APPENDIX. 493 



mnch higher and the prices rose rapidly. The Gould and 

 Ciirry stock sold in March, 18G2, for $500 per foot, and for 

 $5,600 in July, 1863, showing an increase of near $400 per 

 month. The stocks of some other mines rose with equal 

 rapidity for shorter periods. The highest stock in price was 

 the Mexican, which was held at $8,000 per foot, or $800,000 

 for a mine only 100 feet long. The amount of bullion pro- 

 duced in 1860 was $100,000; in 1861, $2,300,000 ; in 1862, 

 $6,300,000; in 1863, $12,500,000, and about $14,000,000 an- 

 nually for the last four years, 1868 having been a little below 

 the average. The remarkable increase of production for the 

 first three years, and the great dividends declared by a few 

 leading companies, led to the most extravagant expectations 

 and speculations. It was a notorious fact that not a dozen 

 mines were paying expenses, and that hundreds were worked 

 with serious and constant loss, yet the general public pre- 

 sumed, or acted as if they presumed, that the possession of 

 shares in half a dozen silver mines, or claims located for silver 

 mines, would ensure wealth to the possessor. Hundreds of 

 men who knew nothing of silver mining were employed as 

 prospecters to roam over the mountains of Nevada and take 

 up claims for San Francisco companies, which then offered 

 the stock for sale, and everybody bought shares in mines 

 Vviiich had not been opened, and which, in many cases, had no 

 vein or mineral deposit, the prospecters having located their 

 claims with gross ignorance or negligence. Poor people thought 

 they could venture to pay a dollar or two per foot for mines 

 that might, by a bare possibility, prove as rich as the Gould 

 and Curry. Three thousand companies were organized with 

 a capital of $1,000,000,000, and 30,000 persons took stock in 

 them. Before the silver could be got, however, it was neces- 

 sai-y to open the mines, and for this purpose assessments were 

 levied, and not less than $30,000,000 were spent for shares 

 and work in mines that never paid expenses ; and most of 

 them never paid a cent toward the expenses. In the spring 



