MINING SURVEYS, 271 
THE GUNNISON ROLLING MILLS. 
This company is composed of such men as Gerard B. Allen, Ben. W. Lewis, 
J. W. Harrison and Thomas Howard, of St. Louis, and eastern manufacturers 
and capitalists of equal prominence. The company has purchased 2,000 acres of 
coal land in Gunnison County, Colorado, with five veins of an aggregate thick- 
ness of twenty-eight feet, making the property equivalent in production to an 
area of 10,000 acres. The coal is equal to the finest Pennsylvania anthracite, 
and when coked is one and a half per cent better than the best Connelsville. 
The coal is at Crested Butte, adjoining a valuable tract of land which abounds 
with iron ore of a quality that is not surpassed by the best Missouri, and yields a 
return of from sixty to sixty-eight per cent. These valuable deposits were ac- 
quired some time ago after the return of Mr. Ben. W. Lewis, who spent several 
months in examining the geological formation and the adaptability of the deposits 
to the manufacture of steel. On his recommendation the Gunnison Coal and Stael 
Company was formed for the purpose of conducting a general coking business 
and for the erection of steel works on a broad-gauge scale. Work has been com- 
menced at the mines in the erection of houses and cottages for the employes, and 
before the end of the year it is believed that about 300 men will be engaged. 
Next year the steel works will be in operation and the force increased to several 
thousand hands. The capitalists at the head of the Gunnison Company are quite 
enthusiastic over the prospects, and say there is not another corporation which 
possesses such striking advantages to manufacture cheap steel. The coal and 
iron is situated on a down-grade on the lines of the Denver & Rio Grande and 
Union Pacific, about twenty miles from the city of Gunnison, where 150 acres of 
ground have been purchased for the rail-mills. There is a good demand for rails- 
in the west, and with the numerous trans-continental trunk lines completed, an 
impetus will be given to steel and iron productions of every kind. The deposits- 
of coal and iron are on the hillside, and can be easily reached without expensive 
shafting or drifting. — Globe- Democrat. 
MINING SURVEYS. 
The Commissioner of the general land office has ruled that the fact that a 
mining survey upon which is an application for a patent, conflicts with a prior 
survey does not prevent the application from including the conflicting area in 
his application, provided no application for patent upon such previous survey 
has already been made. Priority of application and not priority of survey gov- 
erns in such matters. Of course a survey must show all conflicts with any prev- 
ious surveys ; but the mere showing of conflict does not divest the applicant of 
any legal rights. — La Plata Miner. 
