POLYTECHXIC ASSOCIATION. (507 



time become somewhat familiar, the operation of drilling preparatory 

 to blasting, loading and running the cars, etc. By some mutual 

 understanding, the ore from the lower drifts of this mine is taken to 

 and hoisted from the Yellow Jacket shaft, that of the Belcher being, 

 as yet, but TOO feet deep. Here the drift has been run into rock, 

 paying about forty dollars to the ton. It cost about twenty dollars a 

 ton to mine and mill ; on that, one-half the yield, even of this compara- 

 tively poor rock, is profit. A new " breast," opening out from the 

 side of the drift, three or four feet above the floor of the latter, was 

 under way, and, to see all that was to be seen, I climbed up into it, 

 but saw only the same routine of toil witnessed in other parts of the 

 lode. For a long time the ore of the Belcher was so lean that the 

 mine was believed to be worthless, another illustration of the vicissi- 

 tudes which such enterprises frequently undergo. Returning to the 

 Crown Point, we sat down to rest where one of the drift bisects the 

 incline of the last named mine. The incline, as previously explained, 

 is simply an inclined continuation of the shaft following down the dip 

 of the lode, but in the present instance, for some reason or other, the 

 angle is thirty-six degrees instead of forty-five degrees. In other 

 respects it corresponds with the Yellow Jacket incline, except that a 

 round hemp rope, instead of a flat steel one, is used for operating the 

 car that runs up and down. It had, moreover, a rude lifting pump 

 for drawing water from the bottom, and placed at the same angle from 

 the horizontal. Its reciprocating piston-rod moved on pulleys 

 arranged underneath to support it, and was operated by some motive 

 power tljat I did not see. Its dull sound, as the piston moved slowly to 

 and fro, mingling with the intermittent gush of the water, was dismal 

 enough in the dim caverns. From here, nearly by the way we came, 

 we went back to the foot of the Yellow Jacket shaft, through which 

 on the cage we rode to the surface at the rate of 900 feet in a minute. 

 But at this point let us trace the course of ore from its bed, until it 

 awaits transport by rail to the mills at Carson, sixteen miles distant, 

 where there is water enough for the purpose. 



The rock blasted from, or rather in, the drifts, radiating from the 

 vertical shaft is placed at once in the small cars that run upon the 

 narrow tracks ; these cars, when laden, being pushed by two men to 

 the shaft and upon one of the cages, one car on the lower and 

 another on the upper floor, which is performed by raising or lowering 

 the cage, as the case requires, to bring its floors successively in range with 

 the cars. These are then hoisted to the surface, where they are 

 moved by manual power upon one or the other of two narrow tracks, 



