore extracted from their mines, in return for the drainage and the privilege of transporting men, ore, waste rock, and
back door at fixed rates. Scarcely had the contract been signed when some repented themselves, and, in order to back out of
materials
through
this
their agreement, stirred
up formidable opposition
to of
in-
the scheme.
Mr. Sutro was, however, a

will.
man
indomitable
He overcame
on the
sadly
hills.
all
difficulties,
cluding that of raising capital, and in September 1871
commenced
his attack
hampered by the inrush of water, and by the inefficiency of hand drilling, which advanced the borings only 5I feet a day even
Progress was at
first
when
fore
things were going well.
The engineers
there-
had recourse to the imperfect power-drills of the time, to find them very costly and tedious implements to work with. Fortunately for the tunnel, the Burleigh drill appeared in 1874, and the rate of advance was quadrupled, though the dimensions of the working face had been increased to 9J- feet of height by 13 feet of width. Mr. Eliot Lord has given the world, in the monograph already
under contribution, so graphic a description work that no apology is needed for reproducing it in extenso. " Sutro's unlaid
of this great
tiring
zeal kindled
shifts
a like spirit in his co-workers.

;
Changing
urged the drills on without ceasing 169
The Romance
skilled timberers followed
of Mining
up the attack on the breast

of the assailants like shieldof the
and covered the heads

bearers.
The hot rocks blown from the face heading hardly ceased rattling on the floor
iron
of the
tunnel before they were thrown and shovelled into
tramcars
and borne away
by
mule
trains.
Lanterns bound to the shoulders of the mules threw

straggling rays of light
on the dark pathway
the
dripping walls and roof reflected the beams through

a
myriad
of
water prisms, and streaks of mottled
grey, green,
and black rocks shone out

if
at intervals
with vivid distinctness, as

flashes.
illuminated by lightning
of
foreground and background
utter
blackness enclosed the moving cylinder of changing
and shadows, a fitting framework to the weird As the train neared the mouth of the tunnel of dancing lights, then it was seen first as a line the tinkle of collar-bells was faintly heard and the tramping of hoofs on the rock floor. The light specks swelled to clearly shining stars and then
lights
picture.
shrunk to red points in the glare of the sun rays, which transformed the roughly-timbered entrance
into a white-pillared corridor.
light
In this transfiguring
the eyes of the mules glowed like carbuncles,

in
their
which shone
dark setting
till
the animals,
with quickened steps, passed through the gleaming
archway into the sunlight. The dump at the mouth of the tunnel grew rapidly to the proportions of an artificial plateau raised above the surrounding valley yet the speed of the electric currents which slope 170
;
The
exploded
lode
Story of the
the
blasts
Comstock Lode
kept
scarcely
pace
with
the
impatient anxiety of the tunnel owners to reach the
when
the
extent
of
the
;
great
Consolidated
Virginia
Bonanza was reported
for every ton raised
from the lode before the tunnel cut it was a loss to them of two dollars, as they thought. Urged on by zeal, pride, and natural covetousness, the miners cut their way indomitably towards their goal, though at every step gained the work grew more painful and
dangerous.
of the year
;
The temperature
at
the
face
of
the
heading had risen from 72 Fahrenheit
at the close
1873 to 83 during the two following years though in the summer of 1875 two powerful Root blowers were constantly employed in forcing
At the close of the year 1876 the indicated temperature was 90 and on the first
air into
the tunnel.
of January
1878 the men were working

.
in a
tempera-
ture
of
96
In spite of the air currents from the
blowers the atmosphere before the end of the year
1876 had become almost unbearably

hot.
foul as well as
The candles
flickered with
dim
light,
from their posts faint Behind the workers were sections of crumbling rock and swelling treacherous ground clay which occasioned constant dread lest some day the overstrained props might give way and a falling mass crush the air pipes and block the passage. In such event the men might die for lack of air in the narrow tomb before they could cut their way through the barrier or be rescued by outside help.
often staggered back
men
and and
sickened.
171
The Romance
This was not a fanciful
of Mining
it
was averted more than once by the watchfulness and promptness of the miners in propping up sinking ground and piercing During the months immediately the fallen debris. preceding the junction with the Savage Mine works the heading was cut with almost passionate eagerness. The miners were then two miles from the nearest ventilating shaft, and the heat of their working chamber was fast growing too intense for human The pipe which supplied compressed endurance. air to the drills was opened at several points, and the blowers were worked to their utmost capacity; still the mercury rose from 98 F. on the 1st of March 1878 to 109 on the 22nd of April, and the
peril, as
temperature of the rock face of the heading increased
from 110 to 114 during the same period. From the first day of May 1878, it was necessary to change the working force four times a day instead of three, as previously, and the men could only work during a small portion of the nominal hours of labour. Even the tough, wiry mules of the car train could hardly be driven up to the end of the tunnel, and sought for fresh air not less ardently than the men. Curses, blows, and kicks could scarcely force them away from the blower tube openings, and more than once a rationally obstinate mule thrust his head into the end of the canvas air-pipe, and was literally torn away by main strength, as the miners, when other means failed, tied his tail to the bodies of two other mules in his train and forced them to haul back their 172
The
stiff
Story of the
snorting
Comstock Lode
and
could
slipping
companion,
" Neither
viciously,
floor.
with
legs over the
wet
men
nor animals
long endure
work so distressing. Fortunately, the drills knew no weariness nor pain, and churned their way without ceasing to the mines. At length the tunnel drew so near the lode that the men in the Savage Mine
could hear the explosion of the
after,
blasts,
and, soon
the tapping of the drills on the rock partition.
These sounds grew more and more distinct, until, on 8th of July 1878, a few feet of rock alone separated the two working parties. A blast from the Savage Mine tore an opening through the wall
the
in the evening of that day,
Sutro had striven for so
many
and the goal for which years was in sight.
He was waiting at the breach impatient of delay, and crawled, half-naked, through the jagged opening while the hot foul air of the heading was still gushing into the mine. If he seemed overcome by excitement, as reported, it was in no way surprising, for he had triumphed over a host of obstacles, and his indomitable spirit had fairly won
success."
The Comstock, wonderful

additional
as
it
was
in itself, derived
like this,
romance from a herculean work
executed merely as a preliminary to the deep working of the lode.
At the time the Sutro tunnel not
only took
first
place
among
in
all feats
connected with
St.
its
mining, but also rivalled the
Mount Cenis and

attending
Gothard enterprises
the
difficulties
173
The Romance
construction.
of Mining
feel
We
must, therefore,
with
its
promoter,
who found
that his
sympathy scheme had
been so hampered at the outset by opposition, that, when completed, the need for it had almost passed. The quantity of ore found in the lode below the
at which the tunnel entered was comparison with the huge deposits found between it and the surface, mostly extracted while the tunnel- drivers were straining every muscle Had Mr. Sutro only been allowed to reach the lode.
level
(1875
feet)
insignificant in
his
way
in
1866, both he and the owners of the Big

profited enormously.
itself,
Bonanza would have
Now
for the
Big Bonanza
which furnishes
the most thrilling episode in the history of one of

the world's most interesting mines.
Virginia
City and
in
its
neighbourhood contained
early
'seventies.
many
pessimists
the
Prices
were down, expenses were increasing, and many financiers had come to the conclusion that the Comstock as a whole showed distinct signs of being "played out." Mine proprietors had forgotten all about plate-glass windows, champagne, and beautiful fountains, while they endeavoured to keep the balance of the accounts on the right side
of the ledger.
While things were
in
this
state
Mr. John
W.
Mackay began
stock history.
to
play a prominent part in

of cool
Comextra-
A man
first
common-sense,
ordinary insight, and bold action, he had risen from
day-labourer
to be superintendent of the Cale-
174
The
Story of the
Comstock Lode
Company
;
donia Tunnel and Mining
then a large
shareholder in the Hale and Norcross Mine, as a

partner of Mr. James G. Fair.
made
a fine
These two Irishmen working combination. They bought up

after another, including those
one property
hitherto
exploited.
the Ophir and Gould
between Curry Mines, which had been unsystematically and unsuccessfully
&
The
original owners, after joining forces
and sinking
in the lode,
shafts in search of a rich deposit, con-
cluded that the failure to strike ore indicated a break

and, losing heart, were ready to
Fair, acting in partnership with
sell.
Mackay and
C.
Flood and William O'Brien Francisco men purchased the Virginia Consolidated, as it was now called, for about .10,000, determined to venture " their fortunes on the chance of finding a " bonanza
at a greater
James
depth than the previous occupiers had
attained.
and cut a drift to meet it from the Best & Belcher Mine At first the miners found at the 1200-foot level.
quartette forthwith sank a deep shaft,
The
only barren rock; but just as the " Virginia Con."
boundary had been passed a thin seam

its
of ore
made
appearance.
Mr. Fair followed
this pertinaciously
as the possible clue to treasure beyond.

it
Sometimes
so that the
almost vanished, but never
quite
venturers were induced to continue what outsiders
regarded as a mere wild-goose chase.
Two hundred
result,
thousand dollars were spent without H Virginia Con." tottered on the verge
175
and the
of
bankruptcy.
BOSTON COLLEGE LIKRA&r
CHESTNUT
HILL, MASS.
The Romance
Illness
of Mining
compelled Mr. Fair to be absent for a month, during which time his three partners thought to improve matters by deflecting the line of search from
a northerly to
an
easterly direction.
On
his return,
however, he persisted in following the old course,
and
in
body, which was the Big Bonanza.

ignorant.
October 1873 the miners cut into a rich ore" Of its magniall
it
tude and richness," writes Mr. Lord, "
then were
has been from the time when the first miner struck a ledge with his rude pick until the
No
discovery which matches

earth
made on
this
present.
The
plain facts the
are
as
marvellous as a
see in
Persian
tale, for
young Aladdin did not
the glittering cave of the genii such fabulous riches
were lying in that dark womb of the rock. The wonder grew as its depths were searched out The bonanza was cut at a point 1167 foot by foot.
as
.
feet
it
below the surface, and as the
shaft
went down
;
was pierced again at the 1200-foot level still the same body of ore was found, but deeper and wider than above. One hundred feet deeper, and the yet prying pick and drill told the same story another hundred feet, and the mass appeared to be When, finally, the 1500-foot level still swelling. was reached, and ore richer than any before met with was disclosed, the fancy of the coolest brains How far this great bonanza would extend ran wild. none could predict, but its expansion seemed to keep pace with the most sanguine imaginings. To explore it thoroughly was to cut it out bodily but 176
;
The
Story of the
search
Comstock Lode
it
the systematic
revelation."
through
of
this
was a continual
silver-
The
years
!
average
yield
marvellous
was .600,000 per month for three With monthly dividends of about one-third of that amount the four partners quickly became millionaires, rich beyond their wildest dreams. In 1876 Mr. Mackay took out .1,200,000 worth of
saturated rock
bullion to
tennial
make an
exhibit at the Philadelphia Cen-
Exposition.
You can
still
see
in
Virginia
City
building where
.25,000 worth
of
bullion
one thousand days, was melted down and from which a million sterling started one night on its journey to San Francisco. To sum up, the " Consolidated Virginia" had by 1899 yielded ore over half of which worth 26J million pounds
daily for over
;
passed as profit into the pockets of the proprietors
Such a record can scarcely be matched

history of mining.
in the
whole
Of course, this stroke of fortune affected the " Why," argued specuwhole Comstock Lode. lators, "should there not be equally rich deposits
and they indulged their fancy as deeply as the gamblers Servant girls and office of the South Sea Bubble. boys jostled merchants and professional men in San Francisco in the race for scrip. Shares worth but 50 cents rose to a value of 275 dollars. Then rumours got afloat that the Big Bonanza was not, after all, so extensive as had at first been pictured and down
still
? "
;
lurking undiscovered in other properties
177

came
them.
the prices with a run to a third of their top
figures,
and wreckage behind who had stuck to their Virginia Consolidated shares, the mine product knew no such fluctuations, increasing steadily until the bonanza became ultimately exhausted. From the sordid dealings of the money market let us turn to the manly toil of the mines, and borrow yet another picture from Mr. Lord's gallery. "The scene within this treasure chamber was a stirring sight. Cribs of timber were piled in sucstages from basement to dome four hundred cessive feet above, and everywhere men were at work in changing shifts, descending and ascending in the crowded cages, clambering up to their assigned
leaving
much
ruin
Fortunately
for
those
stopes with swinging lanterns or flickering candles,
picking and drilling the crumbling ore, or pushing

lines
of
loaded
cars
to
the
stations
at
the shaft.
Flashes of exploding
the rent faces of
filled
gunpowder were blazing from blasts of gas and smoke the stopes
;
the
connecting
drifts
muffled roars echoed

at all
along the dark

of a level,
galleries,
and
hours a hail of
rock fragments might be heard rattling on the floor
and massive lumps
of ore falling heavily
on the slanting pile at the foot of the breast. Halfnaked men could be seen rushing back through the hanging smoke to the stopes to examine the result of the blast and to shovel the fallen mass into cars and wheelbarrows. While some were shovelling
ore
and
pushing
cars,
others,
standing
on
the
178
The
Story of the
Comstock Lode
power
drills
slippery piles, were guiding the
which
churned holes
lightly
in the ore
with incessant thumps, or
cleaving the softer sulphurets with steel picks
swung
by muscular arms .... Roman gladiators were scarcely better fitted for their contests in the arena than those Comstock miners for their labours All were picked men, in the heart of the bonanza. strong, young, and vigorous, fed on the choicest food which the Pacific Coast affords, and paid the highest wages earned by any miners in the world. In the hot levels all clothes were laid aside except
. .
a simple waist-cloth,
feet
and shoes which protected the from the scorching rocks. Balanced alertly on
ore, with
wet crumbling heaps of

like flesh
muscles swelling
sculptor.
waves
at
every swing of the well-balanced

for
picks, they
became models
Their
life
hot blood glowed beneath a skin whitened by a

in
dark rock-chambers often dripping with water The variety of their and reeking with vapour. motions had made them a troop of athletes. As one looked upon this swarm of human ants, stoping out and sending up ore from a bonanza whose riches were incalculable, while the vault of the great mine echoed with busy sounds and sparkled with moving lights, it is scarcely surprising that the eyes were dazzled by the vision of the treasurechamber and the brain heated by enkindled fancies."
.
.
The high temperature

increased the miner's
the
toil.
of the lode walls seriously
thermometer showed
At a depth of 1700 feet 104 Fahr. and when

;
179
The Romance
shafts
of Mining
nearer
that
sank hundreds
of
feet
the
earth's
centre the heat

fell
became so
;
terrific
some men
dead over
to
their picks
while others were actually
by water into which they accidentally So exhausting was the effort of hewing the ore in air thus heated, and fouled by the exhalations from the lungs and body, that after a few strokes of his pick the miner had to stand aside to recover himself, while a fellow worker took his place. Yet human perseverance conquered. The bones of the Big Bonanza were picked clean Messrs. Mackay, Fair, Flood, and O'Brien pocketed their millions and the mines, now sadly impoverished and water-logged, passed into other hands. The " chancy " nature of mining is particularly well illustrated by the contrast between the good fortune of the four partners and the fate of the M'Laughlin, first discoverers of the Comstock Lode O'Riley, and Comstock. The first, after a life of continual misfortune and hard work, died in hospital, too poor to leave money enough to cover the costs of his pauper burial. O'Riley, his brain turned by unrealised expectations, wore out his health and strength in a tunnel which he drove single-handed
boiled
death
slipped.
into a barren hillside of the Sierra.
Angelic voices
still
urged him on to imaginary treasures
far in ad-
vance
;
of his pick
his tunnel
fell
in
him and at last he was carried off where he died. The third member of the luckless
180
and maimed to an asylum,

trio,
Henry
The
Story of the
became
Comstock Lode
the
Comstock, also
victim
of
delusion.
Beggared in fact, he still remained in fancy the owner of the entire lode and its cities. A selfinflicted
revolver
history
wound terminated his inglorious and he now lies in a nameless grave in

struck
also
to
the wastes of Montana.
The sad note

cidents
by these melancholy
the later fortunes of
in-
attaches
itself.
the
1899 scarcely a dozen men were at work in the vast chasms hewn out by their predecessors. Deep down beneath the water which finds an outlet through the Sutro tunnel are the bottoms of the tremendous shafts, and the deposits deemed too poor to be worth extraction. Virginia City, which Mark Twain has peopled for
us with
Comstock
During
characters of
varied
pattern,
is
shorn of
her glory.
are
silent
;
houses
old mills, once humming with life, machinery rusts in the rotting shaftand though the sun still strikes down as
The
formerly on the
hillside, it serves but to show how deeply the word " Ichabod " has been traced across
the great treasure-vaults of the Comstock.
181
CHAPTER X
THE MINES OF LEADVILLE
Fifty years ago
Valuable rubbish
Significant names Early history First era of mining Second era Great profits A railway episode
eras.
Third and fourth
Tucked away
in Colorado between the Rocky Mountains on the west and the Park Range on the east is an elevated plain which slopes gently Fifty years ago solitude reigned here, westwards.
among some
To-day the
hills
of the grandest scenery which the United States can offer to the eyes of the tourist.
district is a
busy hive
and the rounded

in
crossing the plain from north to south have
been honeycombed by shafts and tunnels driven

pursuit of gold, silver, lead,
Leadville,
lies
and other
metals.
ol
the commercial centre
the mines,
towards the western end of the plain.
On
the
east are dotted about dozens of properties,

in a
manner suggesting
either their nature or

their
named some
Des-
incident connected with
history.
" Nil
perandum " conjures up a picture of the miner working against heartbreaking disappointment. In " Only Chance " we see the last card being played
by the impoverished prospector. " Resurrection " Ready betokens the mending of broken fortunes. " speaks of early success. In " Evening Star," Cash 182
The Mines
imagination
has
of Leadville
" Silver Cord/' " Forest Queen/' " Star of the West/'
and " Little Vinnie," had play "Adelaide," "Dolly B.," "Fanny Rawlins," "Nettie Morgan," " Lillian," and " Minnie," perhaps indicate that the owner has in mind " the girl he left behind him " when he sallied forth in search of fortune
;
among the hills. The mining history of from i860, when some
the Leadville district dates
gold-hunters
Park Range and entered a then heavily-timbered ravine, through which flowed a feeder of the eastern
fork
of the
crossed
the
Arkansas
river.
The
locality
looked
Pans and rockers were soon busy, " colour " appeared, and the stream, once limpid, became turbid and yellow after its passage through the rough apparatus of the miners. Some claims panned out a thousand dollars a day for weeks together, in spite of the shortage of water. Thousands of men flocked in to share the spoil. A large camp rose on either side the stream, with the usual array of stores and drinking saloons wherein gold dust was bartered for flour or whisky. The over 10,000 feet above seaaltitude of Leadville, means a long and hard winter, during which level the miners, swallow-wise, migrated to Denver and
promising.
other milder
localities,
waiting for the next spring to
return to their claims.
The
first
era of Leadville history covers the years
i860 to 1869. The camp saw its best days in 1861, and gradually declined till 1868 by which time the 183
;

had yielded some four million dollars' For the next decade little was done in the district beyond some quartz-mining though prospectors were busy seeking fresh openings for labour and capital. We have seen how, in Nevada, gold-mining had led to the discovery of silver. The same thing in the case of the happened in Colorado and, as Comstock deposits, the early miners at Leadville threw aside as worthless material which, to the
"
" placers
worth
of gold.
expert eye, betrayed a fortune ready to be gathered.
The workers
weight
A. B.
of
in
California
Gulch grumbled
their
at
the
boulders
obstructing
operations.
But when W. H. Stevens, a wealthy miner, and Wood, came on the scene to organise a twelve-
mile flume for the gulch, they took the trouble to
and was carbonate of lead containing a high percentage of silver. They kept the discovery to themselves until they had secured several claims along what they considered to be the outcrop.
found that
it
investigate the nature of this heavy u rubbish,"
From
this
year,
1878, dates the second era of

it
Leadville mining, the " carbonate period," as
has
been called. In a few months a strong stream of immigration had commenced, people flocking in from
all
parts of the States
before a year had passed the

twenty-fold.
population
had increased
Leadville
became a magnet, towards which long trains of waggons moved slowly along overcrowded roads. A Bank and a Post Office were established, and 184
The Mines of
Leadville
;
round these a town sprang up one of the liveliest towns of the day. At nightfall, pleasure-seekers crowded the streets, spen't their money recklessly, and enriched those who catered for their wants.
Building
sites,
which a short time before could have
bought for a few dollars, fetched thousands. Fortunes were made by lucky speculators without the trouble of touching a pick.
been
The carbonate zone runs north and

below the
vertical
;
south, with a
dip eastwards at an angle of about twenty degrees
the carbonate lying between a
covering of porphyry and a sub-stratum, or foot-wall,

of limestone.
The
veins struck varied in thickness
to thirty feet, and were so soft by the pick without blasting. Some of the ore yielded 400 dollars' worth of silver per ton, and 75 per cent, of lead. From the Little Pittsburgh, New Discovery, and Winnemuck mines on Fryer's Hill, to the north-east of the town, ore valued at over 3,000,000 dollars was extracted in six months. In the second of these mines a great " bonanza " appeared at a very moderate depth between 100 and 200 feet below the surface. So large was the excavation that the owners had to resort to the system of timbering employed in the Big Bonanza of the Comstock. The Leadville mines of the second era were very shallow as compared with those on the Comstock Lode and their working was therefore very profitable until the price of silver fell in consequence of the 185
as
to
from a mere streak

be extracted
The Romance
quantities
of the
of Mining
metal extracted in Colorado and

" closed " companies of a few
Nevada.
Owned by
each,
members
tion as
who
kept the shares out of the market,
they never became the subject of such wild specula-
we have
the
Gould
&
nor has their
already had to notice in the case of Curry and other big Nevada ventures working been distinguished by lavish
and reckless expenditure. On the contrary, the Leadville mines afford a good example of efficient and economical management.
The
stirring
" carbonate
period "
is
connected
extension
with
episode in American railway history.
The
the
'seventies
were
notable
for
the
of
transcontinental lines.
The Atchison, Topeka, and
Santa F6 had reached the edge of
New Mexico
in
1878, bound for the Pacific Coast. an eye very widely open for intermediate branches,
Its
promoters had
and the discovery

a side
of silver in the Leadville region

reflection that
that year immediately suggested the
track penetrating the Park
Range
into
the
plateau might bring

sidering the
some very
pretty returns, con-
charges then prevailing on the roads. There was only one practical approach to Leadville, through the Grand Canon eaten out by the Arkansas River and this the Rio Grande and Denver magnates already regarded as their own, since Colorado was their particular sphere of action. Getting wind of the Santa Fe people's intention to seize the pass and gain the " right of way" by commencing work, they despatched a trainload of Denver employes 186
;
The Mines of
Leadville
Mr. W. R. Morley, a to anticipate such a move. Santa Fe engineer, proved too quick for them, driving
furiously across
train
country
its
slowly
wound
first
collected
a handful of
to Canon City while the way over the metals. He backers, and by dawn had
;
moved
look
the
shovelful of earth
much
to
the
disgust of the rival faction,
who
arrived in time to
down
the muzzles of an assortment of firearms.
It looked as if there would be a fight for the Pass. But the West had advanced sufficiently in civilisation to have recourse to the more peaceful methods of the courts. As the result of a long and notable lawsuit, the Denver party compromised and leased the whole of their narrow-gauge system to the Santa Fe. The latter at once began to build a second line through the Pass on their own account and this being construed as an act of perfidy, the
;
conflict
broke
out
;
again.
Different
judges
gave
different
decisions
the
and
practical part in
employes took a spirited the fight law and order were

;
for the time set at naught.
When
it
came
to actual
force
arms the Santa Fe got the worst of the bargain, and were finally expelled from their occupation. Such vigorous measures showed that the Leadville traffic was a prize worth fighting for. With the decline in the value of silver, Leadville declined also. But it did not fall, since there was
of
still
Mr. John F. Campion discovered in 1891, when he sank a shaft on Breece Hill, to the east of the city. The Ibex Mining
gold in the
district, as
187
The Romance
Company was formed.
did almost
the
of Mining
it
In eight years
extracted
gold worth 13,000,000 dollars.

equally well.
Other corporations
third era, built, like
The
first, on gold, produced many large fortunes. At present the fourth era of Leadville is running Gold, silver, lead, copper, zinc, and iron its course.
are
all
treated,
as the
baser metals
have risen
in
value.
188
CHAPTER
Mexico
XI
THE MINES OF SILVERLAND

as a silver producer
A lucky A millionaire fiddlerTwo fortunate peasants The " Good Success " Mine The mines of Zacatecas The mines of Guanajuato The Valenciana Mine The Marques de Rayas Mexican mining law about depth of claims Zacatecas wealth.
tunes
priest
production of silver
Huge
What Humboldt found in

lumps of
solid metal
Sensational
1802
The
total
for-
Of
all
the silver
mined yearly throughout the world
which is assessed at a value Thanks to the enormous of about .15,000,000. deposits of Nevada, Montana, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho, the United States come in a very good second
Mexico
yields one-third,
with fourteen million sterling

countries are " nowhere."
It
but other individual
was gold
that attracted Cortez to the land of
the Aztecs in the sixteenth
century.
The
natives,
ignorant of silver mining, had amassed, as

already noticed, large quantities of the
we have
metal
trifle
though their
total
more precious accumulations were a mere

! !
!
comparison with the silver wealth which they left untouched. Silver Silver Silver is the cry which now draws engineers, capitalists, and
in
adventurers of
all
classes to
the Republic so career
ably
is
ruled by Porfirio Diaz, a

full of
man whose
as
romance
as that of the country
which he has
189
The Romance
the Transatlantic nations.
Silver
is
of Mining
among
rescued from chaos and given a leading place
found
in
in
most parts
of Mexico, either as
pure metal, or
other minerals.
chemical combination with various
But the provinces most distinguished by their silver mines are (refer to your map) Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas, S. Luis Potosi, Guanajuato, and Hidalgo to name them in their due order from north to south. When Humboldt visited Mexico in the beginning of the nineteenth century he calculated that the great silver lodes were honeycombed by 3000 to 5000 mines, each of which had several shafts and many galleries and he reckoned the silver extracted since the Spaniards first began work to be worth .130,000,000. These figures are
now
total
quite eclipsed, for recent calculations assess the
value
till
the end of the last century to be

!
.800,000,000 sterling
What
these colossal figures
mean may be con-
cretely represented by assuming that the silver has
had an averaged price of 3s. qd. per ounce. If you care to work out an arithmetic sum, taking as your basis the fact that one cubic foot of silver weighs 10,700 odd ounces, you will arrive at about 450,000 cubic feet, which would suffice for a pillar of metal ten feet square and higher than the loftiest mountain
in the British Isles
!
That such huge quantities should have been mined " nature of the ore, which is due to the " kindly permits it to be reduced by comparatively primitive 190
The Mines
methods.
of Silverland
Many
;
of the lodes or veins are " rotten/'
and in places masses of solid silver have been found which completely eclipse the records of other countries. The mine of Arazuma, in Sonora, takes first place as the producer of monster silver
or crumbling
nuggets.
So sensational are the
figures
that
we
should hardly dare to quote them, were they not
backed by unimpeachable testimony.

then, in the middle of the eighteenth
At Arazuma,
century, the
owner paid duty on
several pieces
largest
which together
scaling
!
weighed 4033 lbs., the or about a ton lbs.
lump
a - fifth
2700
this
and
Even the
largest gold nuggets of Australia hardly equal
in value.
You
will
easily
understand that
in a
country so
impregnated with precious metal

fortunes must have been
a-half centuries during
many enormous
made during the three and which the miner has been at work there. The stories of individual success and attainment of dazzling wealth would suffice to fill a large volume, and we must therefore but briefly notice the luck of a few persons and the productiveness of
a limited
number
of mines.
In the midst of bleak and precipitous mountains

in the State of
San Luis Potosi (not

is
to be confused
It
with the Potosi of Bolivia)
the Flores Mine.
was discovered by a priest, who, tired of his life as a starved cleric, bought for a mere trifle a claim which was being abandoned as worthless. After
following
the
vein
a
little
distance
he
struck
191

cavern
in
the rock
full
of
" rotten"
ore,
out
1
of
which he mined over .600,000 worth of silver Again, in this same region, in 1778, a negro fiddler, overtaken by night while returning home from a dance, built a fire, among the ashes of which he discovered, next morning, a button of
virgin silver.
to light,
The made him
outcrop, thus fortunately brought

a millionaire.
The Moreton Mine, Sonora, was struck in 1826 by two Indian peasants, so poor that, on the night
before their great discovery, the keeper of the store
had refused to credit one

for his
tortillas
of
them
in
for a
little
corn
(cakes).
They
yet,
extracted from their
270,000 they were still

the
claim
dollars;
living in a
December 1826,
wretched hovel, close to
source of their wealth, bare-legged and bare-
headed, with upwards of 200,000 dollars in silver

locked up in their hut.
Never was the
utter worth-
lessness of the metal, as such, so clearly demonstrated
whose only pleasure was to gloat over their hoards, and occasionally throw a handful to be scrambled for by their less fortunate
as in the case of these peasants,
neighbours. 1
The
Indian
Good Success " Mine was found by an who swam a river after a heavy flood. On
found the outcrop of an immense vein which had been laid bare by the
arriving at the other side he
force of the current.
All the inhabitants of a neighthis
bouring town went out to see

1
wonder.
ii.
Though
Vide Ward's " History of Mexico," vol.
p. 578.
192
The Mines
of Silverland
he was prevented by water inroads from going deeper than about three yards, he took out a large fortune.
Of a neighbouring mine (the Pastiano) Ward writes ores were so rich that the lode was worked by bars, with a point at one end and a chisel at the The owner of the other, for cutting out the silver. Pastiano used to bring the ores from the mine with flags flying, and the mules adorned with cloths of The same man received a reproof all colours. from the Bishop of Durango when he visited Batopilos for placing bars of silver from the door of his house to the great hall for the Bishop to walk upon. The Santa Eulalia Mine yielded so enormously that two and a-half per cent, of the silver extracted in a
:
The
few years sufficed to build the magnificent Cathedral

of
Chihuahua.
So much
for Sonora.
Anything that can be said
of this province can be said several times over for
Zacatecas, Guanajuato, and Hidalgo.

of these
have been
rivals for first place
The first two among the
Both have had their ups and downs; the one being " in bonanza" when the fortunes of the other were low and then a turn of Fortune's wheel would reverse their positions. Since Cristobal de Onate located the Tanos de Panuco, in
states as silver producers.
;
1548,
the
mines
of
Zacatecas have
yielded over
.200,000,000
posits, first
sterling.
The
Guanajuato
ore
de-
amount.
tapped in 1554, have given up an equal The Valenciana Mine, when visited by
in
Humboldt, had
four years produced
13,896,416
193

was opened in 1760 on the Mother Vein at a point where some work had been done in the sixteenth century, and which had been neglected afterwards for two centuries as unsatisfactory. A rich il bonanza " was struck eight years later at a depth of 240 feet, and .300,000 were extracted annually. A town of seven thousand inhabitants was built near the mine, which gave employment to 3100 people. A large octagonal shaft was sunk to a depth of 2000 feet, and the mine was explored by it in lower parts. But the rich ore extended only to the depth of 1200 feet, below which it was then too poor to be worth extracting. In 1 8 10 the mine filled with water. Fifteen years later the Anglo-Mexican Company (of which more presently) freed the mine at great expense, but did not succeed in making it pay. The United Mexican Company, which afterwards took it in hand, managed, however, to extract an immense quantity of paying
ounces of
11
silver.
It
"
ore.
peculiarity of this shaft
is
a spiral path cut
over 500 feet
down through
the rock at such an
angle that mules can walk up and
down
it.
de
The other great mine of Guanajuato is the Marques Ray as or Los Ray as. In connection with it we
y
may
500
notice a feature of
Mexican mining laws, which

"
give to the discoverer of a lode a right to dig only

feet
down under
is,
his claim.
The consequence
is
of this limitation
that
when
a very rich claim
made, there immediately springs up a contest to get below it, and to cut off the lucky discoverer from
194
The Mines of
no means
his shaft
of avoiding
Silverland
the lower part of his expected fortune, and he has
such a result but by driving
downward
until
he reaches a point below

entitles
his first
200 varas (500 feet), which claim another section downward." l
him
to
The Marquis
de los Rayas, being a determined digger, got
down
so deep that he claimed a second stratum of 500 feet
before rivals had penetrated obliquely, and so netted

a
fortune of over
so
in
.2,000,000
thanks to the ore

often
being
rich
in
gold that
it
sold
for
its
weight
silver.
With
silver so plentiful,
many
extravagances were
the street
committed.
"
One Zacatecas miner paved

fifty
with ingots from the Casade Gobierno to the Par-
roquia (between
ing procession.
and sixty yards) for a christenIn 1800 the Viceroy Ananga passed
a law forbidding godfathers to fling handfuls of coin
on such occasions. It was easy come, easy go, as always where there are bonanzas with the difference that even a parvenu Spaniard spends 2 his money, not like a parvenu, but like a prince." The province of Hidalgo contains two very famous mines, the San Gertrudis and the Real del Monte. The story of the last is so interesting, and in many ways so typical of Mexican mining history, that we
into the street
;
will
devote a special chapter to

1
its
fortunes.
Wilson's " Mexico,"
"The Awakening
p. 377. of a Nation," C. F.
Lummis,
p. 30.
195
CHAPTER
The Real
Monte
XII
THE REAL DEL MONTE
Early history Mexican mining laws Bustamente The great adit Huge Kingly favour and great promises Water again causes trouble Decline of the Real English enterprise Mexican mining mania Great energy of new owners Their mistake Checked by water The crash Third chapter of the mine's history Below ground Thefts of miners The refineries The patio process Silver and Silverland.
del
and Terreros
profits
Pachuca,
of Mexico.
in
Hidalgo,
is
the oldest mining district

its
The mines
first in
in
immediate neighbour-
hood were the
forced slaves to work for them.
which the Spanish conquerors Ten miles from
Pachuca, among glorious scenery, is the village of Real del Monte, on ground honeycombed by shafts
and
adits.
enterprise
As long ago as 1826, when English had begun extending the workings of
the Real Mine, Mr.

of the Real del
Ward wrote " The possessions Monte Company on the two great
:
veins of
and La Biscaina cover a space of 11,800 yards, and are intersected at intervals by thirty-three shafts, varying in depth from 200 to 270 yards, but all sunk with a magnificence The whole of these shafts, unparalleled in Euiope.
Santa Brigida
together with the great adit (or tunnel for draining
the mine), which follows the direction of the two
great veins, branching off
from the Santa Brigida 196
The Real
vein
at
del
Monte
point where it intersects that of the and from which the wealth of the Regla family was principally derived, was delivered over
the
Biscaina,
to the
ruin.
Company in July 1824 in a state of absolute Many of the shafts had fallen in (though cut,
;
at intervals, in the solid porphyritic rock)
in others,
the timbers had given
way
and
in
all,
as the adit
was completely choked up, the water had risen to an enormous height." But this is anticipating. Very little is known of this mine prior to 1749, beyond the fact that its surface workings had yielded considerable quantities of silver. In olden times water had been lifted from the mine in bulls' hides carried up on a rope, a method so primitive and inefficient that when a comparatively small depth had been reached, the water got the upper hand and caused the abandon-
ment
wreck
of
the
property
at
the
beginning
well
of
said,
the
eighteenth
is
century.
As
has
been
no
more complete than that which water causes when it once gets possession of a mine, and
a mingles into one
earth, rubbish,
and
soft
mass floating timbers, loosened and fallen rock."

of
The mining laws

shall
Mexico,
a
like
those of
of
some
other countries, stipulate that
title
ownership
be maintained by work and work alone.
When
once a mine
or claim,
it,
is abandoned, anybody can " denounce," on condition that he works it.
Now, an
saw
intelligent
miner,
named Bustamente,
there
;
his chance.
The water was

197
but metal

was there as
off,
well.
If
the former could be drained
the latter could be easily extracted.
He
accord-
one Peter Terreros, an enterprising merchant (though some accounts make him an ignorant muleteer), to drive an adit into the
ingly
joined
forces
with
side of the hill

at a
which should enter the Biscaina vein
depth of 200 yards below the surface.
To
effect
this the tunnel would have to be 3000 yards long. The undertaking, though enormously expensive and
very arduous, was persevered in by the two partners,
who
fortunately from time to time encountered veins

all
Bustamente died before the in 1762 Terreros had the satisfaction of cutting into the Biscaina and seeing the water rush out into the valley. Adolph Sutro a century later, as we have already noticed, performed a
costs.
which paid completion
of the
work; but
similar but
much
greater feat at the
Comstock Lode.
he reached the main shaft, he had a ruin to clear out and rebuild, which was a more costly undertaking than the building of a king's palace. But if the toil had been great, the reward was
greater
still.
When
In
twelve
years
Terreros
took
out
over .3,000,000.
six million
Of
this
he spent two and a-half

