﻿Some Ores and Mocks of SoiUhern Slocan. 299 



The precious metals, gold and silver, are found in such 

 veins in a native state. The silver in leaf form along 

 cleavage lines, the gold in coarse particles, sometimes crys- 

 tallized ; also as a natural alloy of gold and silver where 

 the gold and silver are nearly equal in per cent., and asso- 

 ciated with the loose granular iron pyrites occurring in 

 these veins. This pyrites often occupies little cells in the 

 apparently massive quartz ; when the quartz is broken the 

 pyrites falls out, leaving a clean little cell, with often 

 some black powder, which is probably argentite. 



The pyrites contains J oz. of gold and 200 oz. of silver, to 

 2 oz. of gold and 50 oz. of silver. They sometimes present 

 a more massive or crystallized form, being still rich in 

 silver. The locality seems to determine their richness. 



The chief mineral distinctive of these veins, however, is 

 argentite, either as a coarse aggregation of crystals, at 

 times weighing over a gramme, which fill interstices in 

 the quartz or as a very finely disseminated powder, which 

 gives the quartz a bluish black appearance. The coarsely 

 crystalline variety is more common where the powdery 

 form is absent. The crystals appear often to fill in 

 the spaces between well developed crystals of quartz. 



A good deal of iron oxide, rich in free gold and argentite, 

 occupies the central combed cavities of some of the veins, 

 also iron oxide, as limonite and haematite fills up some of 

 the interstices and cells, appearing thus to be crystallized. 



Referring to the map, it will be seen that the veins 

 of Class I. occupy a small area between Twelve Mile and 

 Springer Creeks, nearly all the country between the 

 Springer Creek and first north branches of Lemon Creek, 

 and also in some very typical cases they are found south 

 of these branches. 



As one goes to the south, the gold and silver ratios 

 of value change from about 1 to 10 to equality along the 

 north branch of Lemon Creek, and finally further south 

 the gold value becomes the greater. 



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