We have had snow three times this winter, and it has gone off
twice, but the weather is very stormy now, and I guess it will stay
this time.
I go to school. We have quite a large school-house, it being 190
feet long, 100 feet wide, and 100 feet in height, from the ground
to the top of the belfry. The foundation is sandstone, which
extends for about eight feet above the ground. There are eighteen
rooms in use as school-rooms. I am in the next room below the High
School. I am ten years old, and study reading, writing, spelling,
arithmetic, drawing, higher geography, and grammar.
There are many curious things about the mines here. One shaft is
2400 feet deep. I have not been through the mines since the new
machinery was put in, but I have been told that it is a great deal
stronger and larger than the old. They have built two new
engine-houses, and rebuilt two old ones, and put new machinery in
all. One of the boilers at the Hecla is thirty feet long, and there
are two of that size at the Calumet.