ground
by a drift to the crater below the pit bottom. The shaft was driven
down to the depth of 286 feet, when a stratum of volcanic rock was
reached, so hard that the work was abandoned. No use whatever was made
of this costly shaft, and no considerable attempt was made to cut back
the dangerous reef wall. Even with the stinted means at the command of
the Board, something might have been done to preserve the mine, and an
energetic and well-directed push to this end would have commanded at
least the confidence and support of the more intelligent
claim-holders. So, when the caving of the reef cast enormous heaps of
débris upon the claims in the pit, the lack of foresight of the Mining
Board was discreditably apparent. The cost of removing the reef rock
was then vastly increased, and the burden was the heavier because the
reef falls prevented the extraction of the buried blue ground.
Two
of the larger companies, the French and the Central, holding claims in
the mine, were the first to undertake the removal of the solid reef on
any extensive scale, by sinking shafts, in 1878-1879, at points several
hundred feet distant from the
