ECCENTRIC MINING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 76, 26 April 1909, Page 4

ECCENTRIC MINING.

Tin.' town of JSnulj Oregon, remote from a railroad, ami situated in a desert legion recently mude habitable by the iiureduction ut' irrigation, is furnished I with ice lrom a <juarrv. Rend is in' Crook County, and Crook County is a i strange place. Along it* southern border extends a great laval bed, drier than any parchment the mustiest library ever contained. Throughout this bed 110 water is visible for miles, yet it may w heard gurgling tantalisingly somewhere below one's leet. Stranger than tins, however, is the nu-t that at an elevation of four thousand two hundred feet, in the depths of a cave, is a hoard of iee more precious, in that arid region than gold.

'l'he presence of this treasure so far above the sea level ami at so remote a distance from the nearest visible water supply —fifteen miles—has puzzled geologists. There seems to be one explanation. The Desehuteii liver twists its devious course, fur some distance, at a greater elevation than the ice cave. The soil of this region, of volcanic origin, is a porous ashen substance. Perhaps from the Deschutes, water slowly soaks through these fifteen miles of peculiar soil to the ice cave, on a lower level. Be that as it may, uu enterprising private company already has possession of this gift of "nature, and is putting it to good commercial use. | The cave is entered by a steep declivity of some fifty feet in extent. Thence one step directly upon tiie fioor of the out<r ice chamber. Through a narrow opening tiie inner chamber is entered.

The method of marketing tiie ice is as| follows: Huge cubes or blocks, varyingi in weight from two hundred to live hundred pounds, are cut directly from the floor of ice. These are dragged to the loot of the declivity, where thev ar. hauled up a wooden chute by means of cords, and placed upon the wagons waiting to receive them. One wagon ca i carry two tons, and with blocks of the proportions that ale hewed it requir s but a few minutes to secure a load. Meantime a curious thing is taking place. 11l the course of a few hours it will be found that the cavity made Incutting out the blocks of ice lias filled with water and that mis 7ias, in turn, frozen. Thus an inexhaustible supply seems to have been provided by nature for the men who quarry it. Rubber is an article which hitherto has had no association with mining operations. Vet, now that the supply lrom tic usual source, the rubber tree, is beginning to be unequal to the demand, t Beeenis probable that in the future we shall have to obtain a substitute fronr the depths of the earth. , ' "Mineral rubber" is the term applied to a substance dug cluelly in three places ill the world: Coorony, .South Australia; Alteland, South Australia, and Wasatch County, Utah. Its scientific name is elaterite, and in color and elasticity,and in other characteristics also, it bears a close resemblance to India rubber or caouchouc. Nature seems to have been sparing in her deposits of this substance, for it is far from common. {First discovered at Angers, France, later the three chief fields mentioned were discover *d

and opened up. Though this produce has many of the qualities of rubber, chemists and manufacturers were for a

long time baffled in their attempts "> put it to the use they most desired as a substitute for rubber.

In 1007 the s United States imported fifty million pounds of crude rubber, at a purchase price of Idol, a pound, almost irrespiVtive of quality. Yet this amount hardly half supplied the national demand. Annually, beginning many years -back, the shortage has increased until the long-prophesised rubber famine tie- j gins to loom ominously near. Worst of 1 /11, the situation is not improved with | the scientific cultivation of the rubber i tree. The new uses fui rubber are lnulti-; plying too rapidly for the professional' planter to keep pace. The growing of rubber trees is a slow process. It takes twelve years from th: planting of a tree to'the day when the cultivator may hope t'o tap it. Moreover, at this first tapping not more than tw;) ounces of the gum should be extracted, if the plant is to flourish. To produce* a ton of rubber by this method requires the product of sixteen thousand young <rees and a period of twelve years. Tims if, for the year 19217 we should wish to make provision for the fifty million pounds, or twenty-five thousand . tons, we use at the present time, we should be obliged to plant in the year llMjfl, four hundred million rubber plants. But some of these would not come to maturity. Moreover, undersupplicd as wo

now are with the elastic substance, and compelled to eke out the comparatively scanty quantity with various adulterants, in all probability twice fifty million pounds, iu twelve years time would hardly suffice. If one-fifth of the trees planted die, that would mean the siting out tins spring of perhaps one billion rubber trees. Many substitutes have been tried. In England alone the records of the patent office show that over three hundred inventors believe that they have found something that .will take the place of the real article, All these, for one reason or another, seem to have failed. A combination of elaterite with a new mineral known as " tabbyite ? —named after old Chief Tabby of the luita Indians, who revealed the deposit—appears to have brought about the longsought result. In chemical triminology, elaterite is a hydro-carbon, of the resinous group. The amalgamated product of the two cannot be distinguished by any ordinary test from the crude genuine rubber. All the requisite character*

istics are there. The texture is the same, as is also the bounce. Ignited, a piece of the tabbyite-elatcritcc suostance gives oir the peculiarly pungent odor of burning caoutchouc. Chemical analysis reveals about the proper proportion of constituents for rubber : 87.12 per Cent, carbon ; 12.88 per cent, hydrogen. A factory is now being built at S=*lv Lake City. "Already rubber matting, rubber flooring, belting, vulcanised goods. esp?ciallv those used tor insulation purposes, have been manufactured, and are giving satisfaction to those using them. While the elasticity of the best grades of caoutchouc has not yet been produced, laboratory experiment* made in Salt Lake City have given great encouragement in this direction. In making toe .tabhyite-elatcritc amalgamation, one part of the former substance with two of the latter is combined. So far the I'nited States has a natural monopoly in tabhyite, as the only vein located n;» to the present time is in I'tah. The deposits of this mineral are estimated at one million tons. They are comparatively easy of access. Deep canyons tut at right aiigi'es across the beds, offering broad fa<\»s of the mineral to tn miners. There arc other uses for elaterite besides that of a substitute H,or rubber. Khlridge's report. " Asphalt and Bituminous Hocks." gives those: •* For preventing electrolytic action on iron plates of chips' bottoms : for eoatinir barbed wire fence* for acid-proof lining for chemical tanks ; for coating

.seal wail* of brii-k and masonry : for i-ovring facing brick*; for roofing pitch: for insulating electric wires : for smokestack paint : for lubricant* for heavy :michinery: fur preserving iron pipes from corrosion and acids ; for coating polos posts, and tics : for teredo-prou! pile coating." Evidently elaterite is a useful product.