in great pain, but cool and sensible to the last. One of his comrades bade him keep up good spirits, and they would have him out shortly. "Ah, boys," said he, "good spirits is getting played out." Then, at times, in his agony, he would beg them to end his sufferings by splitting his head with the axe. At last, his voice could be heard no longer, and on examination he was found to be dead.

The system of timbering employed on the Comstock lode is very expensive; and it is hardly practicable to renew the timbers, so large is the amount of material required. The extent of the open spaces left by stoping, the very steep dip of the lode, and especially of the ore-bodies in it which are removed, and the impracticability in most cases of filling up with "deads," or leaving sufficient pillars for support, necessitates a vast complex of heavy morticed timbering. At the same time, the carelessness of early workings has left large quantities of low-grade ore in the upper levels, so that the companies for several years have extracted ore from old workings. This unfortunate combination of circumstances makes it necessary to keep open portions of the mines which might otherwise be abandoned. The great expense of mining in this district is due, next to the cost of prospecting for ore-bodies, to the necessity of extensive timbering; and the same cause has led to several accidents, the principal of which was the disastrous fire in the Kentuck and Crown Point, mentioned in a former report.

Another accident, occurring at the Hale and Norcross mine on the 24th of August, was more directly the result, in my opinion, of repre hensible carelessness. The Gold Hill News describes it as follows:

Thomas Stanton and David Ryan, together with John Cochran and Matt. Sullivan, were engaged in sinking the shaft deeper. An empty car was being lowered on the cage; when near the top of the shaft the heavy bolt connecting the brake-lever with the friction-band around the brake-wheel broke square off. The consequence was that eage and car, weighing nearly a ton, immediately descended with frightful velocity to the bottom of the shaft, which is 1,200 feet deep, the heavy wire cable following it just as fast as the swiftly revolving reel would allow. Indeed, the engineers ran out of the way, expecting every instant to see the reel and brake-wheel fly into fragments. They say a perfect stream of sparks flew from the friction-wheel and brake-strap nearly to the ceiling. Fortunately, however, the flying end of the cable, as it left the reel and dashed down the shaft, did very little damage. The cage and car, in their descent, passed through two strong platforms of heavy timbers a foot thick; one of them about 45 feet from the bottom, and the other only 10 or 12 feet above the heads of the men, passing through both as though shot from a cannon. Stanton and Ryan were standing erect, or nearly so; therefore they were both crushed down to instant death, the bodies of both being considerably mutilated and broken. Cochran was bent over, working, and was knocked prostrate, with his legs under the cage, but the other unfortunates receiving the full force of the falling weight saved him, and he escaped with comparatively light injuries. We were present at noon to-day while Drs. Webber and Hall were making a surgical examination of him at his cabin. They found the head of the right thigh bone fractured at the hip joint. A pick, or something of the sort, had also evidently been driven several inches into the fleshy part of the thigh at the under side, but this wound was not considered serious. Sullivan, the fourth man, was working beneath another compartment of the shaft, a few feet distant; therefore was lucky enough to escape entirely unhurt. The cable fell, coiled among the debris of the broken platforms, upon the car and cage; therefore it was quite a job to extricate the dead bodies. The bolt broken was not defective. It was two inches in diameter and showed no flaw, but simply a square break of good solid iron. This accident of course developes the now evident fact that a two-inch iron bolt was not strong enongh, yet no one could hardly be blamed for mismanagement; it was a purely accidental circumstance, and one of those unforeseen calamities continually occurring in our mines. Two strong brakes instead of one might be used, and thus the recurrence of a similar accident prevented in the future. Engineering invention certainly can contrive some sort of safeguard to apply in such emergencies. The cage was of the safety pattern, but owing to the tension kept upon the cable the safety clutches were not free to act, as they would have infallibly and effectually done in case of tho cable breaking. We append this last remark by reason of having heard several persons state this was not a safety cage. It was, and a very good one at that-so strong that it was but little injured by its fall.

It seems to me that no "engineering invention" is required to prevent

such a catastrophe. This case is but one of many warnings which the Comstock mines have furnished against the practice of lowering cages by the brakes instead of unwinding with the engine. I remember that for several years it was the rule in the Gould & Curry mine to lower with the engine; and during that time not a single accident occurred in the shaft. Lowering by the brakes is letting the cage, with the continu ally increasing weight of cable, fall down the shaft, regulating its descent merely by the brakes upon the friction-wheel, which are con trolled by a long lever, reaching to the station of the engineer. The inequality of the pressure of a man's hand upon such a brake-gearing is made very unpleasantly evident to a person descending in the cage by a surging alternation of velocity, as the momentum of the fall is now allowed to accumulate and now suddenly checked. In lowering cages which do not carry human passengers, less care is exercised in regulating the velocity, and the resulting strains upon every part of the cable and machinery are of the most dangerous character. It is true that a simple device might be employed to stop the revolution of the bobbin when the brakes fail to act; but it would be far better to avoid dropping the cages in this way, and, by lowering steadily with the engine, to secure a uniform instead of an alternately accelerated and retarded rate of descent.

STATISTICS OF THE MINES.

The following statistics are offered in continuation of those presented in former reports:

Report of the Belcher for the year ending February 1, 1871.

The receipts for the past year were $278,541, including $204,253 from bullion and $72,095 from assessments. The expenses were $277,017, the leading items being $123,214 for crushing ores and $85,388 for labor, leaving $624 cash on hand. During the year the amount of ore crushed was 11,353 tons, yielding an average of $17 99, at a cost of $10 85 per

ton.

Report of the Gould & Curry for the year ending November 30, 1870.

The assets of the company aggregate $203,614, against which there are liabilities amounting to only $2,629. The superintendent reports 24,305 tons of ore taken from the mine during the year, averaging $28 16 per ton.

The president's report gives the following comparisons of the operations of the mine for the past three years:

Report of the Hale & Norcross for the year ending March 1, 1870.

Comparative statement of cost of mining and milling, together with yield of ore, for 1868 and 1869.

Report of the Yellow Jacket for the year ending July 1, 1870.

1869. $13.09 28 29 12 494 27 13 5 13%

Product of mine, $1,779,229; receipts from assessments, $528,000; total receipts, $2,307,227. Indebtedness July 1, 1869, $305,605; expendi ture during the year, $1,722,725; balance on hand July 1, 1870, $278.897, as follows: on deposit, $119,609; due on railroad account, $129,056; supplies on hand and paid for, $30,332; total, $278,897; and to balance debit side, add up $2,307,227.

The following is the detailed statement:

The receipts for the year have been as follows: Bullion product

Ore sold

Morgan mill...

Assessment No. 12, levied July 19..

Assessment No. 13, levied November 26.

Assessment No. 14, levied March 16.....
Advertising balance..

Total....

$1,702,726

10,254

65,929

240,000

120,000

168,000

318

2,307,227

The disbursements amounted to $2,028,331. The principal items are the following:

The assets of the company aggregate $285,102, as follows:

The above figures represent the condition of the company at the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1870. No dividends were disbursed. The apparent profit for the year was $584,502, of which $305,606 was used to liquidate an indebtedness at the beginning of the year, while the remainder represented the surplus assets at the close, of which $119,600 was in cash.

Report of the Kentuck for the year ending November 1, 1870.

18,103 tons of ore, yielding $371,198, or an average of $20 50 per ton, were produced.

Report of the Imperial Empire for the year ending May 31, 1870.