544 



NEVADA. 



The California mine began paying monthly 

 dividends of $2 per share on 540,000 shares, 

 May, 1876, and has continued ever since, hav- 

 ing disbursed $21,600,000 in 20 dividends from 

 May, 1876, to December, 1877, inclusive. Since 

 the discovery of ore in the Comstock lode in 

 1860, 20 mines, besides the Consolidated Vir- 

 ginia and California, have been located on it. 

 The amount disbursed in dividends is as follows : 



Consolidated Virginia $35,640,000 



California 21,600,000 $57,240,000 



Other twenty Comstock mines 47,223,000 47,228,000 



Totals $104,468,000 $104,468,000 



Of the $47,223,000 paid by 20 mines other 

 than Consolidated Virginia and California, over 

 $40,000,000 was paid by 9, as follows: 



None of the 20 have paid any dividends 

 since April, 1876, but they are still working 

 with a fair prospect of future profits. 



The following statement shows the increase 

 that has been made in the capital stock of the 

 several mining companies since 1870, the fig- 

 ures representing the number of shares of a 

 par value of $100. 



mine followed a body of ore until it passed with- 

 in the ground claimed by the Eureka Company, 

 and the latter brought suit for ejectment. The 

 case was, by agreement, tried at San Francisco 

 before Justice Field of the United States Su- 

 preme Court, Sawyer of the United States 

 Circuit Court, and Hillyer of the United States 

 District Court. Distinguished experts were 

 called on both sides. Those for the Richmond 

 Company affirmed that the masses of ore were 

 distinct, and that they were in no manner con- 

 nected so as to make them a continuous body 

 or lode; they believed that these ore bodies 

 penetrated and filled irregular cavities and 

 seams in the preexistent rock or limestone 

 the "country rock," as understood by miners 

 and that this rock was no part of the lode 

 except as inclosing, holding, or bounding it. 

 On the other hand, the experts called by the 

 Eureka Company testified, in substance, that 

 the limestone is so impregnated with ore in 

 irregular masses, that it may be followed by 

 the miners in search of ore like a vein or lode, 

 and that therefore the whole stratum of lime- 

 stone rock in which the ore occurs may be re- 

 garded as a great lode or a great vein in the 

 proper sense of the word, as used by miners. 

 The judges adopted this latter view, and based 

 their decision upon it, awarding the ground in 

 dispute to the Eureka Company. They decided 

 that the limestone zone between the quartzite 

 on one side, and the shale on the other, consti- 

 tutes, within the meaning of the acts of Con- 

 gress, one lode or vein as understood by prac- 

 tical miners. 



The Treasury of the State, at the close of 

 the year, presented the unusual spectacle of an 

 embarrassment of riches, in so much that the 

 Controller recommended an extra session of 

 the Legislature to reduce taxes from 90 to 40 

 cents on $100 of valuation. There was, on 

 the 1st of January, 1878, a surplus in the 

 Treasury, of $179,606. A State building fund 

 was created in 1873, for which a tax of 12^ 

 cents per $100 was established, and this con- 

 tained about $75,000 unappropriated. The 

 following is given by the Controller as a state- 

 ment of the resources of the year 1878, for the 

 General Fund, if the taxes were to be reduced 

 according to his suggestion : 



Gash on hand in General Fund. January 1, 1877. . $179,606 00 



Transfer from State Building Pond . . . '. 74,995 19 



Amount coming 1 into fund from tax on real and 



personal property, at 40 cents 5T,000 00 



Amount coming into fund from tax on proceeds 



of mines, last quarter of 1877, at 90 cents 49,000 00 



Amount coming into fund from tax on proceeds 



of mines, three quarters of 1 878, at 40 cents .... S7.500 00 



Amount coming into fund from poll tax 80,000 00 



Amount coming into fund from State licenses. . . 80.000 00 



Amount coming into fund from State Prison 26,000 09 

 Amounts coming Into fund from miscellaneous 



sources 15,000 00 



A comparatively new mining district has 

 been developed about Eureka, in Eastern Ne- 

 vada. The two principal mines are the Eureka 

 and Richmond. An interesting matter of litiga- 

 tion has grown out of their conflicting claims, 

 involving a judicial determination of the mean- 

 ing of " lode." The workmen of the Richmond On hand, in General Fund, January 1, 1S79 $209,101 It 



Total $499,101 19 



Contra, : 

 Current expenses of State to January 1, 



1879....:?. $250.000 



Expense of called session 40,000 



290,00000 



