Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1875 — A Perilous Ride Down the Great Nevada Flume. [ARTICLE]

A Perilous Ride Down the Great Nevada Flume.

A company interested in the silver mines near Virginia City, Nevada, have constructed a flume fifteen miles long for the purpose of transporting wood and timber down the mountain from the forests to the mines. A New York correspondent gives the follow ing descript ion of “a ride down this flume: The flume is shaped like the letter V, and is made of two-inch planks nailed together in thu shape indicated. Across the top it is about two and (i half feet in width. The ends are very carefully fitted, so that where the planks go together there may be no unevenness, for timbers going at the rate of from fifteen to sixty miles an hour must have a clear coast. The flume is a wonderftil piece of engineering work. It is built wholly upon 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 is undoubtedly strong enough to support a narrow-gauge railway. Itruns over foot-hills, through valleys, around mountainsand acrosscanons. In one place it is.seventy feet high. The highest point of the flume from the plain is 3,700 feet, and on an airline from beginning to end the distance is eight miles, the course thus taking up seven miles in twistsand turns. Mr. Flood and Mr. Fair, two of the proprietors of the mines, had arranged for a ride in the flume, and I was challenged to go with them. Indeed, the proposition was put in this way—they dared me to go. I thought if men worth $25,000,000 or $30,000,000 apiece could afford t,o risk their lives I could afford to risk mihe, which isn’t worth half as much. So I accepted the challenge, and two “boats” were ordered. These were nothing more than pig-troughs with one end knocked out. The “ boat” is built like the flume, V shaped, and fits into the flume. It is composed of three pieces of wood—two two-inch planks sixteen feet long and an end-board, which is nailed to the back end The boat is the size of the flume, being about two ami a half feet across the top. The forward end of the beat was left open, the rear end being closed by the board against which the water was to rush to impel us. Two narrow boards were placed in the boat for seats, and everything was made ready. Mr. Fair arid myself were to go in the first boat, and Mr. Flood and Mr. -Hereford were to follow us in the other—Mi_FairtliouglitAYe had better take a third man with us who knew something about the flume. There were probably fifty men from the mill standing in the vicinity waiting to see us off, and when it was proposed to take a third man the question was asked if anybody was willing to go. Only one man, a red-faced carpenter who takes more kindly to whisky than to his bench, volunteered to go. Finally everything was arranged. Iwo or three stout men held the boat over the flume and told us to I jump into it the minute the boat touched the water, and to “ hang on to our hats.” The signal of “ all ready” was given, the boat was launched, and we jumped into it as best we could, which Was not very well, and away we went like the wind.’ One man who helped to launch the boat fell into it just as the water struck it, but he scampered'out on the trestle, and whether he was hurt or not we could not wait to see. The grade of the flume at the mill is very heavy and the water rushes through it at railroad speed. The terrors of that ride can never be blotted from the memory of one of the party. To ride upon the cow-catcher of an engine down a steep grade is simply exhilarating, for you know there is a wide track, regularly laid upon a firm foundation; that there are wheels grooved and fitted to the track; that there are trusty men at the brakes, and, better than all, you know that the power that impels the train can be rendered powerless in an instant by the driver's light touch upon his lever. But a flume has no element of safety. In the first place the grade cannot be regulated as it can on a railroad; you cannot go fast or slow at pleasure; you are wholly at the mercy of the waters. You cannot stop ; you cannot lessen your speed; you have nothing to hold to; you have only to sit still, shut your eyes, say your prayers, take all the water that comes—filling your boat, wetting your feet, and drenching you like a plunge through the surf—and wait for eternity. It is all there is to hope for after you are launched in a flume boat. I cannot give the reader a better idea of a flume ride than to compare it to riding down an old-fashioned eaves-trough at an angle of forty-five degrees, hanging in mid-air without support of roof or house, and extending a distance of fifteen miles. As the start we went at the rate of about twenty miles an hour, which is a little less than the average speed of a railroad train. The reader can have no idea of the speed we made until he compares it tb a railroad. The average time we made was about thirty miles an hour—a mile in two minutes for the entire distance. This is greater than the average running time of railroads. Minutes seemed hours. It seemed an hour before we arrived at the worst place in the flume, and yet Hereford tells me it was less than ten minutes. The flume at the point alluded to must have very near forty-five degrees inclination. In looking out before we reached it I thought the only way to get to the bottom was to fall. How our boat kept in the track is more than I know. The wind, the steamboat, the railroad never went so fast I have been where the wind blew at the rate of eighty miles an hour, and yet my breath was not taken away. In the flume it seemed in the bad places as though I would suffocate. The first bad place we reached, and if I remember aright it is the worsf, I got- close against Fair. I did not know that I would survive the journey, but 1 wanted to see how fast we were going, &o I lay close to him and placed my head between his shoulders. The water was coming into his face like the breakers of the ocean. When we went slow the breakers came in on mv back, but when the heavy grades were reached the breakers were in front. In one case Fair shielded me, in the pther I shielded , Fair. In this .-particularly bad place I allude to my desire I was to form some judgment of the

sjieed we were making. If the truth mmj£ be spoken I was really scared almost opr of reason, but if I was on the .way to eternity I wanted to know exactly how fast I went. So I huddled close to Fair arid turned my eyes toward the hills. Everyobject I placed my eye on was gone before I could clearly see what it was. Mountains passed like visions and shadows. It was with difficulty that I could get my breath. I felt that I did not weigh a hundred pounds, although I knew in the sharpness of intellect which one has at such a moment that the scales turned at 200. Mr. Flood and Mr. Hereford, although they started several minutes later than we, were close upon us. They were not so heavily loaded and they had the full sweep of the water, while we had it rather at second hand. Their boat finally struck ours with a terrible crash. Mr. Flood was thrown upon his face and the waters flowed over him, leaving not a dry thread upon him. What became of Hereford I do not know, except that when he reached the terminus of the flume he was as wet as any of us. This only remains to be said: We made the entire distance in less time than a railroad train would ordinarily make, and a portion of the distance we went faster than a railroad train ever went. Fair said w.e went at least a mile a minute; Flood said we. went at the rate of 100 miles an hour, and my deliberate belief is that we went at a rate that annihilated time and space. ' . We were a wet lot when we reached the terminus of the flume. Flood said he would not make the trip again for the whole Consolidated Virginia mine. Fair said that lie should never'again place himself on an equality with timber and wood, and Hereford; said he was sorry that he ever built the flume. As for myself, 1 told the millionaires that I had accepted my last challenge. When we left our boats we were more dead than alive. We hail yet sixteen miles to drive to Virginia City. How we reached home the reader will never know. 1 asked Flood what I was to do with my spoiled suit of English clothes. He bade me good night, with the remark that my clothes were good enough to give away. The next day neither Flood nor Fair was able to leave his bed. For myself I have only- the strength to say that 1 have had enough of flumes.