Hole A Mile Deep

A hole in the ground a mdle deep! Thie, the deepest that has ever been flug in the earth, is in the shatft of the Ked Jacket copper mine, at Calumet, Mich., says the New York Journal. This hole, now nearing completion after seven years' work, has great scientific interest, because it tells us some things subterranean wihicb. we didn't know. Observers ascending to great heights in balloons have secured data of lmportance regarding meteorological conditions and underground observations made at the depth of a mdle are not less valuable. The Red Jacket shaft deserves to rank as one of thé wonders of the modern world. It is a brilliant bit of engineering. The Eiffel tower created a sensation becauee of lts prodigious height, amd yet this Calumet hole in the ground couldhold five Eiffel towers dropped in one after anotiher. ït had all along been thought that such a depth as at the bottom of the Red Jacket shaft would have had a temperatrure that would boil an egg. This has been found not to be the case, however. Careful tests at the bottom have proved that the normal temperature at a mile below tlhe earth is only 87.6 degrees Fahrenheit, about a fair August average in New York. At a depth of 105 feet the temperatura was but 59 degrees. It is believed that experimenta now under way will prove ta what depth the earth could be penetrated before the heat would be unbearable to a human being. Another retnarkable fact is that th water found at the bottom of the slhatt is most corrosive to the human body. The workmen have been compelled to wear heavy rubber boots, rubber ooats and maski to protect themselves.