74 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii 



The timber required is sometimes gigantic, and many of 

 the stnlls (or posts) have a diameter of more than three feet, and 

 a length of 20 to 40 feet in places. In some of the mines the 

 rocks, although hard and tough in mining, disintegrate very 

 quickly on exposure to air and moisture, and temporary timbering 

 is required to protect the men while they are placing the perma- 

 nent timber and lagging. Such is the Phoenix Mine, which in some 

 places does not require any blasting, for when water is thrown 

 on the face of work, the rock slowly begins to crack and scale off. 

 In such cases when stoping is begun in any place along a gallery, 

 the work is pushed on as rapidly as possible without pausing 

 (except during Sundays which are not observed in the Rocky 

 Mountain mining regions), the slopes being filled in as the work 

 ings ascend, leaving only mills, down which to throw the copper 

 rock to the gallery below, whence it is conveyed to the shafts. But 

 in many of the mines, or in portions of them, the galleries and 

 shafts require little or no timber. Skips are now almost invariably 

 used for hoisting, although a few kibbles may still be seen. 

 Down the shafts inclined railways are constructed with T 

 rails, which weigh from 12 to 18 pounds per yard, and having 

 gauges varying in different mines from 4 to 4J feet wide. 

 The skips are made of heavy boiler plate, each weighing from 

 one and a half to two tons, and having a capacity for two tons of 

 rock. Some skips empty from the bottom, but usually their 

 loads are dumped from the top, and in order to be self-acting, 

 the bick wheels are very bio id (8 inches), so th;.t when the 

 conveyance arrives at the surface, (the rope being secured by a 

 long iron handle, fastened at each side of the c ir near the horizon- 

 tal axis of gravity) the fore wheels pass into a groove or break in 

 the track, while, on the broad back wheels, the bottom of the car 

 continues to ascend on the tramway, and thus upsetting, the skip 

 dumps its contents into a car just beiow, ready to receive and 

 convey them to the rock-house. The rock from the locality of work 

 on each level in the mind is conveyed in other cars to the skips 

 into which it is dumped. Wire ropes are almost entirely used, 

 although hemp ropes are still to be seen. The sizes of the wire 

 ropes employed are from one to one and a half inches in diameter, 

 for the average lo id of four tons, the larger size being used in the 

 deeper mines, some of which, down the inclines, are 1500-1800 

 feet deep. The foot walls are boarded and furnished with rol- 

 lers, on whicn are carried the ropes, which, when properly 



