72 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vili. 



is on a fissure vein having a hade varying from perpendicular to 

 17°, and clown which an old inclined shaft had been sunk for 

 500 or 600 feet, so crookedly as to become useless. Under the 

 charge of Mr. L. G. Emerson, M. E., a new shaft was begun in 

 the hanging wall at such an angle with the direction of the 

 vein that it would be only a few feet from each level, with 

 which it was afterwards connected — the vein-stuff and walls 

 disintegrating very rapidly on exposure to air and moisture. 

 This was sunk with a dip of 35° 55' to a depth of 1300 feet (still 

 being sunk), having a width of 8 and a length of 14 feet, costing 

 without machinery, $76,000. The work was accomplished in 

 18 months, as several parties of men were beiug employed on 

 different sections. The result was a perfectly straight shaft, now 

 used for hoisting on one side, while on the other there is a 

 stairway. The required timbering is very heavy in parts of its 

 course. 



The sections of the shafts are usually from 7 by 12 feet to 8 by 

 14 feet, and divided in two parts, one for hoisting and the other 

 for ladderways or pumps, excepting in those where man-engines 

 are constructed. All the large mines have two or more shafts, 

 but some have as many as nine or twelve, besides adits where 

 practicable. The galleries or levels are usually 10 sometimes 15 

 fathoms apart (vertically), connected by occasional winzes for 

 ventilation, and for other purposes while the mines are being 

 opened, and are usually about 7 feet high and 5 feet wide, 

 being traversed by iron tram-ways, leading to the shafts. 



The mining is almost always by overhand stopiug, and in 

 some cases the old stopes are completely filled with the broken 

 waste rock. 



All the material from one level to the next is removed, 

 excepting what may be required for pillars, or may be too poor 

 to be taken out, as the metal occurs in zones, often enclosing 

 large areas of rock which would be unremunerative ; and some 

 times even when two or three consecutive galleries have been 

 driven for a long distance, the poverty of the rock compels large 

 portions of the mines to be abandoned. 



In most cases the drilling is done by hand — one man striking 

 and another turning the drill, or else two men striking alternately 

 where the rock is hard. However, in several mines machine 

 drills are used, especially in stopiug — the motive power being 

 compressed air carried down by pipes from the surface, and 



