THE COMSTOOK MINES. 165 



The total estimated cost of this work, comprising all labor and materi- 

 als used in excavation, all machinery necessary for the shafts, with the ex- 

 pense of operating the same, the cost of appliances to be used at the mouth 

 of the tunnel for the extraction of ores, and an allowance of twenty-five per 

 cent, on the estimate for the foregoing items, to cover contingencies, is stated 

 at $2,500,000. 



This great enterprise, of which the main features have been very briefly 

 given, was projected some years ago by Mr. Adolph Sutro, whose name it 

 bears, and who formed a company for the purpose of carrying the plan into 

 execution. The project was at first received with great favor, and the lead- 

 ing companies mining on the lode became subscribers to the stock of the 

 tunnel company. They also entered into an agreement to pay to the said 

 company $2 for every ton of ore extracted from any part of the mines, 

 whether from the surface or through the tunnel, from the time that the 

 tunnel should reach and pass through or under the ground claimed by said 

 mines ; besides other charges for the transportation of rock, materials, and men. 



In 1865 the Legislature of the State of Nevada passed an act authorizing 

 the construction of the tunnel, and granting the exclusive right of way for 

 fifty years ; and in 1866 the Congress of the United States enacted a law to 

 aid in the construction of the tunnel, granting the right of way, with title to 

 land and mineral veins cut by the tunnel, and other privileges, chief among 

 which was a provision compelling all mining companies owning claims on 

 the lode to pay to the owners of the tunnel the charges named in the con- 

 tracts before referred to, into which some of them had entered, and making 

 their titles subject to that conditioidi. 



After the passage of this act the companies that had before favorably 

 received the tunnel project and had subscribed to the stock as well as to the 

 contracts referred to, withdrew their support and entered into active opposi- 

 tion, prompted by a number of considerations, which need not be discussed 

 here, but chief among which were the onerous conditions imposed by the 

 contracts first made between some of the mining companies and the tunnel 

 company and subsequently confirmed and perpetuated by Congress. 



The difficulties of enlisting the requisite capital in the Eastern States 

 and in Europe for the construction of the tunnel in a place so remote, espe- 



