RESOURCES OF THE FAR WEST 219 



mother lode actually exists in Nevada almost similar to the 

 one so famous in California. The former rests upon the slopes 

 of the divide extending from near Sevier lake in Utah to 

 Mono lake in CaUfornia. The waters of that divide run 

 north to the Humboldt Valley and south to the Colorado 

 river, Death valley, and Owen's lake. The demolition and 

 denudation of that divide, due to the attrition of water through 

 the ages, have exposed the metal deposits described. The 

 continuous chain of deposits of gold and silver on''that great 

 Nevada divide has never, to the knowledge of the writer, been 

 noted. If a systematic exploration of that great east and 

 west divide should be made, surprising results would follow. 



Since the discovery of the gold deposits of Leadville 

 and of Cripple Creek, and with the possession of new methods 

 of treating refractory ores, old miners have renewed operations 

 on the condemned and abandoned Golconda of Nevada, with 

 remarkable results. The ores at Leadville and Cripple Creek 

 are mostly of the same character as those of the abandoned 

 mines in Nevada. But, with the cyanide process now em- 

 ployed, mines assaying from $15 to $25 per ton in gold ore are 

 worked at a profit in the Colorado camps. The discovery 

 of the cyanide process will revolutionize the mining situation 

 in Nevada. The fabulously rich gold deposits at Ferguson, 

 or the Monkc}^ Wrench district, in southern Nevada, have 

 been found during the last twelve years. Equally valuable 

 finds have been made within the last ten years at a point about 

 one hundred miles west of Hyko. These ores assay from 

 $50 to $40,000 per ton in gold; and every dollar can be easily 

 extracted by the cyanide process. 



It will doubtless be asked why those rich mines are not 

 boomed and why the people are not crazed over them. There 

 are several good reasons for this. In the first place free nug- 

 gets of gold are not found; second, the average man lacks 

 faith in a territory abandoned years ago : he is slow to grasp 

 the fact that '^ circumstances alter cases." ''Once condemned, 

 always condenmed," is the dogma of most men in business, 

 as in morals. The third reason is that the fuel for working 

 the mines and the smelters in southern Nevada is such that 

 eastern men generally would spurn the idea of investing money 



