The Sunset Ledge

In Butte couuty there is a quartz mine which has been abandoned for niany years. Only the oldest rosidents 3Í the vicinity remember the names of the i icators, and scarcely a trace of the shaft and buildings remains. The ledge was discovored away back in the early days, when quartz first attracted the noticoof prospectors; when many worthless lodges were worked because the minors had uot yet learned how to read the value ot such ore by the miuerals in it, ita locatiou, dip and contact with otner formations. The Sunset ledgo was smull, flinty and absolutely worthle?s, bnt the men who discovered it thought it worth development They put down a shaft 100 feet in depth in wet and treacIxsrouN ground, and they used no timbera Theu they let a contract to two men - a Cornish man and an Irish man - to construct a tunnel 100 feet in lengt h trom the bottom. Sometimes untimbered ground will stand apparently firm and safe for a time, and then, with no perceptible causo, suddenly get shaky and fall or close In. This was just wbat occurred at the Stiiiset miue. The two men in the tunnel had a'moat finished their contract and were "squariug up the face" of the tunnel when on e of the tneu employed on the surfaee was lowered rapidly, ran to them and told them to leave the mine instan tly because the shaft was closing in. Why the men refused, in the face of a oertain horrible death, to heed the warning is a mystery. Tho messenger begged and threatenod, but they were obdurate. They laughed at him, told him to sit down and smoke a pipe with them and said they wonld leave the tunnel only when they had "finished her up in shape. " Perhaps they imagined the man was playing a joke upon them or that it was a scheme to get them to leave the mine before their contract was tulfüled. At auy rate, they refused tu leave the mine, and the man who warned them returned to the surface only ;just in time to escape the fate of the men below. The shaft, with a roar, closed in, and they were entombed. Mo effort was made torescuethe buried men It was impossible to save them iï they were not killed by the cave, and it was supposed that the tunnel had also collapsed. To sink a shaft 100 feet through treacherous ground would take a long time even in these days, when all the "modern appliances" for such work were at onr disposal. The mine was abandoned. Fifteen years went by. The story of the mine and the buried meu became an old ona Their uames were forgotten. They were like men who go down to the sea in ships and perish in sight of their hornea Their friends know that somewhere in the sea their bones are bleaching, somewhere in a great sepulcher upon which they may look, but into which they cauu ot see. Fifteen years after the caving in of the miue some prospectors overran the locality. They were told the story of the Sunset ledge, and they went to its croppiugs and to the dump where the shaft had been and tested the ore they fouud there. Whether they found any gold is not knowu, bnt they found somethiug which encouraged them. Perhaps they were uot well versed in quurtz and believed that auy ledge would pay if developed. They resolved to reopeu tho mine. It was their opinión, they said, that the Sunset company had not put their shaft down in the right placo nor suuk it deep enough. They (the new company) would choose a better spot, siuk thoir shaft much deeper and tap the ledgó on the pay snoot. üld men who heard of it shook their heads and prophesied failure. They said no luck could come from disturbing dead men'sboues, bnt the new company began and finished their shaft. Then they excavated a tunnel and raised au inclined shaft, hoping and expecting to strike the ledge where their judgment had led them to believe the pay shoot was. Une day, when they fired a blast, there was a rush of water down the incline, and the tuiners were driven out. After much trouble and expense a larger pump was put in and the mine clearefl, and the cause of the suddeu flow was explained. The upraise of the new compauy had entered the old tunnel of the Sunset company about 20 feet from its face. And there on a heap of rock, Ifeaning agaiust the walls, were i two grinning skeletons. The bones of the dead coutractors who had sat there grinning at their fate and for 1 5 years patiently waiting to be found were removed from the mine and given decent burial. The mine was again abandoned and will probably uever be aaain ed.- !