STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 181 



Of the Palnryra District, lying east of Carson Eiver, nearly the same 

 is true. Here, as early as the summer of eighteen hundred and sixty, 

 a great number of ledges were located, and some superficial work per- 

 formed upon them, but which, failing to develop a Comstock Lead, then 

 the standard, were afterwards given up; and not until a short time 

 since, when deeper sinking disclosed the true character of the leads, did 

 the public come to appreciate the value of this district and perceive the 

 mistake of the early pioneers. In this district one very efficient mill is 

 already at work, with preparations in hand for the erection of others, 

 all to be employed upon the rock in that neighborhood. 



To the west of Virginia and on the opposite slope of the mountain 

 range in which the Comstock Ledge is situated, lies the Argentine Dis- 

 trict, laid out and organized almost simultaneously with those of Vir- 

 ginia and Gold Hill, and which, after attracting a good deal of notice in 

 the fall of eighteen hundred and fifty-nine, when a number of ledges 

 were located and some work done, was afterwards so complete^ deserted 

 that for a time ownership was asserted to scarcely a single claim there. 

 Here, too, on the renewal of and with a little more thorough work, the 

 leads once despaired of are exhibiting a much more favorable aspect, a 

 few of them having already turned out small lots of pay ore. 



A number of other cases might be cited to show that one of the most 

 prolific sources of failure in what are termed outside mines has thus far 

 been the superficial character of the excavations made in prospecting them. 

 In fact this would seem to have been the great trouble heretofore in Es- 

 meralda. Humboldt, and other localities prominent before the public for a 

 number of years, and which, it it not to be concealed, have so far come 

 far short of their early pi*omise. Not but what explorations in an infin- 

 ity of cases have been undertaken in opposition to the teachings of 

 science and common sense, and millions of money thrown away upon 

 mines that were no mines at all; but still, the great number of failures 

 that have hitherto marked our mining enterprise is to be attributed to 

 the shallow and insufficient character of our exploitations, rather than to 

 the absence or poverty of the ledges themselves. We were, so to speak, 

 spoiled by the character and position of the first silver mine found in 

 the country. The Comstock Ledge, the pioneer on American soil, 

 exhibited at the point of discover}^ an immense mass of rich ore in its 

 very outcrop. Lying almost upon the surface were the concentrated 

 sulphurets that, first revealed to mortal eyes, caused so much trouble to 

 " Old Virginia " while engaged in gold washing at that point. 



In all their subsequent researches after this metal, our people, keeping 

 the Comstock ever before them as their guide and exemplar, sought only 

 for leads under like conditions. Hence the miscalculations and mistakes 

 which the experience of several years is only now beginning to correct. 

 We have but lately ascertained that only very rarely do the rich ores in 

 these veins lie exposed as in the case of the Comstock, and that whether 

 the adage that " it takes a mine of gold to work a silver mine "be liter- 

 ally true or not, it at lest conveys a wholesome admonition to those who 

 propose engaging in that somewhat precarious business. The miner is 

 beginning to find out that a pick and shovel and sack of flour, though 

 backed up by a brave heart and willing hands, are hardly adequate to 

 the work of driving tunnels and sinking shafts, to say nothing of the 

 mills and reduction works necessary in silver mining. But having at 

 length, after years of tribulation, learned these things, we may be ex- 

 pected now to get on better with a business w T hich, these difficulties 

 mastered, has rarely failed to prove profitable to those engaging in it. 



