SUEVEY OF COLORADO AND NJ:W MEXICO. 129 



sible amount of gold in the minimum time, and tlie various enterprises 

 in any neighborhood having been conducted iude|)endently of each 

 other, by parties whose interests were never the same and often conflict- 

 ing, no pains liave been taken to settle questions which did not concern 

 the values of the ores obtained ; but, on the contrary, it has not unfre- 

 quently happened that investigations of the exact positions and extent 

 of the veins were opposed to the interests of one of the parties, which 

 thus might be i)roved to be working somebody else's claim. 



To explain this state of things, it will be necessary to state that by a 

 law of Colorado (see act concerning lode claims) it is provided that — 



Sec. 5. Any person or persons engaged in working a tiumel within the provisions of 

 this act shall be entitled to 250 feet each way from said tunnel, on each lode so dis- 

 covered, provided they do not interfere with any vested rights. If it shall appear that 

 claims have been staked off and recorded prior to the record of said tunnel on the line 

 thereof, so that the required number of feet cannot be taken near said tunnel, they 

 may be taken upon any jjart thereof when the same may be found vacant, and persons 

 working said tunnel shall have the right of way through all lodes which may lie in 

 its course. 



Sec. 7. That when two crevices are discovered at a distance from each other, and 

 known by different names, and it shall appear that the two are one and the same lode, 

 tbe persons having recorded on the first discovered lode shall be the legal owners. 



Sec. 8. That to determine when the two lodes are one and the same, it shall be ne- 

 cessary for the jterson claiming that the two are the same lode to sink shafts at no 

 greater distance than fifty feet apart, and finding a crevice in each shat\ and forming 

 a contimious line of shafts from one lode to the other shall be conclusive evidence that 

 the two are one and the same lode. 



It will be evident from this that when two parties are working on 

 what is suspected of being one and the same claim, those who have 

 recorded last will be in no hurry to settle the question for the sake of 

 the statistics, and that as it costs time and money to sink shafts fifty 

 feet apart to well-defined walls, over a distance of three hundred feet, 

 (the legal extent of a discovery claim in each direction from the shaft,) 

 it is not always that these comparatively recently opened lodes are 

 thoroughly known. 



In my very restricted report of the mines of Colorado, such examples 

 have been selected as present mining here in its best phase ; or rather, of 

 the best mines in the regions I visited, such have been selected as I 

 could personally visit and examine. Much of interest in the details of 

 mining here has been necessarily omitted, but I hope that what informa- 

 tion I have been enabled to obtain in the limited time at my disposal 

 may not be without value, though submitted without attempt at arrange- 

 ment, and in the form in which the notes were taken in the field. 



Many knotty questions have presented themselves to the miners and 

 smelters, among which, perhaps, the knottiest is the dressing of the 

 second-class ores and the proper form to which to bring the tailings 

 before they are ready for the amalgamator or smelter. It is believed 

 by many able miners, and the complaint is frequently made^ that by the 

 use of wet stamps and careless feeding, the mill-men waste unnecessa- 

 rily a great deal of gold, and from this it is argued frequently, with less 

 justice, that the use of wet stamps is pernicious and wasteful. This is 

 going too far, though it is true that in the treatment of the ores around 

 Central City and elsewhere, the greatest care and attention are abso- 

 lutely necessary to prevent great needless loss. Less ore put through 

 the mills, with correspondingly greater care in its treatment, would 

 probably be the best remedy, and this plan would very likely produce 

 the owners as much gold as they get at present, and leave them so 

 much the more in the mine to work. 



In conclusion I would sum up the impressions I have received from 



9 a s 



