186 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



doubt soon be worked with equal or perhaps greater profit, the staple 

 articles of subsistence being cheaper there than in the adjoining Terri- 

 tory. In the Boise country, and other parts of Idaho, samples of rich 

 silver ore have been obtained, and many ledges taken up, for the devel- 

 opment of which companies have been formed and other preliminary 

 steps taken. 



From the foregoing cursory inspection it will be seen that the argen- 

 tiferous field of California and adjacent Territories is of immense extent, 

 and that whatever losses may have heretofore been sustained in mining 

 operations, some of them ruinous and vexatious enough, we are but on 

 the threshholcl of a business capable of almost infinite expansion, and 

 which is worth some little personal sacrifice in this its first feeble stages 

 and struggles for recognition as a legitimate pursuit. Let those who 

 have lost money by mistaken investments remember that they are not 

 the only sufferers, thousands of laborers having lost what to them is 

 even more important — months and years of severe and unrequited toil. 

 If individuals have been impoverished, the community at large has been 

 enriched ; and although silver mining, as a whole, may not yet have 

 refunded the money spent on its behalf, it is easy to see that it will ulti- 

 mately make square all accounts, having already infused additional vigor 

 into every other calling, and added many per cent to the value of prop- 

 erty throughout the whole Pacific coast. As a rough showing of what 

 can be clone where the business has obtained headway, the following is 

 submitted : 



There are now considerably over a hundred quartz mills in operation 

 in the Territory of Nevada. These carry from five to forty stamps each, 

 and have, been erected at a cost ranging from ten thousand dollars to 

 one hundred thousand dollars — three or four, at least, having exceeded 

 the latter sum. The Gould & Curry mill, with its surrounding improve- 

 ments, has already involved an expenditure of seven hundred and fifty 

 thousand dollars, which it is believed will be increased to nearly one 

 million dollars — even more, when finally completed. About three fourths 

 of these mills are driven by steam, and the balance by water. Of the 

 entire number in the Territory, seven eighths are in the vicinity of Vir- 

 ginia City, the furthest being not over fifteen and the most of them but 

 a few miles distant. The most of them receive their supply of rock from 

 the claims near that place and the Town of Gold Hill. 



It is calculated among mill men that every stamper will crush a ton 

 of rock in twenty-four hours. If we use the number of mills exceeding 

 one hundred to offset those that are stopping for cleaning up and repairs, 

 we will have at least one hundred mills in constant operation. These 

 will carry, on an average, ten stamps each, making one thousand, with 

 a capacity for crushing one thousand tons of ore daily. This ore will 

 yield at the rate of fifty dollars per ton, giving a daily product of fifty 

 thousand dollars for the Territory, or a total, allowing three hundred 

 working days to the year, of fifteen millions of dollars per annum. Such 

 is the miner and mill man's mode of reasoning and reckoning. Such, 

 however, may not be strictl}'' the facts when we come to square things 

 by actual results; and though the mills may at this time be 3 T ielding 

 more than the yearly average would indicate, certain it is, the bullion 

 shipments, so far as we can get at them, give but little more than half that 

 sum as the product of Nevada for the year last past. These shipments 

 however, do not fully represent the gross product of the mines, as some, 

 though not much, bullion makes its way out of the Territory in privato 

 hands or through other channels, of which they take no cognizance. 