;
million dollars on the mines

dollars
and refineries laid out on plantations and loaned the

;
King
of Spain a million
(which were, of course, not

help,
repaid).
For
this
handsome pecuniary
and
line,
the present of two fully equipped ships of the the
once humble Peter Terreros was ennobled as

u
the Count of Regla.
Among
198
the
common
people
The Real
he
of
is
del
Monte
was Crcesus
x
!
the subject of
more
fables than
old.
When
his
children were baptized, so the
story goes, the procession walked on bars of silver
By way
ferred
visit
of expressing his gratitude for the title con-
on him, he sent an
invitation to the king to
him at his mine, assuring His Majesty that if he would confer on him such an exalted favour, His Majesty's feet should not tread upon the ground while he was in the New World. Wherever he should alight from his carriage it should be upon a pavement of silver, and the places where he lodged should be lined with the same precious metal. 2
Anecdotes of
course,
his
this
kind are innumerable, which, of
amount
that
in
to
own time
his wealth
no more than showing that in was proverbial, and demonat
strate
popular estimation he stood
the
king
of that large class of miners whom the wise ennobled as a reward for successful mining adventures, and that he was accounted the richest miner in the kingdom. The state and magnificence
head
which he sometimes displayed surpassed that of the

vice-king.
This in no
3
way embarrassed an
estate,
the largest ever accumulated by one individual in

a single enterprise."
1
The
rich
Mexicans seem
display.
to
have had
little originality in
their
methods
of
2
making a
Street paving was, however, economical, as the
could be collected again. Author. Mr. Charles F. Lummis, in his "Awakening of a Nation," says that Terreros promised to pave the road from Vera Cruz to Mexico (550 kilometres) with silver ingots. No doubt he had very decided ideas about the probability of a kingly visit before he made this promise.
silver
3
Wilson's "Mexico,"
p.
365.
199
The Romance
Terreros' son found the
of
work
Mining
of
extracting ore
more
difficult
than had his father, for in his time
the shafts had sunk so far below the adit level that
the original trouble with water was repeated.
installed
He
which and discharged it. As the mine grew deeper, more and more malacates became necessary, until twenty-eight were at work, turned by twelve hundred horses, superintended by four hundred men. A quarter of a million dollars were spent annually on the draining and eventually the deeper galleries had to though they yielded 400,000 be abandoned dollars per annum and operations were confined
horse-machinery,
called
to
malacates,
adit
raised
the
water
in
skins
the
to the
upper
the
levels.
On
the
death
of
the
and its activity Independence in 1821, which severed Mexico from the Spanish Crown. The Terreros family kept their title good by employing a few
declined,
second Count the mine ebbed very low during
War
of
workmen about
As soon
as the
the shafts.
independence of Mexico had been
recognised by Great Britain, English capital began

to flow into the
new Republic. During the years 4- 1827 a regular mania for speculation in 182 Mexican mines seized the British public. To quote Mr. Wilson's vivid words once again, "That
second South Sea delusion, the Anglo - Spanish American mining fever, broke out in England.
It
surpassed
thousand-fold
the
wildest
of
all
200
"_
S5^2
? s g w
^2
-
-J
The Real
the
del
Monte
New York
organisations of the
ciers in
and Californian mining and quartz 1 Prudent finanlast five years.

stark
London ran
mad
in
calculating the
dividends they must unavoidably realise

country, and
upon
in-
vestments in a business to be carried on in a distant
managed and
controlled by a debating
of directors in London. Money was advanced with almost incredible recklessness, and agents were posted off with all secrecy to be first to secure from the owner of some abandoned mine the right to work it before the agent of some
society or board
arrive on the ground. No mine was to be looked at that was not named in the volumes of Humboldt, and any mine therein named was valued above all price. In the end, some 50,000,000 dollars of English capital ran out and was used up in Mexico. It was one of those periodical manias that regularly seize a commercial people once in ten years, and for which there is no accounting, and no remedy but to let it have its way and work out its own cure in the ruin of
other
company should
thousands."
While finance was thus distracted a company, known as the Real del Monte Company, was formed to drain the Real mines and render them workable. Their condition at this period has already been Besides, all the machinery in the described.
1
have been
2
The Comstock mania was qualified. Author.
still
in the future, or these
words might
Wilson's "Mexico," pp. 354-355.
201
The Romance
large
of Mining
used to extract been destroyed or
reduction
silver
works,
formerly
the
from the ore, had and as the war had almost obliterated the villages round, workers were hard to find. Englishmen are not easily discouraged. The necessary capital having been subscribed, 1500 tons
carried
off,
of
machinery,
including
five
large
steam-engines,
sent
stamp, saw-mill engines, and pumps, were
Even when the three ships carrying the material had discharged their cargoes, after great difficulty on account of the exposed and dangerous anchorage, trouble had Three hundred miles of rutty and only just begun.
out in
to
May 1825
Vera Cruz.
hilly
roads had to be traversed by the transports, drawn by seven hundred mules under the direction This process occupied five of one hundred men. months and cost a million dollars, a sum equal to the original value of the machinery Meanwhile a detachment at the mines had cleared the adit
!
repaired
many
of
;
the
shafts
erected
buildings
and built a finely engineered round the property road from the mines to the reduction works through the rocky ravine which intervenes. The pumps were erected, and hopes rose high. Unfortunately, the promoters made an initial Instead of mistake which ruined their venture. trying to drain the mines by a tunnel driven below that of Terreros, at the level of the bottom of the
existing workings, they decided
into
to
pump
the water
the old adit.
At
first
all
seemed
to
go
well,
202
The Real
since
del
-
Monte
working pumps
two
small
steam
engines,
that lifted
600
gallons
per minute, easily accom-
had failed But the galleries drained did not prove very remunerative, and the engineers therefore decided
to do. to sink a large
plished what the twenty-eight malacates
shaft
farther along the vein.
The
manner
of sinking of this was, at the time, a novel

feat, for
engineering
instead of proceeding from the
top only, the engineers drove five galleries at different

levels
from the old workings to spots under that which had been fixed for the mouth of the shaft, and worked simultaneously both upwards and downwards from these five levels. The shaft was finished in 1834, and it must be placed to the credit of those
responsible that
when
the sections
if
a hole as straight and perfect as
a shaft
met they made had been

through
this
sunk from the surface

shaft
direct.
The new treasure-house

was worked profitably
reached
for a time, excavations
reaching downwards to a point 720 feet below the

adit.
felt.
Then
the
difficulty
of
drainage
made
itself
Three large pumps, discharging between them gallons a minute, could scarcely keep the water 2700 The cost of pumping ate up all the profits. in check. Shares which had risen from 100 to ^4800 in
1845 they could be bought The company, worn out for fifty shillings apiece by a losing fight with the water, gave up the and a property on which 20,000,000 struggle dollars had been expended passed into the hands 203
value,
fell, fell, fell, till
in

of
other people for
.25,000
This was indeed a

of
sad
ending to the
!
second
chapter
the
Real's
history
A Mexican syndicate bought the mines and all " appertaining thereto for " a mere song as indeed
the
amount named above must appear
in
comparison
still left
with the intrinsic value of the silver deposits
untouched.
Mr. Buchan, the engineer of the
new
once commenced to drive a drainage tunnel 400 feet below that of the first Count. It had to pierce nearly a mile of very hard rock before it reached the great Dolores shaft. Then the water got away, and the third chapter, which may be said
company,
at
to last to the present day,
commenced.
In 1856 five
thousand
men and
countless animals were at work.
For a pen picture of the mine at this time we must once again appeal to Mr. Robert A. Wilson's
interesting book.
Clad
in a skull-cap, miner's pants
an oddly assorted and coat and calf-skin boots garb he descended one of the main shafts. " While standing at the top of the shaft," he writes, " I was astonished at the size and perfect finish of the steam pump that had been imported from England by the With the assistance late English mining company. of balancing weights, the immense arms of the engine lifted, with mathematical precision, two square timbers, the one spliced out to the length of a thousand, the other twelve hundred feet, which these were the fell back again by their own weight pumping-rods which lifted the water four hundred
204
The Real
feet to the
it
del
Monte
which carried a mile and a quarter through the mountain, and

of a tunnel or adit,
it
mouth
in
discharged
lifted,
the creek.
to
... A
trap-door being
we began
descend by small ladders that

shaft, or, rather,
reached from floor to floor in the

in the half of the shaft.
The whole
shaft
was perto
haps
soft,
fifteen or
twenty
other
feet square,
with sides formed
of solid masonry,
where the rock happened

parts
it
be
while in
consisted of
natural
Half of this shaft was porphyry rock cut smooth. divided off by a partition, which extended the whole distance from the top to the bottom of the mine. Through this the materials used in the work were let down, and the ore drawn up in large sacks, confisting
each of the skin of an ox.

shaft
The
other half
the two pumping timbers, of the from and numerous floorings at short distances one to the other of these ran ladders, by which men were continually ascending and descending,
contained
at the risk of falling
only a few feet
at the
utmost.
The descent from platform

one, while the
little
to platform
was an easy
walk on the platform relieved
the
no great fatigue
filled
by climbing down. With a thousand feet, where our further progress was stopped by the water that
muscles
exhausted
I
got
down
the lower galleries.
from porphyry to the shaft, either cut through the solid intersect some vein, or else the space which a vein once occupied is fitted up for a gallery by receiving 205
" Galleries are passages running horizontally
The Romance
a
of Mining
and a brick arch overhead. They are the passages that lead to others, and to transverse galleries and veins, which, in so old a mine as this, When a vein sufficiently rich are very numerous. to warrant working is struck, it is followed through all its meanderings as long as it pays for digging. The opening made in following it is, of course, as irregular in form and shape as the vein itself. The loose earth and rubbish taken out in following it is thrown into some abandoned opening or gallery,
floor
wooden
so that nothing
is
lifted to
the surface but the ore.
Sometimes several gangs of hands will be working upon the same vein, a board and timber floor only When I have separating one set from another. added to this description that this business of digging out veins has continued here for near three
hundred years, it can well be conceived that this mountain ridge has become a sort of honeycomb. " When our party had reached the limit of descent, we turned aside into a gallery, and made our way among gangs of workmen, silently pursuing their daily labour in galleries and chambers reeking with moisture, while the water trickled down on every side on its way to the common receptacle at the bottom. Here we saw English carpenters dressing timbers for flooring by the light of tallow candles that burned in soft mud candlesticks adhering to the rocky walls of the chamber. Men were industriously digging upon the vein, others disposing of the rubbish, while convicts were 206
The Real
they supported
del
Monte
trudging along under heavy burdens of ore, which
backs by a broad strap As we passed among these well-behaved gangs of men, I was a little startled by the foreman remarking that one of those carriers had been convicted of killing ten men and was under Far from there being sentence of labour for life. anything forbidding in the appearance of these murderers, now that they were beyond the reach of intoxicating drink, they bore the ordinary subAccording to dued expression of the Meztizo. custom, they lashed me to a stanchion as an intruder but, upon the foreman informing them that I would pay the usual forfeit of cigaritos on
on
their
across their foreheads.
arriving at relieved me.
the
station-house,
they
good-naturedly
on, until
Then we journeyed on and

of to rest,
my
powers
sat
endurance could sustain no more.
We
a
down
and
to
gather strength for
still longer journey. At length we set out again, sometimes climbing up, sometimes climbing down now stopping to examine different specimens of ore
that
back the glare of our lights with and to look at the endless varieties in the appearance of the rock that filled the spaces in the porphyry matrix. Then we walked
reflected
dazzling
brilliancy,
way on the top of the aqueduct of the adit, we at last reached a vacant shaft, through which we were drawn up and landed in the prisonhouse, from whence we walked to the station-house, where we were dressed in our own clothes again."
a long
until
207

Like the Kaffirs of the Kimberley diamond mines,
the Mexican
workmen
are adepts at stealing.
They
which may enable them to carry off pieces of rich ore. The hollow handles of hammers, the ears, the spaces between the toes, the mouth, and cigarettes, all serve as hiding-places.
try every possible
device
Accordingly the
times
men
are
carefully
searched three
when
leaving work.
del
The Real
profit
Monte mines have been worked with ever since the Mexican company took them
deposits being struck from time to time.
least interesting features
over,
new
Not the
is
of a great
mine
are the reduction works, or haciendas, where the silver

extracted from the ore.
is
Real
very
the Regla hacienda, built by the
Twelve miles from the first Count

It
is
in the
bottom
of a very picturesque valley.
extraordinary
group
castle,
of
buildings,
externally
much
are
resembling a
since the massive walls
loopholed for defence.

mills,
Inside are magazines,
courts, furnaces,
smelting and amalgamation
works, built over dungeons, vaults, and tunnels.
Let us enter a mill and see

treat the
how
the
Mexicans
ore.
In
large
yard boys and

with
are
breaking
it
up
the
ore
hammers.
women When
broken,
aside,
is
sorted, the useless rubbish being cast
and the rich portions being placed in a molino, which is somewhat like the mortar-crusher Large circular used on large building operations. stone rollers are drawn round and round in the trough of the molino by mules, until the pieces of 208
Q 8
<o
*Vg$3
Sri*
O'
50
ô
-*
-^^f
The Real
ore have been
del
Monte
broken up very small. The stuff to an arrastra, a basin 9 to is then transferred Heavy 12 feet in diameter, lined with cement. by animal or water stone blocks, moved round
power, reduce
gradually
it
and the water which has been

to
added,
is
kind
of
thick
a
mud
large
paste.
floor
The mass
by
vertical
next
poured out on
After
is
it
carefully paved with stones or

sides.
wood and enclosed
dry a few days, salt

in to
been allowed to added and mules are turned

has
tramp
it
for
copper, lime, and quicksilver
two or three days. Sulphate of are thrown in also,

for seventy
and the trampling continues
more
days.
According to some writers the quicksilver and other

chemicals rapidly destroy the hoofs and
tails of
the
poor mules
are small.
to
though others say that the

Judging, however, by the
evil effects
plumbers and other workers in poisoning, we can easily understand that continuous immersion in a chemical mixture such as has been
described
tissues.
damage done metal by metallic
might soon prove
disastrous
to
animal
the time comes when the official must decide whether the mercury of the tor/a, or paste, has been fully amalgamated with the silver. On his judgment depends, perhaps, the fate of several thousands of pounds' worth of metal.
Presently
" tester "
He
is
responsible
for
the
proportion
in
which
chemicals must be added to secure the best results

with any one
torta.
The
quality of the ore varies,
209

and
its
treatment must also vary according to
its
is
nature.
carried
When
he
gives
the
word,
the
mass
to an immense washing machine, driven by water, which separates and expels the dross,
leaving
the
is
silver
impregnated
mercury.
cast
in
The
for
amalgam
Foreign
doubtless
scientific.
then
capital
retorted
and
bars
minting or export.
is,
of
course,
altering
mining
will
methods, and the

give
patio
system just described

the
place
in
future
it
to
one more
its
At present, however,
holds
own
as
being very cheap and yet

Silver
is
effective,
though tedious.
Apart
doing for Mexico what precious metals
have already done for
many
other countries.
from enriching the actual owners and citizens, it has caused the settlement and cultivation of large areas upon which a mining population must depend for its subsistence. The increased need for transport of silver and machinery is responsible for the everincreasing network of railways, which at the coast
terminate in fine harbours
enterprise being the
notable instance of
new
port at Vera Cruz.
Besides
is
her great mineral deposits Mexico has what
even
more
a
valuable, a
great-minded
clearly
stable Government controlled by man, who not only himself has before him the path which he wishes his
instilled
country to pursue, but also has

helpers
so that
left
into
his
large
portion
is
of
his
own
enthusiasm,
when he
taken worthy successors will be
to continue his
work.
210
CHAPTER
The
XIII
THE COPPER MINES OF THE RIO TINTO

natural riches of Spain Early miners The Romans Blindness of Spaniards The irony Tinto Modern development Vallejo Vaillant
hand
The Marquis de RemiseThe Government decides to rights French invaders German invaders Doetsch, Sundheim, and Blum A gigantic payment The Rio Tinto Mine Separation of copper from ore Spain's future " Wanted."
sell its
its
Lieberto Wolters Early company promotion Report on the Rio Tinto's resources Samuel Tiquet Thomas Sanz The Spanish Government tries its
Carthaginians
of history
The The Rio
The
Spain
effect
of
misrule
and
maladministration
on
has
of
been to place her among the
lesser
Powers
Europe.
Stripped of her colonies by seces;
sion after secession early in the nineteenth century
stripped of her navy, Cuba, and the Philippines by
war with the United States, Spain, who once yielded to no other nation in pride and might, who shook the nations of the New World with but a handful of her chivalry, and sent against England the mightiest Armada that had yet been seen, now stands apart, poor, proud, and reserved, waiting till Fortune shall give her rank and prestige
the
disastrous
again.
To imagine
Gold,
silver,
that Spain
is
a country without natural
resources would be to commit a grievous mistake.
she has them
copper,
all
tin, iron, lead, coal,
quicksilver
generously stored in her rugged
211
The Romance
bosom
;
of
Mining
so that, were her wealth properly exploited,
she would probably eclipse the output of any other
European country.
The
mined
light,
richness of her mineral supplies was discovered

of years
many hundreds
for
ago by the Phoenicians,
who
gold along the Guadalquiver before the

Later on, her silver stores came to
to get
time of David.
and the Carthaginians raided the country

After the
fall
labour for the mines.
of Carthage, the
Romans took up
of
the work, transporting thousands

in
captives
to
toil
the
mines which they had
formerly owned.
silver
They produced large quantities of and copper, besides gold, and have left their
in
marks
many
a fold of the Sierras.
In course of
time the riches thus
won from
Spain
made Rome
Moors,
over-wealthy, and she shared the fate of luxurious

nations.
The Goths, Vandals, and

little
who
lodes
overran the Peninsula, did
mining.
The
opened by
turies.
their predecessors
remained
at the
idle for
cen-
Even when Spain was
zenith of her
power, with Ferdinand and Isabella on the throne,

her people, straining eagerly to the El Dorados of
Mexico and Peru, were oblivious or ignorant

"
It is
of the
greater wealth lying neglected beneath their very feet.
example of the irony of history, that when Columbus sailed on his first voyage to America, he left behind him, within fifty or sixty miles of the fishing port he sailed from, mineral deposits which were destined to produce a more famous mine of its
a strange
kind than has yet been discovered across the Atlantic.
212
^
*"
5
Copper Mines of the Rio Tinto

The dark waters owe
of the
Rio Tinto
on which
his
pioneer ships floated out into the

their colour to a
unknown ocean,
which has
mountain
of copper
yielded almost as
many
solid millions of
money
as
have been got out of the Comstock Lode, or the Calumet and Hecla." 1 The name of the subject of this chapter having
turn at once to the most remarkable mines remarkable alike for the vicissitudes through which it has passed, its extent, and the vastness of its wealth. Let us, then, first be quite clear as to the Rio Tinto's position on the map. So follow down the boundary line between Spain and Portugal till you
history of one of the world's
now been
mentioned, we
may
reach the province of Huelva, and about thirty miles north of the town of that name, you will find " Los
Minas de Rio Tinto " on the southern slope of the Sierra Morena. From this district for district it is
rather than a place
comes one-tenth
worlds
Indeed,
of the
copper
mined annually
in the
Who
first
delved here for the metal
is,
and must
remain, uncertain.
scent of facts
till
we do
not get on the
the middle of the sixteenth century,
when a formal report, containing some truth and a good deal of fiction, was made on the mines by Government inspectors. It drew so rosy a picture
of the deposits that a
1
Don bought
the right of working
"Spain of To-Day," W. R. Lawson.

In 1901, 1,928,776 tons of ore were mined, and about one-third of this Over 20,000 tons of pure copper were smelted at the mines
exported.
alone.
213

them, with what success
or
more
passes,
we do not know. A century and Don Sebastian Vallejo is found

in
engaged from the ore.

busily
the
Sierra
precipitating copper
into obscurity,
He,
too, disappears
while
Don
Nicholas Vaillant emerges, secures a lease
for thirty years,

his privileges.
and
fails
to
make anything out
of
The
riches
first
really practical
man
to attack the great
of
the
Wolters
tige
by
Rio Tinto was a Swede, Lieberto In the early part of the name.
eighteenth century
Sweden
lost
much
of the
X.,
pres-
won by Gustavus Adolphus,

;
Charles
and
her
Charles XII.
military
lated
but with the passing away

enterprise,
of
power, her commercial

also.
stimu-
no doubt by the great wars
engaged, did not disappear

into all parts of
in which she had Swedes penetrated Europe, and became pre-eminently
successful as miners.
Wolters, a native of Stockholm,

or about the year
came
to Spain in
1700.
in
At
first
he practised the
1725,
profession
of
diver
Vigo Bay, and probably
made when
good
profit out
of his work, since in
the Rio Tinto

it
offered to lease
years, agreeing to
thirtieth of the ore
mine was in need of a lessee, he and form other mines for thirty pay the Crown a royalty of onemined.
entirely
Not being rich enough to finance the undertaking by himself, Wolters took the step which to-day marks the beginning of so many commercial He promoted a company, with a capital enterprises. 214

of
ioo ooo doubloons, or nearly .400,000 sterling. 1

;
Of the 2000 shares, Wolters kept 700 for himself, " vendor's shares," and threw the other 1300 open
public subscription.
closely he followed
It
is
as
to
interesting to
note
how
modern methods.
Shareholders
were given the opportunity of paying in instalments five doubloons on application, ten on the last day of May 1726, ten on July 1, 1726, and the remaining
twenty-five at such times as the
management should
call."
consider
it
convenient to make a "
The
shares seem to have found ready purchasers,
who
some
included persons of rank and distinction, even

ladies of the
Royal Household.
Yet the public
press did not forbear to hurl at the enterprise
many
envenomed
effective
in
darts, tipped with such terms as " liar,"

;
" swindler," and " heretic "

the
It
the
last,
no doubt, most
the
of
country
of
Torquemada and
to
Inquisition.
priestly
was probably owing
fears
his
enmity that Wolters included in
lease
a stipulation that any foreign employes of the Protestant persuasion should not be interfered with so
long as they did not proselytise or

too openly.
air their
opinions
In order to cut the ground from under the feet

of his adversaries, Wolters did a
very wise
thing.
Scarcely had the

shares
1
first
instalments been paid on the

a
when he appointed
mining engineer to
Mr. W. R. Lawson, in " Spain of To-Day," assesses the capital at ,375,000, assuming a gold doubloon to be equivalent to "3, 15s. But Mr. W. G. Nash, in his " History of the Rio Tinto Mine," puts the total amount much lower, at "20,000.
215

is
examine the mines and draw up a Report just as done to-day. The Report, for which an Englishman, Robert Shee, was responsible, said a great deal
without giving
much
results
real
information.
It
served,
however, to quicken public interest greatly in the

scheme,
his
with
somewhat
disastrous
to
the
promoter,
fellow
who soon found
himself at variance with
shareholders on pretty well every point
which could be made the subject of dispute. The King, to whom reference was repeatedly made as
umpire, finally decided, in 1727, that the company should be separated into two distinct enterprises
Wolters retaining the Rio Tinto and Aracena mines

as his portion, while the mines of Cazalla, Guadalcanal,
and Galaroza went

his
to the other shareholders.

at
Wolters got the better half of the bargain, but
such a cost to
constitution that he shortly after-
nephew, Samuel Swede and a practical miner. Unfortunately, Tiquet became involved in a litigation an Englishwoman, Lady Mary Teresa suit with Herbert, who had lent money to the Company, and now sued it for breach of contract. The verdict
wards
died, leaving his property to a
Tiquet, also a
went
in
her favour, and she entered into possession
of all the five mines.

easily beaten,
But Tiquet, being a man not
appealed against the decision, and was
reinstated in his property,
though not before the lady owner had played havoc with some of the mining and reduction plant. To the end of his life he died Tiquet continued an uphill struggle against in 1758 216

heavy odds.
His successor, Francesco
Tomas
Sanz,
fared equally badly, and the end of the lease found

the Rio Tinto mine, with
its
fabulous resources ready
to the pick, yielding a beggarly
hundred tons or so
of metal a year.
1777 the Spanish Government once more tried its hand at administering the mine, in order to get But money was material foi its bronze currency.
In
supplied
to
the
management
in
such
niggardly
little progress could be made. The War, which paralysed all industry in Spain, caused the abandonment of the mine for Then the Government, in 1828, nearly thirty years.
quantities that
Peninsular
offered the mining rights at auction for a period of
The highest bid came from a Frenchman, the Marquis de Remise, who offered .2600 per annum for the first ten years, and ^3100 per annum during the remainder of the lease. He seems to have worked the mines with fair success, and certainly increased the yearly output to over 2000 tons. When his lease fell in, the Government again took over the task of converting copper into cash, which they now sorely needed. Whether the Spanish official was radically incompetent, or was so enmeshed by red tape that common-sense mining practice proved impossible, we cannot say. Whatever the facts may be, the Government decided, in 1872, to sell the property which for centuries had been the source of endless squabbles, litigation, and
twenty years.
loss.
217

must now retrace our steps a few years to see how it came about that Spain found a purchaser of one of her greatest treasures. Mr. W. R. Lawson in his book draws attention to the fact that Napoleon IIL's coup-d'etat in 1851 practically
exiled
side.
We
many Frenchmen who
took the anti-Bonaparte

to
large
number emigrated
England.
Others,
of
more adventurous
turn, crossed the Pyrenees
into the land where, half a century earlier, the legions

of the greater
Napoleon had held temporary sway.
Attracted by stories of Spain's mineral wealth, they

sent
men
in
advance to spy out the land and report.

passed
The
forerunners
southwards
to
Huelva,
searching for the mines associated by legend with

the Tarshish of Scripture
" Tharsis "
;
and
after
examining the
Rio Tinto, which did not suit their fancy, fixed upon
the
in
neighbouring valley.
They
obtained a lease from the Government and worked

the property until bought out by a Scotch syndicate.
Another political upheaval, the American Civil War, led to a second invasion of Spain by fortunehunters. This time they were Germans, whose livelihood in the States had vanished amid the clash of arms. A Mr. Doetsch became manager of the Rio Tinto Wilhelm Sundheim started a shipping while a Mr. Blum sat down business at Huelva and watched what was going on at Tharsis and Rio Tinto. His deep mineralogical knowledge soon caused him to recognise the true value of the immense copper lodes, and he gave his two friends his opinion 218
; ;

just
on the subject. At this time (1872) Spain had only emerged from the Carlist war, in a state verging on national bankruptcy. It became absolutely necessary to realise such assets as could be changed into money and when a bill, drafted by Messrs. Doetsch and Sundheim, for the sale of the Rio Tinto mines by auction, was brought before the Cortes, it soon received ratification. On February 14, 1873, the tender of some English bankers, Messrs. Matheson & Co., of .3,712,000 was accepted, and the Rio Tinto passed into the hands of an Anglo-German group of
;
financiers.
The enormous
considering
its
price paid
for a property which,
now
of
ascertained value, can scarcely be

scratched,
said to have been
more than
may seem
to
unprecedented proportions. Yet the purchasers were hard-headed men, who, though they took risks, did so with their eyes very wide open,
a
mark
gamble
in a
and not until the lodes had been fully reported upon manner somewhat more scientific than that of
Wolters' expert.
The confidence placed

justified.
in
the reports was fully
At
first
shareholders
who had bought

repurchase
at
in a
hurry sold as hastily

shillings.
10 They were glad
shares going for thirty

to
.30
and to-day the shares are worth more than 60, despite the immense sums that have been spent since the purchase on railways and dock accommodation
at
Huelva.
The Rio Tinto
is
undoubtedly the largest mine
in
219

the world.
It
covers eight square miles, and gives
subsistence to 50,000 people. It is worked by tunnelling and also by the " open-cast " system, which
merely clears
off
the " overburden," or useless earth,
&c, and
hills
quarries
down
into the deposit.
There are
through which cross-cuts have been driven for
250 yards without emerging from solid ore. "The area of the mine," says Mr. Lawson, il is covered from
end with masses of red and grey earth looking ash-heaps. A few of these are the natural hill-tops, which it has not been thought worth while to remove but most of them are artificial mounds formed during the operations of the mine. That towering mass of broken slate and granite in the distance was made by the Romans, whose implements and domestic utensils are found in it to the present day. That high embankment
end
like
to
gigantic
of
blood-red clay and porphyry, with two lines of

it, is
(
railway running along the top of

It
overburden.'
represents millions of tons' weight, and has been
carried miles
away from where Nature placed

is
it.
In
the hollow below there
as
much
slag or cinder
from the blast-furnaces as would pave all London, and it is but a fraction of what the furnaces have turned out. Every year thousands of tons of it are put on the railway as ballast, and wherever a chance occurs it is made away with, but still it goes on growing. Rio Tinto was wild and desolate enough when the copper miners laid hold of it but that was grace and beauty compared with what it is now. 220
. . . ;

Pluto himself, lurid as his fancy
is
supposed
to be,
could not have conceived the idea of such a scorched,

scarified,
It is
and grimy wilderness
as
it
has since become.
in a blazing sun.
pandemonium painted red and set out to roast The terraces (of the open-casts)
.
. .
are traversed by
nearly sixty miles of railway, on

thirty locomotives
which more than

to
and 750 waggons

of the
are running daily. the
From one end
workings
other
is
a journey of seven or eight miles,
curving in and out of hollows, crossing points, running
up one slope and down another, and your engine

yards.
all
the while shrieking to signalmen at every few hundred
Walking
is
out of the question in such a
country.
Short journeys the superintendents do on

they
horseback, but for long ones they have to take the

rail.
When
wish
to
look round,
instead
of
calling a
It
hansom, they send for an engine and car. takes them quickly over the ground and gives them
to see from."
*
good elevation
2
The copper forms but

Sulphur
is
small part of the ore.

also
iron.
present in large quantities,
Only the
the
richest
ore
is
smelted on the spot.

is
considerable portion of the ore
taken direct from
mine to ships at Huelva, whence it travels to England and other countries. Some, again, is reduced by " calcination," ready for the smelter, and so shipped. One of the most lucrative processes is that
"Spain of To-Day" (Blackwood), pp. 99, 100, 101. Sulphur is a valuable asset; nearly 120,000 tons of the chemical the mines for export in 1901.
1
left
221

of precipitating the metal from water which has been allowed to pass through heaps of refuse and " smalls/'
or dust ore.
In fact, no mining industry

of
is
more
its
complex than that

matrix.
separating
copper from
copper
about
for
This partly accounts for the high price of

one-fiftieth
that
of silver,
which for
world's
years past has steadily depreciated.
The
demand
largely
copper
is
in
advance of the supply,

quantities
It
because of the
immense
of
the
would be a great boon to civilisation if the price were halved, while still leaving a sufficient margin for the producer As time to make mining a profitable business. progresses, improved and economical means of remetal used in electrical equipments.
duction are discovered, but at present there appears
to
be
no
parallel
in
this
industries
respect.
between the copper and steel Copper mining is also

cost
of dragging
in
hampered by the
from depths
other minerals.
great
the ore
seldom
reached
connection
with
The
future
welfare of Spain
is
bound up with
tillers
the advance of agriculture and the further tapping

of her mineral wealth.
The Saracens were

;
of
the
and converted many barren stretches of and to-day the eastern provinces are noted for their fertility and high cultivation. Though agriculture must in all
soil
sandy desert into well-watered gardens
countries be the foremost industry that one upon which the health as well as the wealth of a nation must depend mining comes in a very good second 222

as the provider of riches.
And
it is
for this reason
that future generations should witness a great change

in the Peninsula.
As soon
as the internal condition

in
of the
country
is
such as to attract foreign capital
measure than to-day, railways will be run districts now far removed from The examples the sound of the locomotive's whistle. of Rio Tinto, Almaden, and Bilbao, will lead to a hundred other enterprises among the gold, tin, lead, coal, and silver deposits which are waiting to make Spain one of the richest kingdoms of the world when the Spaniard is ready to turn from his old-time and lay his hand doctrine of manana " to-morrow "
larger
through hundreds of
to the splendid task before him.
We may live
to see
Spain once
more
it
the
greatest
mining country of
Europe, such as
thousands of
was when the Romans sent their slaves to work their wretched bodies to
;
death in the horror-chambers of the Sierras

it
such as
was when, a thousand years earlier still, the Phoenicians sent their ships from Tyre and Sidon to fetch treasure from near the Pillars of Hercules.
223
CHAPTER XIV
OTHER FAMOUS COPPER MINES
The copper contributions of different Lake Superior deposits History
The United StatesThe A large mass of solid copper found Sensational blocks of metal The Calumet and Hecla Mine A huge shaft Machinery at the mine Refining bad speculation The Montana deposits at Butte The Anaconda Mine Bessemerising copper Arizona California The copper mines of Ashio, Japan Fahlun Rammelsburg Splitting rocks with The Eurra Burra Mine British copper miningA decayed industry The Parys Mountains, Anglesea Concluding remarks.
countries
of their discovery
fire
At
the present time the United States produces far
more copper than any other country.

yields about 50,000 tons annually,
While Spain Mexico 40,000,
Australasia
29,000,
and Japan 30,000, the United
States furnish 275,000 tons out of the world's total
about 525,000 tons. That is to say, more than half of all the copper mined comes from the land
of
of the Stars
and Stripes. Three States take the

;
lion's
share of the copper
industry.
the list with about 250 Michigan comes second, with about 150 million; and Arizona third, with 115 At ruling prices the output is worth over million. 86 million dollars annually, a sum which gives
Montana heads
millon pounds' weight
copper the
first
place
among
metals in the United

the
States after iron.
The most famous copper 224
district
in
New
A
,1 IMP * ^ i ^s
#1
8 Îtlf
Other Famous Copper Mines

World
in a
lies
on the south shore
of
Lake Superior,
tongue of land known as the Keweenaw Peninsula. Parallel to the water, a few miles inland,
runs
the
Mineral Range,
intersected
oy veins
of
the metal.
Before noticing individual mines

at
we may
glance
the
discovery and history of
these remarkable
deposits.
The
early exploration
of
the country bordering

Jesuit priests,
Lake Superior was undertaken by

history
of
who
played a very important part in Franco-American

the seventeenth century.
The frequent
occurrence of copper was one of the objects that
and its presence, so met with among the Indians, naturally excited Repeated mention of their curiosity and wonder. some instances the descriptions it is made, and in relate to masses of considerable size. But long
early attracted their attention,
often
prior to
attention
this
period,
the
metal that attracted the
and early voyageurs, and which now forms the basis of a great industry, had been sought and mined for by a people who have left no record but the implements which they used and the excavations which they made. These excavations had been obscured from view by the slow growth of overlying debris during the years which had since elapsed, and the Indians had no knowledge of the workings of their prehistoric preIn fact, no suspicion that any such decessors. mining had been done occurred until comparatively P 225
of
the
missionaries
The Romance
recently,
after
of Minin g
the country had been settled and had commenced operations. Then it became known that the copper veins of the district had apparently yielded large amounts of metal That the old occupation of to some forgotten race. the lodes was very ancient was evident from many Pits and tunnels had become filled with facts. rubbish and overgrown with large forest trees. If ever observed, they were naturally depressions were regarded as those made by overturned trees, or as and it was not suspected until hollows in the rocks
prospectors
the actual discovery, as late as 1847, that the district
had once been busily mined.
So general are the Range that there vein or outcrop in the whole copper is scarcely a district which does not bear signs of the old miners, some of them pits sunk fifty feet or more into
ancient excavations of the Mineral
solid
the
rock.
In
these
pits,
when
cleared
of
rubbish,
have been found large masses of copper
which the primitive seekers had unsuccessfully tried Lumps of solid copper, weighing many to remove. tons, have been discovered surrounded by numerous stone hammers, pieces of burnt wood, and other It is obvious from the evidences of former labour.
nature of these finds that the rock was heated and
then
by pouring water on it to make it friable enough for smashing with the stone hammers, which
split
consisted of small boulders of hard rock, weighing
from three to thirty pounds, round which a groove had sometimes been made to hold an osier handle. 226

The old-time miner knew his business so modern prospectors have sought eagerly
ancient
lodes.
pits,
well that
for these
as betokening the outcrop of the
copper
In 1760 an explorer, Alexander Henry, found
mass about twenty miles above the Ontonagon River. Ten years later he took men with him and tried to secure the metal, In 1820 but only managed to chip off some pieces. General Lewis Cass, Governor of Michigan, led an The party had great expedition to the same spot. difficulty in ascending the rapids, and climbing over the mountains under a blazing sun, while harassed by countless flies and mosquitoes. The General bebut the others, pushing on, discame exhausted covered the object of their search, which, though not so big as they had anticipated, was still considered a remarkable object. It had evidently been much reduced from its original size and broken tools lying about showed that several persons had
a great copper
of the
mouth
attempted to hew
that period
it
to bits.
This mass of native copper

bodily
the largest that at
had ever been found

the
river
was transported
the the
set
it
down
of
in
1842, and sold to
United States Government,
who
up
in
grounds
Its arrival gists,
the
War Department
at
Washington.
mineralo-
caused quite a sensation
among
and soon the district from which it had come swarming with speculators, prospectors, and was explorers, all bent on tapping the mother lode. 1
1
Vide " Mineral Statistics of Michigan," 1880.
227

In the "
Cliff "
Mine other
first
large masses were soon
being struck in 1845. This discovery was of great importance, since it deterencountered, the
mined the
found had
the
fact that the erratic boulders previously
their origin in the region
itself.
It
was the
precursor of a succession of masses that astonished
world and gave confidence to investors and

In 1852 a
enthusiasm to the workers.

thick,
mass weigh-
ing 200 tons, 40 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 2 feet
was discovered in the North American Mine, But a few years later this huge block was quite eclipsed by lumps found in the Minnesota Company's mine. Of one of these the engineer " It was at once apparent that they had wrote something very valuable, but they had no conception of the immense thing which a few days' work At one convenient point they broke away disclosed. behind the copper so as to get in a sand blast of They stripped the mass five or six kegs of powder. further and again fired without result. Again they and the mass remained fired nine kegs of powder, unmoved. Breaking the rock round for a considerable distance, eighteen kegs of powder were shot off without effect, and again twenty-two kegs, and the copper was entirely undisturbed at any point. After further clearing, twenty-five kegs were shot off under the copper, and, it was thought, with some effect. But a final blast of thirty kegs, or 750 pounds, was securely tamped beneath the mass and fired. As soon as the smoke cleared away, a mass of copper forty-five 228
close by.
:

feet
long and three to
five
feet in thickness,
appa-
rently very pure,
hundred
tons,
cutting up.
still
and which will probably weigh three had been shot out and was ready for It was torn off from other masses which
remain
is
in the solid rock."

in the
later report says
" There
adit
now
Minnesota Mine, between the

level,
and the io-fathom
a single detached
is
mass
of
apparently pure metallic copper, which
some
forty-five feet in length,
and
in the thickest part as

It
much
and
is
as eight or nine feet in thickness.

five
contains
probably more than

worth, as
hundred
tons of
pure metal,
more than 150,000 dollars/' It took twenty men fifteen months to remove this monster, which had to be hewn asunder as it lay. Some of the cut faces measured sixteen square feet, and the mere chips weighed over twenty-seven tons. Truly a splendid find the largest and most valuable " nugget " ever struck by miner
it lies,
Among
that
the
Michigan copper-mining companies,
known
as the
It
Calumet and Hecla stands preof

all
eminent.
produces more than half

;
the
Keweenaw metal
the fact that
it
and
is
further
remarkable for
rivals
the neighbouring
Tamarack
world.
Mine
" In
in possessing the deepest shafts in the

all
the estimates and considerations applicable
to other
mining companies
this
mine must be
ex-
cepted.
The mine
so exceeds
is
all
others in extent
and richness
it
that there
none
in
product or in
it
profit.
instituted
must be borne in 229
compared with any comparison is mind that the Calumet

to be
If

and Hecla lode
ever
is
probably by far the richest vein

the
known in the annals of copper mining." 1 The mine is situated about five miles from
shores of Lake Superior, and
about twelve miles
from Portage Lake, with which the Mineral Range Railroad connects it. The Calumet Company was
started in
apiece.
1865 with shares that stood at a dollar But the profits were so large that the price rose rapidly to thirty dollars, and a few months
to
dollars. In 1871 the which was working close by on Hecla Company, the same lode, amalgamated with the Calumet, and the two ventures have since been run as one very successful concern. Within three years of joining forces dividends of 2,800,000 dollars had been paid on the total capital of 1,000,000 dollars! By 1881
afterwards
seventy-five
dividends aggregated nearly 19,000,000 dollars, and
enough money had

plant superior,
it
also been spent to instal
is
believed, to that of
mining any other
mine
in the world.
is on a gigantic known, by name at
Everything here
Jacket shaft
is
scale.
The Red
mining engineers all the world over. This was begun in 1889, and for twelve years men worked on it night and day, until a huge well, 4900 feet deep and 14 by 22 J feet in section, had been driven down through
least, to
the
rock and copper-bearing conglomerate. One and a-half million cubic feet of material were removed, with the aid of power drills and dynamite
; 1
" Mineral
Statistics of
Michigan."
230

and the excavation was
compartments.
lined
from top
to
bottom
with pine, besides being divided into six separate
The amount of timber needed for the work was enormous enough to represent the destruction of a large forest. The shaft is so constructed that in case of fire in the mine the men can make their escape through it when all other means of exit are cut off. Two disastrous fires in 1887 showed that it was necessary to make provision for similar accidents in the future. Hence this great work, the magnitude of which will be more fully realised if you consider that five Eiffel Towers piled one on the top of the other would not total in height
:
the depth of the shaft

In addition to the
Red
Jacket, the
Calumet and
Hecla Company can boast no fewer than eleven averaging about a mile in depth. Through them the lode is worked horizontally for a distance of two miles. For hoisting from such depths great speed is
shafts
necessary to avoid undue loss of time.

engines dominate
the
Two huge
Jacket,
up which they whirl the cages at a rate of nearly twenty miles an hour. They form one of the most striking features of the whole plant. "The twin engines the Minong and Siscowit, as also the Mesnard and Pontiac are the finest engines on the mine. The two latter are held in reserve in case of accident and here it might be said that the Calumet and Hecla have duplicated every engine on the mine. 231
top
of
the
Red

Some
of
idea of the size of the engines at the
Jacket shaft
their
may
be gained from the weight of
Red some
main
parts:
Engine
bed,
;
76,100
lbs.;
pedestal bed-plate, 150,722 lbs.

plate,
end-piece for bedlbs.

