When dumped, the ore falls into chutes in the roof
of the mill, and what the Califomian hydraulic miners
first named " grizzlies " are set in the bottom of each
chute. A grizzly is a screen of parallel iron bars three



OUTSIDE VIEW OF A MINE. 219

inches apart, in most cases, set sloping, and loose at
one end, so that while the finer rock goes through,
all larger fragments roll into the jaws of a rock breaker,
whence, after having been sufficiently crushed, the
material goes through another chute into the main
ore bins to which the smaller rocks went at once. In
the hydraulic mines, where sets of grizzlies are some-
times used to keep boulders out of the flumes, the
mingled roar of the foaming waters, the harsh crash-
ing of rolling rocks, and the clang of quivering bars
of massive iron can be heard a long distance. It is one
of the noisiest things about such a mine, but its name
does not seem very appropriately taken from the mon-
arch of the Sierran wilderness, whose tread, though
lumbering, is noiseless, and whose loudest utterance
is a menacing growl.
Eeturning to our typical mill on the Comstock,
the ore bin where the crushed rock falls is one hundred
and ten feet long and the contents are fed by chutes
to the eight batteries of ten stamps each. The mill
building stands upon ground that was terraced in the
most careful manner, so that the different parts of
the structure stands upon different levels, as is required
for the most perfect economy of labour and time. After
the ore is once delivered at the top of the building,
gravity is made to do as much work as possible.
