744 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the terse remark that " the Washoe bar at that time was hardly a 

 nursery for tender consciences." 



The first problem that troubled the miners in the midst of 

 their lawsuits was how to handle the immense bodies of ore. To 

 develop the various claims by means of the usual shafts, tunnels, 

 drifts, cross-cuts, and other underground workings was unusually 

 difficult. The vein matter of the great fissure varies from 100 

 feet to 1,500 feet in width. The whole body was once a seething 

 mass of fire and steam. It still remains in many places so hot 

 that the appliances of modern science hardly enable the miners to 

 accomplish any work. The ledge first sloped west, became ver- 

 tical at about 200 feet down, and then bent toward the east, thus 

 necessitating a second and finally a third line of shafts. Machin- 

 ery for pumping, for hoisting, for ventilating and lighting the 

 depths of the mines, had to be constructed upon a larger scale 

 than ever before attempted. As the ore bodies were opened they 

 were found to be so wide that the timbering system failed entire- 

 ly. A new method, known as the " Deidesheimer square sets," 

 was invented, which is still in use in all large mines. It consists 

 of short timbers mortised together in frames that can be built up 

 to any height or width, like the adding of cells to a honeycomb. 

 A few years later the mines siphoned water from the Sierras 

 under a pressure of 1,720 feet. Incidentally the miners invented 

 the V flume to carry lumber down the Sierra slopes. The annual 

 supply of timber for the mines amounted by 1866 to 25,000,000 

 feet of lumber and 170,000 cords of fuel. The consumption of 

 both increased steadily until in bonanza days 80,000,000 feet of 

 lumber annually disappeared into the drifts and chambers and 

 250,000 cords of wood went up in smoke and flame. 



Metallurgists, too, found endless study in the methods of re- 

 ducing Comstock ore. Beginning with slow Mexican arastras 

 and patio yards, adopting in 1860 California stamp mills, and 

 modifying the amalgamating apparatus to save the silver, the 

 modern " Washoe process " was finally adopted, though only after 

 years of costly experiments. For a time every one went rainbow- 

 chasing for something to perform impossible chemical feats. One 

 pioneer mill man used to put strong decoctions of cedar and juni- 

 per bark into his amalgamation pans ; others actually used sage- 

 brush tea, it being argued that Nature had created the otherwise 

 worthless shrub for the express purpose of getting the metal out 

 of Nevada's mountains ! Persons with secret processes overran 

 the mining districts, each one with the whole trick contained in a 

 little bottle in his vest pocket, ready for a consideration to pour a 

 few drops into the amalgamating pan. San Francisco was ran- 

 sacked for drugs to put into the batteries with the pulverized ore. 

 Alum, saltpeter, borax, potash, all the acids obtainable, tobacco 



