Crane. ]} Developing Mineral Properties. 189 
ing at the foot of the original shaft by which the mine was 
worked, and extending the workings into the broken ground, 
thus drawing off the materials which have fallen and run 
into the mine. The loose materials are rapidly being re- 
moved, exposing a large funnel-shaped opening of elliptical 
cross-section—minor and major axes one hundred and two 
hundred feet, with a depth of about 75 feet. On several sides 
the walls are precipitous and even overhanging. ‘The drifts 
and stopes, by which the mine was formerly worked, are ex- 
posed upon the sides of the cut, but most of them are at least 
partially filled with the debris of the cave-in. 
The track leading into the workings runs from the foot of 
the shaft through a drift thirty-five feet long and extends into 
the open cut for a distance of fifty feet or more. 
Up to the present time the waste and pay dirt have been 
removed from the cut in a similar manner, 2. e., in the same 
cars and by the same shaft, but an inclined track or slope is 
being rapidly put in place, which extends from a height of 
30 or 40 feet above ground, downward at an angle of forty-five 
degrees to the bottom of the cut. Upon this slope, cars are to 
be operated by a cable; thus the waste will be run out to one 
side and dumped. The method of raising the ore from the 
bottom of the open cut and transferring to the mill will be 
described under ‘‘Surface Appliances for Handling Ore.’’ 
Methods of Shaft Sinking. 
Formerly prospecting was done almost entirely by test pits 
or shafts. Drilling is now looked upon with much more favor, 
due probably to the fact that it is easier, quicker and in most 
cases much cheaper than sinking a shaft. 
There is no definite rule by which the best location of a 
shaft may be determined, although a great many theories are 
advanced regarding the same, namely, low ground, a nortlh- 
ern slope, a flint formation, or a locality in which flint is 
known to occupy the lower level, a locality where a con b 
structure is prevalent or where the formations are colored ly 
the oxidation of pyrite, and a recent opinion, which is rapidly 
gaining ground, that next to a limestone bar is a good loca- 
