CHAPTER IX. 



WATER. 



water tn prospect Mountain. — The deepest shaft on Prospect Mountain, the 

 Atlas, the working shaft of the Ruby-Dunderburg Company, has attained 

 a depth of over 800 feet, and up to that depth but little water has been 

 encountered. In the other mines in this part of the district no water of 

 any consequence has been met with, and from the great altitude of many 

 of them above the valley no trouble on account of water need be expected 

 for some time to come. 



water in Ruby Hiii. — On Ruby Hill, the water question is becoming a very 

 important one, and in the future the difficulty of draining the mines may 

 prove a serious impediment to exploration. The water now stands just 

 below the 1,050-foot level in the Richmond shaft, but in the old workings 

 of the Eureka it rose to the twelfth level, 220 feet above this point, before 

 the cross-cut from the 1,200-foot level of the Locan shaft cut the Ruby 

 Hill fissure. The surplus water from the twelfth level of the Eureka flowed 

 down a winze to the Richmond ninth, and finally reached a permanent level 

 at. about 1,050 feet. A reference to the water line on Plate III. shows that 

 the water level in the mines on Ruby Hill is highest at the southeast end 

 or where the limestone wedge is the smallest, and that it gradually declines 

 until, in the Richmond ground, where the limestone is the widest, it stands 

 in the Richmond shaft at a point 650 feet below the water level in the 

 incline of the Phoenix. It will thus be seen that the water from the south- 

 east end of the mineral belt gradually finds its way into the Richmond; 

 that is to say, that it has a tendency to flow in that direction, though owing 

 to the fact that the workings of the mines are not everywhere connected 

 in the lower levels the water does not follow an uninterrupted course. 



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