;
19,466
(steel),
lbs.
cylinder,
lbs."
1
25,500
engine
beam
64,920
all
To
;
ventilate the
mine
huge Guibal
fans, thirty feet in
diameter, pour air

to
down
and
the shafts
day long
is
and
drills
high-pressure air
forced
work pumps down through

Beers mines,
many
miles of piping.
"
As
"
is
;
at the
De
gineers are very fond of
a word which the enand when any improvement in machinery appears they soon adopt it for Consequently, the mining student their own uses. can hardly find a better school in which to learn his trade than the domains of the Calumet and
Kimberley,
Forwards
Hecla.
The
it
ore mined
is
very equal in quality, though

cent, of
contains only three per

of
copper.
Huge
solid metal are not found at extreme But as the vein is in places thirty feet wide, it can be worked economically. Indeed, copper being so extremely tough, the dismemberment of large solid lumps might be even more costly than the reduction of comparatively poor ore. Owing to the perfection of the machinery used, ore containing only a few pounds of metal per ton can be treated
masses
depths.
profitably.
The
levels,
or galleries, are 100 feet apart vertically.

1
Casszer's Magazine.
232

Large gangs
of
miners blast and chip the ore from
the " stopes," or blocks, formed in the vein
by vertical and horizontal channels cut through the vein right

its
across
breadth.
The
u stuff "
;
is
dumped
into cars,
each of which holds three tons

cages in the shafts, and
the cars are run into
soon reach the surface. There the ore passes into a crushing plant, which
no lump has a diameter exceeding and then is despatched to the stamp mills at the Lake's edge. These can each reduce upwards of 500 tons of ore per diem to the size of small marbles. The rubbish is washed out by apparatus somewhat resembling the separators described in connection with the Rand gold mines, and
smashes
six
it
until
inches
the residue goes

since the ore
is
straight
to
the smelting furnace,
singularly free
from those chemical
impurities which in other districts, such as the Rio
Tinto, render copper reduction a very complicated

business.
The
ore
furnaces used are of the reverberatory type.

in a shallow dish-shaped
The
lies
chamber
of fire-
brick, and the flames of the furnace in an adjacent compartment pass over the top of the intervening wall and are deflected down on to the ore by a roof
of very refractory
(i.e.
fireproof) material.
The
slag
and scum is skimmed off, and the molten mass is kept stirred through openings in the sides of the hearth.
When scum
tapping, and
ceases to appear, the copper

is
is
ready for
"
run
off
its
into ingot
moulds.
Lake
"
copper
is
famous
for
high quality.
At the lower
233
The Romance
and
to get rid of this
of Mining
depths the percentage of arsenic in the ore increases,

cally the
unwelcome element economiCalumet and Hecla people send a lot of their

extraordinary successes
stuff to refineries at Buffalo.
Though many
mark the
to the of ore
copper-mining history of Michigan, there have been

equally gigantic failures.
To any one coming

amount
Keweenaw
raised
Peninsula, and seeing the
from hundreds of shafts dotted about here, there, and everywhere, it would appear probable that other shafts sunk in their immediate vicinity must But that such conclusions, sooner or later strike ore. if acted upon, sometimes have unexpected and unpleasing results,
may
tracts
be well illustrated by the case
of a Philadelphian syndicate,
bought up large
made
preparations for
which some years ago of land in the Keweenaw, and a campaign which would take
the wind out of the sails of
some other
of
big concerns.
So confident were the promoters

built the finest
success that,
while their huge shafts were piercing the earth, they
stamp
mill in
Michigan ready for the
ore that would presently pour up from the workings.
They
also
went
to the
expense of a private railroad

;
connecting mine and mill

mill to the Lake.
and dug
for
a canal
from the
But
alas
the
experts
once
had made a
engines
lamentable
miscalculation.
The
winding
puffed and panted, the rock drills bored, dynamite

rent the rock.
colour which would
The miners toiled on, looking for the tell them that their labour had 234

not been in vain.
Thousands
of
tons of useless,
The managers wore a look of increasing anxiety, when the level at which ore should have shown had been passed and still there was no sign. At last the terrible fact could no longer be denied, that tens of thousands of dollars had been flung into the pit beyond hope of
barren
stuff
came up
in the skips.
recovery.
sought
The engines ceased to turn, work elsewhere, and now the
the miners
rust-eaten
machinery and the massive buildings warning against over-confidence.
stand
as
Montana, has been exploited over an area not exceeding two square miles. Yet from this small block comes
district of Butte, in
The copper-bearing
nearly half of the metal mined in the States.
The
and
Anaconda Mine is to Butte what Hecla is to Keweenaw.
the Calumet
Vertical fissures in the granite, varying in breadth
from a few inches to a hundred feet, have been filled by Nature's laboratory work with a compound of silica, iron pyrites, sulphur, and copper. Silver also occurs in the proportion of two to six pounds per ton of ore, and there is a very small percentage of
gold.
Large caverns are dug

timbered on the
u square-set
in
,;
the ore bodies
and
principle used at the
Comstock and at Leadville. Ore is raised in ten-ton skips and sent by rail to the great reduction works at Anaconda, where a huge plant, capable of handling
5000 tons per diem, covers sixty acres.
After being
235
The Romance
of Mining
water,
crushed between huge rollers and washed, the ore

goes to the mechanical roasters, which drive
off
and some sulphur, and leave material fit for the These eliminate more of the impurities, furnaces.
until the residue,
about one-half copper,

rails,
is
ready to
be run into iron tanks carried on

air
transferred to
the converter, and treated by the Bessemer process,
being blown through the liquid copper to drive more sulphur and cause the iron present to combine with the silica which lines the converter. The converter, which swings vertically on two trunnions, or pins, and somewhat resembles a champagne bottle with the top of the neck cut off,
off
is
tipped
over
till
the
charge can
be poured
in
through the narrow mouth

air-blast
is
at the top.
Then
the
Thousands of cubic feet of air rush through the molten metal, and cause a greenish flame to roar from the mouth. The iron with the lining, to form slag, while part combines
turned on.
of the sulphur present passes off as
gas.
sulphurous acid
is
By
the time that the process
complete, and
the slag has been removed,
99 per cent, of what

silver
remains
is
copper.
carried
is
To
separate any gold or

is
by the
first
copper, electricity
into large plates,
used.
The metal
cast
which are immersed
in a
chemical
bath and connected with the one terminal of a strong

electric
which deposits the copper on a second plate, also in the bath, connected with the other terminal of the electric circuit, and allows the 236
circuit,

more precious elements
the tank in the form of
refined.
to
sink to the bottom

is
of
mud, which
is
afterwards
This method of reduction
much more
complex than that which circumstances permit at the Calumet and Hecla though by no means so intricate
;
as
is
the series of operations necessary with
some
other very impure copper ores.
Arizona, the third great copper State, could once,

like
Michigan, boast
many
rich surface deposits
found
in caves in the limestone
consisting of very
beautiful blue
malachite,
cent,
of
and green crystals, called azurite and which contained in some cases 25 per So profitable was the smelting copper.
in spite
industry,
of difficulties in getting a
good
supply of
fuel, that
the smelters did not hesitate to

2
cast aside slag carrying

richer, that
is,
to
3 per cent, of metal
than
much
of the ore to get
which
such enormous shafts are sunk in Michigan.
The
United Verde mine,
mine
in the
at Jerome, is the largest copper world owned by a single person. As it
produces 20,000 tons a year, and as the copper contains enough gold and silver to pay all costs of
extraction,
the
proprietor,
Senator
W.
A.
Clark,
ought to be a wealthy individual.

California,
though so rich
in other minerals,
can
claim but one copper mine of importance, that of

Shasta.
tons.
Her annual production

Tennessee mines about half
is
about
15,000
this quantity.
takes a leading place
Turning to other countries, we find that Mexico as a copper yielder. The
237
The Romance
Boleo deposits
valuable.
in
of Mining
are the
Lower
California
most
Chile has in half a century produced over
2,000,000
tons
but at present
of copper.
its
output tends to
decrease.
Thirty-five years ago Chile furnished half
the world's supply
Japan, on the other
hand,
is
coming
to the front.
The development
Though
of
Japan's natural resources has been as remarkable as
her increase in military power.

gold, and copper have
all
sulphur,
Japs "
were,
been worked by the " gentle from time immemorial, the methods employed
till lately, very primitive. When, in 1853, Japan abandoned her policy of isolation, and gladly welcomed Western ideas, mining at once went ahead.
To-day she produces 30,000 tons of copper, a large proportion of which is exported to China and Korea
for minting purposes.
Japan's great copper district
is
that of Ashio, near

visit
Nikko,
in
Hondo,
its
account of
fine
town which tourists scenery and magnificent

a
on
shrines.
From Nikko the mines may be visited in jinrickshaws. "Tea-houses along the route exhibit beautiful specimens of copper pyrites, which are sold to pilgrims to
the sacred mountain of Nai-tai-san (close by), and the
traveller
is
also notified of his proximity to the copper

streets
mines by the tramcars passing through the
of
Nikko, drawn by slow-moving bullocks, laden with
copper ingots on the down trip and returning with The change from Nikko is complete. fuel. One
leaves a land of peace, with delightful surroundings,
and steps
into the midst of a foul-smelling,
smoke-
238

laden valley, where the bare red
all
hillsides,
denuded
of
vegetation, present a striking contrast to the green
hills of
Nikko, with
the
its
world-famed avenue of cryptovibrates
merias, while
air
with
1
the
clang
of
hammers and the throb of The writer whose words
engines."
are here quoted goes
on
to
it
say that the village of Ashio has flowing through
a stream spanned by numerous bridges of designs so different that the visitor is left with the impression
that the " engineer-in-charge "
must have " put

in the
into
practice
ing."
all
the available literature of bridge design-
Over 10,000 people are employed
industry here, a large
number
of
whom
copper had never
seen the country lying beyond the red encircling

hills
till
the Great
War
gave them the signal to join
the contingents
hurrying to meet the Russians in
Manchuria.
which and their families are treated free of Only men work below ground, their charge. womenfolk finding employment in the sorting and The pay is sevenpence a day, washing of ore. and a small allowance of rice and fuel though the more skilled mechanics earn fifteenpence. Not a very tempting remuneration as judged by western
village has a well-equipped hospital at
The
the
miners
standards
The mines
are entirely
managed and organised by
Yet they are equipped with up-to-date Japanese. machinery and appliances throughout reverberatory
The Engineering Magazine, October
1901.
239

furnaces, electric light, electric cars, a thirty-mile rail-
way, and a three-mile cableway over the mountains for transporting copper ingots and fuel. The ore is
very rich in metal, which averages about 20 per cent.,
so that, with labour as cheap as
it is,
Japanese copper
must prove a formidable competitor to that produced where the percentage is lower and labour much more expensive. Though originally the property of the Japanese Government, the mines are now owned by a single proprietor, who, like Senator Clark, must be well on the road to millionairedom, if he has not
already reached that desired goal.
in
Other famous copper mines are those of Fahlun Sweden, said to have been explored before the
At their most prosperous period they
tons
lead.
Christian era.
yielded
5000
of
of
metal
yearly,
is
besides
large
quantities
Then
there
the
celebrated
Rammelsberg deposit of the Harz Mountains in Germany, which is like an inverted wedge, the thickness of the vein increasing as
it
descends.
It
has
in operation for nearly a thousand years, and at one time produced very abundantly. It was for a long period worked on the " open-cast " system, like the Kimberley mines in their earlier days, but when the depth of working became great, recourse was had to shafts and galleries. A writer thus describes the method of softening and splitting the rock by fire which the German miners employed in the middle
been
of last century.
"
By
a fixed plan, piles of faggots
are
arranged
in
the mine,
and
it
is
usually on
240

Saturday that
floors
all
the
piles
of
faggots distributed
during the week are kindled.

are
first
Those
in the
upper
pile to
burned, and kindled in the upper
ranges at four o'clock in the morning, from

pile,
and very soon the fire unfolds its wings in the metallic vaults, which are filled with vast volumes of smoke and flame. In course of time the ores pass into a shattered and divided condition, which allows them to be afterwards detached by long forks of The combustion goes on without any person iron. entering the mine from Saturday evening to Monday morning, when the fireman and his assistants proceed
to
extinguish
all
the
remains
of
the
bonfires.
On
Tuesday
ores,
hands are employed in detaching the sorting them and taking them out, and pre-
paring
new
piles
of
faggots
against
the
next
Saturday."
The Burra Burra Mine of South Australia was a wonder of the decade preceding the " gold rush." It yielded richly from " open-cast " workings for
nearly thirty
dividends.
It
years,
and paid a million

out.
sterling in
has
now been worked

more than
;
Want
of Bolivia,
this
of space forbids
mere mention
Siberia,
the deposits
of
Canada, Namaqualand,
at
and the Caucasus
but before concluding

the copper industry
chapter
we may glance
of Great Britain, once responsible for half the world's

total
output, but
now shrunk
Isles
fall
To-day the British

annually, a sad
meagre proportions. produce only 650 tons

to
from the 20,000 tons of 1863. 241 Q

and Wales mine most of this scanty quotum though a hundred years ago the Parys Mine, Anglesea, was the chief source of copper. This is how Mr. Richard Warner describes the scene at the Parys Mine in 1799. "This vast natural accumulation of mineral, which measures a mile in length and half a mile over, rises to the south-east of the town [Amlwch], about two miles from it. Its appearance is waste, wild, and barren
Cornwall
;
in the
extreme
not a vestige of green
is
seen on
its
parched and scarified surface, all vegetation being prevented by the sulphurous fumes which arise from
the roasting heaps and smelting-houses and extend
their destructive
effects
for miles
round.
The
open
wonders of cealed by a
to the day.
this
abyss [the open-cast] are not conis
superficial crust of earth, but all
The bowels
of the
is
mountain are
literally
torn out, and the mighty ruin
subjected to the eye.
Standing on the edge of the excavation, the spectator

beholds an awful range of huge caverns, profound
hollows, stupendous arches,
gloomy passages, and

this striking
enormous masses
occupations
of rock.
Amid
scenery
the miners are engaged in their curious but perilous

;
some
sticking 10 the sides of the rock,
or seated on the narrow ledges of precipices, which
gape beneath them to the depth of two or three hundred feet, tearing the ore from the mountain, and
breaking
it
into
smaller masses
it,
others boring the

a third party are
rock in order to blast

literally
whilst
hanging over the abyss below them, drawing 242

up and lowering down the ore-buckets, supported only by a frame of woodwork, which quivers like an aspen leaf with the operation carrying on upon it. Ever and anon we heard loud explosions rattling through 'the dark profound/ occasioned by the discharge of the gunpowder, and in separating the ore from the mountain. The reports varied, increased, and multiplied amongst the passages and caverns of
the abyss, and, united with the scene of rocky ruin
below
of
all
us, excited the idea of the final
consummation
of
things."
This huge deposit, whence
5000 tons
copper
were once got annually, has
now been
so exhausted
that Anglesea yields only 27 tons a year,
and that
amount
is
extracted from the water flowing out of
the old workings.
One
striking
feature
of
copper
mining
is
that,
though the metal is widely distributed, and mined in most countries, a very large part of the world's total output comes from but a few mines. These the Calumet and Hecla, the Anaconda, and the Rio
Tinto
eight
and Boston and Montana, United Verde, Mansfeld, Copper Queen, and Tharsis
for 28 per cent.
between them account mentioned

those
plus the
for 50
per cent.
The
Engineering Magazine thus

:
sums up the question of future supplies of copper " The dominating position taken by the United
States
of
among
the contributors to the world's supply
copper has already been commented on. The immense activity of the Americans, added to their
243
The Romance
of
Minin g
initiation
mechanical genius, has led to the

history of mining.
by them
for
of a scale of operations hitherto unprecedented in the

But,
if
the increasing
demand
will
copper continues, present sources of supply
be
be
insufficient, unless
still
production at
soon the big mines can
It is doubtful, however, whether the production of mines like the Anaconda and the Rio Tinto can be very largely increased.
further stimulated.
And
is
there
is
another side to the question that must
not be
lost sight of
the
more
it
rapidly an ore-deposit
exploited, the sooner
will
be exhausted.
It is
true that there are
immense
reserves of copper ore at
Lake Superior, assuming that the beds can be profitably worked down to a vertical depth of 6000 to 7000 feet but it seems likely that even this source of supply will fail to cope with the increased demands of the early part of next century, and three or four decades will probably see it exhausted. We are bound to assume, therefore, that unless new and abundant sources for the metal are opened up in the early part of next century [the twentieth], or some substitute is found for it in the electrical industry, there is no prospect
;
of
copper being over-produced."

1
April 1900.
244
CHAPTER XV
QUICKSILVER MINING
Characteristics of quicksilver
history
uses CinnabarAlmaden early Dangers of quicksilver mining Poisoning company New Almaden discovery success of Separation of metal from ore Description of the mine The miner The carrier Sorting the ore Injuries to health Mexican mining superstition Figures relating to New Almaden.
Its Its
The
workings
Its
111
first
PECULIAR characteristic of quicksilver, or mercury, distinguishing it from other metals, is its extremely low melting-point, which is 38 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit. At ordinary temperatures it is always liquid, and on account of the consistency of its rate
of expansion
when
heated,
it
is
invaluable in ther-
mometers, excepting in such instruments as are called upon to register extreme cold, for which alcohol is
used instead.
As
ing,
its
melting-point
is
is
low,
its
boiling, or vaporis-
temperature
comparatively low also
to be
exact, 675.1 degrees Fahrenheit.
This property, in
conjunction with a readiness to combine with gold
and
silver,
makes mercury play so important a part
We have already on gold and silver mining, how it is spread in sluices, vats, and patios to seize upon finely divided gold or silver and form an
in the refining of precious metals.
noticed, in our chapters
245

amalgam with
metal
is
it,
out of which the
more
volatile
easily driven
caught
in
by the action of heat, to be cooling chambers and condensed back to

is
liquidity.
Apart from metallurgy, quicksilver

the
valuable to
:
maker
of
many
scientific
instruments
to
the
electrician,
to
the paint
manufacturer, and to the
doctor,
ful
who
finds
compounds
of
joints.
in
the treatment
mercury most usecertain skin diseases and

of
inflammation of the
Mercury has a high specific gravity. Only gold, platinum, and iridium, among the better known It weighs, bulk for bulk, more metals, are heavier. than a third as much again as silver, and is nearly double as heavy as iron so that an iron bar would Another float like a cork in a tank of mercury. feature is its freedom from oxidisation on exposure
;
to the air.
Mercury occurs naturally as

cinnabar, a red substance which
paratively
California,
a
is
sulphide
called
few parts of
Russia,
Italy,
the
world Spain, Illyria, and Mexico. The best
found
in
com-
quality of cinnabar contains about 86 per cent, of
mercury
to
14 per cent, of sulphur.

that of
The
almost
oldest
is
the world
and most famous quicksilver mine in Almaden, in the Sierra Morena,
at the meeting point of the provinces of Ciudad Real, Badajoz, and Cordova. The railway from Madrid to Cordova passes through the town, which has a population of about 10,000 people, 246
Quicksilver Mining
almost
mines.
11
all
connected directly or indirectly with the

is
The word Almaden
Arabic,
signifying
The Mine of Quicksilver." Ever since the time the Romans, who called the place Cisapona, iUmaden has been renowned for this metal, which
of
is
mentioned by Theophrastus, Vitruvius, and Pliny.

last
The
writer tells us, in his u Natural History/'
mine was sealed with the greatest care, and was only opened to take out the quantity of cinnabar necessary for the consumption of Rome, where it apparently served as a rouge for fashionable matrons and a pigment for painters. The Moors did not work the mine but after their departure it was reopened, and in the seventeenth century two Germans, Mark and Christopher Fuggar undersoftened by the Spaniards into Fucares took to work the mine and give the Government 450,000 pounds of metal yearly in return for the mining rights. After some years of working they professed to be unable to pay the royalty on account of the exhaustion of the deposits, and withdrew in 1635, though not before they had amassed suffithat the
;
cient riches to
make
their
names synonymous with
branch of the family took over the mine and worked it for ten years, when it passed
millionairedom.
again
into
the
manager,
furnaces,
Don
;
hands of the Government. Their Juan Bustamente, established twelve

after the twelve apostles, for reduc-
named
ing the ore
but on his being unable to

locality
make
the
mine pay the
was explored
for other deposits,
247

and
this led to
the discovery of the
extraordinary
Until
formation that has been worked ever since.

the deposits of
Almaden, in California, came to light in 1845, * ne Spanish mine was without a rival, and even now holds its own. To the world's total
tributed
New
output of 3775 metric tons in 1899 Almaden con1357 tons, or more than one-third.
There are three veins at Almaden, named the San the San Francisco, and the San Diego, running, as a rule, nearly parallel to one another, though they converge and meet at intervals. The principal vein is 25 feet in thickness, and though mined to a great depth, its richness and quantity seem to increase. The town lies over the mine, which is entered by an adit or tunnel. Deep shafts penetrate into the bowels of the earth, ladders reaching from stage to
Nicolas,
stage.
The pumping out

installed
its
of water, fortunately not
a serious item here,
machinery
a marvel of
was for years performed by by Watt in 1790, and accounted
day.
The
of
shafts,
mineral, hacked out of the veins by hundreds
is hoisted up perpendicular and the metal is separated from its ore by distillation. The mercury is then poured into iron flasks containing 76 J pounds each, and the iron corks are screwed down very tightly by machinery, so that there may be no tampering with the contents. Though the mine is very well organised many of the galleries being arched over with masonry as 248
semi-nude workmen,
Quicksilver Mining
a protection against
falls
the workers
have a
far
from pleasant
task to perform,
on account
of the in-
jurious effects of mercury on the
human
constitution.
in the Almaden Mine is so unhealthy that up end of the eighteenth century only criminals were employed as miners there. " Almaden/' says M. Simonin, 1 " was the site of a presidio, or house of correction, and a gallery ran from the prison to the mine. Now the workmen, numbering some 4000 to 5000, are all freemen, attracted from all parts of Spain, and even from Portugal, by grants of land and immunity from certain civic duties, as the mine 2 is a Government concern. The miners are divided into three watches, each of which works about six
Work
to the
hours out of the twenty-four, the

ten o'clock at night
till
rest
being from
four o'clock in the morning."

in extracting this
" The health of the
men employed
most unwholesome mineral" (we quote here Captain S. E. Widdrington's "Spain and the Spaniards") "varies very much, but on the whole they are very seriously affected by the exhalations and the heat of the lower workings. This may easily be imagined when it is stated that at the lowest part to which we descended the quicksilver was running down the walls, and the heat was considerable, whilst the ventilation was naturally extremely deficient. Both Doctor Daubeny and
myself sensibly
1
2
felt
the effect even in the short time
" Underground
Life."
a very valuable asset, one of the few real sources of income which the Government possesses. About ^"250,000 worth of metal is raised annually, and of this about ^160,000 is clear profit.
And
249
The Romance
we passed
there,
of Mining
and I distinctly perceived the coppery taste of the mercury on the palate how much more must the labourers be affected who are working hard, are heated, and almost naked After the winter's work most of them are seriously altered in health and appearance, but the effect of their native air soon restores them, and in most instances they return again. Everything depends on care and
;
1
attention to diet
those
who
live
freely,
fall
especially
those
who
indulge in wine, rapidly
victims to the
disorders generated by the pernicious mineral, whilst
those
who
are attentive in cleansing their persons

live
immediately after leaving work and
temperately,
using a good deal of milk, attain the usual age of
man
in
that
country.
Some
instances of
men
of
upwards of seventy were pointed out who had worked all their lives in the mine, and were hale and strong, but these are rare examples." M. Simonin 1 draws a rather darker picture. He says that few of the miners escape the effects of mercury. They become emaciated and wan, their " salivated," and their teeth fall out, causing gums are
all
the digestive troubles connected with defective
mastication.
They Even
are subject to
tremblings and
convulsions, and finally die of consumption or be-
come
is
idiotic.
the vegetable
life
of the district
by the mercury fumes, and the immediate neighbourhood is as sterile as the environs of the Rio Tinto.
affected
1
" Underground
Life," p. 463.
250
Quicksilver Mining
The New Almaden mines
from San
of
are situated fifteen miles
Jos6, in California.
The
first
discoverers
the
cinnabar
that,
deposits
were the
Indians,
found
when mixed
with grease, cinnabar
who made
a very effective red paint for the decoration of their
persons. 1
Castillero,
In 1845 a Mexican cavalry officer,
named
met
a tribe of Indians
painted with
cinnabar
paint.
2
and
vermilion
offered
whose
faces were
the pigment
made from
reveal the spot
them a reward if they would from which they had obtained their
the place, he
When shown
satisfied
experimented,
of
and being
that there
was a rich vein

claim
in
the mineral, he registered a
accordance
with the requirements of Mexican law, and
communicated the news to a brother, who managed to raise enough money to form a syndicate for exploiting the mine. The first company, finding that the process of raising ore and extracting the metal was very expensive, gave up independent operations at the end of a year, and leased their rights to a second company, stipulating that they should receive onefourth of the proceeds.
Eventually,
all
the original
shareholders were bought out by their successors,

man's an Indian puts on his full war paint, he decks himself not only with his own individual honours and distinctions, but also with the special honours of his family or tribe. Much interesting information on this subject will be found in Pearson's Magazine, December 1900. 2 The aborigines had worked a tunnel fifty or sixty feet into the mountain side with sticks and stone hatchets. Among the debris at the end of the tunnel were found a number of skeletons, the remains of diggers who had probably been crushed by a caving-in of the roof.
paintings of an Indian's face correspond to the white
crests.
1
The
When
25*
The Romance
who
in
of Mining
above
their receipts.
1850 had already spent .80,000 over and Fortunately, in that year an
employe discovered a process of smelting the ore which greatly reduced the expense of extraction. An ore chamber, having two sides built of perforated bricks, is filled with cinnabar, and a fire is lighted in a compartment adjacent to one of these
sides.
The
flames, passing through the ore, vaporise

is
the mercury, which
carried along with the pro-
ducts of combustion through the other perforated

wall into a
partitions
series
of
condensation
are
chambers, the
open alternately at between which the top and bottom, and is condensed into metal. Any vapour that escapes the last condensing chamber passes over a cistern of cold water and through a spray of water. The metal runs to the lower end of each chamber, and thence through a small pipe into a trough extending to a large circular vat, from which it is drawn off into flasks. The entrance to the mine is at the top of a steep hill, through a tunnel ten feet wide and ten feet high, which has been driven more than 1000 feet through solid rock to meet the main shaft. Along this runs a railway for cars, into which the ore is dumped as fast as the tenateros or ore-carriers, can This entry saves the bring it up in bags of hide. labour, for, until it was carriers a great amount of made, every ounce of material, including useless rock, had to be transported an extra 150 feet perpendicularly to the top of the main shaft. 252
y
Quicksilver Mining
At the end of the tunnel
every
to his
is
a shrine, at
which
workman pays
round
his devotions before descending
of labours.
"
You descend
a perpendi-
cular ladder, formed by notches cut into a solid log,
perhaps twelve feet

corner,
then turn and pass a narrow

gulf
where a
frightful
seems yawning
to
Carefully threading your way over the very narrowest of footholds, you turn into another passage black as night, to descend into a flight of steps formed in the side of the cave, tread over some
receive you.
loose
stones,
turn round, step
over arches,
into another passage that leads into

intricate
down many dark and

;
and descendings, or chambers supported by but a column of earth now stepping this way, then that, twisting and turning, all tending down, down to where, through the darkness of midnight, one can discern the faint glimmer which it We were seems impossible one can ever reach. shown a map giving the subterranean geography of this mine and truly, the crossings and re-crossings, the windings and intricacies of the labyrinthine passages, could only be compared to the streets of a
windings
;
dense
city,
while nothing short of the clue furnished
Theseus by Ariadne would ensure the safe return into day of the unfortunate pilgrim who should enter
without a guide.
"The miners have named

after their saints,
the different passages
do the
streets
names
of all
and run them off as readily as we and after exhausting the the saints in the calendar, have comof a city,
253

menced on
and number
different animals,
one
of
which
is
not
inaptly called
El
sixty
Elephante.
of these passages
Some idea of the extent may be formed when

by the Another turn
we state that workmen in

brings us
pounds
of candles are used
the twenty-four hours.

at
upon some men

drilling into the
work.
One
stands
upon a and he
single plank placed high

is
above us in an arch,
It
rock above him for the

appears
purpose of placing a charge of powder.

very dangerous, yet
ever been
lost,
we
are told that no lives have
and no more serious accidents have
occurred than the bruising of a hand or limb, from

carelessness in blasting.
How
he can maintain
while with
his
equilibrium
is
a mystery to
us,
every
and he gives utterance to a sound something between a grunt and a groan, which is supposed by them to Some six or eight men workfacilitate their labour. ing in one spot, each keeping up his agonising sound,
thrust of the drill his strong chest heaves,
awaken a keen sympathy.

