GEOLOGICAL REPORT. 71 



extended no farther than this shaft ; but, since then, it has been 

 run northwardly, the depth of about fifty feet below all preced- 

 ing drif tings ; and, as I am informed by one of the company, 

 with good success and fine prospects. Levels have been run 

 into the north hill, from both the north and south sides ; but 

 most of the driftings have been fifty feet below these, and above 

 which driftings, only (as represented on the vertical section), 

 the ground has been stoped away. 



" The copper ores found here are a mixture of the gray sul- 

 phuret and the green carbonate. Two analyses of a specimen, 

 which was richer than the average run, gave the following 



results : 



I. II. 



Silica, 1-16 1-29 



Sulphur, 2-02 2-10 



Peroxide of iron, 12-85 12-20 



Oxide of copper, 61-16 60-16 



Carbonic acid, water and loss, 22-81 24-25 



Giving, as the mean of the two determinations, 48-41 per cent, of copper. 



" The furnace for smelting the ore is distant from the mine 

 about one mile, where there is an abundance of water during 

 the whole year, for washing the ores, and supplying a blast for 

 the furnace during eight months in the year. For this last 

 purpose, however, the company have lately erected, at this 

 point, a steam engine, and are now enabled to continue, at all 

 seasons, their smelting operations. They are now engaged in 

 smelting a large quantity of copper ore that has accumulated 

 during the present year, and which, it is estimated, will pro- 

 duce thirty tons of copper ; that, added to the twenty or thirty 

 tons previously made, will make the total amount of copper 

 made here, since the commencement of operations, in 1851, 

 about fifty tons. 



" During the first year of the operations of the Company, 

 there was but little mining, most of the labor having been ex- 

 pended in erecting the furnace ; and the average number of 

 hands was not over six. During 1852, the average number of 

 hands was about ten ; and, at present, there are, probably, 

 twenty or twenty-five in the employ of the company." 



The owners deserve great credit for the energy with which 

 they prosecuted the exploration of this mine, to prove the char- 

 acter of this and other copper deposits in the State. 



