MINE WORKINGS OF IRON HILL. 393 



of contact bends backward, or up the hill, instead of following its normal 

 grade along the slope, so that for a considerable distance the line of outcrop 

 passes east of the Bull's Eye line and within the ground of the adjoining Sil- 

 ver Wave claim. A most valuable piece of ground was thus lost by an acci- 

 dent, which only an actual stripping of the limestone outcrop over its entire 

 extent could have prevented. During the time this investigation was car- 

 ried on, owing to pending litigation, the Silver Wave claim, which has 

 since been consolidated with the claims adjoining it on the east, in what is 

 known as the Silver Cord Combination, was not open to public inspection; 

 nor could permission be granted to take copies of the maps of undergound 

 workings, as was in general freely accorded by the Leadville mine owners. 

 The workings and outlines of ore bodies in these claims, as given on the 

 map, are hence necessarily incomplete, being made up from data obtained 

 from outside surveyors and from notes gathered during a rather hasty per- 

 sonal inspection of the workings. 



The mine is opened by two inclines from the surface in the northern 

 part, and by shallow shafts from which inclined drifts follow the ore chan- 

 nels in a very irregular manner, in other portions of the claim. 1 The main 

 or most northern incline runs at an angle of 15, striking the contact at 10 

 feet from its mouth, and thereafter running in the body of the limestone at 

 an ever-increasing depth below the contact. It thus passes beneath a drift 

 run southward from the fifth level of the Iron mine, which follows a barren 

 contact On the contact little good ore has been developed, but very rich 

 ore, and probably in very considerable quantity, said to have produced many 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars, has been obtained from bodies in the 

 mass of the limestone, and extending in some cases to a depth of one hun- 

 dred feet below the contact. In those visited, the outlines of the body, 

 although irregular as in most ore bodies in limestone, have in general a 

 northeast direction and stand nearly vertical. At their upper limits can be 

 generally distinguished a distinct crack or jointing plane in the limestone, 

 extending up to the contact, as evidenced by the entrance of water through 

 it. On the other hand, at the lower limits of these bodies no trace of any 

 opening could be found through which the ore solutions might have come 



1 On the map, by error in proof-reading, the parallel linings used to denote inclines have been 

 omitted in this mine. 



