2i8 J. A. LATCHA 



old and reliable mine. For more than twenty years a steady 

 stream of gold and silver has poured out of that camp. 



From Pioche to Bodie, California, lies one of the most 

 interesting and valuable mineral fields in the world, and yet, 

 strange to say, until ten years ago, one of the most neglected. 



The marvellous wealth of the Bonanza mines of the 

 Comstock lode at Virginia City has become a household word. 

 But the wealth of the Comstock lode was not known when 

 the Washoe mania seized men, — a mania probably as marked 

 as any ever known to the mining world, — and the memories 

 of the hardships and orgies of those mad days is almost as 

 sacred to old miners as is that of '49. Eureka, a later find, 

 about sixty miles east of Washoe, — or Austin, as it is now 

 called, — has developed better staying qualities than Washoe, 

 owing to the large percentage of gold mixed with the silver. 

 For the same reason many of the mines near Eureka continue 

 to be paying properties. 



The overflow of hardy and reckless miners from Washoe 

 spread over every mountain, cafion, and plain of Nevada 

 from Washoe to Pioche. Numerous mines rich in gold and 

 silver were found, and for a time were profitably worked; 

 but unfortunately the gold was so combined with base metals 

 that it could not be separated by the methods known and 

 practiced twenty seven years ago. In mining parlance, 

 almost all those ores are refractory. As a result of the lack 

 of knowledge by the miners of the arts of reducing ores, 

 abandoned shafts and smelters are now to be seen throughout 

 that vast territory, — at Grant Camp, near Freiburg, at Ka- 

 wich valley, at Reveille, at San Antonio, at Hot Springs, 

 at Gold Peak, at Marietta, at Columbus, and at Candelara. 

 At all these points, and at many others, were mines assaying 

 from $20 to $50 per ton in gold. As that metal, however, 

 could not be separated from the base ores, all that country 

 was given over for years to desolation and anathemas. 



No gold or silver has been found in the valley of the Hum- 

 boldt; but far north of the Central Pacific railway some rich 

 deposits have been found during the last few years. The rich 

 ore deposits of Nevada lie almost on a direct line from Pioche 

 to Bodie. It is evident from the facts Stated, that a greater 



