gain. The flume cost, with its
appurtenances, between $200,000 and $300,000--if it had cost a million
it would be the same in my estimation. It was built by a company
interested in the mines here, principally the owners of the Consolidated
Virginia, California, Hale & Norcross, Gould & Curry, Best & Belcher and
Utah mines. The largest stockholders in these mines are J. C. Flood,
James C. Fair, John W. MacKay and W. S. O'Brien, who compose without
doubt the wealthiest firm in the United States. Taking the stock of
their companies at the price quoted in the board, the amount they own is
more than $100,000,000, and each has a large private fortune in
addition. The mines named use 1,000,000 feet of lumber per month under
ground, and burn 40,000 cords of wood per year. Wood is here worth from
$10 to $12 per cord, and at market prices Messrs. Flood & Co. would have
to pay nearly $500,000 a year for wood alone. Going into the mine the
other day, and seeing the immense amount of timber used, and knowing the
incalculable amount of wood burned in the several mines and mills, I
asked Mr. MacKay, who accompanied me, where all the wood and timber
came from. "It comes," said he, "from our lands in the Sierras, forty or
fifty miles from here. We own over twelve thousand acres in the vicinity
of Washoe Lake, all of which is heavily timbered." "How do you get it
here?" I asked. "It comes," said he, "in our flume down the mountains,
fifteen miles, and from our dumping grounds is brought by the Virginia &
Truckee Railroad to this city, about sixteen miles. You ought to see the
flume before you go back; it is really a wonderful thing." The flume is
a wonderful piece of engineering work. It is built wholly on
trestle-work and stringers; there is not a cut in the whole distance,
and the grade is so heavy that there is little danger of a jam. The
trestle-work is very substantial, and undoubtedly strong enough to
support a narrow-gauge railway. It runs over foot-hills, through
valleys, around mountains, and across canyons. In one place it is
seventy feet high. The highest point of the flume from the plain is
3,700 feet, and on an air-line, from beginning to end the distance is
eight miles, the course thus taking up seven miles in twists and turns.
The trestle-work is thoroughly braced longitudinally and across, so that
no break can extend further than a single box, which is 16 feet. All the
main supports, which are five feet apart, are firmly se