184 



GEOLOGY AND QUICKSILVER DEPOSITS, NEW ALMADEN DISTRICT, CALIFORNIA 



FICH-HB 109. View of China dump at mouth of Main tunnel and Spanish camp beyond, about 1870. The long two-decked building on top of 

 the dump was a planllla, or sorting abed. From there the ore was originally trammed to the head of the chute, but at a later date It 

 was let down on the Incline shown at the left of the photograph. The small dump In the canyon In the foreground probably marks the 

 portal of the Cora Blanca adit. From L. E. Bullmore collection. 



Alamitos Canyon. Everyone was required to donate 

 a dollar a month to the "Miners' Fund," which pro- 

 vided the miners and their families with free treat- 

 ment by a first-class physician and surgeon, free den- 

 tistry, and literary programs and educational lectures. 

 By way of promoting greater cleanliness, which was 

 previously discouraged by the fact that all water was 

 hauled in by donkeys, an elaborate water system was 

 laid that piped water to every house. However, not 

 everything Randol did was approved by the miners, 

 for he also issued edicts requiring everyone to pur- 

 chase all supplies at the company store and tried to 

 constrain everyone to remain on the property all the 

 time by putting locked gates across all the access 

 roads. 



It soon became obvious, however, that full produc- 

 tion could not be maintained, in the face of dwindling 

 reserves and rising mining costs, unless new mining 



practices were employed. The ore that had been fol- 

 lowed a little below the Day tunnel on the 800-foot 

 level required considerable handling for removal, and 

 it was still being mined and handled by primitive 

 Mexican methods. In order to explore deeper ground 

 down the plunge of the known ore bodies, Randol de- 

 cided to put down the first of the more than a dozen 

 shafts which have been sunk on the property. This 

 shaft, which apparently was known from the first as 

 the Randol shaft, was begun on June 10, 1871, and 

 Randol's lack of mining experience resulted in its be- 

 ing far too small : it was only 4 by 9 feet and close 

 cribbed, and contained only a single hoisting compart- 

 ment. (See figs. 112, 113.) As the shaft \v:ts to serve 

 as the principal outlet for most of the ore mined in 

 the next 20 years, its small size profoundly affected 

 the rate of production, and consequently the profits, 

 of the mine. 



