Show to freiberg MEN EMPLOYED over one hundred miles of tunnel worked about years correspondence the danger excitement aai of th us at the present writing make our visit to freiberg replete with interest oab guide a larce good fellow bits on a Bl board jemne against the aide of iab in deep adeep my companion J H squires the situation with a look of awe and your correspondent f attention is now attracted by echo of a dynamite blast now by the cabe and now by tha falling of a pebble from some loose corner of the mine they are shifts and the ex ot the door haggard men a they huny around to prepare themselves with awatar cana fuse lights etc before the cage boea without them is most ia terentin tere atin W are clothed in miners wearing heavy capa intended to ward off a blow that may fracture the baull hanging around our necks are straps holding little brass of oil la shape they much resemble an old tea urn and hold oil sufficient to burn flye hours ve are on our way out awaiting the ascension of the cage one thousand feet of earth lie between us and day light at tan th r morning we applied for admi aaion to descend and at thia time 2 p m aro we only little more than half way up abon ire had donned our audits and procured our guide we into the machi fiery room to ee the countenance of the man at the lever into whose bands we ware about to risk our airs he proved to be a dreamy look ing old gentleman in whose sleepy moTe manta we imagined there was danger the cage in which we decender dec ended is algoet eaten away in places with and the wire rope on which it swings ia worn bright through use to thia irom which wo write we came with uch rapidity that our lights were blown out but from here to the bottom we went moat of the way on lad J ere whose rounda were half worn away here the principal shaft to eee a body of men running a drift and there leaving it to see the working of the pumps has 00 confused us that we could not be more totally boet loet in paris it will not be doubted perhaps that it ia possible for one to be lost inhere and starve before he is found when it is known that all the tunnels surrounding us placed in one would ba more than one hundred and twenty three miles long la every direction run drifts in some of which a kean wind blows and in others it is 0 o chloee and depressing one can hardly remain there the hardy miners in the deeper parts wear only clothing to bide their naked neB below the haiat and above th belt ar they adark naked when wa reached a of about laoo feet our guida mounted a little top about tn inches square seized an iron handhold hand hold and began on tha pump when one abaft of the tho other 1 down and ach gjoa up and down a distance cf about flye feet when the right one went down five feet it returned and the loft one went down flye feet and again the feht so it ia necessary to continually alep from liht to left a distance of three feet in order not to go back up and in order to alway ba on tho down boin abaft below ua wag for three bun dred fet and above ua for eighteen hundred so in the extreme bottom we were 2100 feat under ground thare wa found it extremely warm some of the naked workman with streaks of amaat rolling down their badiea were ing dynamite lothara cottine fuse and dulling when asked if it waa forbidden to take maples of the ore the guide replied later whispered anat if we wished to take a piece there was nothing laid but in tho prea enca of the kiaer be dire not eiyo any away tha ore ie not so precious bowlyer bo weyer it ii catena assaying S par cent silver and the proportion of led we caara very fw of the tun ala now show ore and the yem we aan did not aced a foot no timbering ii done where ia it ia done by an masonry ho weyer the formation is perfectly per factly aclid minca anra not simply because they are baine but they are tha moat tire in the world they ei in the twelfth century and hav been TI eyer inca makina tha firt die ginga about ear old truo in so long time more would hatra bu done in american mines bat the machinery and impleman tt formerly used very simple compared with the compressed air the from one of which we can now hear everal hundred feet below ua in order to form a 0 the mines in the world let HE quota a few from our pocket guide the most extensive mines in the world are those of freiberg saxony they were begun in the twelfth century md in 1835 the galleries taken collectively had reached the unprecedented length of miles the deepest per minine shaft in the world is located at bohemia it is a lead mine it was began in 1832 jan it waa 3 ft deep the defeat coal mine in the world is near tourney belgium it is ft in depth but unlike the lead mine mentioned above it ia not perpendicular the deepest rock salt bore in the world io near berlin prussia it is ft deep the deepest hole ever bored in the earth ia the well at potsdam which i ft in depth the deepest coal in the united beatea ia located at rott aville pa in 1885 it had reached a depth ol 01 1576 ft from this great depth ears holding four tona each are hoisted daily the deepest silver mine io the united states is tha yellow jacked one oi the great comstock bya tem of virgina city nevada the lower levela are 2700 below the hoisting borka these historic old of freiberg arnish en for miners and important in the city beneath streets and houses this honey clomad section of earth lies is the cole berated mining academy which renders freiberg tha abat ot the anning the kingdom after about three of an hour waiting our gnida gives orders to prepare for ascension with the exception of this rest we have been almost five hours constantly walking or climbing with no idoa of direction or location we baye been wholly at the mercy of oar guide who has proven that he kiowa the tunnels and shafta aa well aa ana may learn the streets ot hia native towa E W R saxony feb lat 1894 |