AMERICA'S UNDERGROUND WORKERS 23 



and descended to the one thousand foot level of the Crown 

 Point mine where they came upon many dead miners, suffo- 

 cated by the dreadful fumes. One by one the bodies were 

 lifted to the surface as they were found and there identified 

 by the stricken families. The funeral of these men was the 

 most solemn and largest ever seen on the eastern slope of 

 the Sierra Nevada range. 



While the rescuers were at work preparations were being 

 made to flood the mine as soon as it was found that all the 

 imprisoned men had been rescued. Streams of water that 

 were turned into the mines boiled when it came into contact 

 with the heated walls of rock and the burning timbers. 

 Fresh air was pumped into the mines constantly to supply 

 oxygen to the fighters and to any imprisoned men, but the 

 oxygen fed the fire at the same time and made the efforts 

 of the fire fighters useless. Finally, April 12, when the last 

 hope of rescue had been abandoned the openings to the mines 

 were closed and steam from the boilers in the engine room 

 was forced into the drifts and passagewaj^s for seventy two 

 hours. Then when the main shaft was re-opened the fire 

 broke out afresh and it was not until the mine was closed 

 again for forty eight hours and live steam turned in again, 

 that the fire was extinguished and the mine made tenantable. 

 Three days after the re-opening of the mine repair gangs 

 were at work and a few months afterwards, with all the charred 

 timbers and evidences of the fire removed the mine was work- 

 ing full blast, sending its usual output of ore to the surface. 



The risk, however, of working in mines is decreasing 

 yearly, and every new scheme or device that aids the mine 

 owner to make more certain the safety of the men at work 

 for him below the ground is adopted without hesitation or 

 regard to the expense. 



In the early years of mining in this country old fashioned 

 methods that prevailed in the old world were taken as models 

 and the results were always unsatisfactory and very often 

 entirely negative. The first notable showing of enterprise 

 came w^hen the great rush began to the Pacific coast after 

 the discovery of the gold mines there. At first the ordinary 

 course of mining in opening ore mines was followed, but 



