602 Transactions of the American Institute. 



Gold Hill, although separately named, is substantially continuous 

 with Virginia City, and really forms part of the same settlement. 

 About a mile south of Virginia the defile deepens into a bow-like 

 gorge, much below the level of the plaoe last mentioned, and in and 

 around this are the buildings comprised in Gold Hill. There is, I 

 believe, a difference in the character of the lode at the two points, the 

 northern or Virginia City portion growing narrower as it descends, 

 so that its transverse section is of wedge-like shape, while at its south- 

 ern or Gold Hill end no diminution of its diameter is apparent at any 

 depth. I have spoken of both localities as permanent mining camps, 

 and they are nothing else. The narrow, upturned edge of the argenti- 

 ferous rock was found extending a distance of two miles in a gorge 

 between the mountains. Claims were staked off, each covering more 

 or less of the length of the ledge, and each foot of this length was 

 divided into twenty shares. Companies were organized, and each 

 claim, the location of a mine, was pierced with a vertical shaft, over 

 the mouth of which was raised a building to protect the machinery 

 employed. At the same time board houses for the miners, traders 

 and others were put up. In the course of events several churches and 

 school-houses were provided, and in this way the two villages, as they 

 now exist, were formed. 



Arrived at Gold Hill, I made myself known to Capt. Thomas Y. 

 Taylor, president of the company owning the Yellow Jacket silver 

 mine, which had been described to me as affording one of the finest 

 examples of the mining enterprise of the district. He promptly vol- 

 unteered to show me the entire establishment, commencing with the 

 building above the shaft, containing the machinery used in hoisting 

 the ore, and also various other mechanical adjuncts of the works. 



To sink the shaft is always the first thing done in opening a mine. 

 Here, on the Comstock Lode, it is essential to wall it with heavy 

 squared timbers, fourteen inches thick, in order to keep the sides 

 from bulging inward under the enormous pressure of superincumbent 

 rock. Nearest the top one thickness of such timber suffices, but a few 

 hundred feet below the surface two courses are necessary, making the 

 lining twenty-eight inches of solid timber. The available space or 

 internal diameter is about six feet square. Here, in the Yellow Jacket, 

 two cages, which would be called elevators anywhere else, run up and 

 down within the shaft to lift the ore, and also to carry the miners to and 

 from their work. The cages differ in construction from those used in 

 the other mines in the neighborhood in being made with two . floors 

 or stories, one above the other, so that two ore cars instead of one can 



