NEVADA SILVER. 



745 



enough for a "sheep-dip," a multitude of articles never before 

 used by miners, such were some of the contents of the Nevada 

 mill men's witch caldrons in the early sixties. "The object ap- 

 peared to be," says an amused 

 observer, "to physic the silver 

 out of the rock." 



Slowly, after immeasurable 

 waste, crude methods gave way 

 to better ones. Mills were built 

 in Washoe Valley, in the canons, 

 and on the Comstock, but the 

 greater number were along the 

 Carson River, so as to be run by 

 water power. No less than 76 

 mills, costing over $6,000,000 and 

 carrying 1,200 stamps, were in 

 operation before the end of 1861. 

 Some of the mills of the period 

 are still remembered for their ex- 

 travagant construction. Gould 

 and Curry built one on a ter- 

 raced hill where the mine owners 

 spent about $1,000,000 in pic- 

 turesque and useless magnifi- 

 cence. After a few years, when 

 their bonanza began to fail, it 

 was found that the reduction of 

 their ore was costing fifty dol- 

 lars a ton. The machinery was 

 thrown aside, and it required 

 $600,000 to put the mill in work- 

 ing order again. Everywhere, 

 through years of readjustment, 

 mills were torn to pieces, rebuilt, 

 enlarged, made to do better and 

 better work, until the results 

 produced when the great bonan- 

 za mines were running at full speed attracted the attention of 

 mill men all over the world. 



What is known on the Comstock as the old group of bonanzas 

 began comparatively near the surface. The yield of the diggings 

 of 1859 had been about $100,000 for the entire lode. In 1860 it 

 yielded in round numbers $2,000,000. After that the mines were 

 developed so fast that by 1865 the output of Storey County, most 

 of it from the Comstock, was $9,500,000. During twelve years 

 after 1859 the product of all the Comstock mines was $145,000,000. 



VOL. XLIX. 58 



.Ruins of Old Mill xk.vk 



