192 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
holds its way with most Colorado camps still, but is left behind in the race by its 
more prosperous neighbor. Silver Cliff is a city of 5,000 people now, and con- 
fidently anticipates a population of double that number within six months. 
The most famous mines of this section are the Bull Domingo, Bassick, 
Silver Cliff, West Mountain, Plata Verde and Racine Boy. The first named is 
a Rosita mine and experts estimate the quantity of ore now in sight at $1,249,- 
440. The Bassick mine has been shipping $2,000 worth of ore daily to the 
Silver Cliff sampling works, and continues to show up fine bodies of high grade 
ore. The Bassick is believed by many miners to be one of the big bonanzas of 
the world. The Racine Boy, at Silver Cliff, is operating two tunnels, and its 
development promises to show better bodies of ore as the work continues. The 
company has taken more than $100,000 from the big tunnel. What is true of 
the above mines, is true of a hundred others in a limited degree. Some rich 
gold discovered have been recently made in several mining camps adjacent to 
Silver Cliff, and the little county of Custer, in which these mines are located, 
bids fair to become a rival even to Lake County. 
THE VESUVIUS RAILWAY. 
The first public trial of this remarkable line took place on the 6th inst. The 
time of ascent requires only eight minutes, on foot it takes an hour and a half. 
A correspondent of Zhe Zimes, who was present on the occasion, says:—‘‘ It must 
be admitted that on this, the first public experiment, the boldest among the many 
present confessed the necessity of screwing their courage up to the sticking po nt 
before making the railway journey along a road steep as a ladder or a fire-escape 
and 860 metres in length ; but as regards danger, it is reduced toa minimum. It 
is not a train in which one travels, but a single carriage, carrying ten persons only, 
and as the ascending carriage starts, another, counterbalancing it, comes down 
from the summit, the weight of each being five tons. The carriages are so con- 
structed that, rising or descending, the passenger sits on a level plane, and what- 
ever emotion or hesitation may be felt on starting, changes, before one has risen 
twenty metres, into a feeling of perfect security. The motion also is very gentle, 
and the effect is magnificent, if not, indeed, grandly awful, as, when hanging 
midway against the side of the cone, one looks, from the window directly upwards: 
or downwards along the line, which, its slight incline alone excepted, is perfectly 
perpendicular. Dismounting at a little station at the summit, one can scarcely 
be said to clamber to the edge of the crater, for the company have cut a conveni- 
ent winding path, up which all, except the aged, heavy or feeble, can walk with! 
ease. The upper station was gaily decked with a trophy of flags. Flags of all 
nations waved along each side of the line, and, after descending again to the base 
of the cone, we sat down, 120 in number, to a splendid banquet, spread in a spa- 
cious and well-appointed restaurant, established in a kind of Pompeian villa.”—| 
Lyon. 
