The Boy With the U.S. Miners   By: Francis Rolt-Wheeler (1876-1960)

[Illustration: NOT DEMONS, BUT SAVIORS.

Mine rescue crew, equipped with oxygen breathing apparatus, exploring mine after a disaster.

Courtesy of U. S. Bureau of Mines. ]

U. S. SERVICE SERIES.

THE BOY WITH THE U. S. MINERS

BY

FRANCIS ROLT WHEELER

With Thirty six Illustrations

[Illustration]

BOSTON LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.

Copyright, 1922, BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.

All Rights Reserved

THE BOY WITH THE U. S. MINERS

PRINTED IN U. S. A.

BERWICK & SMITH CO., NORWOOD PRESS, NORWOOD MASS.

PREFACE

No walk of life is more wild and adventurous than that of the questing miner, whom neither Arctic cold nor tropic heat can bar in his mad race for the buried treasures of the Earth; no profession is more hazardous than that of the working miner, whose every step underground is full of peril.

Wealth is not all. The thrill of the miner's life lies not in the making of millions. It lies in the ruggedness of his manhood, in the vigor of his partnerships, in the roaring ways of the mining camps, and the life of open spaces.

Heroism and daring mark the miner. From the waterless deserts of California to the shores of the Arctic Ocean, from the loftiest peaks of the snow capped Sierras to the stifling depths of the Carson Sink, the prospector has prowled. Lonely and forgotten, his discoveries have brought great states into being; hungry and poor, he has opened vaults of riches thousandfold vaster than the treasuries of kings.

To give a glimpse of the lives of such men, to reveal the amazing wealth which the Earth yields to those who are willing to dare, and to set forth what an incalculable debt of gratitude the United States owes to the miner, is the aim and purpose of

THE AUTHOR

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I PAGE UNDERGROUND TERRORS 11

CHAPTER II ENTOMBED ALIVE 40

CHAPTER III THE DANGERS OF RESCUE 67

CHAPTER IV EIGHT DAYS OF DARK 98

CHAPTER V THE LURE OF GOLD 128

CHAPTER VI NUGGETS! 146

CHAPTER VII THE FORTY NINERS 174

CHAPTER VIII THE GREAT BONANZA 204

CHAPTER IX WHERE TREASURE HIDES 232

CHAPTER X THE ROARING NORTH 256

CHAPTER XI THE LONELY ISLAND 276

CHAPTER XII A SIBERIAN FILIBUSTER 298

ILLUSTRATIONS

Not Demons, but Saviors Frontispiece FACING PAGE How Anton's Father was Killed 12 Coal Hewers at Work 13 Where the Branch Line Forks 13 Knockers 20 Gathon, Goblin of the Mines 20 Dwarfs in the Mine 21 Miners Descending a Shaft 54 Falling in of a Mine 55 Explosion of "Fire Damp" 55 Into the Poison Filled Air 82 U. S. Bureau of Mines Rescue Car 83 Interior View showing Life Saving Equipment 83 Where the Timber goes 90 Geophone Expert Listening for Tapping of Survivors 91 Building the Wall for the "Sand Hogs" 91 Divining Rods 138 The World's Oldest Picture of Gold Seekers 139 Australia's Treasure House 158 In the Richest Gold Mine of the World 159 Sutter's Mill 176 The Rush to the Gold Mines 177 The Prospector of To day 184 Flume at the Melones Mine 185 The Coming of the Forty Niners 194 David Egelston 195 The Miner's Sluice 214 Panning Gold on the Klondyke 215 Where Deserts Yield Millions 236 The Eater of Mountains 237 The Top of the Chilkoot Pass 260 Pass in the Sierra Nevadas 261 Hydraulicking in Colorado 300 America's "Gold Ship" at Work 301