468 GEOLOGY AND MINING INDUSTRY OF LEADVILLE. 



tial point from that taken from the adjoining mines. In the commence- 

 ment it was smelted in a furnace, belonging to the company, situated near 

 the shafts, and built on a very uncertain foundation, as with large chambers 

 opened so near the surface the ground was bound to settle. It was soon found 

 impracticable, moreover, to smelt with the ore of a single mine, and the ad- 

 vantage gained in transportation for its own ore was more than counterbal- 

 anced by the cost of that brought from other mines. This scheme was, there- 

 fore, soon abandoned, and the slags were afterwards used as a low-grade ore. 



Little Pittsburgh. Besides the New Discovery claim, already described, 

 the Little Pittsburgh Company owns also the Little Pittsburgh and Dives 

 claims, which occupy the area between the Little Chief and Amie claims, 

 and overlap each, so that a compromise boundary line has been adopted in 

 either case between them. As in the ground previously described, there 

 are two distinct ore bodies; the one at the outcrop, the other immediately 

 north of the dike. The dike itself is here more clearly defined than before, 

 and stands with a dip of 70 to the north. In the body of vein material 

 are found several thin sheets or stringers of porphyry, probably offshoots 

 from the sheets of White Porphyry, which in the adjoining ground of the 

 Amie mine have split the Blue Limestone, now represented by sheets of 

 vein material, into three distinct portions, as shown in Section H. 



The first prospecting shaft sunk on Fryer Hill was the Little Pitts- 

 burgh No. 1 shaft, and by a singular coincidence not only is this the point 

 where the overlying Wash has the least thickness over the entire surface of 

 the hill, but it is where the rock surface is highest west of the Amie claim, 

 and is in the midst of one of the most important ore bodies of the region. 

 The shaft is 36 feet deep, of which depth 20 feet is in Wash and 16 feet in 

 ore. Near the bottom of the shaft is a large bowlder of Sacramento Por- 

 phyry which has fallen from the Wash, and whose under surface is polished 

 and striated, showing that in its passage from the head of Evans gulch it 

 probably was fastened in the bottom of the Evans glacier. The ore body 

 opened by No. 1 shaft is only the relic of a much larger mass that has been 

 partially removed by erosion, as is shown graphically in Section I. It 

 will, therefore, be understood that the description applies to this relic, 

 not to the original body. To the south it thins out rapidly, having dimin- 



