39 



of heavy pumps succeeded in freeing the mine and sinking a whim-shaft in con 

 nection, that now affords easy communication and ample facilities for all the 

 underground operations that may be required. 



The depth of the engine shaft is twenty fathoms, with a diameter of eleven 

 feet by six. It is well timbered and planked, and divided by partitions in such a 

 manner that no impediments can interfere with the working, caused by ingress or 

 egress and the many other incidents that occur in operations of this character. 



From the bottom of the shaft, an adit level has been driven eastward two hun 

 dred and ten feet, and another westward one hundred and forty feet, each being 

 well timbered and ceiled, and the whole mechanical department is done in a strong 

 and workmanlike manner. 



The amount expended in dead work, in the re-opening of this mine, inclusive 

 of the engine, has amounted to $25,000, and the enhancement in value to the 

 property is more than double that sum. In the month of December little more 

 than 1,000 tuns of ore had been removed and reduced since the lode had been 

 reached, and it is to be regretted that with the prospects before them, there 

 appeared a disposition among some of the stockholders to withhold the necessary 

 means that would place their property on a stable foundation and valuable 

 source of profit for many years to come. There requires an outlay at the present 

 time of a sum not less than $23,000, to put that mine in what would be consid 

 ered a safe and good condition for future operations. The pump shaft should be 

 carried to a depth of not less than thirty-six fathoms, in order to be able to 

 remove the ore on the lode to advantage, and not subject themselves to the neces 

 sity of skinning where the lode is at any moment liable to become pinched, from 

 its loose and decomposed character. There is more of irregularity in lodes where 

 much decomposition of their mineral constituents has occurred, and more liability 

 of nipping out in such cases, and should such an accident occur in any mine, it 

 will frequently cost a greater sum to obtain it again than it would to have sunk to 

 the firm rock, inclosing it in the first place at a greater depth. 



Another improvement at this mine is most obviously required. This is the 

 erection of their own reduction works ; nearly one-third of the amount that 

 would be required to erect a battery of sufficient capacity, and the necessary 

 equipments, has been expended during the three months that they had been redu 

 cing ores, or up to the middle of December. 



It is to be hoped that the proprietors of this mine may not be blind to their 

 own interests to that extent as to allow so valuable a mine as they evidently pos 

 sess, to remain a second-rate affair, when such fair prospects of large returns are 

 manifest as in the lode which constitutes their property. But it will be impossi 

 ble to make that mine what it ought to be, with so small an expenditure of that 

 which has been applied to its opening. 



. No person in the slightest degree familiar with mining operations, can expect 

 that the bare opening of the mine will in all cases pay not only expenses but a 

 dividend on the investment, yet such seems to be the prevailing idea even at this 

 late day, with the experience of years before them to the contrary. And it cer 

 tainly seems singular our friends abroad should expect- such a thing, as they man 

 ifestly do under the circumstances. 



Those who will examine this mine, and the work that has been performed upon 

 it in its re-opening, cannot but conclude that the money has been judiciously 

 expended, and the only thing to regret is, that a sufficient amount was not invested 

 at once to do the work which is absolutely necessary. 



*The following statistics will show the present condition of this mine, its 

 expenses and receipts : 



