METALLIC PRODUCTS. 17 



It thus appears that the Leadville ores contained during the j-ear an 

 average of 69^ ounces of silver per ton, and that the bullion jjroduced 

 therefrom contained an average of 285 ounces of silver per ton. The 

 apparent discrepancy- in the amount of gold given under the various heads 

 may arise in part from the fact that it is generally' present in such minute 

 quantities in the ore that the assayers at the mines do not always make an 

 estimate of it, and in part from small lots of gold-bearing ore either from 

 Leadville itself or from adjoining districts that have escaped notice in making 

 up the returns from mines, or in segregating outside ore in returns from 

 sampling works and smelters. It was not possible to obtain an accurate esti- 

 mate of the average percentage of lead contained in all the ores extracted. 

 It appeal's, however, from data obtained from the eight principal smelters 

 running at that time that the average yield per ton of ores treated by them 

 during the year was 398.8 pounds or 19.94 per cent, of lead bullion, con- 

 taining 65.64 ounces or 0.225 per cent, of silver. 



The various newspapers of Leadville have published monthly state- 

 ments of the bullion product of the district, upon which the armual official 

 statements made by the Director of the Mint and other estimates of the 

 product of the district have been based. These figures often bear internal 

 evidence of incompleteness or inaccuracy, and from want of any evidence 

 ..of the relative care with which they have been made, it is difficult to know, 

 in cases of discrepanc}^ between them, which is the most trustworth)-. 

 Nevertheless, in the absence of any other complete data, these nmst be 

 assumed as the nearest approximation available. 



The following table of the product of the district, since the discovery 

 of silver-lead deposits, has been compiled from these sources, using mainly 

 the figures of the Leadville Herald, which have been the most continuously 

 collected and published. In the case of shipn)ents of ore to be reduced 

 outside the district, of which only the price received is in many instances 

 given, the weight of the metals contained in these shipments has been 

 assumed arbitrarily to average the same as those in wliich the relative 

 weights are known, which evidently cannot give the exact amount in every 

 case, but which would be probably as nearly correct as an arbitrary 

 assumption of probable averages for each year. The value of the total 



MON XII 2 