"
We
step aside to allow another set of labourers
up and up, from almost interminable depths, each one as he passes panting, puffing, and wheezing, like a high-pressure steamboat, as with straining nerve and quivering muscle he staggers under the load, which nearly bends him These are the tenateros, carrying the ore double. from the mine to deposit it in the cars and, like the miners, they are burdened with no superfluous clothing. A shirt and trousers, or the trousers
to pass.
;
;
There they come
254
Quicksilver Mining
without the
shirt, a pair of
leathern sandals fastened
at the ankle,
with a
felt
cap, or the
1
crown
of
an old
hat,
complete their costume."

tenatero
must be a strong fellow, for his load weighs up to 200 lbs., and he makes 40 to 50 journeys a day. He has learnt the proper method of carrying a load, viz., by a broad band passing round the forehead. The African natives and Tibetan tea-carriers adopt the same system of distributing the pressure over the muscles of the neck and back. For this hard labour he receives three dollars a day. The miner is paid. by results, and the gang to which he belongs takes care that he keeps hard at work. 2
The
When
the ore has reached the surface
it is
spread in
a yard,
where labourers sort it over and break it up, separating refuse from the ore. The good stuff is then carefully weighed and loaded on mules three hundred pounds to each animal for transport to the
furnaces.
In former times the cinnabar ore

injury to health.
caused
little
But
at the
depths
now
reached,
where the ore

workings, the
is
so rich that beads of metal as large

sides
of the
is
as a pea can be seen clinging to the

air
of
the
labores,
or stopes,
so
saturated with quicksilver vapour that, in spite of
good
1
ventilation, the
men
is
suffer a great deal
from
metal poisoning.
by James M. Hutchings.
2
This
partly due to the heat of Wonder

in California,"
Mrs. S. A. Downer; quoted from "Scenes of
When
a vein
is
broad and easily worked a miner makes
to
^10
a week.
255
The Romance
leads the miners to use very
of Mining
clothing, so that
the workings, which causes profuse perspiration, and

little
the vapour has direct access to the skin.
The
is
effects
are aggravated by the sudden changes from heat to

cold, against
which
is
little
or no precaution
taken
by the ignorant Mexicans.
More deadly even than
hewing the ore

furnaces.
to
the drawing of refuse from the

in this business are obliged
Men employed
knock off after three weeks of work, and to take a Horses and mules also die from the effects of mercury poisoning. It is remarkable that, while the Mexican recovers rapidly from wounds received in the frequent quarrels indulged in by the hot-headed natives, or from accidental injuries, he soon succumbs to constitutional troubles such as pneumonia and consumption. 1 Mrs. Alec Tweedie draws attention to the Mexican
rest.
miners' prejudice against the presence of

the mines.
women
in
Should a lady visitor inspect the workings, and any mishap subsequently occur, such as the ending of a vein, or a fall of rock, it is at once laid at the door of the woman, who must have been the Managers are therefore very Devil in disguise
!
chary of allowing the fairer sex within their precincts,

lest their
employes should take
fright
and keep away
for a
visitation
day or two till the evil effects of the Satanic might be considered to have evaporated.
estate acres.
of
The
7800
the
New Almaden
no doubt
saw
it."
Co.
still
covers
Huge
1
deposits
as I
remain
" Mexico
256
Quicksilver Mining
1850-67 this mine yielded 35,333,586 pounds of metal; and is still prolific enough to supply all the needs of New World miners, while leaving a good margin for export to China and Japan. In 1902 the value of the mercury raised from New Almaden and New Idria was about and the weight 1195 tons. 1,500,000 dollars
untouched.
In the years
;
2 $7
CHAPTER XVI
THE TIN MINES OF CORNWALL
Cornwall Its place in history Phoenician tin merchants The chief groups of mines Nature of ore-seams The Cornish miner Mining Carclaze mine Botallack submarine mine A storm overhead feats The Wheal Wherry Mine A persevering miner Carbonas
Wheal Vor mine

Getting out the
tin
Tin
Patience rewarded at Old CrinnisDolcoath ore The man-engine Treatment of ore Uses of
communication has been Duchy of Corn-
statistics.
Of
late years, since railway
extended and expedited, the isolated

wall has
become
of
a favourite resort for holiday-makers,
on account
its
bold, rocky coasts,
and the bright
hues of the sea that washes them. A century ago the westernmost county of England was less visited
by Englishmen than many foreign countries since a journey to the rough promontory projecting far
;
into the Atlantic involved

trip
more
difficulties
than a
acces-
to
Rome.
of
While
many
other
still
more
sible portions
our coast were
unhackneyed,
unspoiled by hordes of invading trippers, there was

little
to attract folk across the
Tamar
into the land of
saints, pasties,
cromlechs and mines.
an unimportant part It was to Cornwall that the first in English history. voyagers of which we have record the Phoenicians 258
Not
that Cornwall has played
The Tin Mines of Cornwall

the British
In Cornwall and desperate resistance to William the Conqueror conthe Saxon invaders. sidered the district sufficiently important to form a
to barter their wares for tin.
came
made
a long
handsome present
.Mortain
;
to
his
its
half-brother, riches
Robert
of
and, owing to
III.
and development,
Edward
Wales,
created Cornwall a Duchy, which, since

its
his time, has yielded

or,
revenues to the Prince of
failing
Civil
Prince, to the
the
Crown
direct.
During the
War
Duchy
naturally declared
in several
for the King,
and the Cornishmen engaged

us,
fights with success.
As
torical
far
back as records take

is
mining has been
the great industry of Cornwall.
mention of our islands

tin
The earliest hismade by Herodotus

if
in
connection with Cornish
mining,
indeed the
Cassiterides to
the Cornish coast
which he alludes be the islands dotting and there seems little reason to doubt that they are. Diodorus Siculus, a Greek his-
torian of the century preceding the Christian
era,
writes
more
explicitly
"
The
inhabitants
of
that
extremity of Britain, called Bolerion, excel in hospitality,
and, through
their
intercourse
with
foreign
manner. They prepare tin, working the earth which yields it with great The ground is rocky, but has earthy veins, skill.
traders, live in a civilised
the contents of which are brought down, melted, and

purified.
After casting this into the

it
form
of cubes,
they carry
called Iktis.
to a certain
island adjoining Britain,

of the tide the space
During the ebb
259

intervening
is
left
dry,
and
they transport
large
quantities of tin to this place [probably St. Michael's
Mount]
in their carts.
tin
From
natives,
hence, then, the
and carry it into Gaul, and at last, after travelling through Gaul on foot for about thirty days, they bring their burdens on horseback to the mouth of the River Rhone."
merchants buy
Besides
tin,
from the
Cornwall has for ages yielded copper,
manganese, and But the copper and tin mines are undoubtedly the most interesting features of the These two metals are sometimes found county. together in the same seam, either intermingled or in strata, as it were though, as a rule, the lodes are worked definitely for one metal only. The chief groups of mines are as follows: (i) that of St. Austell, mostly tin-bearing, including the famous Carclaze mine (2) that of St. Agnes, also stannigranite, slate, lead, iron, antimony,
china
clay.
ferous
(3)
the
the
Redruth,
mostly
copper-bearing,
Gwennap, Tresavean, Dolcoath, and United mines are the most notable (4) the Marazion and Helston, including the Wheal Vor, Loe Pool, and Wheal Wherry tin mines (5) the St. Just The Botallack and St. Ives, mostly tin-bearing. mine is the best known of this group. Tin and copper are found in seams occupying faults in the granite and slate, the general direction of the lodes lying east and west. The veins vary in
;
;
among which
breadth from the thickness of a sheet of paper to
many
feet,
and the ore
is
sometimes
finely dissemi-
260
The Tin Mines

masses.
of Cornwall
combination
;
nated, and sometimes occurs in " bunches," or large
Copper
is
found
in
with
sulphur, as a sulphuret or bi-sulphuret
combination with oxygen, as an oxide. The tin seams were at some period largely disintegrated by the action of water, and their upper portions were washed down and deposited in the valleys to form the alluvial strata from which " stream " tin has been won in large quantities by a process much resembling The the extraction of gold from surface " placers." earliest tin mining was mostly " stream " work. The Cornish miner is famous for his intelligence and resourcefulness. In all parts of the world where
tin in
deep mining
bility are
is
conducted, posts of great responsi-
entrusted to the Cornishman, who, by both

to
any and courage. As we have already noticed, Cornish copper mining has fallen on evil times, and though the tin mines
ancestry
and training, is fitted mining problem which requires
undertake
skill
still
yield
5000 tons
of
metal a year,
it
is
to
the
Straits
Settlements that
tin.
the world looks for most
Perak now exports annually the huge total of 46,000 tons, smelted from the ore of extensive stream works. As a consequence, Cornish miners have
of
its
been obliged to emigrate in large numbers to seek a livelihood where their presence will be welcomed by
the exploiters of virgin metal deposits
;
and many a
Cornish
its
village,
once tuneful with the part-songs of
inhabitants,
It
is unpeopled, and crumbles to ruin. must not be imagined, however, that Cornish 261
The Romance
mining
still
is
of Mining
Many
properties are
a profit.
a thing of the past.

at
being steadily worked

of great feats to
Even were
the country utterly deserted, there would remain the
which allusion must here be made. We should remember that Cornwall can boast some of the deepest and most extensive mines in the British Isles, and the early introduction of steam power to help drain the workings. Then there are the great drainage tunnels of Dolcoath and Gwennap, which rank high as engineering achievements. The Gwennap adit, emptying into the Carnon valley a little above the high-water mark, was begun in 1748 by the manager of the Poldice mine, and
gradually extended in
all
romance
directions until
its
branches
drained
fifty
branch alone
mines
in the parish of
that running to
Gwennap. One the Cardrew mine is
5 J miles in length, and the aggregate of the excavations, which drain an area of over 5000 acres, reaches
Think what labour must have been expended in driving these tunnels through solid rock without the aid of the power-drills and other modern appliances which the miner now has to help him The feat even eclipses the making of the Nent
nearly forty miles.
!
Force Level, draining the Alston Moor mines, Cumberland, though this last is three miles long, and
large
enough
for boats to pass through.
As
ore.
in the
case of the great Sutro adit, the drainage tunnels of
Cornwall can be used for the transport of
The
largest " open-cast " tin
mine
of the county
is
that at Carclaze, near
St. Austell.
"
The enormous
262
The Tin Mines
of Cornwall
open-work of Carclaze," says Professor Sedgwick/ " is an object of no ordinary interest. The traveller may there see the operations of the miner carried on in the light of day, without being compelled to descend a hundred fathoms below the surface of the earth, and then to crawl into a dirty dripping cavern." The ore deposit has been worked for nearly 500 years by generations of miners, who have scooped in the hills a huge bowl-shaped cavity, measuring a mile or more in circuit. Fifty years ago its dimensions were 1500 feet in length, 500 feet in width, and
in places
130
feet in depth.2
From
as
this great
excava-
tion over a million tons of ore
have been removed,
yielding tin worth
more than
its
"
It
is
indeed a remarkable object

white
many pounds sterling." when viewed in

cliff-sides
the whole, taking in
of pointed
its
abruptness,
its
self-contained completeness,
ever-
widening extent, and the suddenness with which the
whole is presented in one view to the stranger, with its men, women, and children scattered over the works. The ground which is laid open here is almost wholly composed of soft growan (decomposed granite), through which runs a numerous assemblage of schorl and quartz lodes in the usual direction.
These, as they contain
tin,
are the sole objects of
mining adventure, and the removal of the soft growan is effected by a stream of water, which conveys all
the refuse of the mine through the adit.
1
believe
"Cambridge
Philosophical Transactions."
its
Vide "Cornwall:
Mines and Miners,"
to
which book the author
is
indebted for
much
of his information.
263

is no other instance of a mine so worked, or of mine the working of which is attended by so little labour.'' * We should add that much of the glory of
there
a
Carclaze has
now
passed away.
is
Another famous mine
that of Botallack, situated
on
the " big toe " of Cornwall, not far
from
St. Just.
Though copper forms

also are
at the
the chief yield, tin and iron

its
brought up from
cliff,
depths.
The entrance
is
edge of a
from which a
sea.
shaft runs obliquely
through the
levels
killas,
or clay-slate, to a depth of 240
fathoms beneath the
At
many
points horizontal
Origi-
have been driven in pursuit of the ore.

it
nally a perpendicular shaft
used, but as
180 fathoms deep was grew deeper the levels had to be driven farther and farther through barren ground to The proprietors therefore the submarine deposits.
decided to cut the diagonal shaft,
six
feet
square,
through the
killas,
into the heart of the lode.
The
expense was great, but at that time large amounts of

In Little Bounds and Wheal Cock, neighbours of the Botallack, the miners have worked upward so near to the sea bottom that only a few feet of rock separate the salt water from the galleries. During a storm the rolling of pebbles and thunder of the waves can be heard disM I was once in Wheal Cock," says Mr. tinctly. W. ]. Henwood, "during a storm. At the extremity of the level seaward, some eighty or one hundred fathoms from the shore, little could be heard of its
ore were being brought to bank.
"Cornwall:
its
Mines and Miners."
264

effects
except at intervals,
when
the reflux of
some
unusually large wave projected a pebble outward,
bounding and
rolling over the rocky bottom.

cliff,
when
standing beneath the base of the
But and in
mine where but nine feet of rock stood between us and the ocean, the heavy roll of
that part of the
the
large
boulders,
the
ceaseless
grinding
of the
pebbles, the fierce thunderings of the billows, with
the crackling and boiling as they rebounded, placed a
tempest in
its
most appalling form too
vividly before
me
ever to be forgotten.
More than once doubting
the protection of our working shield,
we
retreated in
affright, and it was only after repeated trials that we had confidence to pursue our investigations." If we admire the courage of men who are
content to labour
destruction,
within
so
small
distance
of
what can be said of the adventurer who dared to sink a shaft from a point on the shore which was covered at high water! In Mount's Bay, near Penzance, were found, 140 years ago, some veins of ore crossing the Elvan Rocks. Miners excavated the outcrop during low tide, and even sank shafts to a small depth, protecting the tops by some method not recorded. In 1778 a miner named
Thomas
erect
tide
Curtis decided to
make
a bold attempt to
at
permanent works over a spot where

the water
is
spring
nineteen feet deep.
His capital
being only a few pounds, he had to execute the initial work single-handed, taking advantage of low
tide to
add a
little
more
to the
wooden tower which
265

very slowly rose twenty feet above the
rocks,
to
which
was attached by means of stout iron stays. The joints between wood and rock were plugged with tarred oakum. The building of the tower and the sinking of a pump shaft occupied three summers. When this part of the work was completed, a platform was affixed to the tower's top, pumps were erected, and excavation for ore began. Curtis and his fellows he had now got help soon became aware that the rocks were fissured, and let in salt water, and that during a storm the tower leaked. Nothing
it
daunted, the miners plugged the roof of their level

with clay, and supported
it
with beams
it
found that during the winter

work, owing to the
though they was impossible to

:
difficulty of
landing the ore in

they
rough weather.
In the
summer months
made
the best of their time, and drove a large level under the sea within a few feet of the surface, working eight
hours a day.
out every
tide,
Thirty sacks of tin ore were brought

a quantity which yielded about one
Curtis
ton of metal.
had struck a very rich lode, as indeed he deserved to do after his plucky fight with difficulties, and in course of time he made his fortune. Ore to the value of -70,000 was raised, An and then, one day, ruin overtook the mine. American vessel anchored in the bay broke loose and collided with the wooden tower, which was smashed
in,
giving the
(or
water free access to

as the
the workings.
called,
Wheal
Huel x ) Wherry,
1
mine was
Huel, or wheal, means
hole, or pit.
266
The Tin Mines

lay
ot
;
Cornwall
then a company
abandoned
Curtis's
to
for
many
years
installed expensive
on
machinery and essayed to carry But what that simple miner work.
managed
they
do
to
make money out
of his venture
failed to effect,
and the mine soon became

its
derelict again.
Cornwall
rich ore.
is
not without
bonanzas,
or
rather
carbonas, as the
It is
Cornishmen name
large deposits of
supposed that the word carbona is connected with the Aramaic word Korban, " a treasury."
We
know
that for a long period in early tin-mining
history,
Jews held and worked the Cornish mines as securities for money advanced to the then Dukes
of
Cornwall,
and
that
they
locally
left
behind the rude

" Jew's
furnaces,
now known
as
houses."
We
probably have in this word another

greatest carbonas of Cornwall
relic of
the
Jewish occupation.
The
were found
in
the St. Ives Consols' mines at depths varying from
Here huge bodies of ore were feet. and their removal has left caverns 60 to 70 feet high and as many wide, in their way as remarkable as the Big Bonanza of the Comstock, or the huge copper masses of the Lake Superior district.
210 to 642
struck,
at
Other unusually rich lodes put in an appearance Wheal Vor, near Helston. At one time the lode
to
seemed
failed.
have given out, as
all
efforts to trace
it
One
old miner thought, however, that the
cuts were being driven in the
wrong
direction,
and
asked to be allowed to explore on his
own
account.
267

His judgment was correct, and soon he had broached
a vein
ioo
feet
broad
in places,
which yielded so
old
much
its
ore that special plant had to be installed for
reduction.
Beaglehole
credit
History does not say whether
that
was the miner's name
got due
for
his
persistence.
He
certainly
deserved
well at the hands of the
company which he thus

of
saved from insolvency.
Another example of the reward

can be given
mine,
near
considered
to
in
St.
perseverance
connection with the Old Crinnis

Austell.
In
1808
this
mine was
be
as
it
" adventurers,"
worked out, but a party of mining exploiters are called in
Cornwall, took
over for better or worse.

all
When
they got no return for their money,

turers
the adven-
except one, a
Mr. Rowe, retired from the

stuck to his colours, and tried
venture.
Mr.
Rowe
for ore in another part of the " sett," or property,
with the result that at a depth of 60 feet he
came upon an extremely rich vein, which in 41 years left him with .168,000 in his pocket. On learning
of his prosperity, the other partners,, at
once claimed
refused to
a share in the spoil, and

let
when Mr. Rowe
them
participate in the
his
entirely
prise,
due to they went

could
private expenditure
It
is
good fortune which was and entersatisfactory
to law with him.
to learn that the verdict
was given against them.

list
We
mining
give
a long
of
similar
turns of
all
Fortune's wheel, which revolves pretty freely in

districts.
But, as space forbids,
we must
268
The Tin Mines

of the
of Cornwall
pass at once to a short consideration of the working
mines and treatment of the ore. Generally Cornish seams are explored by the of shafts, drives, cross-cuts and winzes, which system has already been described in our chapter on the
speaking, the
Rand mines.
where
the
galleries
total
typical
mine
is
that of Dolcoath,
the shafts sink to a depth of 2500 feet,
and run east and west for half a mile or more,

of
the shafts,
nearly 30
miles.
galleries, &c., aggregating Half of the excavations have been
driven through granite.
some
in
curious
changes.
Dolcoath history records Until a depth of 130

the veins
fathoms
had
been
reached,
were rich
The next 30 fathoms proved so poor that it looked as if the mine was exhausted. Then tin appeared, and the lode became increasingly rich in
copper.
tin to the
420 fathom
level,
life.
giving the property a

"
fresh lease of financial
Cornishmen
of
employ the
gallery
is
underhand
"
method
a
per-
stoping.
A
of
driven above and below
the
block
ore
is
to
be
cut
removed,
to
and
angles
pendicular
winze
join
at
the
two.
miners
then
begin
hacking
the
The made
by the top of the winze and the upper gallery, and remove the ore on both sides in a series of steps, sufficiently steep to allow the material to roll by
gravity through
the winze into
the lower gallery,
where
shaft.
it is
caught in trucks, to be transported to the
parallel
Meanwhile the other winzes have been made to the first, and other gangs of workmen hew 269
The Romance
of Mining
may be comand the
out the intervening " stopes," which

of
pared to the panes of a window, the horizontal bars
which would represent the
galleries,
upright bars the winzes.

is left
Eventually a great cavity
where once the ore was, and it becomes neceskeep the sides from caving-in by stout timbers, and also to leave floors at intervals to catch any falling masses. The labour of descending, and still more of ascending, the footway of a 2000-foot mine is very Imagine that you have to exhausting to the miners. climb hand over hand up a series of ladders fixed one above the other to a height five times that of St. Paul's Cathedral, and that perhaps this has to be
sary
to
done twice a day,
to
say nothing of the descent.
Then perhaps you will be able to understand why the man-engine now generally used in Cornish mines The first manis so welcome to the labourers. was " made in Germany," at one of the Harz engine
Mountain mines, in 1833, as the result of an accident It happened that the on the ladders then used. drainage of this particular mine had just been completed by means of an adit, which threw the pumps An ingenious miner saw a new use out of work. Why not attach steps to the one for the idle tackle. pump rod at intervals, and corresponding steps at equal intervals on the sides of the other rod, with proper hand-holds ? Then, by stepping from the one to the other at the end of a stroke, a miner would be transported up or down the distance of the 270

next stroke, and, by a succession of changes, finally
reach the top or bottom, as the case might be.
An
experimental apparatus, 600 feet high, was rigged up,
and
soon
it
in
proved so successful that man-engines were Nine years later use in many Harz mines.
At the instigainstalled a
the idea was imported into England.

the Tresavean
tion of the Royal Polytechnic Society of Cornwall,
the
proprietors
of
mine
man-engine.
Soon afterwards, 391
of the Tresavean
miners put their signatures to a

Society for the
so
letter
thanking the
new apparatus which spared them
and weariness. Other mines followed suit, and now the man-engine is a recognised item of Cornish mine equipment. The single-rod engine is most commonly used, as
toil
much
being
case,
shaft.
safer,
even
if
slower, than the double.

is
In this
one
set of stages
attached to the sides of the

feet,
the miner can ascend
and on a "single-rod" 1800 feet in half-an-hour, as against one hour consumed in climbing ladders.
stroke
is
The
12
The
at
cost of
working has been reckoned
at three half-
pence per
man
per day, and the value of time saved
from sixpence to ninepence per man. So that humaneness has brought its own reward. The
cage-and-rope transport used in the coal mines does not appeal to the Cornishman, who sticks
ordinary
to his engine.
The men
are so skilful in stepping off

that fewer accidents
and on the moving platforms

used.
are due to the engines than to the ladders formerly
271

Good Cornish
black oxide of
ore yields about 6 per cent, of the
tin,
which
itself
contains 78.6 per

sorted out, ground
to
cent of metal.
" grass/'
to
i.e.,
When
stamp
the ore has been brought to

it
to the surface,
mills,
is
powder
in
and well washed

is
remove
being
the
it
earthy matter.
The washed ore

the
top.
then roasted in an
fire,
inclined iron cylinder revolving over a
poured
cylinder
in
it
at
On
The
its
way through
black tin
gives
up any sulphur and arsenic

gas.
that
may
contain,
in
as
purified
is
smelted
reverberatory
furnaces,
stirred, to
cause the oxygen to

gas,
and poled, or combine with a prooff
portion of anthracite coal that has been added, to
form carbonic acid

furnace
off,
which passes
with the
draught.
is
The
slag having been
skimmed
the tin
ladled into moulds.
To mix with lead and copper to form alloys for coining, soldering, and other purposes (2) The manufacture of tin-foil.
The
chief uses for tin are (1)
;
The metal
is
so malleable that
it
can be
easily beaten
out into sheets
-\nch.
thick,
which are used for

it
the wrappings of certain kinds of sweets

" tinning " of sheet iron, to protect
tion.
(3) The ; against oxidisa-
We
of
Cornwall
rich
have already remarked that the tin production is diminishing, on account of the indeposits
in
creasing expense of raising the ore, and the discovery

of
other
the
countries.
list
The Malay
Billiton
Peninsula
tricts.
now heads
of tin-producing dis-
The Dutch
possessions of
Banca and
272

yield about
14,000 tons yearly
Australasia, 5000
It is
Bolivia and Cornwall each
5000.
curious that
the United States, rich as they are in almost every
conceivable mineral, appear to be absolutely barren of tin ; a fact which has helped to keep up the price of
the metal.
following table, borrowed from Mr. Robert Hunt's standard work, " British Mining," is a computation of the amounts of tin raised in Cornwall
since mining began there
:
The
In the 500 years before Christ 500 years of Roman occupation

. .
50,000 tons
50,000
To
1066 a.d i3 1500 1600

,,
100,000
369,800
42,048 680,100 30,000
1636 i74o
,,1834
i860 1880
235,000 202,000
162,000
195,223
Total,
. .
2,116,171 tons
Assuming an average price per ton of 70, we left with a total value of over one hundred and forty million pounds sterling a very fine contribution from little Cornwall to the wealth of the
are
;
world
273
CHAPTER
XVII
COAL AND COAL MINING

The importance of coal Its origin Its formation The distribution of coal Some figures The coalfields of South Wales Of the MidStatistics lands Of the Northern Counties Of Scotland France and Belgian deposits German coalfields French perseverance The Some interesting stories about their coalfields of the United States
discovery Popular prejudice against anthracite coal Efforts to overcome The poker trouble Growth of the coal industry in the Indian seams. States The Connellsville coke
it
fields
Having considered
the mining of the most important
of the precious metals
and minerals, we
will
turn our
subject
attention to the subject of coal mining.

is,
The
indeed, so vast, that within the compass of a few

it
more than outlined, and the book has been tempted to leave " black diamonds " out of the list of minerals to be treated, simply on account of the difficulty experienced in picking and choosing among the many things that may and should be said in connection
pages
cannot be
this
author
of
with the world's greatest mineral industry.
Yet from a volume which deals with the more

romantic side of mining we cannot omit reference
to this great topic.
The mere mention

thought
:
coal starts
of coal
is
many
The
trains of
of the
word
itself
the origin
so interesting,
natural
we might
occurrence
say, uniquely inof
teresting.
coal
is
so
274
Coal and Coal Mining

widespread
;
the
amounts mined are so

uses
of
colossal
the risks and labour required to raise these masses

are so great
;
the
coal
are so
manifold.
Yes
Coal forms
the basis
upon which the pyramid
and most other human industries, and hence human health, wealth, and happiness, ultimately rest. Coal moves thousands of mighty Coal sends vessels through the seas and oceans. a hundred thousand locomotives spinning over the Coal smelts the millions iron ways of the world. of tons of iron ore from which we fashion all our machinery and the countless appurtenances of Coal makes busy factories modern civilisation. hum in towns unnumbered lights our streets and
of mineralogical
;
houses
warms
us with
its
stored sunbeams.
We
that hardly a
need not extend the list. Let us rather boldly say manufactured object meets our eye,
is
hardly a luxury appeals to our senses, that
not
due
If
at least indirectly to
King Coal.
we
are to avoid confusion
we must
will
subject as methodically as
the
attack our miner attacks the
mineral
itself,
and therefore we
commence
at
the proper point
The Origin of Coal.

All
of
us
have
read,
at
accounts of the manner in

being,
one time or another, which coal came into

constituents.
and what
are
its
We may
therefore dismiss this part of the subject as briefly
275

as possible.
Coal
is
carbon, plus
other
hydrogen, plus
impurities.
oxygen, plus
sulphur, plus
At
periods far back in the dim past these constituents
took upon themselves the form of gigantic ferns,
and mosses which flourished exceedingly in and humid atmosphere of their time. Vast areas of the earth's surface were covered by these dense growths, which in many places were gradually submerged by subsidences of the Earth's Water, salt and fresh, flowing in, very slowly crust. covered them up with deposits of sand and mud, which, in course of time, under the influence of pressure, were converted into sandstone and shale.
trees,
the tropical heat
Myriads of tiny
shellfish
died in the lagoons over-
and conAs soon as the tributed a stratum of limestone. surface of these successive strata had reached the and water level, vegetable life commenced again
lying the vegetable, sand,
strata,
;
and
mud
the operations of Nature's laboratory passed through
another
cycle.
Vegetation,
sand,
mud, limestone,
were superimposed again and again in great blankets ranging in thickness from a few inches to hundreds
of feet.
Then came
upheavals, distortions, and crackings,
bent and twisted into vast
and the level strata were hills and valleys. The summits of the hills were washed off by the ceaseless action of water, and carried into the adjacent
as the Earth's crust cooled,
depressions, leaving the upturned edges of the strata
open to the day.
The amount
276
of
the
upheaval

varied greatly in different localities
the coal deposits of
;
hence we find
as silver, gold,
its
some
countries remarkably level,
and
in others
almost as
much
in
tilted
or copper veins.
formation, coal
is
On
account of the nature of

beds of
found
comparatively
uniform thickness and of great continuity.

faults
Where
are absent, the miner, after once striking a
seam,
fore
may be
able to
work
steadily
ahead for
slate,
many
miles through the solid mineral.
Coal mining theremarble,
resembles rather the mining of
stone, and other geological deposits, than the raising and working over of large masses of silver, copper, or lead ore, from which only a small percentage of
useful material
is
obtained. the strata

are
called,
The
" coal
measures," as
which include layers of coal, are upwards of 11,000 Sometimes feet, or about two miles, thick in places. the coal layers are separated by very deep blankets of other matter sometimes they occur in close
;
proximity, with
but
the
thinnest
film
of
fireclay
between them. The fireclay, be it noted, is the soil in which the plants since converted into coal grew, as is proved by the existence in seams of fossil trees with their roots ramifying through the
clay.
The Formation of Coal.

Wood, we have
oxygen, and
the forests
already
said,
contains
carbon,
During the period when hydrogen. and mosses were rotting they gave off
277

oxygen and carbon
into a substance
in
combination
known
as
carbonic acid gas, and the mosses gradually changed

called
it
lignite,
which, according to
the pressure to which
has been subjected and the

a dead
still
length
of
in
time
that
decomposition has gone on,

to
ranges
black.
colour
from a dark brown

influence
of
Under
the
heat
and
greater pressure the hydrogen also passed off with
some more
pressure
of the
carbon as carburetted hydrogen,

coal
and bituminous or true

drove
out
the
anthracite coal
was formed.
still
More
and
resulted
almost
gases
further,
pure carbon.
The
produced graphite, a substance of imand then came the last stage of all, one in which all foreign elements were and lo driven off, and heat caused crystallisation
next
stage
mense
antiquity
the
diamond.
You
of
It
will
now understand
" black
possible,
the
apas
to
propriateness
applied
to
the
term
is
coal.
diamonds" by - the - bye,
change wood into coal, and coal into diamonds, artificially, though at so great an expense that the De Beers Company need not fear the rivalry of
the chemist.
The time occupied by

reckoned
in
these changes cannot be
the
case
of
diamonds and graphite
but for anthracite and bituminous coal calculations
have been made
which may be assumed to be approximately correct. Mr. Maclaren, an expert, reasons that the vegetable matter from which coal is formed was deposited at the rate of one 278

yard
of
in
depth every thousand years.

coalfields
totalling
In the South
Wales
coal
feet of
there
forty
is
combined
overlaid
thickness
yards,
by
12,000
at
sedimentary matter which was deposited
the average rate of two feet per century.
So that
apparently this coalfield was 640,000 years " in the
making."
The process
of coal formation
is still
going on
in
our peat bogs, in the great swamps

African coast.
that
at the estuary of
the Mississippi, and in the tropical lagoons of the
Modern research
of
points to the fact

into
the transformation
bog-moss
peat
is
largely
due
to the action of certain bacilli
and even
in
and fungi; the microscope has detected what coal

fossil
may
as
be
called
bacteria.
Whether
present
vegetation and present natural conditions are such
would ultimately result in true coal is a question which it is impossible to answer. Mr. Edward Hull,
in
"The
Coalfields
of
Great Britain," says:
"The
physical conditions of the coal period stand alone,
and we cannot but conclude that they were ordained beforehand for a great and evident purpose." As for the vegetation, we know that the plants which form the bulk of our coal grew to a size vastly surpassing that of their modern descendants, and very possibly the circumstances which promoted their growth also fitted them specially for the change which they afterwards underwent.
From
scientific
suppositions
we
will
turn to the
harder facts of
279
The Romance
of Mining
The Distribution of Coal.

It
is
not,
of
course, possible to state the exact
extent of the world's coalfields, since vast areas of

Asia, Africa, Australia,
yet been prospected.
and South America have not But geologists have calculated

China and Japan
miles
;
;
that the coal-measures underlie at least half a million
square miles of the earth's surface.

claim
between them
States,
;
200,000
;
square
the
United
27,000
200,000
Britain,
India,
35,000
Russia,
;
Germany, 3600 France, 1800 Belgium, Spain, and other countries about 25,000. Of late years it has become evident that Rhodesia overlies a huge deposit, which extends indefinitely northwards, and in the future may be found to rival those of North America and China. As to the quantity which the known coalfields
Great
;
9000
may
at
be expected to
yield,
this
has been reckoned

tons
the
enormous
to
last
total
of
600,000,000,000
one thousand years at the consumption. From the deposits present rate of of Great Britain over 10,000,000,000 tons have been raised since the year 1600 A.D. During last century the annual output of Great Britain rose from 24,000,000 tons in 1830 to 240,000,000 tons in 1900, which, allowing for the growth of population during the same period, means an increase from one ton per inhabitant to six tons. Even more startling is the augmentation of the United States' supply, which from two and a-half million 280
for
enough
A mining
shaft, gallery,
The position of every surveyor at work in a coal mine. and heading in a mine is determined with great accuracy, and recorded on maps of the mine.
[To face
p. 280.

tons in 1840 has risen to 320,000,000 tons in 1903.
To
give
some idea
of the
magnitude
of the industry
on the other
side of the Atlantic
that coal forms one-third of the total freights
we may mention moved

coal-mining
over the United States' railways.

.
Germany
takes
third
place
tons
among
;
nations
with
150,000,000
annually;
France
fourth place with

fifth
34,000,000 tons
and Belgium
in
with 23,000,000.
coal-fields
There are twenty principal

Britain.
Great
Let us glance at
some
of these.
First in
importance
in
is
that of South Wales, ex-
tending from Pontypool in Monmouthshire on the

east
It
to
Kidwelly
Pembrokeshire on the west.
forms an elliptically- shaped basin about fifty miles long from east to west by eighteen miles broad from north to south
;
covers an area of about

of
1000 square miles

11,000
feet.
and has an extreme depth

the
The
value of
deposit
is
greatly
enhanced by the fact that nearly half of it is anthracite, which contains 94.10 per cent, of and which, while burning with a fierce carbon, heat, combines so perfectly with oxygen that the products of combustion are practically invisible. Consequently Welsh steam coal " is of the utmost importance to all war vessels, and large quantities
tl
are exported annually to feed the furnaces of the
French,
navies.
Cardiff,
and other Wales are Swansea, and Newport, from which vast 281
Russian,
Japanese,
German,
The
great coal
ports of South
The Romance
quantities are shipped every
of Mining
month.
at
The mineable
4000
feet of
coal of the field,
i.e.
that lying within
the surface, has

tons.
been calculated
16,000 million
Merthyr-Tydvil
may be
considered the centre
of the
South Wales coal and iron-smelting industries.
Passing north over the small Forest of

field
which
Dean
coal-
enter
has an extent of 34 square miles we the Central coalfields, dotted over an area
measuring
shire,
100 miles each way.

Warwickshire,
This
"
bunch"
Wales,
includes the Shrewsbury, North and South StaffordLeicestershire,
North
Lancashire,
Yorkshire,
and
Derbyshire
deposits,
separated by wide coalless
districts.
is
The South
taining
Staffordshire field
single
it
notable for conin
the
thickest as
seam
called,
England, the
"Ten Yard Seam/'
is
unbroken by any
collieries
intermediate layers of fireclay.
The Warwickshire,
or
Tamworth,
give
us a large part of our house and steam coal.
The
North Staffordshire bed, known as the Pottery coalfield, has seams totalling 97 feet in thickness, and is
important as being adjacent to valuable beds of iron
ore.
In Yorkshire and Derbyshire the deposits run
east
north and south for 60 miles, and from 10 to 30 miles and west. From here is derived the Silkstone, a
coal,
famous house
cashire contains a
and Barnsley steam coal. bed measuring 52 by 19
Lanmiles,
with a greatest thickness of workable coal of 100

feet,
giving a total bulk of over 16,000 million tons.
Durham and Northumberland

282
contain fields measur-

ing 65 miles north and south by 22 miles east and
west,
its
greatest breadth being near the centre, along

is
the course of the Tyne, which
the great highway for
exporting coal to the

district
London market.
"
The
central
adjoining
Newcastle and
Sunderland pro-
duces the best class of house coal,

as Wallsend, originally mined,
from the pits on the which were close to the eastern termination of the wall built by the Romans to protect the country between the Tyne and the Solway from the incursions of the Picts. These collieries have been long since abandoned, but the name is still given in the London market to the best Durham house coal, and even to much that has been produced in other places, as indicating a
coal of superlative excellence.
known in London Tyne where it was
The
great merit of
Wallsend coal is in its small proportion of ash, which also, being dark coloured, is not so obtrusive
teristic
on the hearth as the white ash generally characof the Midland coals. The strongly caking property, and the large amount of gas given out in
burning, tend to produce a bright and enduring
In the district north of the
principally steam coal,
fire.
being
named
after
which is one of the principal

is
Tyne the produce is known as Hartley coal,

collieries."
1
The
area of this field
460 square
miles,
is
and the
estimated quantity of mineable coal

million tons.
about 7000
to
Passing over the Border

1
we come
the great
Encyclopedia Britannica,
vol. vi. p. 52.
283

Scotch coal
three
belt, stretching from coast to coast in main beds, covering the counties of Fifeshire, Midlothian, Stirlingshire, Lanarkshire, and Ayrshire. It is bounded on the north by the Grampian Hills, on the south by an elevated district, of which the Lammermuir, Moorfoot, and Lead -Hills form a
The coal measures are all exposed here, and therefore can be worked comparatively easily. Together they underlie an area of 1720 square miles, and, if mined to a depth of 4000 feet, would yield the enormous total of 25,000 million tons.
part.
Statistics for
1899 give the following
as the yields
of the coalfields mentioned, in millions of tons
South Wales South Staffordshire North Staffordshire, Shropshire, and Cheshire Midland Counties Lancashire and North Wales Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland Scotland
.
Million tons. 28
9 6
25
.....27
. .
.
70 30
195
Total
The balance needed to make up the year's total of 220 million tons came from Kent, Ireland, Cumberland, Somerset,
and Wiltshire.
French and Belgian Coalfields.
carboniferous
belt
stretches
westwards from
Aix-la-Chapelle along the valley of the
Sambre
to
Namur, where
it
is
interrupted, to re-appear to the
284

west of Mons, and again at Boulogne.
belt
The same
Kent and comes to the surface in Somersetshire. Other French deposits are found in the basin of near the Saone and Loire, near Chalons and Autun Nimes and in the Alpine provinces, the last being
passes
under the Channel,
under
Sussex, and
anthracite.
German Coalfields.
The
chief
;
of these
(2) in
is
cover three districts: (i) in

;
Westphalia
The second group

Europe,
of
Its
Rhenish Bavaria (3) in Silesia. the most important of Western

20,682
feet,
thickness,
exceeds that
any other known coalfield. Speaking of it, M. Simonin says x " When the allies revised the frontiers of France in 1815 they endeavoured to define them in such a manner, on the side of Rhenish Prussia, that all the rich coal basin of Saarbruck, which had been worked for twenty years, should lie outside the new boundary. It seemed to the Prussian engineer
:
of
mines,
who
inspired the
diplomatists with
the
bright idea of adopting such a boundary, that the

strata,
if
they did not unpolitely turn their back upon

the
surface
France, were nevertheless situated at such a depth
beneath
that
no more coal could be
expected to be got on the French side.
The enemy
taken by the
had not reckoned on the bold

inhabitants of the Moselle.
initiative
The
successful attempts
made
in the
Department of the Nord had attracted

1
"Underground
Life," p. 80.
285
The Romance
the attention
of these
of Mining
and were
set resolutely to
intelligent people,
remembered by them.
at
They
work
once
in the environs of
Forbach.
are
The ground
always necesCapital
was bored, pits were sunk, and in of time and the patience which
sarily
spite of the length
required
in
the prosecution of such under-
takings, nothing discouraged the explorers.
when
funds
spent was followed by the subscription of fresh

;
and
if
bore-holes and pits afforded no results,

It
others were made.
was
also necessary to
contend
In short,
against the water which filled the borings, causing

falls
in
them, or rising in artesian
jets.
after
many
years of continuous efforts, the
moment
of
triumph arrived, and
man
rested victorious in this
contest with the ground.
At the opening of the
Chambers in 1858, the announced the discovery
Emperor Napoleon
III.
of the Moselle coal basin,
an extension of the vast and productive basin of Saarbruck." It is sad to have to add that, with the
annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by the Germans in
1
87 1, the ownership of the new coalfield passed
into
German hands.
The Coalfields of the United

:
States.
These also form three great groups (1) The Alleghany or Appalachian, lying on and to the northwest of the Alleghany Mountains, and including the States of Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and
Alabama.
This
field
covers about
sixty
thousand
286

square miles, an area greater than that of England
and Wales.
equal
size.
(2)
The
Illinois
and Missouri
invade
(3)
field,
of
Besides trenching on the States already

these
deposits
mentioned,
Indiana,
Iowa,
Kentucky, Kansas, and Arkansas.

