xl IMJOCEEDINCJS. 



tioiis up to that time made, it was not possil)le for any one to know anytiiing 

 definite about tlie mine. 



" Knowing all these facts, I cominenced the investigation by building a coffer 

 dam around the top of tlie shaft to keep out the water. This was done by V>uild- 

 ing a frame- work round the shaft on the solid rock, 15 feet down on the inside, 

 calking round this framework and between it and the I'ock, then sealing up the 

 entire shaft from the frame-work to above high water mark, with grooved and 

 tongued plank, leaving a space back of the plank, and between the plank and tlie 

 rock, of about 8 inches, which was filled with Portland cement, after first calking 

 all the cracks that could be found in the planking. When this cement hardened, 

 • — which it did in half an hour after being poured in, the seams in the rock and 

 plank were perfectly filled with the cement; making it impossible for water to 

 get through the plank and rock to the shaft, thus preventing any further trouble 

 from surface water, all at a cost of one hundred and seventeen dollars and seven 

 days' time. 



" With this solution of the water problem, I was able at once to pump out the 

 mine and set miners to work in the shaft and stopes, to expose the lode four feet 

 in height and seventy feet in length. While this was being made ready I milled 

 the ore that I found already mined and it yielded an average of 26 dwts. per ton. 

 When the lode was exposed the entire length of the tunnel, four feet high, I com- 

 menced at the westerly end and crushed the ore as it was taken down, and I did 

 not see one sight of gold in the quartz from the shaft, or the first thirty-six feet of 

 the westerly end of the tunnel, it giving, in the mill test, but 1-2 dwt. to the ton ; 

 but at a point thirty-six feet east of the westerly side of the shaft along the stopes, 

 the quartz showed good sights of gold, and from there to the end of the stopes, 

 gave an average of 36 dwts. per ton. I carefully marked this line between the 

 good ore and the poor, and repeated the test in the same manner farther down in 

 the mine, finding this time 65 feet of the west end of the tunnel givmg but I dwt. 

 per ton, while the remaining 10 feet of the tunnel gave 26 dwts. per ton. This 

 proved to my mind that the ore in the shaft aud the westerly end of the tunnel 

 was practically worthless, but at the extreme east of the mine was evidently good 

 ore, and from this evidence it appeared that the mine was opened too far west to 

 find the best ore. It was also evident that there was a ' pay chimney ' and that 

 it had a dip east, there being a large body of ore east and running out to a point 

 about 20 feet west of the shaft. This line of dip I was able to obtain exactly by 

 drawing a line from the point marked in the first test, between the good and poor 

 ore, to the point marked on the last test, between the good and poor ore. This 

 gave the ' pay chimney " dipping east at an angle of 40 degrees in the lode. 



" A tunnel has now been driven .300 feet east on the lode in this ' pay- 

 chimney ' and from this tunnel has l)een taken, in all, 428 tons of (juartz, which 

 has yielded 493 ounces of gold or an average of 23 dwts. per ton, and the ore is as 

 good in the extreme end of the tunnel, 300 feet east of the point of beginning as 

 it was at the start. This ' pay chimney ' is well defined and is dipping east, as 

 above stated, at an angle of 40 degrees, containing ore worth 23 dwts. in gold per 

 ton, while ore outside of it, west, contains but 1 dwt. per ton. This investiga- 

 tion proves the mine to have been open at least 400 feet west of the centre of the 

 pay ore ; and to have gone down with the shaft as originally opened, would have 



