392 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



pump the air from the horizontal pipe which 

 would draw its supply from the breast of the tun- 

 nel. It worked very poorly and as the mine was 

 above timber line fuel had to be packed from a 

 long distance. 



It chanced that the tunnel had tapped a spring 

 and that a stream of water fell down the cliff 

 from its mouth. When the foreman complained 

 that the men lost much time waiting for the 

 fumes to dissipate after every blast I surprised 

 him by telling him to dismantle the stove, turn 

 the pipe vertically down the cliff, connect the 

 elbow that had led from the stove, with the air 

 pipe from the tunnel, and turn the stream of 

 water which was flowing from the tunnel into the 

 vertical pipe through the tee that had been used 

 to connect with the air pipe. I had a bucket so 

 placed at the delivery end of the vertical pipe as 

 to keep that end submerged and make it impossi- 

 ble for air to flow back through the pipe. Then 

 making a little dam from the mud of the drills 

 and partly blocking the intake pipe till the water 

 rose above it I told the foreman to take a look at 



