Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1895 — Pine as Heavy as Lignum Vitae. [ARTICLE]

Pine as Heavy as Lignum Vitae.

Probably nothing in the world can be said to exceed in structural w’onder of Its kind the labyrinthian system of subsurface timbering peculiar to the Comstock mines, the sum of $55,000,000 being considered a moderate estimate of the cost of the same from the opening of the mines to the present time. The size of the timbers varies from the huge pieces 10 iuches square and 24 feet long to the smaller pieces 8 inches square used In cribbing. The species employed are chiefly yellow pine, fir and cedar, fully two-thirds of the whole amount being the first named- a favorite timber, In fact, with mine carpenters on account of Its exactitude In Joining. Cedar, of course, is Inferior to no known timber, not even excepting redwood, for its lasting qualities underground; but it said that yellow pine has been taken from the lower levels of these mines so compacted by the enormous pressure it has withstood as to have a density and weight exceeding those of lignum vitae. None of the timbers in the Comstock mines have yet badly decayed, and their life there cannot be accurately determined, but the heat and vapors of the mines surcharged with mineral atoms appear to have a decidedly preservative effect upon the timbers.—New York Sun. If there Is a virtue In the world we i should aim at It la cheerfulness.