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

BOSTON
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.

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

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]

THE BOY WITHTHE U. S. MINERS

PREFACE

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

THE BOY WITH
THE U. S. MINERS