Cape Breton's Magazine

we were doing the blasting. The car came in on two rails from the mill. And I was shoving this car from where we were blast? ing- -to a chute they had. There were two or three tunnels, one above the other. And there'd be a chute from the upper one down to the next one, and they'd put the quartz and the ore down this chute to this car. The car was on the rail, and I would shove it out to the mill. You'd have to dump it-- open one end of it--upset it, and it would open and all the ore would go down into the mill. The crushers down at the mill--what they called the "stamp mill"--it would crush the ore, didn't matter how big. Those stampers, they used to come together as the ore went in. It'd start big and crush small. The thing would work together till it'd be right fine, fine as powder. There was iron in the gold, too, different miner? als. This mill separated it. They put the iron in bags--probably 100- to 150-pound The first time, I worked there till, I'd say, July. Then I had to go home and make the hay--we had a farm. (Why didn't you go back the next year?) Oh, I don't really know, I started at something else then--I was on the farm. (Did you like the work, though?) Oh yes, indeed, very good. We got used to it. Then it was closed for a long time. Then this Dan Patriquin went in there about 1925 or '26. I was working in the woods there, and when I got through there, I went up to the mines. I got hired on right away. I went there in the spring--I didn't work t;oo long then. There was a fellow from Sydney doing some prospecting. He just had three men working--I and this Mac? Rae and another MacLennan fellow that lived near there. Then it closed down. They claimed they couldn't'get money to operate it. (Not be? cause they ran out of gold?) Oh no, I don't think so. They claim there was lots of gold there, but they claimed it was pocket-y, it was hard to follow the lead. They lost the lead. They had to quit--they had to do so much extra work for nothing, to find where the lead was. Since 1927, it never worked, not too much, anyway. There used to be fellows back and forth, probab? ly worked 2 days or 3 days or something, that was all. Dan E. MacQuarrie: The leads started to climb the mountain on you. Then they started what they called "stoping" (stop? ing is excavation in the form of steps, used where the veins are steeply inclined or vertical) up the side, follow the lead. And a lot of them, they weren't very good miners, you know. From the country. There were a few old miners. Well, they kind of lost the leads. Anyway, they were paying 2 dollars first--2 dollars a day. And then the men decided they would have a little strike there--and one day they went on strike. And there's something in the maga? zine there (Cape Breton's Magazine, Issue 27) about Duncan MacKenzie. He was there and he was a piper--he could play the pipes. They all gathered, and Duncan got a- head of them with the pipes, marched them out. Well anyway, it didn't work very well. They said, "Okay, we'll close her." 929-2523 A GARDEN CENTRE FOR ALL OF CAPE BRETON Edgehill Landscaping Ltd. 929-2971 Plan to visit us this spring for all your garden needs. Landscape Design Service Available on Request Fruit Trees, Shrubs Fertilizer, Lime, Peat Moss Seeds, Bedding Plants Strawberry & Rhubarb Plants Bluegrass Nursery Sod Concrete Planters & Fountains -Beside the Englishtown Ferry- Qoalifted Disqpeiisers Always in Attendaaoe OWL DRUG STORE Daniel T. McKeough, Proprietor Convalescent and Sick Room Supplies Sales & Rental Drug Sundries and Cosmetics Located on Commercial Street, or write to P.O.Box 125 794-3611 North Sydney ALWAYS Af tODE SBBVICB (46) Quality Meats and Groceries Quincy Market Inverness Choice Red Brand Beef BentieiBanJiffl Fully Licensed Restaurant 6 Days a Week: 11 to 11 Enjoy the TROP LOUNGE next door at Sydney Shopping Mall