8 4 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



silver and gold belt. Each conic mountain and its secondary knob is a water- 

 shed for an individual family of gold and silver-bearing veins ; but a small part 

 of these stores of metal has yet been touched. This latent wealth is to form 

 the banking capital of the people of the future. The backs of quartz veins and 

 blossoms on them looked much the same when the pyramids of Egypt were being 

 built as in A. D. 1500. Each atom of metal in these veins has been deposited 

 with direct reference as to its drainage. The vein system was seen in the ideal 

 by the great Architect, and each atom followed its elective affinity, discrimina- 

 tive power of attraction and bias, and laws that filled these atoms in the vein sys- 

 tem and outlying centers and basins have their counterpart in the human mind. 

 The geology of this vein system is now all written in the " great stone book; " 

 nothing can be added or taken away, but only translated, and observing explor- 

 ers, by a study of the topography, mineralogy, geology and vein system of these 

 great belts and drainage centers, can locate the undeveloped Comstocks, Silver 

 Kings, and Veta Grandes of the future. — Mining World. 



WEST VIRGINIA'S TIN MINES. 



It is not generally known that there are in successful operation in West Vir- 

 ginia two tin mines. One is near the city of Huntington, in Cabell County, and 

 the other about five miles from Grantsville, in Calhoun County, on Laurel River. 

 Unfortunately it is a considerable distance from a railroad and on very bad 

 ground for hauling. The Calhoun County mine, which is the most extensive, is 

 owned by State Senator T. J. Farnsworth, of Buckhannon, this State, and B. 

 Ridgeway, of Staunton, Va. Two years ago all this land was regarded as com- 

 paratively valueless, except for the splendid timber, and was a slow sale at fifty 

 cents an acre. The same property is now held at hundreds of thousands of dol- 

 lars. The tin is practically inexhaustible. The opening of the mine is directly 

 in the face of a great hill. The rock is extremely hard, and blasting and drilling 

 are constantly necessary. The product is of a bluish gray color. Primitive ma- 

 chinery for the manipulation of the ore is in operation, and scores of curious vis- 

 itors daily visit the place. P. B. Wilson, of Baltimore, assayed the ore, and 

 found it to contain 42 per cent of tin. As soon as the necessary arrangements 

 can be made smelting-works on an extensive scale will be erected. Eastern cap- 

 italists own the mine in Cabell County. It is believed that the Calhoun County 

 vein extends miles across the country to the Great Kanawha River. 



THE MEXICAN TIN FIELD. 



The Tribune of Durango reports that about ninety miles northwest of that 

 city and 125 miles from the station of Villa Lerdo, on the Mexican Central Rail- 

 road, is the small town of Coneto, with about 1,000 inhabitants, and situated in 

 the center of the tin region of Mexico. It bears traces of having been much 



