LETTER FROM NEW MEXICO. 157 
conglomerate. A small amount of silver is found with the copper on the surface, 
and seems to increase with the depth. The Nacimiento Company now own over 
a dozen claims, on all of which large deposits are found. On the Eureka a tun- 
nel one hundred feet long has been dug. At a distance of fifty feet from the 
surface a large vein of conglomerate, twelve feet wide, averaging twenty-five per 
cent copper, was struck. From that point the tunnel has followed the vein along 
the dip. This vein can be easily traced for over five hundred feet along the sur- 
face, and the indications are that it runs along near the surface for the distance 
of a mile. The Copper Queen shows a smaller vein, but is much richer. It 
runs over fifty per cent, and parts of it as high as sixty per cent. In all of these 
mines there is an abundance of ore that will run forty per cent copper. During the 
last few months, other prospectors have gone into camp, and over a hundred 
claims have been staked out. Large veins of fine bituminous coal are found 
within a short distance of the mines, and wood and water are close at hand. 
The Nacimiento Company expect soon to have a smelter in operation and be 
ready to ship bullion by next fall. 
The mountains seem to be full of rich veins which only wait the labor of 
the prospector and miner to be discovered and developed. For the miner and 
capitalist there can be no better section of country than this. 
The next stop was at Trinidad, Colorado, where, as at all previously visited 
places, we were warmly welcomed. Aside from the generous hospitalities of the 
citizens, the chief points of attraction are the waterworks and the manufactories, 
both of which depend largely for their efficiency upon the vast coal supply of the 
vicinity. This is indeed astonishing, the vein at Engle being full fourteen feet in 
thickness and yielding thirty cars daily of most excellent quality. We were furn- 
ished with the following items by a reliable gentleman, showing the mineral 
wealth of the region tributary to Trinidad : 
There are three workable veins or beds of coal, each from six to fifteen feet 
in thickness and embracing an area of looo square miles. An eight foot vein of 
sixty per cent iron ore, covering an area of 200 square miles. Bands of six to 
thirty inches of forty-six percent iron ore, and aggregating twenty feet in thickness 
over an area of 800 square miles. Twelve feet in thickness of excellent fire-clay, 
and two feet of porcelain-clay of an area of iioo square miles. Thirty feet of 
building sand stone, superior in weight-supporting quality, cleanliness and beauty, 
to the celebrated Berea stone of Ohio, over an area of 1200 square miles. Twelve 
feet of three different grades of fineness of grindstone grit, covering 1000 square 
miles. A hundred square miles of sandstone of great purity and fineness, con- 
veniently suited for the manufacture of French-plate and other fancy varieties of 
glass. A two by six-foot vein of seventy-five per cent graphite, thirty miles long, 
besides terra cotta clays, ochres, limestone, cement rock, and gypsum of super- 
ior quality and in large quantities, besides other ores and clays of lesser value. 
The coals, irons, fire and porcelain-clays, building and gritstones, consist of 
different strata over the same area, being of greater or smaller extent according to 
