THE COMSTOCK MINES. 



discussions upon the price of silver and kindred subjects. It has often been 

 assumed that the product of these mines is ahnost wholly silver, but as will 

 appear from the tables it would be much nearer the truth to assume that the 

 Lode yielded an equal value of each of the precious metals. I find that the 

 published and accessible mine reports give the assay values of nearly two- 

 thirds of the total product, and there is every reason to suppose that Baron 

 v. Richthofen's estimate, made when the total product was comparatively 

 small and very recent, was a very close approximation to the truth. Some 

 of the mining companies reported only the total value of buUion produced; 

 and others gave the gold and silver assays in some years, but not in others, 

 or only for certain lots of bullion. The figures, however, cover portions of 

 all the important ore bodies excepting that in the Justice, and it appears 

 certain that not for from 57 per cent, of the product of the Lode has been 

 silver, or, say, $174,000,000, and that 43 per cent, or $132,000,000, has 

 been gold. The table from which this conclusion is drawn is given in con- 

 siderable detail, chiefly for the purpose of showing the differences in the 

 ratio of gold to silver in the various mines. In the Belcher, for the time 

 over which the record extends, about 57 per cent, of the value of the bullion 

 produced was in gold, while in the Yellow Jacket only about 31 per cent, 

 was in gold. Even in the great bonanza of the Consolidated Virginia, Cali- 

 fornia, and Ophir mines, the California or central portion of the body was 

 far richer in gold than the northern and southern ends. 



The table of production is due to Mr. Eliot Lord, who has taken great 

 pains to sift the records and to ascertain the truth as closely as is now 

 practicable. This and the other appended tables need no further explana- 



tion. 