field,
The Michigan
shows all We must
a deposit of almost circular form, lying in a
gigantic limestone bowl, the rim of which
round the outcrop of the coal measures. add to these groups isolated fields in Colorado, Dakota, Montana, Indian Territory, New Mexico, In short, Washington, Oregon, and California.
twenty-nine States are coal-bearing.
Only
460
square
miles
out
of
the
200,000
which is confined to Rhode Island and three fields in Pennsylvania, situated between They are the Susquehanna and Lehigh Rivers. called the Northern, or Wyoming, the Middle, and the Schuylkill, or Southern coalfield. From the Pennsylvania district 365 tons were mined in 1820. This quantity had increased to 50,000,000 tons by the end of the century. The anthracite beds have been subjected to much greater pressure and to more violent
yield anthracite,
upheavals than the bituminous deposits.

lie
Some
In
veins
nearly
flat,
but
others
approach the
vertical,
especially at the edges
of a formation.
Rhode
to
Island the anthracite has been so squeezed as
form graphite
that
it
in places,
and so contorted and broken

is
cannot be mined profitably.
Anthracite coal in the States

shafts,
brought up through
deposits
now
that
the
surface
have been
287
The Romance
worked
is
of Mining
on the other hand,
driven
out.
Bituminous
coal,
got out almost entirely through tunnels
into the veins at or near the outcrop, since the beds
and near the surface, so that any depression which has been scooped out by the action of water serves as a convenient point from which to make an entry.
almost without exception
lie
horizontally
In
connection with the discovery of anthracite
will
some interesting stories are told, which remind us of the gold-fields. Before 1790 it had been suspected that coal beds existed along the Lehigh River, but they remained unknown till 1791, when a hunter named Philip Ginther stumbled upon an outcrop quite accidentally. This is his story as
coal deposits
related in Mr.
Homer
Greene's valuable
:
little
book,
" Coal and the Coal Mines "
"
He
said that at
one
time the supply of food in his cabin chanced to run
and he started into the woods with his gun in quest of something which should satisfy the hunger It was a most unof those who were at home. The morning passed, successful hunting expedition. the afternoon went by, night approached, but his game-bag was still empty. He was tired, hungry, and sadly disappointed. A drizzling rain set in as he started homeward again across the Mauch Chunk Mountain. Darkness was rapidly coming on, and despondency filled his mind as he thought of the expectant faces of little ones at home to whom he was returning empty-handed. Making his way slowly through the thick, wet undergrowth, and still looking 288
out,

about him,
his foot
perchance something in the way of game might yet come within the range of his gun,
if
happened to strike a hard substance which away before him. He looked down at it, and then bent over and picked it up, and saw by the deepening twilight that it was black. He was familiar
rolled
with the traditions of the country concerning the

existence of stone coal in this region,
to
and he began
it.
wonder
if
this
indeed was not a specimen of
He
carried the black
lump home with him
that night,
and the next day he set out with it to find Colonel Jacob Weiss at Fort Allan, to whom he exhibited what he had found. Colonel Weiss became deeply interested in the matter, and brought the specimen to Philadelphia, where he submitted it to the inspection of John Nicholson, Michael Hillegas, and Charles These men, after assuring themselves that it Cist. was really anthracite coal, authorised Colonel Weiss to make such a contract with Ginther as would induce him to point out the exact spot where the mineral was found. It happened that the hunter
coveted a vacant piece of land in the vicinity, containing a
fine
water-power and
mill-site,
and on
he very
Colonel Weiss agreeing to obtain a patent for him
from the State

readily gave
all
for the desired lot of land,
the information in his possession the Schuylkill field was also
concerning the 'stone coal.'"
Another
about the
district
of
discovered by a hunter in a rather similar
way
at
same time.
Nicolas
Allen
289
had T
been

and as night came on built a wood-fire to keep him warm while he slept. He was awakened from his slumbers by feeling unpleasantly hot, and there, close by, was the ground itself on fire. That scared him away. But next morning he returned to investigate, and found that he had actually lit his sticks on the outcrop of an
hunting
all
day,
anthracite deposit.
This was not the
last
hunter's find, for in
1826
after-
one John Charles, while digging a ground-hog from

its
burrow, uncovered a ledge of

It
list
is
coal,
which
wards formed the rich property of the Hazleton Coal
Company.
clude the
interesting to note, before
we confirst
of
happy
accidents, that the
coal
found in the States, in 1760 (in Virginia), was stumbled upon by a boy while seeking bait for his The reason why sportsmen fishing operations.
should have
prospectors
dweller
is
been
easily
so
successful
as
unintentional
understood when we remema
ber that in those early days almost every country
was
if
fisherman,
supplied.
huntsman, trapper, and he wished to keep his larder well

perforce
at this
The Americans were
time acquainted with
the use of bituminous coal, which had been
mined
in Great Britain long before the Pilgrim Fathers set

sail
But anthracite came as when discovered. It was unusually a True, hard, and refused to burn in an open grate. blacksmiths used it for their forges, where a forced 290
for
the
New
World.
new
thing

but in ordinary combustion household fireplaces and smelting-furnaces it apPeople simply refused to peared to be worthless. buy it, though they would gladly have substituted a fuel for the wood which was generally burnt out-side the bituminous coal districts. Of course, the owners of new anthracite coalfields were grieved at this, and determined to try to con-
draught
promoted
vert popular opinion to the true facts
namely,
that
anthracite will burn in an
open
fire if treated in the
proper way.
In
1803
six
barges of coal were sent
down
the Lehigh River to Philadelphia from
Mauch
Four were overturned on the way, and the contents of the two which reached their destination safely could not be sold. The public authorities were asked to give it a trial, and did so in a steamengine. It refused to ignite. So they spread the
Chunk.
rest
of
it
about the public footpaths

exporters lost heart
instead
of
gravel.
The
and closed down
their mines.
Ten
years later, however, they took courage again
and despatched another barge, sending in advance which set forth the correct methods of burning anthracite in stoves, grates, and furnaces. Stoves were erected in prominent places to give the
handbills
Philadelphians ocular demonstration of the mineral's
were lit gratis in citizens' houses blacksmiths had gratis fuel for their forges. At last the public began to take interest in the exhibitions though they would persist in poking their fires, accord291
value.
Fires

ing to an instinct which seems to
comes face to face upon Mr. Homer
move any one who with burning coal. We will draw

Greene
for
another
anecdote.
"Among the
wire at the
told
purchasers of Lehigh coals in 1814 was
the firm of White
&
Hazard, manufacturers of iron

the Schuylkill.
They had been by Mr. Joshua Malin, proprietor of a roller-mill, that he had succeeded in using the new fuel, and as the Virginia coal was very scarce at the time, White and Hazard decided to test the qualities of the
falls of
anthracite.
They purchased
it,
a cartload of
it
it
it,
paying
a dollar
a bushel for
and took
to their works.
in their furnace,
Here they
giving
it
tried to build a fire with
what they considered the most skilful and the most assiduous attention. Their efforts were in vain. The entire cartload was
manipulation
in
wasted
a futile attempt to
make
the coals burn.
Nothing daunted, they obtained another cartload, and determined to spend the night, if need should
be,
in
the
work
of building a coal
fire.
And
they
But when morning came they were apparently as far from the attainment of their object as ever. They had poked and punched and raked they had laboured incessantly but, notwithstanding the most constant manipulation, the coals above the burning wood would not sufficiently ignite. By this time the men were disheartened and disgusted, and slamming the door of the furnace they It left the mill in despair and went to breakfast. happened that one of them had left his jacket in the 292
did spend the night.
; ;

furnace-room, and returning
for
it
about half-an-
hour
later,
he discovered that the furnace-door was

interior
red-hot.
In great surprise he flung the door open
and found the

heat.
glowing with intense white
The other hands were immediately summoned, and four separate parcels of iron were heated and rolled by the same fire before it required renewing.
Seeking for the cause of
this
unexpected result the

that
it
men came
of
to the conclusion
fire
simply letting the
alone
was due
to
a theory the correctness
which they afterwards abundantly proved.

hit
Thus,
by chance, these men

in
upon the
secret of success
the matter of burning a fire of anthracite coals. That secret is simply to throw the coals loosely on the burning wood and then let them alone." For the time success seemed assured. But, unfortunately for anthracite coal-owners, the declaration
1815 opened the way for the importation of foreign soft coals, which ousted the home-grown article, and the mines closed down again. The year 1820 saw the tide turn. Property went up in value by leaps and bounds. Owners leased their lands to companies who paid them a royalty on every ton mined from the strata below,
of peace with Great Britain in
while not interfering with the agricultural operations
on the
surface.
Royalties of twenty-five to thirty-five
Of late years railway and canal companies have bought up huge tracts of anthracite country at sums ranging to ten million pounds sterling. Owing to the economies
cents per ton are
quite
now
common.
293

possible
when mining can be done on

capital
;
a large scale,
of
with
big
behind
it,
the price
coal has
diminished
individuals,
and properties which, if owned by would during times of depression and

into powerful
labour troubles be unable to weather the storm, can,
when amalgamated
sylvanian
of the
corporations, hold
out through long periods of adversity.

coalfields
The Penn-
have
been the scene of some
most serious strikes in the world's industrial history, and of deeds which we are glad to be able to " This include among things that have now gone by.
sketch of the anthracite coalfields of Pennsylvania,"
says Mr. John Birkinbine, 1 " could be
made
to
em-
brace the story of fortunes

of terrible disasters
won and
of fortunes lost,
crushing of
by gas explosion, by fire, or by supports, relieved by deeds of heroism
on the part
of those
who sought
It
'
to rescue the injured
or to recover the dead.
could include the san-
guinary history of the
Molly Maguires,' when murder was done by order, and of later strikes and riots, by which property and life were sacrificed." Before leaving the American coalfields, notice should be taken of the Connellsville Coke region, in south-western Pennsylvania. The noun does not imply that coke is there dug out of the ground
merely that here

fitted for
is
a deposit of coal particularly

is
reduction to coke, which
needed
in
huge
feet
quantities to heat the
many blast-furnaces
of Pittsburg,
the steel centre of the world.

1
The seam, nine
Cassier's Magazine^ vol. xxii. p. 520.
294

thick, has
an extent of about 62,000
acres.
It is
very
easily
annually.
mined, and yields over 12,000,000 tons of coal This is transferred to 23,000 coking ovens,
off the volatile constituents
which drive
account of
but
for
and leave the

It is
shining residue so prized by Pittsburg ironmasters on

its
wonderful consistency.
coke,
said that,
the Connellsville
the
United States
of first
would not hold the proud position

steel-making nations.
among
The Coalfields of
Assam
is
India.
the province most richly gifted with coal,

its
though, owing to
inaccessibility,
it
has not as yet

very pure, and
been extensively mined.

is
The
coal
is
easily
the hillsides.
worked by tunnels driven into it through In one area, measuring only five miles
of a mile, there
is
by one-third
over with
in time to
said to
lie
more than
140,000,000 tons of the mineral.

collieries,
Bengal is dotted which tap the vast deposits that

if
come
will
be of great value to the industrial

only sufficient workers
expansion of Eastern India,
Most of the natives consider mining an occupation unworthy of their caste, or are too lazy to put their hands to work so strenuous. This is particularly unfortunate, since the coal seams are
can be found.
very easily mined, thanks to their broad outcrops,
their freedom from dangerous gas, and a good roof though the coal itself is inferior to that of Assam.
When
mechanical coal-cutters have been generally
295
The Romance
introduced the owners
their work-people,
will
of Mining
be
less at the
mercy
of
who, on the
to
least provocation, inif
dulge in a holiday lasting several days,
they have
made
sufficient
money
meet
their simple
wants
during that period.
Other
the
fields exist in
Madras, the Punjab, Burmah,
Central
Provinces,
and over the
border, in
Beloochistan.
296
CHAPTER
WORK
The
nature of a colliery
XVIII
IN
THE COAL MINES

it
looks Former cruelty in the "Winning" and "getting" Methods of entering a coal The diamond Prospecting seam English coal-beds Shafts Their construction Freezing the "got" "Long-wall" and strata Depths reached How coal " pillar-and-stall " Ventilation of a mine Gigantic fans The mechanical coal-cutter Electricity in the mine Transporting and hoisting the coal Winding devices Pneumatic hoisting Breaking, done with the fine coal and rubbish sorting, and washingWhat and vessel The up-to-date The distribution of coal by
mines
The
Better than Mines' Commission
for
drill
is
is
rail
collier.
Few
earth
sights are
coal-mining region.
is
more dreary and depressing than a The naturally fair face of the scarred by unsightly rubbish heaps of
extent,
enormous
stacks,
dominated by hideous chimney-
gaunt buildings, and twirling wheels.

is
The
earth
blackened, the roads
are covered
;
thickly
with black
mud
or black dust
almost every one
we meet has
dress.
a black face as well as a blackened
We
think of the black depths

list
down
below,
of the long black
of terrible accidents that
occur
black
so frequently in coal-mining annals, of the
records of oppression and slavery that once disgraced

the
management of these deep pits, and we are tempted to conclude that apparently there is not a
redeeming feature about a
colliery.
single
297
The Romance
But
lines,
of Mining
its
stay.
and
is
if
Even the darkest picture has we pry more closely into the
light
lives of
our coal-miners, and into the methods by which the

mineral
means
us to
won, we shall find that things are by no gloomy as our first impressions may lead consider them to be. These miners who pass
as
by us have a free carriage. Some whistle, others are chaffing and laughing, though they have just returned from their " shift " below ground. The labour evidently hasn't knocked the heart out of
them.
Their
toil
is
severe, but they are well paid,
and the hours

enough
for
of
work
are short.
so disposed they take a holiday

that,
When
money
is
they feel
plentiful
and even to allow them to keep bulldogs and a piano, on which instrument some Of course, there of them are no mean performers. come times now and then when cash is short, a thing which happens in all trades and professions. Then, those engine-houses Slab and hideous enough outside But peep inside, and there loom before you magnificent machines performing prodigies of work. Pluck up your courage and peer Yet down the shaft. Ugh a horror of darkness far beyond where the light of day penetrates there is a busy town with streets of coal, houses of coal, more marstables of coal, railways laid on coal an army of grimy men, each vellous machinery intent on his allotted task, under the guidance of There is danger generals, colonels, and captains. down there, 'tis true. But the men reck little of 298
! ! ! !
Work
that
in the Coal
too
little.
Mines
perhaps
sleep.
It
never robs them of
There are animals down there, which were born there, will live there, and will
a
night's
first
if
see
daylight
indeed they
daylight,
'the
when they are past their work come up alive. They don't miss however they have never known
;
what it is. However, we

folk
brave
feel
glad that the lot of the brave

it
without knowing
it
who
toil
below,
is
was prior to the investigations All honour of the Coal Mine Commission in 1842. to Lord Ashley (afterwards the Earl of Shaftesbury) for his bold championship of the coal miners The abuses that the Commission found in existence were
a happier one than
!
appalling
these
such as to help us to understand

days
the
why
in
latter
successors of
the
hapless
sufferers that
dragged out a miserable existence in
the mines sometimes take an unreasonable advantage
powers of combination. "They [the Commission] found women toiling underground like beasts of burden, surrounded by a loathsome atmosphere of physical suffering and degradation and moral pollution to which savage life scarcely affords
of the
a parallel
and children
all
of five
and
six,
and even
of
four years of age, stunted, diseased, and half starved,
compelled to crawl on
passages of the coal
fours in the low
and narrow
pits,
dragging by a chain passing

legs small carts laden
from the waist between the

with
coal.
...
In
many
mines,
especially in the
midland counties, the mines were damp and streaming
299
The Romance
with water.
of
Mining
to efficient
No
attention
was paid there

1
ventilation or to drainage."
So the poor women and children were soaked through, and half stifled by want of air. It was a common sight to see weak youngsters toiling with
trucks through passages only twenty-two inches high,
doubling their bodies into
shapes which, as they
grew
produced malformation of the limbs. Women had to draw loads nine miles daily. In one instance a girl worked twenty-four hours at a stretch, rested two hours, and then worked twelve hours
older,
more
When
such callousness to
it
human
little
suffering
possessed the mine-owners,

to learn that, through
causes
surprise
want of proper precautions, accidents were frequent and lamentably disastrous. When the report of the Commission was produced
in
Parliament, every
member
expressed a genuine
horror that such things should be permitted in a land
where poetry at least declares that nobody is a slave, and an Act was speedily passed prohibiting female labour below ground, and the employment of boys under ten years of age. To-day everything has been changed. As we shall see, the health and safety of employes is regarded as of primary importance, and human ingenuity has been taxed to render their toil less irksome. We will now pass at once to the work of " winning " and " getting " coal. " Winning" signifies penetrating to the coal-measures by shafts, tunnels, or slopes
:
"The Age we
live in."
300
Work
11
in the
Coal Mines
getting," the
first
The
removal of the mineral from the seams. operation is one in which the mining
engineer has to perform

offices.
some
of his
most important
Suppose
-A
that a
new
district is
about to be exploited.
company is formed, and an engineer is appointed and sent out to search the country and to decide what is the best plan of operations. Perhaps he may stumble upon an " outcrop " of coal showing on the side of a hill, and be able to calculate the " dip/' or angle from the horizontal, at which the seam plunges under the superincumbent strata, and the " strike," or direction in which the seam runs
If no signs of coal are visible at the surface, he must resort to boring with a diamond drill, which
laterally.
has almost
entirely
replaced
the
cylindrical
Its
steel
is
auger once used for the purpose.

circular,
cutting edge
and studded with amorphous black diamonds, which will pierce many thousand feet of hard rock
before they need replacement.
An
is
engine
to
is
is
installed
over the spot where a test-hole

a
be bored, and
attached to an
hollow rod carrying the

it
drill
apparatus which gives
a rotatory
movement.
joints,
As
soon as
offer
this
rod has sunk
in a certain distance, a
second length, with " butt," or flush
no obstruction to the descent, is and the work proceeds. Water is forced down through the hollow interior of the rods to wash the
sludge, or rubbish, to the surface, through the space
which screwed on,
between the outer face of the rods and the face 301
of

the hole.
From
it
time
a
to time
the
of
drill
is
raised,
bringing with
solid
core
its
the
substances
through which
tion
of
it
has eaten
tells
way.
An
examina-
these cores
is
the
expert " prospector"
whether he
a
nearing coal, and furnishes an exact

feet.
record of the strata under his

black cylinder
Still
is
extracted
At
last,
perhaps,
the long wished-for
coal.
the boring goes on, revealing
seam
after
seam
other
of
the mineral.
The
drill
is
then
moved
to
spots,
engineer
and the process is repeated until the has accumulated sufficient information
lie
about the
ment
for as
of actual
drill will
to warrant a commencemining operations. A good diamond sink 60 feet a day, at a cost of about .1000
of the coal
feet.
many
With greater depths the expense

drill
grows, as the labour of raising and turning the

increases steadily.
If a coal seam comes to the surface at a gentle angle, a " slope " is driven down through the seam ;
or
tunnel
if
is
cut into
is
outcrop,
hill.
the latter
from a point below the discovered on the side of a

it
In
the
bituminous
all
districts
is
of
the
United
States almost
slopes,
lie
the mining
done through tunnels,

at a
and
drifts,
because the coal-beds fortunately
very horizontally and can be approached
gentle
upward
or
downward
angle.
Where
possible,
the entry
is driven up hill, so that mine drainage and the haulage of material to the u mouth " may be assisted by gravity. In England the coal-beds lie deep and must be 302
Work
in the Coal
Mines
won by shafts. Before sinking a shaft the engineer must decide its most advantageous position, as he wishes to strike the seam as near as possible to the " synclinal axis/' or bottom of the bowl, that here
too gravity
may come
to
his aid in collecting the
water, and rendering haulage easier.
The
This
shaft
may
be round,
elliptical,
or rectangular.
will
depend
In soft and yielding strata a on circumstances. round shaft, well lined with brick or iron, is necessary, since that shape offers most resistance to squeezing. But where the overlying measures are solid and hard, a rectangular shaft, at once cheaper to make and more convenient, is preferred. Such a shaft is usually divided into four divisions, the two central ones forming up and down tracks for the cages, and the other two pumping and ventilating shafts. The partition separating off the last must be made quite air-tight by careful boarding and the plugging of all joints. Of late years boring machines have been
introduced for sinking.

pillar
They make
consist of a central
at its
from which radiate arms, each having
extremity a power-drill to
placed, the machine
blasting holes.
As
soon as the holes have been bored and the charges

is
raised out of danger,
and the
charges are
fired.
and build a lining round the shaft wherever it shows signs of caving. In some workings the excavations and bricklaying go on simultaneously, the masons being carried by a staging which fits the bore of the shaft
Bricklayers
follow
the
excavators
303

exactly, so that
no materials may
Holes are
stuff
fall
on the heads
the staging,
of the people below.
left in
which the broken operations is removed.

through
of
the
blasting
When
are
a water-bearing stratum, such as a quick-
sand, has to be traversed, the difficulties of sinking
becomes necessary to line the shaft with iron tubing. Sometimes the inflow of water is so great that it can only be kept at bay by air-locks, which act on the same principle as the Greathead Shield for tunnel-driving. In 1883a most ingenious process of freezing the ground round the shaft was introduced by Messrs. A. & H. T. Poetsch, and has been used successfully in France and Belgium. The soft ground is temporarily solidified by freezing the water for a few feet all round the scene of
increased,
much
and
it
operations.
To
5
effect this,
brine, chilled to a temis
perature of
Fahrenheit,
circulated in vertical
pipes closed at the bottom, inserted into bore-holes
sunk
at
regular
intervals
round the space
to
be
is
frozen.
Each pipe has
a central tube of small dia-
meter reaching almost to the bottom.

forced
The
brine
down through
is
this,
and returns
is
upwards
through the space between the two tubes.
When
lowered,
of the
hard ground
reached, an iron lining
and any
shaft
interstices
between
expensive
it
and the wall
is filled
in with concrete.
is
Shaft-sinking
work.
As much as
shaft.
100,000
has been spent
on a single
The
deepest shafts are to be found in Belgium, where
34
Work
3790
feet has
in the
Coal Mines
are situated the
been exceeded twice. In Lancashire two finest British examples, 3474 and 3360 feet respectively. English mine-owners are now compelled by law to have at least two shafts
to each mine, so that in case of an accident blocking
the
one,
1
the workers
may
still
have a means of
escape.
In any case two shafts would be advisable,
as rendering proper ventilation
more easy
and
in
some cases a pumping out

while
higher.
third shaft
is
sunk and used only for
the water, which often bears the pro-
portion of three tons to every ton of coal extracted,

occasionally the ratio
is
four or
five
times
When
seam
at last
the shafts have

is
entered
;
the
coal
and as soon as machinery for pumping, ventilating, and hoisting is in full working order, the process of " getting commences. All round the bottom of the shaft a thick body of coal is left, to avoid any settlement of the roof at
at
the " winning "
an end
this vital point in the workings.
From
the " pit-eye,"
as
two galleries are driven, parallel to one another, and of large size, the one named the " gangway," or track- way, for haulage,
it
is
called in Scotland,
the other, the " air- way," for ventilation.
From
these
headings are driven into the coal, for the removal of

the seam.
where the
This legislation resulted from an accident at the Hartley Colliery, single shaft was blocked by the fall cf the pumping-engine beam, causing the death by starvation of all the poor fellows in the mine.
305
The Romance
One
is
of Mining
of
There are two chief methods
getting
coal.
by which the whole of the coal is removed as the seam is penetrated, the excavated area between the working " face " and the gangway and air- way being filled in
as
known
the "long-wall,"
with goaf, or rubbish, except for the protected pas-
which are needful for the ingress and egress of workers and air, and for the trucking of the coal. The other method is called the " pillar-and-stall,"
sages,
" pillar-and-room,"
or
" pillar-and-bord."
is
In
this
case only part of the coal
removed, a large pro-
portion being
left
to
support the roof, so that the
workings somewhat resemble a large crypt.

long-wall method requires a good roof and and a seam not exceeding six to seven feet in thickness. When the seam is very thin not more than three feet thick only long-wall mining is
floor,
The
practicable.
Let us watch the long-wall miner at work.
Lying
on
five
his side,
he attacks the base of the wall with a

it
sharp pick, and undercuts

feet.
to a depth of three to
As the excavation proceeds
necessary to insert short, stout

floor
becomes props between the

it
and the slanting top of the groove, so that the As soon as the roof may not fall on the worker.
" holing "
of
length
if
is
finished,
the
fall
props are
naturally,
it
knocked
out,
and
the coal does not
blasting charges are fixed
and
fired to
bring
down.
to flat
The
fallen
trucks
masses have
now
306
to be loaded
in a
on
a very
arduous task
space where a
Work
man
gangways by
balks,
in the Coal
Mines
to the
cannot even stand upright

" putters."
is
and shoved
at
Long-wall work
very dangerous, since the timber

a short distance
placed in a double row
from the face, are often unequal to the strain, and crumble like matchwood, allowing the roof to descend Its advantages are that it on the hapless miners.
more men to work in a given area, method its disadvantages, and that it requires more timbering, suffers more by settlements when the mine is idle, and is more difficult
allows
is
room
for
therefore a cheap
to
ventilate.
Where
system
pillars
coal
is
over seven feet thick, or where the

is
overhead pressure
very great, the pillar-and-stall

In
left standing, but where possible they are " robbed," or removed, as soon as the limit
becomes must be
advisable.
some mines
the
seam has been reached the miners working from the boundary back to the gangways. Where the coal is very thick it must be mined in terraces,
of the
;
as
it
were, pillars of extra size being

this
falls
left.
The
loss
from from
method
of roof
is
considerable, and the
danger
much
greater than with shallow
seams.
South Staffordshire, where the seams are sometimes forty feet thick, has an unenviable
reputation for crushing accidents.
The problem
parts of the
of ventilation
has been solved by a

progress. In a
systematic plan of leading the air only through the
mine where work

307
is
in
pillar-and-stall
working the headings are driven out

at right
angles to the air-way parallel to one another,
and
as
soon as the one heading has progressed a

is
certain distance, an opening
cut to connect
it
with
the next heading.
Previous openings are carefully
boarded up, and, as a partition has already been built between the points where the headings enter the air-ways, the air is directed up one heading, through the cross opening, and down the next heading, on its way to the " up-cast " shaft i.e., that through which the foul air is sucked by powerful blowers. When work is done in what may be termed
a blind alley, having
no communication
is
laterally with
another working, circulation

wall of thin
effected by building a
or brattice-cloth down the centre of the heading almost up to the " face."
wood
Air currents are needed for the removal of
fire-
promote the comfort of the miners and the greater the amount of gas liberated from the coal the larger must be the quantity of air
as
;
damp
well
as
to
circulated.
In the
first
half of last century furnace
ventilation
was generally used.
You may imagine
an ordinary room to represent the mine, the open fire in the hearth the furnace, the chimney the " up-
and the open door the supply from the and there you have the principle of furnace ventilation. The large fire at the bottom of
shaft,
cast "
" down-cast,"
the up-cast expands the air in the shaft, causing

rise
it
to
by reason
of
its
lightness.
To
take
its
place
fresh air rushes in through the furnace, to be itself
heated and expelled.
Though
308
effective, this
method
Work
had
fires
its
in the
Coal Mines
it
obvious dangers, and several serious mine

;
have been traced to

is
so
that mechanical
ventilation
now
almost universal.
first
To
replace the
furnace huge air-pumps were
used, with enor-
mous
-broke
cylinders,
pistons,
down
and
valves.
They
often
a fatal defect, as the air
below ground
must be kept
in continuous motion.
So they gave way

connected with the
fan, so largely
to the centrifugal fan,
which
is
up-cast in such a
way
that air cannot reach the fan
except from the shaft.

used,
is
The Guibal
enclosed in a case, with a central opening at
one
side
through which
air is sucked, to
be flung by
the curved whirling vanes through another opening

into the atmosphere. of the
The
principle
is
precisely that
centrifugal water-pump.
Some
;
old
Guibal
fans
had a diameter
of forty-five to fifty feet,
and
were turned directly by steam-engines
but more
electric
modern
a
practice uses a
much
smaller fan turned at
greater
speed
by steam-engines or by
its
The steam turbine, very effective, on account of

motors.
a fan direct.
feet of air
by-the-bye, has proved
high speed, to work

1,000,000 cubic
large fan will pass

it
per minute, sucking
through a circuitous
course which may run for several miles underground between the down-cast and up-cast. Recognising the full importance of ventilation, mining engineers sometimes sink a special shaft to serve as the
down-cast.
We may now
return to the " face," and speak of
the mechanical devices which are gradually replacing
309

hand hewing.
severe and
We
have seen that the labour of
is at once As long ago as 1761 a man named Menzies proposed to work a heavy mechanical pick underground by power transmitted to it by ropes from an engine on the surface. But until the introduction of compressed air into mines it was
holing, or under-cutting, long-wall faces,

risky.
impossible to operate a practical coal-cutter.
We
now have
four main types of coal-cutters worked by
compressed air or electricity (1) A mechanical pick, which closely imitates the action of a miner, and is particularly useful for the short faces in pillarand-stall work.
(2)
horizontal disc-cutter,
much
saw.
resembling
(3)
large,
coarse-toothed
circular
An
arm, round the extremity of which passes an

(4)
endless chain furnished with teeth.

bar,
A
on
horizontal
its
carrying
of
teeth,
which
revolves
axis.
Some
these machines, especially those used for
long-wall work, are
mounted on
rails,
along which
they propel themselves, or are pulled, as the cutting

proceeds.
For pillar-and-stall operations a pick machine has been invented which makes a vertical cut. The employment of mechanical cutters is much more extensive in the United States, where 25 per cent, of the bituminous coal is got by their aid, than in Great Britain, where the proportion falls to But when prejudice permits their wider 2 per cent. adoption the economies rendered possible by their
use will doubtless help the industry, since the saving per
ton ranges from sixpence to a shilling.
Un-
310
Work
trades,
in the Coal
Mines
many
other
fortunately, the miners, like workers in
fear that mechanical appliances will reduce wages and the need for human muscles, though more probably it would have the opposite effect, to judge by the high pay given in the States, where coal is much cheaper than on this side of the Atlantic, and the quantity produced per man 68 per cent. more.
Electricity
is
light the galleries,
now very popular in coal-mines to move the cars, pump the water,
operate cutters, and supply means of communication
between the workings and the surface.

Continent the main winding gear
is
On
the
at
the pit-head
also
sometimes moved by
plays
electricity.
Compressed
air, too,
a very important part, to turn drills

hoist,
and
cutters,
pump,
and haul.
In the bituminous
both electric and compressed employed to bring laden trucks out of the mines. Sometimes the main entrance is there made wide enough to admit of four tracks being laid side by side. After being broken down, the coal is loaded in trucks and pushed along the branch line leading to the main gangway. Here they are formed into trains for haulage to the shaft bottom (in. a deep mine), which is done sometimes by ponies or mules sometimes by mechanically driven ropes. Where a
coalfields of the States
air are
;
double track
is possible, an endless rope is laid between the rails, passing at one end of the plane round the winding drum, at the other round a fixed
pulley.
The
full
cars are hitched to the H
up
" side
of the rope, and so taken to the shaft.
The rope
3ii

travels
time.
When
"
continuously in the same direction all the the " tail " rope system is used on a
engines must be reversed for the
hydraulic
several storeys
single track the
"
down
is
journey.
" a
lift
At the " pit's-eye

high
a truck or
till
awaiting the trucks.
two are pushed
in.
The lift is lowered, and Then it rises a little,

is
the floor of the second storey

rails.
on a
level with
;
the
On
rises
another stage
go the second batch of trucks up and so on till the loading

;
it
is
finished,
I
and the lift has risen to its full height. Br-r-r Down comes the cage with empty trucks. These are all pushed off simultaneously into a second lift, which will gradually deposit them while the next load goes up, and the full ones are pushed on board.
The
the
shaft
is
3000 feet deep
surely the journey to

!
top will take a considerable time
No,
the
winding-engines are powerful.
Whirr
The
signal
it,
has been given, and almost before you realise

darkness.
the
bottom of the cage has disappeared into the upper
By
the time the central point of the shaft
has been reached, the cage will be flying upwards at

the rate of thirty-five miles an hour.
Already the
rest
cage has finished
its
journey.
It
is
knocks open two

brought to
flap-doors at the pit's
mouth and
opposite a second set of lifts, which rob it of the full The laden skips trucks and puts " empties " aboard.
are run over a weigh-bridge and tipped into shoots.
Then they
journey.
are restored to the
lift
for the
downward
312
Work
in the Coal
Mines
at a
So the work goes on for hours

full
time
empty
is
trucks descending in one division of the shaft while
ones
rise in the other.
Before the day
over a
couple of thousand tons of coal, maybe, have been
brought up into the daylight, which

aeons before
It
last
shone on
it
man
first
inhabited the earth.

this hoisting system,
sounds so simple,
with one
cage partly balancing the other.

simple after
stout
But
it is
not so
all. Don't forget that the rope must be Two or and strong, and therefore heavy. three thousand feet of rope weighs a good deal more than the load itself so that when one cage is at the bottom all its rope has been paid off the drum, while all the rope of the other has been wound in and so has no counterbalancing effect. The engine, therefore, has less and less to do as the cage rises, for the second rope is exerting an increasing pull and soon after the cages have passed one another the descending rope would quite overcome the ascending. To meet this variation of load, tapering drums are often used, the rope winding on to the drum from the small to the large end and, of course, unwinding in
; ;
;
the reverse order.
This helps to keep the balance

paid out.
more drum
even, as the rope exerts less leverage the farther

it
is
It
on the must be under-
stood that the cages are not attached to the ends of
one rope.
thicker
Each has its separate rope, sometimes one end than the other, the larger end being attached to the drum. Another method of equalising strains is to have
at
313
The Romance
cylindrical
of Mining
tail " rope passing from the bottom of one cage round a pulley at the pit's bottom and up to the bottom of the other cage. Thus there is always the same amount of rope between the bottom and top in each cage-way. Whatever shape the drums may have, they are mounted either on a single axis, or are so geared together
drums and a
"
that they cannot turn independently.
Then
see that
that
it
there
if
is
another
is
a rope
being
You can easily wound on a drum fixed so

difficulty.
cannot move
is
laterally,
the rope will be at

at
right angles to the
drum only
one point.
it
When
called,
the rope
very long the " angling," as
is
becomes troublesome, and to obviate it Mr. W. Morgan mounted engines and drums on a travelling carriage, which traversed a distance laterally equal to
the diameter of the rope with every revolution of the
drum
to
so that the rope always lay on a line

'.'
drawn
through the centre of the

the
1
overhead " pulley wheel drum, and formed a right angle with the
latter.
Every reader has seen, or at least heard of, the pneumatic tube system of despatch. The article to
be transmitted
is
is
inserted into a carrier, the carrier
placed in an air-lock connected with the tube, and
blown or sucked through it to its destination. Well, the same principle has been tried for coalraising, and with success, so that it is worthy of
either
1 A winding engine of this kind has been recently installed in the Dolcoath mine, Cornwall, to operate a shaft 3000 feet deep.
314
Work
mention.
in the
Coal Mines
fitted
Epinac shaft, near Creusot, in France, with a wrought iron tube, 63 inches in diameter, hammered round upon a special mandrel, and placed on one side of the shaft. The cage, which had nine decks, and carried over 4I tons of coal, was slung below two air-tight pistons and above a third, and under all was a parachute, which in case of a fall would jam in the tube. Three cages could be loaded and unloaded Their ascent and descent was consimultaneously. trolled by valves putting the tube in connection
the
M. Blanchet
with
phere.
the
exhausting
engines
or the outer atmos-
from the bottom the banksman had merely to open a valve and the load was sucked up and to lower it he opened another valve which gradually let atmospheric air into the tube, allowing the cage to fall by its own weight.
raise
To
cage
Unfortunately, the shaft did not pierce a coal-bearing

stratum, and the pneumatic coal-hoist has therefore
not received a
struck,
trial
under
full
working conditions
service.
but the device acted so well that, had a seam been

it
would have done good
It
is
highly probable that
we have not seen
the last of the
pneumatic system of hoisting. Its advantages in connection with deep shafts are numerous. The
method can be practised with as great facility in mines of enormous depth as in shallow mines, and the winding-rope, which in a deep mine is a very expensive item, and a constant drain on the resources
of the concern,
is
entirely dispensed with.
large
315
The Romance
load can be dealt with at each
unlimited."
2
of Mining
trip,
and the speed

trip, is
of
the cages, especially in the descending
almost
When
the coal reaches the surface
it
has
still
to
go
through several processes before

surface
in
it is
ready for
sale.
Anthracite, and other kinds of coal that
come
to the
very
large lumps,
must pass
the
is
through
a
powerful crushers, which reduce

convenient
pick off the
that
size.
masses to
The mineral
and
then passed along
travelling belts,
sorters, standing
slate, fire-clay, pyrites,
on either side, and other rubbish

is
may
be present.
After that the coal
passed
it
over gratings of decreasing mesh, which sort

into various sizes.
out
To
clean small coal, hand-picking
would be too expensive, and washing with water is used instead. The " stuff " is poured into jigging troughs, which keep the contents in constant motion, and cause the heavy impurities to sink to the bottom whence they are ejected through a valve and the lighter coal to keep near the top and be carried off by the current flowing through the troughs. The cleaned coal is lifted by bucket elevators into storage bunkers. The fine dust, which formerly was emptied on to the dump heaps along with the rubbish, is now saved, and either converted into
coke
loss
or into
briquettes,
uses,
according to
its
nature.
Until these
new
for
It
is
the duff was found the
was enormous.
1
"
estimated that from 20

carried to the
1904.
to 25 per cent, of the coal
mined was
The Engineering Magazine^ January
316
Work
dumps.
evident in
in
the Coal Mines

methods of treatment are which drain the coal
The
wasteful
many
of the streams
basins, for the beds of these consist largely of coal
and slate washed by storms from the waste dumps. For a distance of thirty to forty miles below the workings, farmers collect their fuel, and screeners make a good living by digging coal from the beds of creeks, or from bars formed on the banks during l freshets, and selling it." This quotation applies to the American anthracite fields. Even the rubbish is not all wasted, for, in the States at least, a use has been found for it. Where a mine underlies houses there is a danger that
settlements
may
cause the cracking of the walls

are within
if
the
excavations
a thousand feet of the
surface.
To
it
prevent this possible damage the plan

il
has recently been adopted of crushing the rubbish,
mixing
it
with water, and discharging the
culm," as
is
called,
through pipes or bore-holes into the
exhausted
collecting
workings.
pits
and is soon solidifies, and becomes so firm that headings can be driven through it. This method of refilling does away with timbering and the necessity for leaving large pillars of good coal, and also helps to diminish the refuse heaps. It is interesting to note that the idea has been mooted of pumping a mixture of coal dust and water through pipes from the coalfields to distant towns just as
solid matter left
;
The water drains off into pumped to the surface. The
Cassier's
Magazine.
3*7

and petroleum are piped so extensively The colliery owners are very anxious in America. to be rid of the banks, and sometimes actually set them alight. In some piles fires have been burning
natural gas
for nearly a century.
We may
be certain that in the

will
future these huge,
unsightly
deposits
become
valuable
probably as fuel for larger power stations, which will distribute electrical energy through the surrounding country. From the mines the coal is distributed to the consumers by rail only, or by rail and water. Vast quantities are shipped annually overseas from and the United States. If you visit Cardiff, England Port RichSwansea, and Newcastle, in England mond, Greenwich Point, Curtis Bay, Newport News, and Buffalo, in the United States, you will see great transporters dumping the mineral by the thousand
; ;
tons into the holds of grimy-looking vessels.
The
are
most sensational
American, so we
methods
will follow
of
handling
for a
coal
them
page or two.
Near the mine is a " tipple," or superstructure, overhanging several railway trucks. The mine trucks are
run on
angle.
to a platform sloping
downwards
at
an acute
Their lower ends are opened and their con-
tents fall out
on
to screens,
which
sort the coal into

its
various
sizes,
each of which passes through

is
own
weighing machine, and
shot into the railway cars
down below. and made up

comes
In this case the sizes are kept separate,

into special trains.
i.e.
But
if
the order
for " run-of-mine " coal,
unsized coal, the
318
Work
whole
is
in the Coal
Mines
" empties "
poured without separation into a train of down below, which is drawn forward
under the tipple by the locomotive as each car which holds upwards of 50 tons >is rilled. Then off goes the train, weighing perhaps 2500 tons, to the
port,
where
it
arrives without
much
difficulty, as
the
grades generally run downhill from the coalfields to

the coast.
At the port the cars are pushed on to

of chutes leading to the hold
elevated piers, which have openings under the tracks
and above the mouths
of the vessel to be loaded.
an opening, a trap-door pulling a lever, and in
in
As each car comes over its bottom is released by

minutes or so the
fifty
five
tons have passed into the chute.

