50 GEOLOGICAL REPORT. 



" By Mr. Evans I am informed that it has yielded about 200,- 

 000 pounds of mineral. 



" Mount Hope Mine. Farther south and almost joining the 

 above, and not improbably a continuation of it, is the Mount 

 Hope Mine. They are both in the same ridge, the geological 

 character of which is the same as that of the Cove Mine. 



" The lead ore is here also found in a vertical fissure, the width 

 of which varies from one inch to two feet. Its course is a lit- 

 tle east of north and west of south, with a very slight inclina- 

 tion to the east. Sometimes it is filled entirely with a sheet 

 of galena, and at other points it is found to contain, with lead 

 ore, clay and heavy spar. The ore is sometimes accompanied 

 with the carbonate and the sulphuret of zinc. 



" About thirteen shafts have been sunk, varying from twenty 

 feet to one hundred and thirty-three feet in depth. Most of 

 them have been connected by levels, and the mining has ex- 

 tended over a line of nearly 800 feet, north and south. 



" Among the debris brought up from the lowest levels at 

 Mount Hope and Cove Mines were some few well-preserved 

 Pleurotomaria and Euomphalus, and one of the most perfect 

 of these last was almost directly in contact with galena. 



" The galena found in this mine is accompanied, at some 

 points, with the carbonate and sulphuret of zinc. 



"The ore obtained from the Mount Hope, the Short, and the 

 Cove Mines, has been all smelted, since the commencement of 

 operations by the present company in 1849, in a rude rever- 

 beratory furnace in the neighborhood of the Cove, and no sepa- 

 rate account has been kept of the yield of each mine. The 

 quantity of lead made from 1849 to October of the present year 

 (1854), according to the statement furnished me by Mr. Win. 

 Skewes, has been 1,947,780 pounds, all the ore having been 

 obtained from the above mines of the company, and the greater 

 part from Mount Hope Mine. The average number of hands 

 employed has been between twenty and twenty-five. 



" A blast furnace is now being erected, with which it is inten- 

 ded to smelt the very large quantity of slag that has been ac- 

 cumulating since the company obtained possession of the mines, 

 and which will increase considerably the total amount of lead 

 obtained from these mines during the last five years. 



