24 CHARLES HIGGINS 



the necessity for overcoming great obstacles formed by nature 

 acted as a stimulus that stirred these pioneers to still greater 



feats. 



The development of the Comstock lode was marked by 

 tremendous feats of engineering skill and daring. Before 

 that day miners were wont to prop up the drifts through 

 the narrow veins with a timbering of tree trunks or by posts 

 surmounted by a cap piece. In these gold mines of Cali- 

 fornia, however, every foot of space was precious, every car- 

 load of ore was worth refining. 



The problem was solved finally by Philip Deidesheimer, 

 a mining expert working as a superintendent in one of the 

 mines, who introduced the method of square set timbering — 

 filling every space with blocks piled beside each other and 

 one upon the other. These blocks were put in one at a time 

 as fast as the ore was taken out. One chamber, filled in 

 this manner, was more than six hundred feet long, five hundred 

 feet high, and two hundred feet wide. 



Thousands of men found employment in this and other 

 mines, in this region, striving and bustling villages and towns 

 like Virginia City and Gold Hill sprang up and prospered. 

 There was a dearth of water in these towns and the nearest 

 supply of good water was a lake high up among the moun- 

 tains. From the lake to the valley of the Carson river there 

 was a fall of a mile and the mining towns lay a thousand 

 feet above the valley on the other side from the lake. 



''It's impossible," was the brief statement of the first 

 engineer that was called in by the mining kings Mackay and 

 Flood, who owned the greater part of the mining land in that 

 part of the country. 



''It's got to be done," they replied to the shrinking engi- 

 neer, fearing to trust himself with work of such magnitude. 

 And done it was. It was necessary, in order that the mines 

 be worked, that water be got to the two mining towns. And 

 water was brought to them over the valley a mile deep. Other 

 obstacles were met and surmounted in much the same manner. 

 There was no hesitancy in those days, no counting the danger ; 

 the only thing that was counted was the profit and loss, and 

 when there seemed an opportunity for a feat of daring and 



