STEAMBOAT SPRINGS AND THE COMSTOOK. 353 



stock, it is probable that the ore was there leached from the diabase hanging 

 wall by the action of ascending waters of very high temperatures, charged 

 with alkaline solvents, and was not deposited by sublimation or distillation, 

 as Baron von Richthofen surmised. The diiference in origin of the two ore 

 deposits sufficiently explains their difference in character. It is of course 

 possible that a part of the ore of the Comstock may have been derived from 

 granite, and it is noteworthy that the ore of the Justice mine, which is near 

 the granite area, was much baser than and quite different from that of the 

 mines of Gold Hill and Virginia. I shall be obliged to return to this sub- 

 ject in Chapter XVI. 



MON XIII 23 