transferred from train to vessel.
By
discharging
several cars simultaneously 2000 tons per
hour can be
Boats specially built for coal transport are

largely used.
now
They
are divided
by
steel
bulkheads,
running longitudinally and transversely, into large

bins
;
and the cargo
is
thus prevented from shifting.

is
Where such
subdivision of the hold

if
not made,
the collier may,
it
meets a
Ships of
gale, alter its trim with
disastrous results.
11,000 tons' capacity

in future
have
been floated for the coal trade, and
years even larger units will probably
great deal of
money
is
become popular. saved by the employment

itself,
of these special ships, since the bin will trim
whereas, in a large open hold, the labour of a

of
number
men would
be required to make them snug.
3*9
CHAPTER XIX
THE MINING OF IRON
The Jermyn Street Museum Natural distribution of iron Classes of iron ores The Edison separating process Roman mining The iron mines of Sussex Consequent destruction of forests The decline and
of the Sussex ironmasters Coal used as fuel for English smeltingfurnaces Sturtevant Dud Dudley Abraham Darby The Bilbao deposits Ain Morka Dannemora Gellivare The Cerro de Mercado The Lake Superior iron ore beds Methods of miningThe steam-shovel Remarkable prices Transporting iron ore to
fall
Pitts-
burg
Other iron countries.

is
Any one who

should not
is
interested in the story of
mining
as
last
fail
to visit a geological
in
museum, such
This
to be
found
Jermyn
Street,
London.
building
who
slabs
is full of objects which, to a casual observer has just strolled in to " see if there's anything
;
worth seeing," are not peculiarly impressive
just
and
;
pillars
of stones
tables
made
;
of
marble
mosaic
cases full of endless specimens
large dia-
grams
first
of strata,
is
seams, and
faults,
view
rather disappointing.
&c, &c. The But if we look
more closely into things we shall soon find ourselves becoming interested. Here is a diamond drill which, to judge by the worn condition of the diamonds, has done yeoman service. Beside it lie cores of some seams penetrated by it. Above it is mounted a large
old-fashioned steel auger, which
it
has supplanted.
320
3a
8 "^
The Mining of
The eye
is
Iron
of
;
also
attracted
to
some
the
lovely
;
copper ores
pyrites of golden colour

;
blue azurite
purple ore from Cornwall
green ore.
and
felspars are beautiful to
ore and asbestos are curious.

suggest what they contain
;
The agates look upon. Antimony Many ores would never
their drab, uninteresting
appearance helps us to understand why the Comstock and Leadville miners made such mistakes in the early
days.
Ah
here
is
a gilt
model
of the "
Welcome
;
"
nugget,
the second largest

It
ever discovered
value
over .8000.
the rough,
rouses feelings of envy, as
we
note
corrugated surface, and try to imagine
the sensations experienced by the lucky miner struck his pick into
it
who
nearly
fifty
years ago.
full
Close to
this
model
are cases
of
iron ore
specimens, representing a metal that has been vastly
more valuable to mankind than all the gold, silver, and diamonds ever mined put together. In colour, iron ore cannot compare with copper, though the pyrites (or sulphide of iron) is golden, and the Elban
ore wears the hues of the peacock.
The majority
of
specimens range from a dirty yellow, through browns and reds, to black. Their shape is somewhat more
interesting.
Haematite, one of the most important
varieties of ore, occurs as curious knobs, with
smooth,
like
shining surfaces.
Spathose iron ore, on the other

of curious laminae,
hand,
there
is
made up
little
somewhat
butterflies' wings, standing up on edge.

is
Here, again,
60 per cent.
externally to
suggest that the most

to
useful of the metals forms
from 35 321
The Romance
of
of Mining
Certainly
these
dull-looking
a
compounds.
of
we
cannot see
lumps.
Iron
is
trace
metal
sparkling
from the
even more widely distributed than coal.

say at once that scarcely a country could
the
We may
found.
be named in which iron ore deposits are not to be
most notable fields will be we have briefly enumerated the chemical compounds in which iron occurs.
of
Some
mentioned presently,
after
The only
meteorites,
naturally pure iron
is
that contained in
which have fallen from the skies, and once formed part of the heavenly bodies. A poetical mind might see in the fall of these errant masses a Divine hint that iron is the most valuable material and indeed gift that can be sent to man from above
;
it
is
remarkable that space should be
full of
iron
lumps whirling about, heated
to whiteness
whenever
as
ferric
they encounter the friction of our atmosphere.
Combined with sulphur,
iron
appears
is
disulphide or iron pyrites, which
of
little
use to
the smelter, but valuable as a source of sulphuric

acid, or vitriol.
The
oxides of iron
{i.e.
substances in which iron

as
:
is
combined with oxygen) are known
(i) Magnetite,
also called magnetic iron ore, or loadstone,
which
contains 72 per cent, of iron, the largest proportion

that can
combine with oxygen
(2) Hcematite,
brown
and
red, including limonite, specular ore, lake ore, &c.
Haematite contains up to 70 per cent, of iron. Thirdly, we have the carbonates of iron (i.e. iron
322
The Mining of
plus carbon plus oxygen),
Iron
under two main called "sparry
impurities.
which
fall
heads: (i) Spathic

ore,"
siderite,
is
iron ore} otherwise
or
spathose.
This has a crystalline

free
form and
comparatively
from
(2) Clay ironstone,
found largely
in the coal-measures,
and limestone. This ore is the poorest in iron, of which it seldom contains more than 40 per cent., but on account of its interstratification with the fuel necessary to smelt it, and the flux (limestone) needed to separate the impurities, it has
alternating with coal
been
till
recent years the

industries of
;
immense
sylvania
though
it
main foundation of the England and Western Pennhas assumed less importance as
cheap freights have enabled ironmasters to import richer ores from distant regions to the smelting
furnaces of the coalfields, or to transport coal to the
districts
where the richer ores occur.

as a whole, iron ore falls into four classes
:
Taken
1.
2.
3.
4.
Rich, those containing more than 50 per cent, of iron. Average, those containing 35 to 50 per cent, of iron. Poor, those containing 25 to 35 per cent, of iron. Useless, those containing up to 25 per cent, of iron.
The
last
class
is
useless,
however, only for smelting

Edison, the " Wizard
direct
from the
ore.
Thomas
of the West/' has discovered a
method
of separating
the
iron from
pulverised in
through a
1
matrix by electricity. The ore is huge crusher, and the powder falls hopper past the poles of a very powerful
its
British ores average 35 per cent,

;
Austrian, 40
Spanish, 50
iron ; French, 36 Swedish, up to 66.
German, 37
323
The Romance
so that they
fall
of
Mining
electro-magnet, which deflects the particles of metal

into
special receiver, while the
rubbish drops directly into another.

Iron mining, though as compared with
some other
in large
branches of mining a modern industry, dates back

into the
unrecorded past.
The metal occurs
pockets near or at the surface, as well as in veins and
deep beds, and was therefore easily workers armed with very simple tools.
accessible
to
The Romans
mined iron extensively in the Forest of Dean, in South Wales, and in Sussex. At the time of the Norman Conquest the Sussex industry had ceased, since we find no reference to it in Domesday Book, though smelting still continued on the borders of Wales, whence, during the reign of the Saxon Kings, England seems to have derived most of its iron. During the Middle Ages fresh districts were opened up near Warwick and Leeds and huge cinder-beds
;
testify to the activity of the workers,
who were
to a
great
extent controlled
by the abbots
of the large
monasteries.
At
this
time
iron-working
;
sidered an honourable trade

as the regency of St.
was conand even so far back
Dunstan we have evidence that monkish hands wielded the hammer and pincers, since it was at a forge, situated in his bedroom, that the Saint had his famous encounter with the devil. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, England imported most of her iron and steel from Spain and Germany, the business being in the hands Then of the Merchants of the Steelyard, London. 324
The Mining
of Iron
the Sussex furnaces grew busy, fed by the charcoal
made from the forests which then covered the Weald. Cannon were cast as early as 1543, and exported in
such numbers to Spain that Sir Walter Raleigh said
in the
House
of
of
Commons
"
am
sure heretofore
one ship
Her Majesty's was
able to beat ten
Spaniards, but now, by reason of our
own
ordnance,
we
are hardly
tion
matched was prohibited by law.

its
one to one," and the exportaIn Elizabeth's reign the

;
though the output was very small as compared with that of other mining
industry reached
climax
districts
of
to-day.
furnace did not yield more

"
than three to four tons a week.
But
to
produce
the comparatively small quantity of iron turned out
by the old works, the consumption of timber was enormous, for the making of every ton of pig-iron
required four loads of timber converted into charcoal
fuel,
and the making

additional
of every ton of bar-iron required
three
loads.
of
Thus, notwithstanding the

iron,
indispensable
need
the
extension
of
the
manufacture, by threatening the destruction of the

timber of the southern counties, came to be regarded
in the light of a national calamity.
Up
its
to a certain
point, the clearing of the

of
Weald
of
dense growth
underwood had been an advantage, by affording

"
'
'
better opportunities for the operations of agriculture.
But the voragious iron-mills were proceeding to swallow up everything that would burn, and the old forest growths were rapidly disappearing. An entire wood was soon exhausted, and a long time
325

was needed before it grew again. At Lamberhurst alone, though the produce was only about five tons
of iron a week, the annual
!
consumption
of
wood was
about 200,000 cords Wood continued to be the only material used for fuel generally, a strong
prejudice
existing against
1
the
use
of
sea-coal
for
domestic purposes.
that
there
It therefore began to be feared would be no available fuel left within
practicable reach of the
metropolis
and the conoccasioning
tingency of having to face the rigorous cold of an
English winter
without
action
to
fuel
naturally
much
evil."
2
alarm,
the
of
the
Government was
the
deemed
In
1
necessary
remedy
apprehended
penal
58 1 an Act was passed, which made
it
to convert
wood
into fuel within fourteen miles of
London,
to erect
miles, or to
new ironworks increase the number
within twenty-two
of Sussex, Surrey,
limits.
and Kent furnaces beyond certain

of this legislation,
to
As a result some Sussex ironmasters removed South Wales, and the Sussex iron industry declined
till
:
steadily
1790,
M
when
din
it
ceased altogether.
the iron
Dr.
Smiles says
The
of
hammer was
last blast
hushed, the glare of the furnace faded, the

of the bellows
its
was blown, and the
district
returned to
3
original
solitude.
Some
of the furnace-ponds
Because people believed that the fumes were poisonous and injured
the
2
3
human complexion,
besides causing certain diseases. Dr. Smiles, " Industrial Biographies." These were impounded to supply water power to drive mechanical
tilt-hammers.
326
The Mining of
Iron
;
were drained and planted with hops and willows others formed beautiful lakes in retired pleasuregrounds while the remainder were used to drive flour mills, as the streams in North Kent, instead of
;
driving fulling-mills, were

mills.
employed
to
work paper-
All
that
now remains
of the old ironworks
are the extensive beds of cinders from which material

is
the
mend the Sussex roads, and numerous furnace-ponds, hammer-posts, forges, and cinder places, which mark the seats of the ancient
occasionally taken to
*
manufacture."
Fortunately for England, she contained inexhaustible supplies of a fuel
much
better suited than
wood
for smelting.
A German, named Simon

all
Sturtevant,
took out a patent about the year 1610 for "nealing,

melting, and working
kind of
metal ores, irons
and
steeles,
with sea-coale, pit-coale, earth-coale, and

;
.
brush fewell
which
will
prove to be the best
and most profitable business and invention that ever was known or invented in England these many yeares." The concluding words were true enough, for to what dimensions has the iron industry spread not only in England but in other civilised countries, since the employment of coal in the smelting furnaces
!
The United
States alone produced, in

;
iron-pig worth nearly .60,000,000
and
in
1902, England,
Germany, France, and Sweden also, the industries connected with iron rank second to that of agriculture.
1
Since these words were written
many
of the traces referred to have
disappeared.
327
The Romance
Sturtevant did not do
of Mining
than put a large
much more
number of words, purposely vague and mystifying, on paper. The real introducer of coal as a smelting agent was undoubtedly Dud Dudley, son of Edward Lord Dudley, of Dudley Castle, in Worcestershire.
His patent,
furnace,
" for
melting
iron
ore
with
coal
in
But his invention was born before its time. Never did inventor encounter more discouragement and active persecution than poor Dud, whose private success
with bellows,"
dates from 1620.
aroused
fears
among
His
life
rival
ironmasters
that
the
use of coal would, by increasing
output, seriously
lower prices.
five years,
was one long struggle against
heavy odds, and when he died, at the age of eightyhe had only sown the seeds of the revolu-
tion
which afterwards overtook smelting methods
in
Britain.
to rely
Abraham Darby was one of the first ironmasters on coal fuel. He made a large fortune out of
his
casting iron pots at Coalbrookdale, South Shropshire,
and
successors
fairly
established
his
methods.
At Merthyr-Tydvil, Mr. Richard Crawshay was in

18 1 2 turning out
10,000
tons of bar-iron yearly,
thanks
coal,
to
the proximity of clay ironstone to good

of the
and the invention by Henry Cort

the
impurities
of squeezing
out
of
iron
method bars by
of the
passing them through rollers.
The discovery
Blackband Ironstone deposits of the western counties

of Scotland,
in
1801, led to the establishment of a

;
thriving iron
industry there
and from
that
time
328
&
."*S*o
o 5
<i, <*
hrfi 5S
u!-
The Mining of
onward King Coal has been the
King Iron.
Iron
great partner of
most remarkable iron deposits occur as which can be quarried out like slate or marble by open-cast workings. Near Bilbao, in the Spanish province of Biscay, are the most wonderful
of the
Some
mountains
of ore,
haematite
mountains
in
Europe, from which

a large
"
vast
quantities of ore are got every year,

of miners.
The
iron
deposits
by form huge basins

.
army
.
or quarries in the primeval beds of limestone.
Lying within a radius tide water, they have
of ten or twelve miles
from
lent themselves readily to the
Wire tramways connect the principal mines with wharves of their own, which steamers can lie alongside of and receive cargo as fast as it can be tumbled into them.
cheapest possible forms of transport.
In the lower parts of Bilbao the
riverside
is
grid*
ironed with iron
rails
running
in
from the mines."
Ever since the sixteenth century Bilbao has exported iron, the excellence of which was so well established in Elizabeth's reign that rapiers of high quality were known as " Bilboes." Between i860 and 1901, no fewer than 100,000,000 tons of ore were mined, averaging about 48 per cent, of metal and the out;
put
the
still
reaches
5,000,000
tons
annually.
The
Somorrostro hills contain two huge masses of ore, Monte Triano and the Monte Matamoros. The
is
former
3080 yards
feet
1
long,
and
W.
varies in thickness
:
from a few
to
thirty
yards
the
latter
has a
" Spain
of To-Day,"
R. Lawson.
329

length of il miles, and a
half
maximum
width of nearly
These are worked out by lifts, or terraces, along which run railways. The miners drill holes 15 to 20 feet deep, and put in heavy charges of dynamite, which when exploded detach large masses of ore. The record blast moved 6000
a
mile. tons.
From
the workings the ore
is
carried to the
hill
sea coast on elevated ropeways, spanning

valley,
and
capable of transporting thousands of tons a
After the Rio Tinto the iron mines of Biscay form Spain's most valuable mineral asset. Other remarkable deposits are to be found in Elba, and in Algeria, where, at Am Morka, exists a large bed of haematite and magnetite 100 feet thick. The Swedish iron mines of Dannemora are world-famous, having been worked for over four hundred years. From these mines comes the purest iron ore known to exist magnetite yielding 66 per cent, of metal. So very excellent is the ore that the owners limit its production to 50,000 tons per annum, and keep the price at a figure which is possible only from the fact Originally worked that Dannemora ore has no rival. " open-cast," the vein is now attacked through shafts nearly a thousand feet deep, under very modern conditions, which include the use of electric light With the approaching throughout the workings. the Dannemora vein, European exhaustion of smelters are looking about for new Swedish ironfields, and a rich strike has been made near Gellivare, a small town north of the Arctic Circle, which will
day.
330
The Mining
of Iron
soon become the most northerly important mining centre of Europe. In this district the ore lies in
300 feet thick, said to contain at least To connect these fields with 250,000,000 tons. salt water two railways have been built, the one to Lulea on the Baltic, the other across Norway
to the Ofoten Fiord,
bodies
where the warm waters

coast
ice-free
all
of the
Gulf Stream keep the
the
year
of
round.
The
ore
contains
over
62
per
cent,
metallic iron, so that the value of this iron-mountain
can hardly be estimated.

In
the future a Mexican deposit,
will
the
It
Cerro de
Mercado,
become very
650
feet
valuable.
measures
a mile in length, a third of a mile in width, and rises
from 400
to
above the surrounding plain.
Humboldt thought that the mountain must be an immense aerolite, though he was undoubtedly misPeople of the country, deceived by the lustre taken. of the ore, mistook pieces for more precious metals, hence the belief among them that the Cerro must
conceal in
its
bowels untold stores of gold and

is
silver.
That
its
value
nevertheless
enormous cannot be
doubted.
1858
varas.
five
said
1
An expert who reported on the Cerro in "The bulk of the hill is 60,000,000 cubic
specific
As the
weight of the mountain

I
is
times greater than that of water,
found that
50 per
the quantity of metal

tons,
cent,
amounts
produce
to
250,000,000 net
which melted
1
will
at the rate of
the quantity of metallic iron."
The quantity
vara
is
a Spanish measure equal to 33^ inches.
33 1

may
in
be overestimated
mass.
It
is
but
many
fortunes must
in
lie
that
curious
of
that,
spite of
the
enormous
quantities
iron
which
their
country
contains, the Mexicans until comparatively recently
regarded iron as a precious metal

peculiar feature of the Cerro
of ant-heaps covering
its
too precious to
use in the manufacture of carts and ploughs.
Mercado
surface,
number each heap composed

is
the
of
myriads of round iron-ore

natives
pellets of equal size.
The
use
this
ready-made small shot

far
for
sporting purposes.
When
methods
iron ore
of
is
it
found
below the surface, the
mining
closely resemble those used in
gold-quartz or coal-mining, and therefore need receive
But the great surface deposits Lake Superior Region, which now furnish so large a proportion of the world's iron, are worked on a system which is somewhat different from those in use elsewhere, and deserves mention. The iron district of Lake Superior extends in a line running across northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and includes the Marquette, Menominee, Gogebic, Vermilion, and Mesabi ranges of hills. All the mines lie within one hundred miles of the Lake, with which they are connected by rail, as also with The varieties of ore found are Lake Michigan. Where the ore occurs as magnetite and haematite. veins, with a very sharp dip, a shaft is sunk through the rock under the vein, and a heading is driven
no
special attention.
of the
horizontally through the ore as soon as a depth of
332
The Mining
and
to a level
is
of Iron
about sixty feet below the surface has been reached,

driven along the vein for
some
eight
ten yards.
The
ore
is
then dug out, working
upwards, by the overhand stoping method, timber

being placed to support the roof.
When
the miners
reach the roof, they extend the original level another

length, but leave the ore over this alone,
and someThis block
times for another eight to ten yards.
they excavate like the

the timber supports.
first,
and then
roof caves
blast
away
all
The
in, filling
the
chamber, and the central
pillar is
then worked out

a block thirty
and caved.
yards
or so
The
vein has
now had
is
long, sixty feet high,
breadth, excavated.
feet,
The
shaft
and of its own sunk another sixty
of
and the process continues, till perhaps a depth iooo feet is reached. The chief advantage of this method is, that the amount of rubbish overhead is
all
kept constant at
ling
depths
are
the original roof travel-
down Where
the vein as the shaft and workings sink.

deposits
bowl-shaped,
but
have
is
considerable
material, the
" over-burden,"
or covering of useless
same
plan,
somewhat modified,
100
feet
pur-
sued.
vertical
shaft,
deep,
is
sunk
driven
through the containing rock, and

into the heart of the ore body.
" rises," or small shafts, are
levels are
From
these, timber
worked upwards to within a few feet of the over-burden, some to act as ladderways, the others as shoots down which to pour the
ore into skips waiting in the level below.
slice,
A horizontal
seven feet thick,
is
excavated under the surface
333
The Romance
soil,
of
Mining
make
a firm
and when a
is
sufficient area
has been robbed, the
floor
covered with rough planks to

the
and the props are blasted. The surface of the ground sinks in, leaving a visible Slice after slice is thus taken away, and depression. when the main gallery is reached, the shaft is sunk further, another level is driven, more shoots and ladder-ways are worked, and the same series of excavating operations is repeated. Finally, an immense chasm indicates the former position of the
roof
for
next
slice,
To a being to whom a year seemed but an hour the sinking of the surface would be most mysterious, for not a single worker is in sight.
ore body.
A third method, called the milling method, utilises the shaft and the gallery, but the u over-burden " is
and the ore, excavated as in an " opencast," is poured down minor shafts into the gallery and hoisted through the main shaft. Under certain circumstances this is a more economical way of working than hoisting direct from the surface of the
first
stripped,
exposed ore body.
Where
possible,
that
is
to
say,
where the ore
is
and the deposits lie near the surface, is made through the ore, and steam-shovels a cutting In the Mesabi district the ore " lies on the are used.
sufficiently soft,
slopes of the hills in
immense masses with

Britain as
'
little
soil
above
those
it. The known in Great
steam-shovels used are similar to
steam-navvies/ but
are larger and
more powerful.
334
Those
of the
most
modern type have three separate pairs of cylinders
The Mining
and one
boiler.
of Iron
cost about
^1900
They weigh ninety-two tons, and One machine has filled two each.
is
hundred and
total of
thirty-three 25-ton ore waggons, or a

tons, in nine hours, but this
5825
a record
by the and five full-weight lifts will fill Ten men, exclusive of the train-men, are required to work the machine, which consumes about four cwt. of coals an hour. The Mountain iron mine is half a mile long by 1200 feet broad, and at present 85 feet deep. It is worked in horizontal slices of twenty feet, the vertical range of the steamperformance.
Five tons of ore can be
lifted
machine each a waggon.

.
stroke,
.
shovel.
also
Removal
of the surface soil as required
is
performed by the machine. ... A train of ten to twelve 25-ton waggons is run alongside a steamshovel, and is worked forward by a locomotive as
fast as the
sorted,
to
waggons are filled. It is then drawn out, and made up into longer trains for transport the docks (on Lake Superior). These trains usually
is
consist of forty-four waggons, whether; full or empty.
Whilst one engine

other
is
attending a steam-shovel, an-
preparing a set of empties to replace those

full.
1
drawn out
continuous."
In
this
way
the
work
is
almost
the ore, though
chasers at
In
Thanks to this expeditious handling pure and rich, is supplied to purtenpence per ton on the waggons
!
the
last
chapter
for
we
noticed
the
value
of
Connellsville
coke
smelting
purposes.
Now,
Connellsville
1
and the Lake Superior ore deposits are

J.
Messrs.
and A.
P.
Head
in Cassier's
Magazine.
335
The Romance
far apart,
of Mining
other in
though each forms the complement of the the production of high-grade Bessemer steel.
as
To
ton
transport ore to Connellsville, or coke to Michigan,

it
would be equally economical,

of
takes about
one
same weight of ore. and other steel-preparing machinery, steam coal would be needed, and accordingly Pittsburg, in the Pennsylvanian coal-fields, was chosen as the point to which both ore and coke should be brought. The ore is conveyed on large trucks direct from the mine to the lake ports, where it is transferred to special boats in much the same A manner as coal, though more expeditiously. vessel of 5000 tons can be filled in a couple of hours.
coke to
smelt
the
But
for the
rolling-mills
From
Duluth, the chief loading port, the ore-carrier

Ste.
steams to the Sault
Marie Locks between Lakes
Superior and Huron.
The
is
largest lock
is
900
feet
long and 60 feet wide, and
said to rank first in the
world for
size.
From Lake Huron
the ship passes
through the Erie Canal to Erie Lake, and heads for
Here machinery of the most modern type scoops the ore from the " vessel's hold, and dumps it either on huge " stock
Cleveland, the chief receiving port.
piles
containing millions of tons against

it
the
time
when
it
will
be needed for the furnaces, or transfers

will
which mighty locomotives to Pittsburg.

directly to 50-ton trucks
be hauled by
At that town the
ore
it
is
stocked or tipped into buckets which convey
to the tops of the furnaces.
as the scope of this
Here we will leave book does not cover the story 336
it,
of
The Mining
steel
of Iron
notice,
manufacture.
We may
however,
that,
thanks to the cheapness of transport and the ease

with which both coal and ore are mined, a ton of
Bessemer " pig

shillings less
"
can be produced
shillings,
at
Pittsburg for
about thirty-three
than
or
for
nearly
twenty
of
at
Middlesborough.
are feeling
No wonder
the pinch
that English ironmasters
foreign competition
The Lake Superior ore beds

will
yield about 15,000,000
tons yearly, and the Mesabi Iron
Mountain alone
some 500,000,000 tons more have been removed. So that this immense
not be exhausted
till
iron
district,
noted
also
for
its
copper and coal
deposits, will continue to supply Pittsburg for
many
years to come.
as
But we must not forget that at least much again is mined in Pennsylvania, Missouri
has
its
(which
Virginia,
own
iron
mountain),
States
yield
steel.
New
Jersey,
States.
Colorado,
New
York, and other
Furthermore, the United
only three-
eighths of the world's iron and
There are
immense
Australia,
iron
ore
beds
in
China, Siberia, Russia,
and Africa, which have as yet scarcely been touched. In truth, we cannot imagine a time when the world will be so denuded of iron that the
happy possessor
letting out
of a nail will, like Captain Cook's
Otaheitan chief, "receive no small emolument by

the use of it to his neighbours for the purpose of boring holes when their own methods
failed,
or were thought too tedious."
Well has
this
age been styled the Age of Iron.
337
CHAPTER XX
MARBLE QUARRIES
Carrara
marble
Marbles The town of Carrara The quarries How Bringing down the hillsides The lizzatura Road transport The miners of Carrara Marble in Britain, Algeria, and India The marble beds of Vermont Electricity in harness.
is
Greek
blasted
In the north of Tuscany, ranged in a line parallel

to the sea-coast,
you
will see
on your map the three
towns
of Carrara, Massa,
and Serravezza.
its
From
;
the
environs of these towns comes the famous statuary
marble to which Carrara has given
name
marble
of a pure white hue, and so free from "foreign matter " that, when broken, it shows a texture much
like that of sugar.
The Greeks,
their
a race of
famous
to the
sculptors, quarried
marble from Mounts Pentelicus and Hymettus,

it
or sent over-seas for
Island of Paros.
If
you wish
visit
to
the British
make acquaintance with Pentelic marble Museum, where the Elgin Marbles,
at
is
removed from the Parthenon
Athens
the
in
1816,
may be
ideals.
seen.
Beautiful indeed
smooth lime-
stone in which the Greek artists materialised their
But the marble

as
of Carrara
is
almost,
if
not quite,
perfect as that
used by the Athenians.

hills
For a
have
re-
thousand years the Tuscan marble
338
\ "T
.*?
f''v
"
**
rK
ir
<
//> /
>.<
;
.
:J*r
vV*
'
X
'
#?tf
f<.
Marble Quarries
sounded with the blows
later
that,
of
hammers and
left
picks,
and
with the crash of explosions.
Augustus boasted
thanks to Carrara, he had
Rome
a city of
of
marble palaces, though he found it one .The old Roman workings still pit the
brick.
hillsides.
Long
after they fell into disuse the great Florentine,
Michel Angelo, and Antonio Canova, hewed their

to-day
immortal statuary out of Carraran marble, which still remains without a rival.
from which the marble is sent Blocks of all weights, from forty all over the world. tons downwards, cover the quay and glisten in the They have been brought intense Italian sunlight. down from the quarries by road and rail. Carrara itself, a town of about 30,000 inhabitants, is five miles from the coast. The railway leading to it runs over marble ballast, and through tunnels driven through solid marble. Every siding is full of marble-laden trucks. The town appears to be one vast workshop, where everybody, from small children to old grandfathers, lives by his chisel and mallet. In the lower rooms of the houses all kinds of carving are in progress. Here mantelshelves are being smoothed and polished there tombstones.
Avenza
is
the port
The
here.
to
sculptor of artistic statuary also has his studio
He comes
to the marble.
It is
cheaper than
remind one of Juvenal's account of Rome they are filled with wains, creaking beneath their white loads, and hauled by long strings of horned oxen, whose movestreets
:
have the marble sent to him.
The
339
The Romance
Like Johannesburg, Carrara
of Mining
a city of
dust,
ments are spurred by drivers perched on the yokes.

is
but
snowy, and comes, not from piles of rock-rubbish, but from the workshops. The town is indeed interesting but the visitor would be disappointed if he had to leave the neighhere the dust
is
;
bourhood without first visiting the quarries where the brown quarrymen blast and hack and cut the marble from the living rock. As the hills are practically solid marble, there is no need to tunnel for
it.
Beginning
its
at
the foot of a slope, the
workmen
has eaten
cut into
far
sides, until a gigantic semicircle
back into the mountain. Large masses are detached by dynamite, which is placed in very carefully drilled holes, and in such quantities as to separate,
without
of
splitting, the
is
marble.
the sight
"
The
of
first visible
sign
the operation
masses tumbling
fifty-ton blocks
down
the mountain-side, thirty

like
and
looking
mere pebbles.
The
distances are enor-
mous, but the animated black specks, which one knows to be men, are clearly silhouetted against the Something like a black ant surrounding whiteness. suddenly makes its appearance and blows a sonorous
other horns, numbers of them, on a horn the warning note, the sound gradually dying take up away in the distance. Then more ants are visible, swarming to the shelter of a bomb-proof or caseAfter the last horn has ceased sounding not mate. then comes the boom, the a soul is to be seen rattle, and the falling pebbles, and presently the 340
blast
; ;
Marble Quarries
ants
swarm
out
again,
apparently from
all
sides,
and proceed
blasts.
to drill
more
holes and put in fresh
The men must love the sound of that horn, x for it means a ten minutes' loaf for them." The easiest part of the work has now been done.
It
doesn't take long to drill a few holes
and
insert
But the removal of the blocks to the seasomewhat dangerous, and very laborious business and in some quarries the job is done by contracts made with the hauliers, locally called lizzatura and caravana. The former only undertake the lowering of marble, after it has been roughly squared, from the spot where it comes to
charges.
is
coast
a tedious,
rest
after
blasting to the
nearest waggon-track, or
to the railway.
Certain paths have been selected
down
the marble-
covered slopes, over which the blocks

easily
will slide
most
by force
fast,
it
of gravitation.
so
much
to pass the material
The difficulty is not down as to prevent its

to itself
going too
and causing damage

encounter.
and
to
anything
at
may
Watch
these lizzatura
and which they slowly raise a block on to a solid sleigh of hard beechwood. Ropes, or rather cables, for they measure from three to five inches in diameter, are then passed round the block. Now, if you use your eyes well, you will see, ranged at
work.
They have
produced
screw-jacks
levers, with
intervals
down
1
the slope, stout posts driven into the
loose stones
and rubbish.
By means
of the ropes
E. St. John Hart in Pearson's Magazine.
341
The Romance
stone
of Minin g
law enforces the use of three and the posts the is gradually allowed to slide down the track.
as
it
As soon
skid in
begins to
move
man
places a second
and when it has passed over the first this is picked up by a follower, who hands it to a man perched on the stone, to be soaped and handed forward again. The same three or four skids are thus used in rotation over and jver again. The men
its
path,
who
At
lay the skids naturally run
the greatest risks,

is
and occasionally the ropes break and one

last
killed.
the descent
is
accomplished.
It
now
only
remains to raise the block on to waggon or truck.

