140 NEW TEACKS IN NOETH AMEEICA. 



vein that is worked, tliere are dozens in these mountains as 

 yet mideYeloped, and probably hundreds still unknown ; for 

 eyerywhere, as we rode along, we noticed the quartz veins 

 cropping out along the hill-sides. Nor are the gold and. silver 

 lodes the only minerals worthy of notice. In the !N'ew, as 



^ 



well as in the Old Placer districts^ there are some magnificent 

 yeins of iron ore, npon one of which, 7 feet thick, we AYcnt 

 throngh the process of ^^ taking np claims" for abont 1,000 

 feet. It was strongly magnetic, and specimens examined 

 gave, on analysis, 65-27 per cent, of ii^on. Some pieces of 

 carbonate from the Old Placers gave, on analysis, 36-49 per 

 cent, of pnre metal. There is plenty of lime hard by. 



The copper ores, although abundant, have really been 

 scarcely noticed by the miners, except in the instances where 

 they contain gold to a very considerable amount. In like 

 manner, the argentiferous galena, also very abundant, has 

 only been examined for the sake of its silver, the lead having 

 been ignored altogether as an article of commerce. Judging 

 from the perseverance of the early Spaniards in working the 

 silver mines in the Zandia ]\Iountain, their profits must have 

 been very great. 



Lastly, on the ^ew Mexican Mining Company's estate v^ 



visited a coal-bed of great interest. 



The section of the exposure, as examined by oiu' geologist; 



the following 



Top of hill, grey porplmy, composed of orthoclase, 



with small crystals of black hornblende, j^t. 

 Yellow sandstone . . . . . . .12 



Shales, somewhat baked in places . . - . 10 6 



Anthracite coal 16 



Anthracite metamorphic slates 16 



Anthracite coal ....... 2 6 



Shales 



G 6 



Then came another exposure of anthracite coal, 14 inches ot 



