MINING CAMPS AND DYNAMITE 389 



work and if life and strength hold out they will 

 yet be heard from in China. 



My friend Ned Whiton who was with me rep- 

 resented an interest in the property and we de- 

 cided to concentrate the work on two of the more 

 developed mines which were situated in differ- 

 ent basins and nearly a mile apart. Ned took 

 samples of ore to Silverton from most of the 

 mines on which the assessment work had been 

 done to have assays made and it is a commentary 

 upon the mining morals of that time that one of 

 the experts asked if he wanted a good or a bad 

 report. The returns were poor enough, running 

 from ten ounces to the ton down to a mere trace 

 of silver. The silver carried no lead and none 

 of the veins were rich enough and large enough 

 to make smelting profitable as then conducted. 



We used trains of burros to ship the ore as we 

 got it out to sampling works in Silverton, but the 

 returns like the assays were unsatisfactory and 

 as I had a theoretical knowledge of assaying and 

 a practical knowledge of chemical analysis we 

 sent for the necessary apparatus and fitted up an 



