The extra mercury was collected, and the amalgam was put
into a retort or kettle and heated. The mercury became a gas and was
driven off from the gold and silver, then caught in a vessel cool
enough to condense it, just as a cold plate held in steam will
collect drops of water. Sometimes the ore was mixed with copper and
lead. In that case common salt and copper sulphate were used. Some ore
had to be roasted in a furnace in order to drive off the sulphur.

[Illustration: THE STORY OF A SPOON

_Courtesy The Gorham Co._

(1) Silver strip blanked. (2) Pinched. (3) Graded. (4) Outlining of
Handle. (5) Stamped Handle. (6) Spoon completely trimmed. (7, 8)
Finished spoons.]

There were great and unusual dangers to be met in getting the ore. The
vein of quartz which bore it was fifty or sixty feet wide. Some was
hard, and some so soft and crumbling that pillars would not hold up
the roof. The passageways were then lined with heavy logs standing on
either side, other logs laid across their tops, and all bolted firmly
together. Nevertheless, they twisted and fell, and slowly but
certainly the whole mass of earth and rock, two hundred or more feet
in thickness, was coming down upon the heads of the miners. The work
on the Comstock mines had come to an end unless a man could be found
able to invent some system of support not laid down in the books. The
man was found. He took short, square timbers five or six feet long,
put them together as if they were the sides and ends of square boxes,
and piled them one above another, making hollow pillars. He fastened
these firmly together and filled the space inside with waste rock,
thus making strong, solid pillars that would support almost any weight
that could be put upon them.

There were two other dangers, water and heat. The vein was porous and
water was constantly trickling out of it. Then, too, there were "water
pockets," or natural reservoirs in the rock, and any moment the
stroke of a pick might let out a torrent and force the miners to run
for their lives. Sometimes minerals were dissolved in this water, and
the men with closed eyes and swollen faces had to be hurried to the
surface for treatment. Powerful pumps had to be used and the water
sent away through long lines of pipes. This water was warm, and in
very deep workings in the Comstock vein it was boiling hot. Even with
quantities of ice sent down to cool them, the men could work in some
places only a short time.

In Sa