This process includes a great deal of shouting and
by which the workers apparently try to drown the sensations of severe muscular exertion. The screw-jacks once more come into action, and levers are requisitioned. The men tug and strain, working with the harmony born of much practice, and the moment soon comes when they can fling down
yelling,
their tools
and make a rush
for the nearest wine-shop.

if
The
port
is
caravana
used.
now
get their innings,
road trans-
The waggons have very powerful

to
brakes, wherewith
control
the
descent
on
the
it
down
grades.
Water has worn the road

is
until
suggests the bed of a mountain torrent rather than

a track for wheels, and the " going "
from easy. Remember that some of these blocks weigh as much and you know how one of as four traction-engines these machines will impress the surface of a wellfar
;
made
road.
342
Marble Quarries
"The people engaged in this employment/' writes Mr. Hart, " which is practically hereditary, are a fine,
sturdy,
hard-working race of mountaineers.
They
are true Highlanders,

Italians of the towns.
and not
in the least like the
Many
of
them have
to climb
three, four,
and even
six miles before
reaching the
scene
of
their
labours.
Their wages or earnings
one pound per week, and they generally work in gangs, each gang being under the control of a headman, who is more or less
range from
fifteen shillings to
one
of
themselves, with the difference that he has
saved or
made money
and
it
is
with him that the
owners usually contract

port of the marble."
for the quarrying
and
trans-
The 400 quarries of the Carrara neighbourhood employ nearly 7000 men, and produce 185,000 tons At Avenza the marble is worth of marble annually.
about
of
.3
per ton.
the British Isles afford no single centre marble quarrying operations to compare with Carrara, they can claim some fine deposits. South Devon yields marbles of rich tints and handsome Black marble comes from Galway, Kilmarkings. Near Swanage the famous kenny, and Derbyshire.
Though
Purbeck
of a mottled, greenish grey
is
quarried.
In Algeria are beds of the beautiful so-called
onyx
marble, very transparent, with delicate yellow and
brown
India,
tints.
is
The
built of
glorious Taj Mahal, at Agra, in marble from the Makrana quarries
of Rajputana.
343
The Romance
The United
to that of Italy.
of Mining
States marble industry ranks second
In South Vermont, round the town huge beds of the precious limestone, through which diamond drills have been sunk to a depth of over 200 feet without entering any other substance. The Sheldon quarry, the deepest marble pit in the world, has its bottom 250 feet below the surface, yet there are at present no signs of exhaustion. Much of the marble is got by " open" working, but in places where the over-burden cast is heavy great caves have been hollowed out in the hillsides, so large that several thousand people could promenade in them comfortably. In Vermont exof Proctor, are
plosives are not
much
used, their place being taken
by
it
electrically- or steam-driven
machinery, which cuts

their
long and deep channels through the marble, dividing

into great blocks,
which are separated from

stream,
the Otter
beds by wedges.
Creek, has
been harnessed to turbines of 3000 horse-power for

the generation of electric current,
in
and to saw-mills The which the blocks are cut and ground.
generated
is
electricity
applied
to
all
kinds
of
machinery, from the giant gantry cranes, which pile
lumps as easily as if they were bricks, and the monster lathes turning the surface of pillars twenty-five feet long, to small mechanical chippers,
thirty-ton
wherewith the monumental mason traces intricate designs on headstones. It also helps to convey
sand for
the
sawing
of
the
blocks
into
slabs,
on
cable-way
which crosses a mountain from
344
Marble Quarries
the
sand beds two and a-half miles distant.

is
The
Otter Creek
one way, for making Proctor the centre of the States marble industry. One company alone quarries from 60,000
thus responsible,
in
to 70,000 tons annually.
345
CHAPTER XXI
STONE AND GRANITE QUARRIES
Bath stone Early users of it A stone for country mansions Ralph Allen and John Wood The quarries Their extent How stone is got
Its
v.
The quarry horse cleverness Portland stone Convict free labour A curious custom Granite The Aberdeen quarries The hardness of granite A record blast Sawing and turning granite.
situated
At Corsham and Box

Railway,
western
ends
of
on the Great Western respectively at the eastern and the famous tunnel excavated by
Stations,
Brunei, you will see trucks laden with large blocks

of white stone standing in the sidings, of the
and
also piles
same material
is
in the station yards.
This stone
city of
that
named
is
after the
neighbouring
it.
Bath, which
almost entirely built of
The
for
its
which make it specially valuable building purposes are its freedom from " grain,"
characteristics
effects
ability to resist the

air,
of long exposure
it
to
the
and the ease with which
carved.
The
of
hills
composed
tities
this
can be cut and surrounding Bath are largely or freestone, which is oolite,
Great Britain,
quarried from them, and despatched in huge quanto

all
parts of
and even
to
Canada, Africa, and India. The mining of Bath stone
is
no new industry.
of
The Romans during
their
occupation
Britain
346
Stone and Granite Quarries

soon discovered the worth of the oolite, and used it for the fine and interesting buildings which still encircle the hot mineral springs which draw so
many
invalids
to
Bath.
The
excellence of
their
preservation,
more than wisdom of the Romans in selecting their material. Bath Abbey was built of the sime stone by the
Saxons,
though they have existed now for two thousand years, testifies to the
who
also
used
it
for
the
fine
abbey
at
Malmesbury.
This stone apparently came from the
Box
quarries, which, so tradition tells us,

first
owed
their
discovery to St. Aldhelm, the

glove and bade his
great treasure,
abbot of Malmes-
bury, who, as he rode over the
hill,
threw down his
men
dig there, as they
also erected the
meaning the quarry. Saxon church at Bradford-on-Avon,

is
would find The same saint
which, though very small,
one
of the finest speci-
mens
Saxon architecture in the country. later, famous country residences were built of stone brought from Box Longleat, the residence of the Marquis of Bath Lacock Abbey, near Chippenham Bowood, the seat of the Marquis Corsham Court, the home of Lord of Lansdowne Methuen and more modern mansions, such as Westonburt and Witley Court. The two men who may be considered to be the
of
Centuries
founders of the great industry that
now
engages so
many
of the folk living near the
Ralph Allen and John Wood. in 17 15, and four years later established a system
Box Tunnel, were Allen came to Bath
347
The Romance
of of our present postal service. for a
of Mining
Seeing the necessity
bye and cross-posts, which was the forerunner
good supply of building stone in a neighbourhood which had become the fashionable resort of Londoners, Allen re-opened the quarries on Coombe Down, and also those on Hampton Down. He was ably seconded by Wood, an architect of high repute, whose genius is stamped on many of the streets, squares, crescents, &c, which still render Bath remarkable, and at the time when they were built attracted people from the Metropolis. It was chiefly to Wood's efforts that Beau Nash succeeded in due making the city a pleasure as well as a health resort. In 1737 Allen built the stately mansion at Prior Park. The foundations alone consumed 8000 tons of Bath stone, the superstructure 30,000 tons. Even
to the sash-bars of the
ternal
detail
basement windows, every exof
was made
the
poet,
the stone.
The
as
pile
is
more than
wing.
a quarter of a mile long
from wing
to
Pope,
;
wrote
of
it
extremely
and A noble seat which sees all Bath, and which was built probably In short, Allen made a huge for all Bath to see." fortune out of his post and quarries, and Prior Park was the outward visible sign of it.
comfortable
a contemporary, as "
Since
Allen's
time
the
industry
has
increased
of trans-
enormously, on account of the

port which the railway affords.
fact that the driving of the
at the
facilities
It
is
an interesting
the
Box Tunnel, which was

folly, led to
time regarded as an act of
348

discovery of vast stone deposits, which have been
mined, until
now
the hills are
honey-combed with
over sixty miles of workings.
Speaking generally, Bath stone is got from underground chambers, adits being driven into the deOolite is found at depths ranging from ioo posits. to 120 feet below the ground surface, sandwiched in between strata of comparatively useless stone. The seams range from 20 to 30 feet in thickness. The mines for such they should be termed rather than quarries are of enormous extent indeed, there are no similar works in Great Britain which penetrate so many miles underground, and none in which men enjoy such immunity from bad air and falls. The Box quarries run under the Down for miles, and the quarrymen residing in that neighbourhood prefer, when the weather is bad, to walk to their work through them rather than over the surface, though they have to light their steps with a
small hand-lamp.
Year
after year fresh
chambers
are opened, their position being carefully

a large
at this
shown on
map kept in the manager's office. A glance map will make you wonder how anybody can
way through
the maze.
Stories are
ever find his

told of people to explore
who have been
driven by curiosity
result that
abandoned workings, with the
they have lost their way, and either starved to death

or been reduced to extremities before being found
by search
easily
parties
believed.
and, indeed, such tales can be So far-reaching are the quarries

;
349
The Romance
that
of Mining
straight
them at Box, and travel ahead till he emerges at Corsham, miles away, having actually passed over Brunei's tunnel.
a visitor can enter
For a description
tised
in
of the
working methods pracare indebted to Mr. T.

of
the
quarries,
we
Sturge
Cotterell,
the
manager
the
Bath
is
Firms, Ltd.
The system
generally used
Stone an in-
version of that used in coal-mines.
The coal-miner
undercuts the face, so that a mass
and break.
may fall away But building stone so worked would

The
freestone miner,
make
With
a valueless rubbish heap.
therefore,
commences
fitted
operations
above the stone.
the aid of adze-shaped picks, to

as the
which longer
cuts a
handles are
work proceeds, he
deep horizontal groove 8 or 9 inches high, and extending 6 to 7 feet back into the rock. It is evident
that the removal of this thin layer of material im-
mediately under the ceiling will disclose any weakness

in
the roof as effectively as
excavated from ceiling to

to
settle
is
at
Assuming
that
had been and any tendency once detected and guarded against. the " holing" has not revealed any
if
the stone
floor,
signs of danger, the miners
now
get out their one-
handled saws, insert them
at
each end of the groove,

vertically
first
and cut through the stone

angles to the face, until the
parting
is
and
at
right
natural horizontal
reached.
The block has now been
de-
tached on top, at each end, and below.
At the
back
it still is
solid with the rock.
Levers are driven

of the block,
into the bed, or parting, at the
bottom
35

and weighted and shaken till it breaks off at the back. It is then drawn down by crane power, and the broken end and the bed are dressed with an axe, so as to make the block shapely before loading it on As soon a' trolley for removal from the chamber. as one block has been got out, the workmen can attack others at the back as well with their saws, so
that
all
farther breaking off

face, or heading,
is
rendered unnecessary.
a io-ton crane
is
At each
of
work
erected in such a position as to
command
the whole.
These cranes are now constructed

as to
telescopically, so
accommodate themselves to slight variations in the headings, arising from differences in the depths of the valuable beds, and the expense otherwise attendant on frequent alteration of the crane
is
thus avoided.
After a block of freestone has been
in situ, a Lewis bolt is let into its face, and it is drawn out horizontally by the crane. The removal of the first stratum leaves sufficient space
loosened
for the
workmen
to " hole out " another groove in
the
new face, and also to make more vertical cuts down the first face, so that the face soon has a
Hand-holing has, to a certain extent, been replaced by a mechanical apparatus
terraced appearance.
here, as in coal-mines, hailing
air.
from America, and worked with compressed star-like head of the picker, striking the face many times a minute, soon pulverizes the stone, which is scraped out with a special scoop. Of course, large pillars of stone are left to support 35i
The
The Romance
the roof.
of Mining
The toughest
varieties of stone will with-
stand a crushing pressure of about 200 tons to the
square foot, or ij tons to the square inch.
In the
stalls,
Monks Park and Corsham workings

;
the
or
chambers, can be driven to a width of 25 to 30 feet without danger of caving but in the Box Ground
quarry, the largest safe span
is
limited to 20 feet.
The stone
blocks, after being detached, are
sured and marked.
meaAs a rule they do not exceed

10 tons
7 tons, though for special purposes 9 to

is
attained.
Horses are used to transport the blocks
through the tunnels, or to the bottom of shafts, where a powerful engine hauls them to the surface.
These horses are fine animals, as regards both their strength and intelligence. The miners are proud of their dumb helpers, and will give you examples of their " knowingness." A typical yarn is spun of an old " leader," whose ear told it that a truck approaching from behind had evidently broken loose, and that to stay on the track would mean
certain
death.
The sagacious
by
instinct,
its life.
animal,
it
therefore,
jumped
judged
into a truck near by,

its
though
position
as the
must have place was
pitch dark,
and thus saved

till
The
stones are stacked in large heaps on the
Downs
from March
September, have the natural moisture
become 4i seasoned " to weather changes. From Corsham and Box stations the blocks are sent by rail to all parts of the kingdom, or to seadried out of them, and
ports,
where they are put aboard ship

352
for the Colonies.

Another famous
the Bath,
is
oolitic
stone closely resembling
that of the Portland peninsula in South
About half of the peninsula is in the Dorsetshire. hands of the Bath Stone firms, who work over ioo
quarries.
The Government
finds
employment
;
for
convict labour in other parts of the " island "
but
most of the actual stone-getting is done by the free worker. Nature has behaved kindly in Portland, for the stone lies open to the sky, and is split by conducted fissures which greatly aid its removal on the system already described, except that no "holing" is required. In 1904 no fewer than 90,000 tons of Portland stone were sold by the Bath Stone firms, a considerable portion of which went
to
build
the
new War
Office
in
Whitehall.
House " why the stone necessary for these Government contracts was not obtained by convict labour from Government property. The reply was that, if the nation relied on convict labour, the new War Office would not be
member
of Parliament asked in the "
ready for occupation for a thousand years.

glance
at
"
One
the
convict quarryman," says
the
Stone
ineffi-
Trades Journal,
"
is
sufficient
to
prove their
is
ciency as workmen, though their labour
anything
but
light,
and industry
of
is
everywhere
but the lack
of scientific
arrangement, so absolutely essential in
the
management
necessary plant
outer world
the
render
only one
quarry, and the scarcity
of
crane
is
visible
from the
a result totally inadequate to
amount
of energy expended, only small blocks
353
The Romance
of Mining
being won, which are used in the ubiquitous Admiralty
works. The Portlander is born a quarryman, and grows a clear-eyed, clear-skinned Hercules. The heavy manual exertion required makes them deliberate their movements, and from the few in accidents that occur in their dangerous occupation, marks them as careful and intelligent workmen. " A curious custom renders these Portlanders vastly interested in their work. From time immemorial,
in the event of a
man
dying
intestate, his real pro-
perty was divided equally between his sons.
In the
event of land being concerned,
it
was
either literally
walled
off into the requisite
number
of strips, or
an
undivided ownership was acquired.

leaps
As the stone
industry grew, the value of their land increased with
and bounds, with the result that to-day there are many men working in the quarries and earning, say, 2 a week, who are in receipt of royalties amounting from .50 to ^100 per annum, derived from the stone won from their own land."
In the stone yards near the quarries, circular saws,
having diamond
if
tips
to their teeth, cut
up blocks
as
they were wood, and lathes and planing-machines
finished work,
Every week 2000 cubic feet of and 1000 cubic feet of sawn stone, leave the yards. So great has been the demand for
are always busy.
Portland stone recently, that the company has over
1,000,000
feet of
stone in store for any emergency,
and constantly adds enough stone on the "
There is said to be to it. island " to withstand the drain
354

for centuries.
In fact, the promontory
is
just
one
big mass of useful material.
which reference should be made and the mention of granite takes us at once to Aberdeen, where over 9000 people find employment in quarrying and shaping The Pharaohs used granite this stubborn rock. freely for their statues and temples, but on account of its extreme hardness it has not been what may
Another stone
to
in this chapter is granite
be called a popular stone until quite recently, when the introduction of mechanical tools and improved
its working much more easy was formerly. than it What Allen and Wood were to Bath stone, John Fyfe and Alexander Macdonald have been to granite. Of these the former greatly advanced quarrying methods, the latter the process of dividing and dressing the stone. The quarries in the Aberdeen district are numerous, and also those of Peterhead, whence comes the beautiful red granite often seen in company with Aberdeen grey. The workings are 11 open-cast/' and somewhat resemble the Carrara quarries. Here no hand-sawing can be done. Gunpowder must be used to detach lumps the holes for the charges being made by hand-drilling or and this is now becoming the fashion- by rock-drills, which can bore a hole eight feet deep in an hour or The number of holes required depends on the so. size and the position of the block. Perhaps two or three suffice, or a dozen may be wanted. But what-
processes has rendered
355

ever the number, the blasting must be done carefully
so as not to split the granite into
several
pieces.
Sometimes two
the separation.
blasts
are employed, the
first
only
partially detaching the granite, the
second finishing
Of course, the block leaves the il face " in a rough condition, and must be trimmed up. This is done not with an axe or a chisel, but by splitting along the grain with wedges. Over the quarry runs a stout steel cable, securely anchored at each end and along it travels a carrier, driven by a steamengine hauling on an endless rope. A " fall " rope, passing over a wheel in the carrier, is lowered into the quarry and made fast to the block, which has already been moved to a position below the cable by a powerful crane. At the signal the engineman starts his machinery, and the granite cube, weighing
perhaps
five
or
six
tons,
is
it
swung
aloft,
one, two,
three hundred feet, until

is
reaches the carrier, and then drawn horizontally to the " bank," where the
is
material
sorted out and committed to railway truck

All sizes of stuff, from, the largest block
or waggon.
to
want not," is the motto which the quarry-master lives up to. About ten miles WNW. of Aberdeen, on the river Don, is Kemnay, where a record blast was
mere
chips, have their use.
"
Waste
not,
made some
years ago.
of
No
paltry half-dozen tons
were the object
attack, but a
regular mountain.
it
To
insert the charges effectively
was necessary
to
drive a tunnel right through the mass, with branches
356

to
Two points on the intended line of cleavage. and a-half tons of powder were placed in the berths, and joined up with an electric circuit. Everybody was ordered to a distance, and then the man in
charge pressed a button.
Bang
The
earth shook.
Before the rumbling had died away 70,000 tons of granite had parted company with the mother rock,
and were ready for the sawyers and blasters. This huge mass, when reduced to manageable blocks,
furnished loads for 9000 trucks
soft stones, the
!
As compared with the handling

out.
It
is
of
treatment of granite
it
;
slow work blasting

it
;
Bath and other slow throughslow work sawing

is
it
;
or splitting polishing
it.
slow work carving
slow work
As
edge
for
in a
the
sawing, a toothed
saw
into
would
lose
its
moment when brought
contact with granite.
having a
But if you use a band of steel smooth edge, and keep between it and the granite a mixture of water and iron-sand, the blade will gradually sink down into the block a few inches in the hour though it seldom, if ever, comes into actual contact with the stone in the bottom of the cut. The chipping of designs is now done largely with pneumatic chisels and the rounding of long pillars is performed by lathes. The cutting tool does not
shave off the surface as the pillar revolves, but chips
it.
We
this scarcely falls
might describe the polishing of granite, but as under the category of mining, we
to
must pass
our next subject

nature.
stones
of a
much
more valuable
357
CHAPTER
The
value of the Oriental ruby
fields
XXII
THE BURMA RUBY MINES

composition And qualities The Annexation by Great Britain Leased by the Burma Ruby Mines Company Their engineer's Attacks on the byon Spiders Hill Tagoungnandaing A stone found Operations in Mogok Valley Methods of working Testing the stones Native miners The ruby shops of Mogok Electric power Troubles from inundations.
Burma ruby
Its
curious law
difficulties
fine
We have already mentioned the fact that the Oriental ruby is more valuable than the diamond, weight for Mr. Edwin Streeter, an expert in such weight. matters, affirms that a ruby weighing five carats is worth ten times more than a five-carat diamond and that the proportion grows rapidly in favour of the ruby with an increase of weight. Casting about for actual figures, we find that an eleven-carat ruby, sold in London a few years ago, fetched 7000 whereas a diamond of eleven carats would not, according to ordinary reckonings, be worth more
;
than ;iooo at the utmost. 1
The
Oriental ruby
is
a variety of the substance

is
called corundum,
which
chemically
known
as an
oxide of aluminium.
1
It is
interesting to notice that,
carat to be worth %,
is roughly reckoned by assuming one and multiplying this by the square of the number Thus, an eleven carat diamond = of carats that the gem weighs. 8 x ii x ii = 968.
The
value of a cut diamond
358
? $
Si -^JS
'-r.
,tS-
.2
(J
1 ^
-S,T=
The Burma Ruby Mines

while the oxide
is
so rare and valuable, silicate of

basis of all clays,
aluminium forms the

sulphate
is
and that the

is
familiar as alum.
When
sapphire
;
tinged
with
blue,
corundum
;
named
with yellow, Oriental topaz

;
with green, amethyst.
Oriental emerald
with purple, Oriental

all
The
adjective
makes
the difference.
its
The ordinary
silica,
emerald, for instance, has as

of silicon;
basis
an oxide
and the ordinary amethyst is also silica, coloured by oxide of manganese. Apart from its value, the true Oriental ruby is interesting on account of its extreme hardness, which yields only to that of the diamond, and, sometimes, to that of the sapphire, and also because it is found in very few places. In fact, nearly all the rubies ever mined come from a comparatively small district in Upper Burma, round Mogok, seventy miles north of Mandalay. Though rubies are occasionally found in Australia, Borneo, and Afghanistan,
they are too few to affect the trade.
Little
is
known
of the early history of the
Burma
ruby industry. It is said that Mogok and the neighbouring village of Kyatpyin were obtained in 1595 from a Shan ruler, in exchange for the town of Tagoung, on the Irrawaddy. Until 1885, that is,
for
nearly three
the
centuries,
kings,
the
ruby ground was

a liking
owned by
Burmese
who had such
for the " pigeon's blood " coloured stones, that the
possession by a private individual of a ruby worth
more than
.70
was a crime, since any gem 359
of that

value was considered to belong to the Crown.
The
obvious thing happened

a
any one who found big stone probably broke it up and sold it as
:
that
several separate
jewels.
To
prevent rubies going
out of the country the ruby fields were forbidden
ground
In
to Europeans. 1885 Great Britain annexed Upper Burma, and the right of working the ruby grounds in the Mogok region not already occupied was granted to
Messrs. Streeter
&
Co. at a rent of .26,666 a year,
plus 16.66 per cent, of the net profits.
They sub-
sequently handed
the
over their concession to the present
Burma Ruby Mines Company, who

Government till 1932. The area of the Stone Tract
hold a lease from
is 400 square miles, which sounds a very fine slice of territory. But when the Company's chief engineer arrived in Mogok he found that the pick of the country, i.e., the valleys, was already occupied, and that he would
have to confine
hillsides,
his operations to the jungle-covered
without any indications of good ground to
guide him.
adequate, and
The labour supply was altogether inthe only means of communication

In bad weather the
fit
with the outer world was a cart road sixty miles

long leading to the Irrawaddy.
road was a swamp.

there were none.
Of houses
for
Europeans
owners.
as
The Company proceeded to buy out the valley Even then the water difficulties were such to make them abandon the Mogok valley alto360

gether,
valley,
and
eight
try
their
luck again
in
the
Kyatpyin
miles
distant.
In the middle of this
peak with a Burmese name signifying (i Long-legged spinners " have the Hill of Spiders. been associated with gold, and perhaps their presrises a conical
ence
also.
is
considered a good
omen
caves
for the gem-seeker
At any rate local tradition held that in the

filling
earth
the
hillside
there
existed
the
pigeon-blood ruby more abundantly than anywhere

else.
Vigorous efforts were made to get at the byon, or ruby ground, in the caves and under the slopes at the base of the hill. It was even hoped that excavation might reveal a ruby-bearing volcanic " pipe similar to those which contain the famous diamond By a curious stroke of blue-ground at Kimberley. luck the very first day's washing yielded a splendid stone, the only good one found here. The Spider Hill workings were in many cases tunnels driven
into
the hillside.
This method of extracting byon
didn't pay, as the actual
number
of miners
was limited
by the mined
size of the heading.
to try
in a valley,
It was therefore deterwashing over large masses of ground that of Tagoungnandaing (what a terrible
name !) being selected. Power to work the pumps and the washer was supplied by a water-wheel put half a mile off, and transmitted to the mine by an
endless wire
rope,
according to the
system then
largely used in Switzerland.

satisfactory, for, in addition
The
results
were quite
of
to a steady output
361
The Romance
rewarded
carats
of Mining
gem
that has
small stones, the most valuable

the
yet
Company,
fine
stone
weighing
eighteen and a half carats in the rough, and eleven
when
cut,
was exhumed.
Unfortunately, the
deposit soon gave out, and the machinery had to be
moved
again, this time

strip
Here, in a
back to the Mogok Valley. about two miles long and three
furlongs broad, the ruby miners are
now hard
at
work.
The
chief
mines are the Shwebantha and
Redhill at the north end,
and the Choungzone
at
the south.
Operations began in April 1894, since which date several millions of truck loads of ground
have been washed over.
The method
claim for
all,
it
of
working
the
the
name
of system
engineers hardly
is
this.
First of
a pit
is
sunk, 10 feet square and 25 feet deep,
and a centrifugal pump is placed in it. The ground all round is then gradually loaded into trucks and hauled away to the washer, any water encountered being led into the pit, from which the pump removes
it.
This process continues until

of the
the
level
pit,
of
the
mine reaches the bottom

in
pumping
or the
quantity of water exceeds the capacity of the
pump
which case it becomes necessary to sink the pit further and increase the pumping power. The workmen are Chinese Shans, called Tayoks
or Maingthas,
who
dress themselves in blue jackets
and live on rice, dried fish, salt pork, The drug is said to be a necessity, tea, and opium. for without it they "go to pieces," though when 362
and
trousers,
S'S
Si
-2
."*=
-...:_

supplied they are good and willing workers.
These which are hitched on men to an endless rope, drawn up a slope, and tipped into the screens, through which, after being well shaken and disintegrated, it passes into the washing
load the byon into trucks,
pans, 14 feet in diameter.
in revolving
Rows
of steel teeth set

;
the arms churn up the clayey mass clay and lighter gravel run off into a safety pan and the heavier gravel, containing the precious about one per cent, of the stones, is left behind
;
original contents of the washer.
At the end of each shift a door in the pan bottom opened, and the deposit falls into trucks with covers, which are locked until the sorters are ready
is
to treat the loads.
The
sorters tip the deposit into
large
bin,
also
locked,
from which
it
slowly
dif-
dribbles
into
a revolving
screen covered with
ferent sizes of meshing.
The sand is eliminated at and the clean deposit falls through in five sizes, the largest direct on to a sorting table, the other four into a pulsator, which further separates the heavier from the lighter stuff. No natives are
once,
allowed to handle the larger
sizes,
the temptation
might be too strong for their morals and the English sorters conduct the next operation of working the stuff round and round in a sieve immersed in a tub of water till the rubies have gravitated to the
bottom.
The
sieve
is
then smartly
turned upside
are
at
down on
a table, so that the rubies
the top and can be picked out by hand.
363
The Romance
office,
of Mining
Every afternoon the day's find is taken to the where the inferior and worthless stones are handed over to the agent. Early next morning he
sorts the largest stones himself,
and watches while
Burman helpers sort the The best stones go to

dealers.
rest into fourteen qualities.
the
London market.
will
The
run
worst are sold by auction once a fortnight to local
These are natural gamblers, and

if,
up
prices
say,
they think that a lump of red

a
corundum
probably
it
may
have
;
valuable
centre.
Most
has not
but the chance makes them
bid heavily against one another.

In the ruby ground are found spinels, which both
and general appearance closely resemble the true ruby. The best method of testing is to put the jewels under a dichroiscope, when the ruby shows two distinct colours if viewed from different directions whereas the spinel and garnet show the same colour.
in colour
;
Besides the
who have
a
to
month
for
Company there are the native miners, pay the Company a royalty of 20 rupees every man they employ. The Company
English inspectors to see that they
keep up a
staff of
do not work with more men than licences have been paid for. The natives cannot, of course, go to the expense of pumps and patent washers, yet they
manage to They either up through
extract
the
pit
stones
very
thoroughly.
it
sink
into
the byon, or follow

rock,
crevices
to
in
the
and bring the
dirt to the surface
be washed in small baskets
364

and picked over by hand. A third method is to turn small hill streams on a deposit of byon and wash it down the hillside into a sort of " Long Tom/' which holds the heavier constituents, but
allows the rubbish to pass through.
Half the houses in

traders
Mogok
are shops,
where these
may
be seen squatting round a metal plate

for sale are displayed, haggling
is
on which the stones There over prices.

outside the town.
also a regular stone
market
The
inches
rainfall in this region
is
terrific.
Twenty-five
have been registered
in four
days in the valley

!
on the hills the precipitation was probably heavier With great open pits to be kept free from the results
of
in a difficulty
such deluges the engineers often find themselves

;
and
it
has been decided to drive a

hill
drainage tunnel through the
on one
side of the
Mogok
Valley which will not only curb the river
flowing through, but also empty the water from the
mines by gravity.
The tunnel
will
be over a mile
long and have a section of 7 x 7 feet. The water has, however, its uses. A dam has been built across
the valley
a
lake,
some distance below the town,

is
to
impound
which
to
led
through stone channels and
where three electric generators develop some hundred horse-power. On one occasion a landslip carried away the channel and piping, and by stopping the generators threw the mine pumps out of action, so that the mines
pipes
the
power-house,
gradually
filled
with water.
To
prevent the recur-
365
The Romance
of Mining
rence of such a disaster, the open channel has been

replaced by a tunnel driven through the solid rock.
In addition to this electrically transmitted water-
power,
the
the
Company have
good deal
of
high
In
pressure water laid on direct to the machines.

hills
surrounding
Mogok
Valley ditches
have
been cut, starting from a mountain torrent and running along the hillside for miles till they reach the pipe lines which lead the water down to its
work.
owners,
Some
;
ditches are the
struction
others
have been
Company's own conbought from native

'"
who show
great ingenuity in u contouring
the grade round the hills
and who
expect a good
price for their water rights.
Several rich valley deposits have not been touched

as yet.
And even when

still
they have
over, there will

fit
remain the
hillsides,
been worked which are a
subject for hydraulicing in the
manner already
described in our chapter on California.
366
CHAPTER
XXIII
SALT MINES
Salt
value as a dietetic And distribution Rock Brine springs The industry in Cheshire, Staffordshire, and Worcestershire Art and industry mines of Wieliczka A subterranean The The combined The day's work Searching the miners for wonders of the mine The Letow ballroom Salt chapels A vast chamber A railway station in the depths A saline Styx The A plains of Colorado Ploughing the
Its
salt
salt
salt
city
salt
salt
salt
fine sight.
The
diet
only mineral which figures in man's ordinary

is salt.
Almost from the
earliest times of
which
we have any record

and
digestive
the value of salt as a seasoning
has been very distinctly recognised.

live
Though man can him to use it with
without
salt,
an instinct
;
tells
certain kinds of food
and many
species of animals also evince a passionate appetite

for chloride of sodium.
This
tributed.
substance
is,
fortunately, very
widely disis
To
begin
it,
with,
the
ocean
strongly
any sea - shore a supply may be easily obtained by evaporation. Many extensive deserts testify by their salt deposits the sea once covered them. to a time when But the most important source of salt is undoubtedly the rock-like strata which are found in many countries, sometimes outcropping as large hills of salt, sometimes sandwiched in between 367
impregnated
with
and
on

strata
It
is
of
all
geological
that
in
ages
except
coal,
the
earliest.
curious
bitumen,
proximity
as to
often
occur
to
and petroleum salt and some

;
scientists
go so
far
suppose that
of
salt
plays
a part in the formation the

chief
the
last.
:
salt-producing
country
occur,
England is and Cheshire,
Staffordshire,
and Worcestershire are the counties

deposits
where the
first
largest
Cheshire taking
place.
Droitwich in Cheshire has been celeits
brated for
the
" wyches," or salt springs, ever since
Roman
is
occupation, and the
word
salary (Latin,
salarium)
of the
Salt
due to the
fact that salt
was made a part
Roman
soldier's pay.
has been
made
in
England from natural
brine springs for centuries, but the mining of the

deposits through which water must flow become thus impregnated is a comparatively modern industry in these islands. The Cheshire beds were discovered in 1670 by men boring for The salt coal, and have been mined ever since.
rock-salt
to
sometimes so hard that gunpowder.

is
it
has to be blasted with
By
far the largest
proportion of English
of the rock-salt strata
salt is
the result of evaporating brine that has been
pumped
through
system
is
up from the surface

there
is
large bore-holes specially
made.
About
pans
this
nothing
at
all
romantic.
The
brine
or
is
merely poured
off
into
large
open
tanks,
heated beneath by furnaces, and the water

until
salt
driven
forms by precipitation and can
be
368
Salt
Mines
natural
drawn
large
holes.
to
the sides.
If
percolation
filled
is
not
sufficient to
keep the brine wells

are
with water,
quantities
poured down through

of salt are
bore-
About two million tons

in
produced yearly
England, Cheshire being responsible for more than

1
three-quarters of the total.
The
effects of the industry
are very visible at Northwich and Winsford, where
houses and chimney-stacks are so far out of the per-
and the country so indented by depresoften filled with water that a visitor might sions easily imagine than an earthquake had passed that way. The " settling " of the surface, and of whatever it carries, is due to the constant removal of the
pendicular,
salt
down
below, just as in coal districts the land
overlying a bed sometimes sinks

pillars in the
when
the props or
workings give way.

not for productiveness, to
Vast as are the English deposits, they must yield

the
palm
for extent,
if
those of Wieliczka in Galicia, about nine miles from
Cracow, which are deservedly the most famous

the world.
in
salt
In this region there
is
mass
of
which is estimated to measure 500 miles in length, 20 miles in breadth, and 1200 feet in thickness! Wieliczka is the chief point of attack on this prodigious bulk. For nearly eight hundred years men have been hacking at the salt, and their labours have left a veritable underground city, which is one of
1 The Encyclopedia Britannica says that the abstraction of English beds amounts to one cubic mile every five years.
salt
from
369

the
a show-places "
itself.
of
Europe
often
visited
by
Royalty
As preface to a short account of these wonderful mines we should mention that they are the property of, and are controlled by, the Austrian Government, which derives no mean revenue from the sale of
the
salt.
mercury mine you may see many strange and curious sights, The but none to compare with those of Wieliczka. material which surrounds the visitor is eminently suited to fine effects, when illumined by electricity
In a coal, iron, silver, lead, copper, or or candles
white
salt
sparkling with the prismatic
hues of
from countless tiny facets. Recognising that a commercial undertaking could here be combined with magnificent artistic effects, the workers in these depths have, while removing some of the mineral, so decorated the face of what remains that now one may travel through and past chapels, altars, ballrooms, pillars, and thrones, all hewn from Salt staircases lead you from the solid rock salt. Chandeliers of salt hang one floor to another. Statues of salt adorn the walls. from the roof. Everywhere is salt, so skilfully shaped as to prove that the artistic feeling must be strong among the
light
miners.
The mines have
the bed, and there are eight levels.
a length of about 2f miles along In the topmost
three are the sights which tourists
crowd
to
see
down
below, the premises are for " business only."
37
Salt
Mines
their lives
in this
Though
ranean
it
has been asserted that people have been

all
born, and have lived

city,
;
subter-
there
unless,
is
no
foundation
for
such a
statement
indeed, the writer has
become
last
confused between humans and horses, which

certainly
do spend the whole

turn our attention
of
their
lives
from
of
birth to death far
removed from the

first
daylight.
We may
sand
to the
work
the mines, which
is conducted by about one thouWorking eight hours a day, they raise between them some sixty to seventy thousand tons of salt per annum, quarrying it out from immense
miners.
chambers, which are carefully supported with timber-
work in the roof. The chambers are duly named in honour of some well-known person, and act as
store-houses in which to keep the salt until
it
can
be drawn by
mine.
accidents are
rail
to the central raising shaft of the

is
Such care
exercised in the excavations that

in
very rare, though
the annals
of
Wieliczka there are recorded some terrible disasters,

resulting
from
fire
or the flooding of the
mine by
subterranean lake.
illuminated
On
account of the whiteness of
everything around, the galleries are

tively
much more
effec-
workings of pure by
its
by the miners' lamps than the a coal mine and the air is kept very
;
contact with the mineral, so that both
men and
animals enjoy good health.
At the end of the day the miners ascend to the

surface in
locked.
and when all are up, the One would hardly think that salt
lifts,
shafts are
is
com-
37

modity worth
rities
stealing, or that,
if
stolen, the autho-
would object
it
to the theft of a
an inexhaustible deposit.
modity, and
it
But
at
salt is a taxable
mere pinch from comof
appears that
one time so much
was smuggled out in boots and pockets that every man was searched when leaving work as if he were an employe in a diamond or gold mine. The practice is still continued, though in a perfunctory way,
as the miners are too well paid to care about aug-
menting
their
Now
for
the
income dishonestly. wonders of the mine.
Near the
entrance stands a block of buildings, the offices of

the manager, where visitors are kindly provided with
overalls suited to the exploration of the caves below.
The
with
the
outfits
the
visit.
worn by Royalty are carefully name of the wearer and the

either in
labelled
date of
You can descend

staircase
an hydraulic
"
lift
or
by a
little
hewn out
in the salt.
When
the stranger
reaches the mine there bursts upon his view a

world, the beauty of which
is
scarcely to be imagined.
He
beholds a spacious plain containing a kind of

city,
subterranean
with houses and roads,

salt,
all
scooped
out of one vast rock of
as bright
and
glittering
as crystal, while the blaze of the lights continually

is reflected from the columns which support the lofty arched vaults of the mine, which are beautifully tinged with all the colours of the rainbow, and sparkle with the
burning for the general use

dazzling
lustre of precious stones, affording a
more splendid
37 2
Salt
and
fairy-like aspect
*
Mines
illumination for spectacular
than anything above ground can
possibly exhibit."
The
is carried out by the authoon a specified scale, ranging from 5, 10s. downwards. For the highest figure all the electric lamps and candles in the mine are lit, and fireworks are let off to show the remoter corners. The first level is 216 feet below the surface. It contains the famous Letow ballroom, excavated one hundred and fifty years ago, where many festive gatherings, presided over by the Emperor, have been " One end of the room is adorned with a held. colossal Austrian eagle, and with transparencies painted on slabs of salt. In an alcove at the other end of the room stands a throne of green, the crystals of which flash a green and ruby red. It is on this that the Emperor sits when he comes to
purposes, by-the-bye,
rities
the mines."
Even
older than the ballroom
is
St.
Anthony's
Chapel, close by, which dates from 1698, and may be considered the religious centre of the mines. It
is
reputed to be the work of a single miner,

it
who
has
beautified
salt.
with
many
fine carvings, all
executed in
Services are held regularly in the chapel, and on the 3rd of July there is a special mass, attended by many people, who flock in from near and far. There are other shrines and chapels, the finest being
the Queen's, which, in addition to the splendid altar

J
" The History

2
of Salt," E. Martlett Boddy. The Strand Magazine, December 1898.
373

of salt, exhibits
also
on one wall
salt,
a view of Bethlehem,
worked
in
while
overhead
hangs
an
elaborate salt chandelier.

In the second level
is
the Michelowitz chamber,

feet high,
and 118 92 has remarkable acoustic properties.

