/po?] Recent Changes in Gold Mining 109 
near the surface, but becomes very expensive as the mine 
gets deeper, especially when hoisting machinery is required 
on each shaft. This is partially explained by the fact that 
many of the old mines have been worked at very irregular 
intervals and the old shafts have become caved in during the 
period of idleness. 
Even those mines having capital are often badly managed. 
They frequently put in machinery of unnecessarily large 
capacity, not realizing that a very small engine and bucket 
can easily get out 10 or 15 tons of ore per day and keep a five 
stamp mill busy. There are many little mines that could 
pay a profit under careful management with five stamps and 
running only one shift; but some of them have engines big 
enough to hoist four times as much ore. Since the engineer 
and top men must be there all the time, there is no economy 
in operation but may even be a loss, since the engine cannot 
work steadily and fuel is wasted keeping up a big fire; and’ 
of course, the first cost is greater. If the mine ever gets 
much too big for the small engine, it can be used in prospect- 
ing or underground work. 
A great many shafts are much to big. It is not uncommon 
to see a little bucket, 30 inches accross dangling in the mid- 
dle of a hoisting compartment 6 feet square in the clear, It 
is considerably cheaper to sink a shaft with compartments 
only 4 feet square in the clear and when the hoisting compart- 
ment is smoothly lined with plank ( to assist ventilation ), or 
fitted with guides, it has jnst as great a capacity — usually 
more than enough for the output of the mine. If necessary, 
the hoisting capacity of a shaft may be greatly increased at 
any time by putting in a tall bucket, or better a self-dumping 
skip and high speed engine. The ladder and pipe compartment 
is often as big as 6 by 8 feet. Since the cheaper and better 
direct acting steam pump would now be placed in a shaft, 
instead of the clumsy and bulky Cornish pump, the water, 
steam and compresed air pipes take up very little room. It is 
now customary to put in slanting ladders between landings 
some distance apart. They can almost as well be a little 
