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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 14, 1889)
428 WEST SHORE. THE ANACONDA FIRE. The great fire in the Anaconda and St. Lawrence mines, But'e, Montana, or, rattier, between those mines, which broke out Nov. 27lh, when seven men perished in the mine, is still burning and all underground work is susended. Tin's gigantic mine is a wilderness of timber. Eighty thousand feet a day went into its various tunnels, levels and shafts. The mine prob ably contains hundred million feet of timber, a good share of which is dry and inflammable. Where the fire is raging the timber is perfectly dry. Five hundred feet below, on the 1,000 foot level, there is probably enough mobture to dampen the wood, but not above that. The public generally have an idea that water is constantly dripping from the walls of a mine. Tliis will app'y only to the lower levels of the Butte mines. The uper levels ire sometimes as dry as a pari jr floor. After tlinW is placed in a mine and remains there for several years, it liecomes dry and spongy, and sometimes dry rot sets in. This is the result of lark of ventilation. The fire was probably caused by some careless miner who stuck his candle where the flame could reach this dry wood, says a Montana exchange, where the fire is now burning is a perfect forest of timber that may take a year to burn out, or it may smoulder for a number of years. The fire in the Calumet and Hecla, in Michigan, took a year to extinguish, while fur twenty years a fire has been smoul dering in one of the Comstock, Nevada, mines. Smoke makes it iinoshilile to fluht the fire with hose and water. It must be dune by bnlkheading, which will prevent fresh air from reach ing It, or by running a pie through the bulkhead and forcing carbonic gas thn ugh the pi. The fire in this instance will probably lie confined to the levels und stoes between the Ana conda and St. Lawrence mines. This embraces a space over 6 0 feet long, 100 to 1!0 fwt high, and several hundred feet wide. Most of Ibis ground is worked out, and is not of abso lute necessity for the extraction of ore. Hut until the fire and smoke are removed, they will prevent the lower levels being reached, and if the fire continues it will be necessary to sink new shafts on both the Anaconda and St. Lawrence properties. The Anaconda smelter will not, however, lie without ore, as the company has a number of mines, some of which have not been worked of late, which will afford a supply sulllcient to keep the smelter running until either the fire is extinguished or the new shsfla are completed. As the Anaconda company has a large amount of copier on hand it muy determine to close down the mines and smelts, and thus advance the price of Its pres ent holdings. The Anaconda mine is lighted by the most expensive system of electric lights used in any mine in the woild. The machinery is In duplicate, so that if an accident ahould liapMn to any of it, the nectary part could be imme diately supplied. In the slopes, however, and also where the Hurlelgh drilli are being worked, it is necessary to use candles as the Masting would shatter the electric light. It WM 0ne of these candles proUbly, through the carelessness of some miner thai started a fire which will result in a loss to the Anaconda company of perhaps a million dollars. IRRIOATION ESTIMATES. Ms. l'owell, chief of the federal cominlaaion to Investigate the quMtlua of the Irrigation of arid hinds and to recommend tin beet ache me for accomplishing that purpose, read a wner on th. .U..W before the K, York chamber of commerce last week. 1 le U-gan with the statement that about half th. land, of the United SUK exclusive of Alaska, are a'Ll S lands, to far as they ran be brought under cultivation by irri gatiou, ore the brt In the country, W.uae U cro, ore cer tain, not being subject to the changes of extreme wet and d seasons, as in the case of lands dependent upon rain 2 1,000,000,000 acres of land in the United Sia'es about 6,noi)0M are now under cultivation by irrigation, and about 120,000 000 altogether can be rendered arable by that method.' JJii Towell estimates that the construction of reservoirs, canalsand other works necessary will cost at the rate of $10 an acre. fa suming that 100,000,000 acres are to be redeemed in this ay the cost will aggregate 1,000,000,000. When storage reservoiri and irrigating canals are completed vast water powers will bt created, suitable for manufacturing purposes. These will exist at points on canals higher up than those at which waters are to be taken for irrigation. The government, Major IWH layi, should not be allowed to furnish any money for the compktim of this great system of works for the preservation of the fowti and parceling out of the water. Many thousand men will) necessary, and to put this matter in the hands of the govern ment would be to build up a bureaucracy and an armyofoffici. als. He thought the government should only furnish tin laws to control the operations of this work. The people would naturally combine by liydrogiwphic basins, that is, in the terri tory covered by a single stream and its tributaries withlniiirr gle watershed. Courts should lie established to adjudicate upon all questions arising from this condition of affairs, though the government itself should apportion the water among the different states in each district. Major Powell eurgests that the money for carrying out these great schemes might be raised by the issuance of community bonds or other similar method. THE BOISE BASIN. Kecent rains and warm weather in Idaho have thawed out the ground, which fact is welcomed by Boise county, says tbe Idaho World, in shaking of next season's proBjiects for mining in the busin. During the winter the snow will thaw from tbe bottom and the water soak into the ground, which will insure a good placer mining season, the first one for three yean With plenty of water for the placer mines, so that the usual amount of gold dust can be extraited, the development oi quarts mines discovered during the past year, with statehood in viow to encourage capital from abroad, with the operation of the mills now running and ready to run and the erection ol new ones, Boiw county will advance much more rapidly than heretofore. Thousands of dollars will be taken out of the plw ers, the mills in oicration are all yielding handxomely, the Bedrock flume enterprise will lie pushed, more machinery will I erected, and croakers will be deprived of their only occupa tion. The accessions to our populat'on during the put fe years are men who are thorough minors and prospector! and have a great deal of energy and perseverance. They ill pro nounee this section of Idaho a great mineral belt that afforJi splendid opportunities both for the prospector and rapitalW Quarts veins are more numerous than in any section they b before visited, and they say that to develop a large number of valuable gold and silver mines only requires prospecting in a more careful and systematic manner; hence, prospecting by tunnels and shafts is gaining in favor. We look forward to the coming year as the most prosperous for Boise county lines tbt great excitement that passed off with the sixties. Thiipr pcrity is coming through the quarts mines, which, It may be sid, are yet in their infancy. Capital is beginning to find oat that we have the mines, and is now looking for the most desir able proxies. When spring opens more minera will b needed and our population will increase more rapiJIy heretofore.