59
feet long,
feet wide,
which
The
;
third floor
twenty -five
contains
miles
of
railway
station,
where the
the
mine tracks converge
restaurant for the refreshment of visitors
and also a and workers.
To quote the words of Mr. James W. Smith, who was responsible for the interesting description of the mines in the Strand Magazine, which has already been " Five or six tables on one laid under contribution side of the line are often crowded with diners and drinkers of beer, who seem thoroughly to enjoy themselves under the hundred lights scattered over
:
the front of the station.

of salt try to outvie in
Several massive chandeliers

brilliancy the
glow
of the
illumination
from these
rails,
its
incandescent
its
lights.
In
some
respects this scene, with
its converging rumble of the
busy waiting crowd, twinkling lights, and the

at
train in the tunnel near by, recalls
the impression which
one gets while standing
an English railway station on a moonless,

night."
starlight
As a contrast
station, there
is
to
the
ballrooms,
lake,
a subterranean
and navigated by
chapels,
a boat hauled along

sixteen lakes,
on a rope. In fact, there are but only one is included among the
" lions."
374
Salt
Mines
Almost as remarkable as the Wieliczka Mines, though in quite a different fashion, is the wonderful salt farm on the Colorado River, where iooo
acres of solid salt are ploughed, hoed, and piled
as
if
it
up
were mere
earth.
It
occupies a depression
just
in the midst of the
Colorado Desert
north of
the boundary line separating California from Mexico.
This dip
is
264
feet
below
sea-level,
and
in
it
salt
has been deposited by the evaporation of saline water

in past ages.
About
its
thirteen years ago the Colorado
River overflowed
tered
in
banks, dissolved the
salt
scat-
and when the water had evaporated there lay in the bottom of the basin a blindingly white sheet of the mineral. So intense was the glare from it that no person could venture on to it unless equipped with deeply-coloured
the depression,
glasses.
Its
value being obvious, a

the deposit.
to
work
company was formed Never was salt more easily got.
one had to do was to draw ploughs over the surface to loosen the salt, which could then be
All that
collected into heaps,
and carted away

for
as
soon as
all
moisture had been dried out by the sun.
A
a
special
plough was
machine mounted on four wheels, with a heavy beak which cuts into the salt and piles it on either side of the It is pulled backwards track in two long ridges. and forwards by a rope operated by a steam-engine. So intense is the heat that Europeans cannot endure it, and Indians or Japanese have to be employed.
devised
the
industry,
375
The Romance
Even they
suffer
;
of Mining
from optic inflammation, despite their coloured glasses and also from a perpetual thirst, induced no doubt by the saline particles of which the air is full. The deposit has a thickness varying from i to 8
inches.
In places springs underlie the crust, but

salt that
they are so impregnated with

dissolve
they cannot
little
any more, and
therefore give
trouble.
No
sooner has a crust been removed by the plough

at
than another begins to form, so that

appears as
if
present
it
the supply of salt were inexhaustible.
When
thoroughly dry, the heaps are put on trucks

to the mills at Salton,
and transferred
it
which grind
commercial
the mineral into a fine powder, and otherwise prepare

for market, either as a table salt or for
purposes.
Though
salt-field is
painfully brilliant during the daytime, the
effects.
a thing to be visited for its spectacular moonlight night should be chosen. Then
is
"the spectacle
weirdly magnificent.
The rows
moonlight
of glistening pyramids, the glitter of the
from the facets of millions background of low, black

stillness
of crystals, the distant

hills,
the
expanse and
of
the
shadowless
plain, strike
one with
awe and wonder
that can never be forgotten."
37 6
CHAPTER XXIV
SULPHUR MINING
The
uses of sulphur The sulphur deposits of Sicily Its occurrence Popacatapetl A romantic incident A perilous adventure Senor
Corchado explores the

sulphur in Japanese
surroundings.
The miners at work Mountains of territory exploitation And removal Grim

crater
Its
Sulphur can hardly be termed an article of diet, though in combination with treacle it is considered wholesome fare for children, if taken in small quantities.
You may remember

when Wackford Squeers
the dramatic
episode
recorded by Dickens in connection with Dotheboys
was stood on his head in a large bowl of the mixture by the infuriated victims of a bill of fare in which brimstone and treacle played too prominent a part. Sulphur but its chief has a medicinal value undoubtedly uses are for the manufacture of gunpowder and sulphuric acid, and for the vulcanisation of india-rubber.
Hail,
(junior)
;
It
occurs chiefly:
(i)
as
natural
;
sulphur,
aimost
pure, in the craters of volcanoes
(2) intermingled
with earth and rock
(3) in
combination with metals.

of
in
We have already referred

silver,
to the sulphides of mercury,
lead,
pyrites)
and iron from the last sulphur can be extracted

;
which (iron commercial
quantities.
377
The Romance
of Mining
These are
of Catania,
At present the great sulphur beds of Sicily yield

the largest part of the world's supply.
of volcanic origin.
The sulphur mines
Girgenti,
Palermo, and
Caltanissetta give
employ-
ment
to
some
of
is
400,000 tons
galleries
30,000 people, and yield about sulphur a year. A network of

great
high,
is
driven through the deposits, and

out,
chambers are hollowed

central pillars
often
100
feet
being
left
for
support.
The ore
placed
in
stone-lined
pits,
having a sloping
lit
floor,
covered up with rubbish, and
at the top.
The
combustion of part
of the sulphur
rest,
produces
sufficient
heat to melt out the
floor, and is drawn off hundredweight each. By this primitive method the ore is made to yield from 10 to 20 per cent, by
which accumulates on the into moulds holding about a
weight of sulphur, according to quality.
The
neigh-
bourhood
less
of the kilns
is
to be avoided, as
it is
even
pleasant than the calcining district of the Rio
Tinto.
There
is
probably no more extraordinary mine
in
the world than that worked for sulphur in the crater

of Popacatapetl,
18,000
feet
above
sea-level.
Nearly
terrible
four hundred years ago a party of Cortes' followers,
headed by Francisco Montano, made the

ascent to the crater in search of
sulphur for the
manufacture of gunpowder,
as the supplies
brought
" The Spaniards, from Europe were exhausted. five in number, climbed to the very edge of the crater, which presented an irregular ellipse at its 378
Sulphur Mining
mouth more than
a league in
circumference.
Its
depth might be from 800 to
1000
feet.
A
rose,
lurid
flame burned gloomily at the bottom, sending up a
sulphureous steam, which, cooling as

precipitated
cast lots,
in
it
was
on the sides of the cavity. and it fell on Montano himself

his
The
party
to descend
a basket into this hideous abyss, into which he
was lowered by
companions
to the depth
till
of
400
tity
feet.
This was repeated several times,
the
adventurous cavalier had collected a sufficient quanThis of sulphur for the wants of the army. doughty enterprise excited general admiration at
the
time.
Cortes
concludes
his
report
of
it
to
the emperor (of Spain) with the judicious reflection

that
it
would be
less inconvenient,
1
on the whole,
to
import their powder from Spain."
But sulphur
is
scarce in
Mexico, and the idea
of robbing Popacatapetl's deposits
was
fascinating.
Indians used to descend with baskets and gather

small quantities, for which they found a ready sale.
In 1850 a Sefior Corchado thought that a regular mine might be established in the crater, and, accompanied by some Indians, and armed with an iron bar, ropes, and some sailcloth, undertook an expedition to the summit. The ascent was so toilsome that only Corchado and one Indian reached the top; where the former fainted through loss of blood and
fatigue.
The
Indian, being unskilled in "first-aid,"

sailcloth,
covered him up with the

1
and started down

Book
iii.,
"
The Conquest
of Mexico," Prescott.
chap.
8.
379

the mountain to get assistance.
revived,
Meanwhile Corchado
the wall of
and crawled a
little
way down
him
the crater to escape the intense cold of the

slopes.
snowy
The
heat so revived
that he brought
down
the bar, sailcloth, and rope, with the intention

;
of exploring the horizontal, or bottom, of the crater
and while he was engaged

the relief party arrived.
in fixing
up
his apparatus
Some
sconce
were collected and taken down
to
Puebla, where an analysis showed so large a per-
centage of sulphur that the crater was u denounced "

as
mine.
Capital
having been raised, a rough

for
tackle
was rigged up
the use of
workmen, and
Mr. R. A. Wilson, in the hoisting of the mineral. u Mexico," gives the following short account of his
a descent, which
"
is
sufficiently interesting to
quote
We
followed a narrow footpath until
a shelf, where we were seated in a skid, by a windlass 500 feet or so, to a landing-place, from which we clambered downward to a second windlass and a second skid, which was the most fearful of all, because we were dangling about without anything to
we reached and let down
steady ourselves, as
of
we descended
'
before the
mouth
yawning caverns which are called the breathing holes They are so of the crater. called from the fresh air and horrid sounds that continually issue from them. But we shut our eyes and clung fast to the rope, as we whirled round and round in mid-air, until we reached another landingplace about 500 feet lower. From this point we 380
one
'
of those
Sulphur Mining
clambered down,
as
best
we
up
could, until
cinders,
is
we came
among
The
the
men
digging
from which
made."
sulphur, in the form of brimstone,
cinder deposits have been pretty well worked
out by General Ochoa,
who
is
took over the mine, but
sulphur
is
continually forming round the solfataras,

a large
number. Labour is somewhat difficult to obtain, as the working conditions are far from pleasant, though there is no special mortality among the men, who work in gangs, week and week about, and camp in rough
or vents, of which there
sheds in the crater.

occurs their position
tolerable
of the coca plant,
When
is
storm or earthquake
uncomfortable, but rendered
by a judicious supply of spirits, and leaves which enable the chewer to undergo
In
spite
great fatigue.
of
the physical difficulties
attending
it,
the Popacatapetl sulphur industry flour-
ishes, or at least did so until quite recently.
And
if
the proprietor
deserves
it.
still
makes
good
profit
he certainly
situated in
Another interesting sulphur region

the realms of the Mikado, on a
little
is
island half-way
between the most northern point of the Japanese mainland and the southernmost point of Kamchatka.
The
island,
named
Etrofu, contains three volcanic
mountains, about 3000 feet high, of almost pure sulphur. Volcanic vapours, pouring through countless
fissures in the
from the craters, are perpetually increasing the deposits, which have been
ground
as well as
calculated to total over two million tons of pure mineral.
381

Early in
May
1898, some enterprising Japanese
prospectors suggested to a firm of American engineers
who had
their headquarters at
Yokohama,
that they
should join forces to mine this vast accumulation of

valuable material.
Concessions were got from the Governmentof several square miles including Japanese this, the most extensive sulphur deposit in the world, and a preliminary survey of the locality was made. The island lies off the regular ocean routes, and is
so far north that
year.
its
coasts are ice-bound for half the
surveying party, accompanied by Japanese

guide, sailed
engineers and a
from Yokohama
to
Moyoro Bay, near
the volcanoes, and after suffering
great privations, discovered that the
immense sulphur
cones lay about two miles from the coast, though

fortunately there was a natural decline leading gently
down from
of
the mountains to the excellent anchorage
Moyoro.
This being
so,
the transport of sulphur from the
by means As soon as of a cable-way carried on large trestles. the winter snows had melted in 1899, Mr. E. W. Frazer, a New York engineer, arrived at Etrofu, with a large gang of Japanese labourers, tools, timber, wire rope, and other supplies, to exploit the property in the interests of the Company formed with Japanese and American capital. Five months of hard work saw the completion of a rope transmission plant from the base of the sulphur cones to the sea level, and of buildings to house men and material. 382
deposits to ships could easily be effected
Sulphur Mining
order.
The next year the plant was put in full working The yellow crystals were dug out of the hill
and shovelled into iron buckets suspended at intervals of 300 feet from the cableway, which ran down to the sea on one side of the trestles and back again on the other, so as to form an endless rope. The
weight of the
the
full
buckets keeps the rope in motion,
empty buckets being returned on the up-track by the descent of the full ones. The speed of travel can be regulated by friction brakes acting on a drum round which the cable passes at the upper terminus. In the course of five months 10,000 tons of sulphur were mined and transported to sea-level and 6000 tons were shipped to the refinery at Hakodate, Japan. The quantities mined annually
;
have since increased, but

supply which
it
will take
many
years to
of
approach even appreciably the exhaustion

within the domain of the Chrysanthemum.
the
Nature has so generously included
and desolation are distinguishing features of a neighbourhood where sulphur abounds. The fumes utterly destroy vegetable life. We have already had a picture of a sulphur Inferno, but the following short description from the pen of Mr. William H. Crawford 1 is interesting, and therefore may be fittingly reproduced. li The writer's first view of the deposits, after a long and tedious trip, showed clouds of steam pouring from several places near the summits of the hills, and far down along the sides
Sterility
1
In Casszer's Magazine.
383
The Romance
glistened
of Mining
of dull
immense patches
lost
yellow,
a
fickle
which
breeze
were occasionally
to
sight
as
wafted the vapours in such a
way
that the brighter

.
.
yellow sulphur of the summit could be seen.
were found to consist of almost pure sulphur, inasmuch as diggings at every conceivable place brought up the yellow
climbing to the top, the
hills
On
crystals. The sulphurous vapours which poured from subterranean depths were suffocating, and, instead of issuing from only a few places, as it seemed when viewed from a distance, the whole cap of each hill was really honeycombed, and each outlet was continually adding to the stock of the whole, day by
day, as the vapours were condensed."
384
CHAPTER XXV
THE PERILS OF MINING
Dangers incurred by the miner
Falls
A
"
Fire, poisonous gases, and disease Safety catches for cages Fire-damp Choke-dampWhitedamp Ventilation the surest safeguard The safety lamp Electric lamps The Wattstown disaster One hundred and twenty lives Other notable disasters Extraordinary endurance of entombed persons John Brown Giraud The Snaefell lead mine disaster
falls,
lost
dramatic account of the
effects of
white-damp.
wearisome and painful the life of a miner is at best, only those who have earned their bread in From the most underground prisons can know.
ancient times, writes
How
Gamboa, the
toils of
the
mine
for
have served as a punishment for slaves, a torment martyrs, and a means of revenge for tyrants.
According to the grave description of Plautus, mining is attended with every pain that hell can inflict, and,
indeed, that poet considers the torments of hell less
insufferable.
The crown laws

ore
as
of Spain appointed the
raising
of
an appropriate punishment for
vagabonds, being an occupation of incessant labour,
and continually exposed to imminent risks, in view of which it is said that the Belgians named a mine shaft la fosse (the grave) intentionally, and in Cornwall the old open workings on a lode were called
coffins,
if
1
Simonin's record
"The
is
to
be trusted/'
ii.
History of the Comstock Lode,"
211.
385

The conditions under which mining, taken
whole, are
of the as a
now conducted
are such as to render
above words inapplicable to the Only in a very few parts of the globe are criminals condemned to drag out their lives in subdustry.
some modern in-
terranean prisons, urged by the lash of brutal task-
The abuses which once made the coal masters. mines notorious have been swept away and in all
;
kinds of mines rules and regulations safeguard the

health and
life
of the miner.
There
still
remain, nevertheless, a sufficiency of
dangers to render the miner's calling a distinctly
hazardous one.
The
coal miner, in particular, runs the falling roof, the
daily risks, for in addition to
inrush of water, the overwound cage, the broken

rope, and the premature explosion of blasting charge,
he incurs the fearful perils of asphyxiation and fire. We must further remark that, besides the more sudden and dramatic calamities which may overtake
the miner, he
is
subject to the subtle but no less
deadly attacks of disease
pneumonia,
;
arising
from
sudden changes
of temperature
;
consumption, caused
by inhaling dust
of the intestines.
and " miner's worm," a disorder
The
pillars,
falling-in of the roof of a
mine can be
pre-
vented only by the greatest care in leaving proper

or by a system of strong timbering.
roof-staying
is
The
science of
now
is
so well understood,
that few extensive

caving-in.
disasters
fall
occur from premature

heralded by unmis-
Generally a
386
The
takeable signs
Perils of
Mining
and timbers
a
fall
cracking
fair
in the roof, the flaking off
of small pieces, the bulging of pillars
which give the men

take
place,
its
warning.
for the
When
does
effects
are not limited to the area

;
immediately underneath
cars
of air through the galleries has
sudden expulsion been known to lift
from the track and smash them against the and even to sweep away the timbering of the galleries. A case is recorded in which a man was
walls,
sitting at the
entrance to a level eating his dinner,
when
fall
occurred in a distant chamber.
The
on
air-rush
caught him and dashed him so violently
against a wall of coal close
by
that he
was
killed
the spot.
We
seldom hear nowadays of a cage

;
falling
down
is
a shaft
for
not only are the steel hoisting ropes

also
very durable and trustworthy, but every cage
provided with a safety catch which, in case of the
rope breaking, comes into action and jams

into the cage guides.
its
teeth
The most deadly
foes of the coal miner in par-
ticular are the gases given off
by
coal.
Bituminous
coal gives off carburetted
hydrogen, or marsh gas
(CH 4),
water.
the result of vegetable decomposition under
Some
of this gas
was imprisoned during the
formation of the coal, and being under high pressure,

a miner opens a crevice in Sometimes a large body of the gas is suddenly tapped, and rushes out into the workings. Being only half as heavy as air, it naturis
ready to escape
it
when
which
has collected.
387

four to twelve times
and when mixed with from volume of atmospheric air becomes highly explosive. Should it then come into contact with a naked light, the effects are fearful almost comparable with those of gunpowder. A
ally rises to the
roof,
its
terrible
flood
of
fire
rushes through the

it
galleries,
scorching and igniting anything

fragments,
meets.
loud
report at the pit-head, accompanied by

flying
tells
smoke and
a pitiable
those above that
disaster
has
overtaken
those
below.
is
The
called
"fire-
damp," as the carburetted hydrogen
by the miners, leaves a deadly residue behind it "chokedamp," or carbonic acid gas, the product of combustion, which, being heavier than
air,
sinks to the
bottom of the suffocates any

miners
levels living
and
thing
galleries,
it
and
speedily
encounters.
The
may
escape the actual explosion, by flinging but unless they are soon on their
to reach a part of
themselves on their faces, while the conflagration

rushes overhead
feet
;
and manage
the mine not

will
swept by the flames, the choke-damp

as victims.
claim them
A
is
third gas, carbon

fatal
monoxide, or "white-damp,"
even more
than "choke," or "black-damp."
It is
the result of imperfect combustion.
Even
if
it
kill on the spot, it has more or less permanent effects on a person who has inhaled it, as it is most difficult to expel from the system. The best safeguard against explosions and suffoca-
does not
tions
is
continuous ventilation of
all
workings.
In
388
The
of the
Perils of
Mining
old times a miner, called the " penitent,"
on account resemblance of his dress to that of a cowled
monk, was sent through the workings of some mines, miners had finished their day's labour, armed with a lighted taper to ignite any small bodies
after the other
of fire-damp that
day.
might have accumulated during the Sometimes he met a dangerously large volume,
;
with results fatal to himself so that the office of u penitent," or u fireman," required a brave man to
fill
it.
Before ventilating machinery and methods were

sufficiently perfect
to
thoroughly scour the mines,
the safety lamp, invented by Sir
Humphrey Davy
and George Stephenson, was and even now is the only form
prime importance, of lamp used in many The flame is encased with a wire gauze mines. cylinder having 784 apertures or meshes to the
of
square inch.
Under ordinary conditions flame

is
will
not pass through a gauze of this kind, as the heat of

gas burning on one side
wire.
rapidly dissipated by the
damp
is
The presence of a small percentage of fireshown by the behaviour of the flame, which
cylinder
If the percentage is high, the becomes smoky. becomes full of a pale blue flame, and the lamp grows so hot that it must be removed beyond
the gas zone as quickly as possible.
In spite of this useful invention
many
disastrous
care-
explosions have occurred, generally through
lessness on the part of a miner who opens his lamp to light a pipe or another lamp that has gone out.
389

Constant association with danger makes
men
if
reckless
and ready
them.
fitted,
to " take the chance,"
Even
the lamps
are padlocked
In
some one may have a key that fits some mines, therefore, a magnetic lock is
of
consisting
an iron plunger forced into a
by a strong spring, locking the two parts of lamp together. The lamp can be unlocked only by placing the lamp over a powerful electro-magnet, kept at the lamp station, which overcomes the force Electric of the spring and draws down the plunger. devices are also used for lighting the lamp without
recess
the
re-opening
it.
In the future the
oil
lamp
will doubtless
be re-
placed by the electric portable lamp, supplied with

current from a small accumulator or a primary
cell
forming part of the apparatus.

tinent,
Accumulator, or
into
secondary battery, lamps, are popular on the Con-
and have been introduced
collieries.
The
objection alleged against

fire-
some Durham them is that
they do not give warning of
or choke-damp,
being quite independent of the outer atmosphere.
Whether
doubted.
this
it
is
reasonable objection
in a
may be
mine of which the galleries the Wattstown Colliery in the are lit by electricity Rhondda Valley, Glamorganshire that one of the most terrible mining disasters of recent years occurred. At 12.30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 12,
Yet
was
1 Faraday once watched the preparations for a blast being made in a mine by the light of a candle stuck in a lump of clay on the floor close "Where's your gunpowder?" he asked. "That be it you're to a sack. settin' agin," replied the man, pointing to the sack in question
!
39^
The
threw the
Perils of
Mining
into a panic.
1905, a tremendous explosion in the " up-cast" shaft

village of
Wattstown
The
sound was compared to that of the discharge of a and its force was such as to break park of artillery -windows in houses hundreds of yards away. At the time 121 men, including the manager of the mine, Mr. W. Meredith, were at work in No. 1 pit (the " up-cast "), and nearly 1000 in No. 2 pit
;
(the
like wildfire.
News of the disaster spread "). The mountain roads were soon alive with people hurrying to the pit-head to get news
" down-cast
of
friends
and
relations
entombed.
for
Colliery
left
miles round
who might have been managers and medical men their work and hastened to
its
give
what help they could.

force of the explosion and
after effects
The
had
fortunately been confined to the " up-cast."
Amid
most pathetic scenes all the workers in pit No. 2 were brought safely to the surface. But from the other shaft there came no reply in answer to the many signals sent down, and the worst was feared. The pithead gear had been wrecked by the explosion, and the ventilation shaft badly damaged, so that it was some time before rescuers, plenty of whom are
always ready to risk their
lives
in
the service of
shaft
alive.
humanity,
four
could
descend.
At
the
still
bottom
men were
other,
discovered, two
One
of
these died shortly after being brought to the surface.
The
Matthew Davies,
39i
lampman, was the

the
only survivor of the 121
men who went down
The Romance
shaft for the
his
of Mining
his
life
morning shift. He owed presence of mind in wetting the collar
to
of his coat
and holding it over his mouth to exclude the chokedamp. Proceeding along the air-ways, the relief party found ten bodies, including that of Mr. Meredith, and then were brought to a halt by a fall of roof. When the debris had been pierced, seventy more bodies were discovered, some terribly mutilated, others in a sitting posture and uninjured. One of the relief party said that bread and cheese lay about, and that the men were evidently having In most their dinner when the accident occurred. cases death must have been practically instantaneous. One old miner lay as if asleep, his features perfectly calm and undisturbed, though a leg had been broken
in
two places.
Thus, in
a
few moments,
120
lives
had been
blotted
to
out.
Such
calamity might
be expected
fate
scare
many men from

I
earning their livelihood

like
and floodings all come " in the day's work," and are soon The miner is somewhat of a fatalist forgotten. and, after all, the percentage of deaths from accidents
for
falls,
under conditions which render a Explosions, But no them.
possible
among
his class is low, considering the risks.
Terrible as the Wattstown disaster was, it by no means represents the most tragic episode of its kind. In 1857 180 men were killed by an explosion at and at Oaks Colliery in October Lundhill Colliery 1866 no fewer than 364 poor fellows perished.
;
392
The
Even more
usually
Perils of
than
swift
Mining
is
tragic
an explosion, which
in
its
mercifully
effects,
is
the
walling-up of a party of miners by a "fall."
We
have already mentioned the Hartley Colliery disaster
which shocked the world

killing
in
1862.
fell
the pumping-engine broke and
The beam of down the shaft,

ascending in
on the spot
five
men who were
the
cage.
Had
the deaths
been limited to that
number,
affair.
little
notice would have been taken of the
But, unfortunately, the forty-ton iron
beam
on
its
way down detached
large
lumps
of the shaft
and an impenetrable mass of wood and rubbish accumulated at a point 138 yards from the surface, sealing the only means of egress for the 199 men and boys below. These all perished from suffocation, though desperate efforts were made to reach
wall,
them.
Two
food.
instances are
on record
in
which entombed
persons have lived for extraordinary periods without

In October 1835 a big fall took place in the Kilgrammie pit, of the little Girvan coalfield, Ayrshire. All the men escaped except one, John Brown, who returned to fetch his jacket and had his egress
blocked by a second smaller

search was
fall.
fortnight later
made
be
for his
body, and the searchers
thought they heard groanings.

could
still
That poor Brown

spirit.
alive they
could hardly believe, and
accordingly attributed the noises to his

ever, the attack
How-
on the fall was continued, and on the twenty-third day after the accident the open
393
The Romance
}
of Mining
workings beyond were reached.
Here they found Brown, still alive but so wasted that his backbone could be felt by any one laying a hand on the pit
of his
light
stomach.
of
When
the poor collier reached the

to
day
his
body and beard were seen

!
be
covered over by a fungus that grows upon decaying

timber props, a sight never seen before
rescue had
come
too
late,
and
in
But the three days poor
Brown
died.
His remarkable record of endurance, cut on the

stone which marks his grave in Bailly churchyard,
is
eclipsed
by
that of the well-sinker Giraud,

thirty
who,
with a companion, was entombed for

the bottom of a well near Lyons.
days in
it was necessary to sink a second and drive a cross-heading, a very slow operation, which would not have been persevered with had not the workers been encouraged by tappings below. All Europe watched the extraordinary fight with His comrade death that plucky Giraud made. died, and his body lay rotting at his side. On the thirtieth day Giraud was extracted, his body a mass of gangrenic sores from contact with the Like Brown, he had lived only to die corpse.
To reach them
shaft
a few days after his rescue.
An
mine,
the
C.
extraordinary
instance
of
at
is
" white
damp
lead
poisoning
the
occurred
Isle
of
1898 Man. It
in
the
Snaefell
remarkable from
Professor
fact
le
that
several
people,
including
Neve
Foster, one of the Royal Inspectors of
394
The
in time,
Perils of
Mining
Mines, were almost asphyxiated, but, being rescued
recovered and have recorded their personal
experiences.
It
appears that a
fire
took place
among
the timber
of the
130-fathom
level,
owing probably
to a lighted
candle being carelessly allowed to touch
prop.
The combustion produced

oxide,
the deadly carbon
monafter
which
killed
twenty miners.
le
Two
days
Neve Foster, with three other men, descended the mine to test the air. What happened will best be given in the words of the Professor's personal report to Her Majesty's Secretary of State, which is at once extremely interesting and pathetic:
the accident Professor
"On
the 13th
May
for
did not notice any unpleasant
symptoms while on the surface
in the
mine, but after having been

little
time
had a decided
headache across the forehead. On the following day we did not go down below the 100 level, and
felt
no inconvenience whatever in any shape or form. the 15th there was certainly a feeling that the air as we descended was less good than on the but this in no way interfered with previous day my work, such as testing the air from platform to
On
115; nor was my power of was unsafe to descend to the corpse I itself in any way impaired. cannot recall any symptoms undoubtedly due to carbon monoxide,
platform below the
deciding that
it
until
reached the 115 level after having climbed
395
The Romance
rapidly up the ladders,
the alarm that he
effect
of Mining
was
feeling
;
when Captain Kewley gave ill. The poison took

probably
of
I
most
suddenly
its
action
was
level,
;
accelerated
I
by the exertion
climbing
rapidly.
felt
decidedly queer
a drop
little
when
reached the
of brandy might revive me brandy flask, but already my fingers seemed incapable of doing the work properly, and some one unscrewed the stopper for me I took Everything then seemed a small sip and sat down. in a whirl, and the atmosphere seemed to be a dense white fog. This must have been, as far as I can judge, a little before i p.m., for we went down precisely at noon, and allowing full time for the descent and testing the air from platform to platform below the 115, I do not think an hour had elapsed after leaving the surface before we were taken ill. w Sitting next to me was Mr. Williams, and within a few feet were Captain Reddicliffe and Henry Clague the men who had remained all the time at the 115 level, or at all events had not descended as low as we did, had started to climb to the surface, but of their starting I have no recollection. A curious fact is that we all sat without moving or trying to the foot of the ladder was close by, yet escape none of us made any effort to go to it and ascend even a single rung. We none of us tried to walk a dozen steps which would have led us to the other side of the shaft partition, where we all knew that there was a current of better air. We simply sat on 396
and thought
I
took out
my
The
and on
statue
;
;
Perils of
Mining
like
Mr. Williams remained motionless
Captain Reddicliffe, on the other hand, was
shouting and
groaning nearly
arms.
all
the time, while

all
Clague was moving his

perfectly conscious,
Of
this
was
my
air,
though rooted to my seat. By side was one of the pipes conveying compressed in which a hole had been punched some days
I
was perfectly conscious that fresh air was a good thing for me, and I frequently leant over and put my mouth to the hole and inhaled a good breath. How soon I realised that we were in what is combefore.
monly
called
'
tight
place
of
cannot say
I
but
I
eventually,
from long force
habit
presume,
took out
At what o'clock I first do not know, for the few words written on the first page have no hour put to them. They were simply a few words of good-bye to my family badly scribbled. The next page is headed 2 p.m.,' and I perfectly well recollect taking out my watch from time to time. As a rule I do not take a watch underground, but I carried it on this
note-book.
I
my
began to write
'
occasion in order to be sure that
left
the rat long
enough when testing with it. In fact, my note on the day of our misadventure was, 5th ladder. Rat two minutes at man,' meaning by the side of the corpse. My notes at 2 p.m. were as follows 2 p.m., good-bye, we are all dying, your Clement,
'
:
fear
we
are dying good-bye,
all
my
darlings
all,
no help coming, good-bye, we are dying, good-bye, good-bye we are dying, no help comes, good-bye,
397
The Romance
good-bye.'
'
of
Mining
some
Then
later,
partly scribbled over
I find, 'We saw body at 130 and then became affected by the bad air, we have got to the 115 and can go no further, the box does not
good-byes/
all
come
in spite
of our ringing for help.

I
It
does not
come, does not come.

Captain R.
very
l
,
wish the box would come.

legs are bad,
is
shouting,
my
1
.'
and
'
feel
my
knees are
The
by
iron.
so-called
ringing*
was signalling
with a
to the surface
striking the air-pipe
hammer
signals
or bar of
upon
writing
before
we went
as
had agreed down. There is

if
I
We
over
other
I
writing,
did
not
:
see
'
exactly where
feel as
if I
I
placed
my
pencil,
and then
good-bye,
are
all
were dreaming, no real pain, good-bye, feel as if I were sleeping.' '2.15, we
done.
No
*
,
or scarcely any,
we
'
are
done,
it
we
are done,
godo bye
my
darlings.'
'
Here
instead
is
rather interesting to note the
godo
of
'good.'
Before very long the fresh
men who
had climbed down to rescue us seem to have box was caught arrived, and explained that the notes I did not in the shaft. Judging by my
'
'
realise
thoroughly
that
we
should
'
be
rescued.
Among them
no pain, it is no pain no pain, for the merely like a dream, benefit of others I say no pain at all, no pain, frequently wrote the same sentence I no pain.' My last note on reaching over and over again.
occur
the
;
words
the
surface
tells
of
1
that
resistance
to
authority
Word
illegible.
398
The
poisoning.
Perils of
to
Mining
a
which likewise appears

"
be
symptom
of the
These notes afford ample confirmation of the oxide poisoning of effect produced by carbonic I wrote the same words over causing reiteration. and over again unnecessarily. The condition I was had absorbed enough of I in was rather curious.
the poison to paralyse
dull
me
to a certain extent
and
my
feelings,
left
but at the same time

like
my
reason
had not
me.
a bad dream,
"The
and yet
"
I
general sensation was

I
was able
though
to
reason properly and write
intelligibly,
in a disjointed fashion.
have been asked whether some of
my
notes
may
not have been written automatically or unconwife

If there had merely been a good-bye to and children I might have been doubtful
sciously.
my
I
on the
subject,
as
find
that
in
my
note-book
letter
used some wording identical with that of a
had written as a matter prudence before leaving Laxey on the morning of of my first descent. After my visit to the mine on the previous afternoon, I knew there was some risk to be encountered, and I simply penned the letter for use in case things should go wrong. Fortunately, the letter was not wanted. Wholly apart from my farewells, it seems to me from my notes that I was recording things correctly, and that my brain was reasoning properly I do not think I ever lost conaddressed to
I
;
my wife which
sciousness in the mine.
399
The Romance
" Mr. Williams,
Reddicliffe,
of
Mining
on the other hand, and Captain though not absolutely unconscious, did
ten
not recognise the lapse of time, for they thought

that
only about
surface.
minutes passed between

nearly
my
had
calling
out 'All up at once/ and their arrival at

In
reality,
the
two
hours
gone by.
"That the numbness my notes was no fancy

I
of the fingers recorded in
burnt
sitting
is proved by the fact that and hand with my candle while underground, and had no notion that I had
my
wrist
done so
until
a friend in the
I
evening called
my
five
attention to a big blister.
daresay this was
hours or more after the burn.

tion
think there certainly was a feeling of exhilaraon reaching the top of the shaft I was quite able to walk and was in full possession of my senses,
I
;
"
for
at
blood, so that
once asked Dr. Miller to take a little of my it might be tested spectroscopically.

a
bandage round my arm, and when one of veins was well swollen he inserted a hypodermic He then syringe, but no blood could be drawn. tried Mr. Williams in the same way, but again without That the puncture was deep is proved by success. About an hour the scar, which is still apparent. after I came up I sent off a telegram to my wife, which I reproduce in order to show that the effects of the carbon monoxide in producing unnecessary Am perfectly right, repetitions had not worn off do not believe any report to the contrary I repeat 400
He my
tied
The
I
Perils of
Mining
Address, Peveril,
am
perfectly right.
Clement.
I
Douglas.'
"Though
Dr.. Miller
feeling quite able to
walk to Laxey, a
distance of about four miles,
took the advice of
and went down with some others in a trap. One of the miners who was with us was vomiting from time to time, and by and by I felt a desire to be sick also, and put my finger down
my
throat with
effect.
the idea
of
assisting
I
nature,
but
without
for a
Soon
;
after this
became unconscious
it was not a true fainting, but few minutes something of the nature of an epileptiform seizure, as I am told that I was a little convulsed, though I never had anything in the nature of a fit before. Dr. Haldane has pointed out that seizures of this
description are not
uncommon
after
carbonic oxide
poisoning.
On
getting to the hotel at
Laxey
laid
down on
suffered
the sofa with a headache, and Mr. Williams
from headache and vomiting. Llandudno three days after the happened to pass our family doctor, and accident, I
"
On
arriving at
he told
"
me
afterwards that he at once noticed that
was strange. A few days after I got back from the island the first time, about the 21st or 22nd of May, I noticed
the colour of
face
my
my
as
I
heart
it
could scarcely be called palpitation,
understand palpitations to be, for there did not
seem to be any increased rapidity of its action, but I was conscious of its beating as a rule, I am not. This passed off, and then on 1st and 2nd of June 2 c 401
;
The Romance
I
I
of Mining
that
noticed
it
very decidedly again, so

doctor.
all
went
to
my
much so He sounded me, and

This
said
the heart was
right,
though there was one sound

distinct.
which was not very

of having a heart
still
consciousness
returns from time to time,
though only
I
to a slight extent. On the 19th May much from headache, not regularly, but intermittently. The headache lasted for several days,
suffered
and the
feeling in the legs
was very apparent
it
was
an aching in the legs from the knee to the ankles.
coldness from the knees to the soles of the feet

also noticeable
;
was
considerable
intervals
time.
it came on occasionally for a The headaches continued at
for
some
time,
and
lasted
;
certainly for
I
some months
after the accident
indeed,
cannot
say that they have disappeared altogether.

these headaches are
still
Whether
consequence of the poisonI
ing or not,
am
unable to say.
have, at the risk
of being wearisome, given the above account of the
mental phenomena accompanying partial poisoning
by carbonic oxide, because
it
is
possible that they
may
be of assistance to those
who
are investigating
the subject from a scientific point of view."
Printed by
Edinburgh
Ballantyne, Hanson &> Co. London
&
BOSTON COLLEGE
3 9031 01449634 3
VJ\LU?\
BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY

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"The Romance of Modern Invention" "The Romance of Modern Engineering"

Arthur Pearson, Ltd.

acknowledges the help given

Machinery Co.; the Burma Ruby Mines, Ltd.; the

whose works have

accounts of some of the most important branches

Metallurgy and The scope of

on exportation Metallurgy and science mechanics The romance of mining Dangers of

comfort of modern miners

"THE ELDORADO OF THE GREAT WEST

THE GOLD-FIELDS OF THE ANTIPODES

plight of South Australia Special The great nuggets of Australia

measures for gold70

the pipe line

Effect of Gold discoveries on Australia

CHAPTER VI THE GOLD-MINES OF THE WITWATERSRAND

CHAPTER VII THE ELDORADO OF THE NORTH

the earliest source of

THE STORY OF THE COMSTOCK LODE

Valuable rubbish Second era Third and fourth eras

CHAPTER XI THE MINES OF SILVERLAND

CHAPTER XII THE REAL DEL MONTE

THE COPPER MINES OF THE RIO TINTO

COAL AND COAL MINING

THE COAL MINES

of the Sussex ironmasters

SALT MINES dietetic And distribution Rock

persons John Brown Giraud The Snaefell A dramatic account of the of

lead mine disaster

the Third Level of the

Wieliczka Salt Mines, Galicia

Hydraulic Gold Mining

Drilling Blast-holes in a Rand Mine

First Tourist Excursion, Pacific and

Mine The Entrance to a Branch-working a Coal Mine

Steam Shovel such as

used in the Iron-ore Open-cast

the Wieliczka Mines

The Romance of Mining

was found metals and

and the smiths

Metallurgy and mechanics

on exportation Metallurgy and science The romance of mining Dangers of

Why iron CoalThe precious

in its general aspect

casting about for a starting-point, driven to express

metals were unall

or at least unused by, man,

our minds with a dark, brutish

creature just sufficiently

The Romance of Mining

looked backwards rather than

forwards in search of an ideal existence, spoke of

look confidently forward

our existence by even one hundred years.