608 Transactions of the American Institute. 



according to which of the two cages is used for hoisting, these tracks 

 leading out upon a trestle, extending horizontally from the steep hill- 

 side upon which the building is situated. It is from 250 to 300 feet 

 long, and its outer end about fifty feet from the ground below. Its 

 top is floored with planks, upon which are laid the two tracks, corre- 

 sponding in rails and gauge to those in the drifts, but there is an 

 opening in the floor at the outer end of each track, and immediately 

 below there is a large wooden receiver, capable of holding 350 tons of 

 ore. As the cars are run out to the end of the trestle they are empted 

 through the openings, their contents falling into the receiver below. 

 This has its bottom placed at an angle of 45° with chutes at the lower- 

 most part, through which the rock may be conducted direct into 

 freight cars on the railroad track beneath, which connects the mines 

 with Carson. The rock excavated from the foot of the incline and 

 the drifts, extending from the latter, is brought up to the foot of the 

 shaft in the car which, by a wire-rope, runs up and down on the slop- 

 ing track. This is so contrived that as soon as it reaches the top of 

 this track it is automatically empted into a receiver provided for the 

 purpose, and which, like the large receiver above ground, has a slop- 

 ing bottom upon which the broken ore descends by its own weight 

 to lateral outlet chutes. From these chutes, when opened, the 

 material falls into the cars used in the upper levels, which are then 

 placed on the cages and brought to the discharge openings in the 

 trestle, in the same manner as those from the other or higher drifts. 



Before proceeding to examine a stamp-mill and amalgamating 

 works in the immediate neighborhood, which, though small, were 

 stated to be the same in their methods of operation as the larger 

 establishments, in which almost the whole of the ore from the lode 

 is worked up, I took occasion to note some adjuncts, worthy of 

 attention, of the boilers which supply steam to the engines ; and one 

 or two other items about the works. 



The steam generators are of the tubular kind and six in number, 

 set in pairs, and so connected that one or more can be used according 

 as greater or less power is required. Their forward or furnace ends 

 are arranged in line, and in front of them runs a short length of 

 railway track. At one end of this is an elevator, having a vertical 

 movement of about sixty feet. The wood used for fuel is all brought 

 by rail from Carson, sixteen miles away, and the track which brings 

 it to the works runs upon the slope at the height just indicated above 

 the floor of the building. The wood from the freight train, therefore, 

 is placed in a rude kind of car or box, say six feet long, four wide and 



