The hoisting shaft of the Rosebridge Colliery,
near Wigan, Lancashire, England. 2,458

Shaft of the coal mines of St. Luke, near
St. Chaumont, France. 2,253

Amelia shaft, Shemnitz, Hungary. 1,782

The No. 1 Camphausen shaft, near Fishbach,
in the department of the Saarbruck
Collieries, Prussia. 1,650


Now, taking the mines of the Comstock for a distance of over a
mile--from the Utah on the north to the Alto on the south--there is
hardly a mine that is not down over 2,500 feet, and most of the shafts
are deeper than those mentioned above; while the Union Consolidated
shaft has a vertical depth of 2,900 feet, and the Yellow Jacket a
depth of 3,030 feet. In his closing argument before the Congressional
Committee on Mines and Mining in 1872, Adolph Sutro of the Sutro
tunnel said: "The deepest hole dug by man since the world has existed
is only 2,700 feet deep, and it remains for the youngest nation on
earth to contribute more to science and geology by giving
opportunities of studying the formation of mineral veins at a greater
depth than has ever been accomplished by any other nation in the
world." Mr. Sutro was of the opinion that the completion of his tunnel
would enable our leading mining companies to reach a vertical depth of
5,000 feet.