17(j DISTRIBUTION OF BEDDED LEADS 



correlations of these, in order to emphasize wliat the author 

 believes to be policies which in the end will work injury to the 

 ^old mining industry. And chief of these is the vague idea 

 that somewhere below we have a limitless body of ore, and can 

 ultimately mine about as far as we like. — up, down, lengthwise, 

 or sideways. No one has greater faith than the author in the 

 ultimate success of the industry, when conducted on a large 

 scale, by modern methods, and with business enterprise yet con- 

 servatism. The past ye.ir lias been spoken of by some as espe- 

 cially disastrous in this field. If by this is meant a small 

 output and a high gross cost merely, it is true. But this is a 

 near-sighted view of the matter. The peculiar status of the 

 industry today is due largely, although not entirely, to two 

 causes. First, we are in a transition period between the day of 

 one-man mines and small capital, and that of large capitalization 

 and large scale operations. We have not yet accustomed our- 

 selves to the change — nor, indeed, yet completed it. Some good 

 properties are too highly capitalized, yet have too little paid in 

 to meet ordinary current expenses of development and installa- 

 tion. With the large scale must come careful management, and 

 among other things the blocking out and testing of several 

 years' ore supply in advance. Very few mines indeed fulfill 

 these conditions. Second, in several large properties which 

 ordinarily can be depended upon ^to give a good record, of 

 themselves, the year has been spent in exploration, development 

 work, or increase of surface plant. No wonder, then, that the 

 output is small and the cost high. 



As opposed to the negative side of the gold problem out- 

 lined earlier, must be presented a few facts which should tend 

 to encourage the worker. First, while there is an undoubted 

 downward limit to the zone of leads which could be cut by a 

 shaft sunk on the apex of a dome, we have no evidence that in 

 any given district it is within the range of moderately deep 

 mining, or that many valuable saddles may not be cut by such a 

 shaft. The experiment has never been seriously tried. Second, 



