THE COMSTOGK LODE. 47 



are approximately the same, but the east body descends 200 feet lower than 

 the west. 



The next northern section is that through the Consolidated shaft, Atlas- 

 Plate 8, where the east country propylite outlines the vein in a broad con- 

 choidal curve, assuming the regular dip below the 420-foot level. The selvage 

 of east clay, with its inclosed pebbles, which has been the partition between 

 country-rock and vein-matter throughout the whole east face of the lode, here 

 thickens to 30 feet. Its interior structure is partly a series of parallel plates 

 and partly a compacted mass of conchoidal scales, which bear on their striated 

 and scored faces the evidence of motion. The ore still shows its tendency to 

 form in two parallel sheets with the addition of a connecting diagonal vein. 

 Higher up, and inclosed in the same dislocated and shattered quartz vein, lies 

 a narrow seam of ore, dipping to the west and corresponding in position and 

 character to the west vein. It is believed that this is, in fact, its northern 

 extension. 



Continuing still further, the next diagram is a section on the plane of the 

 Eclipse shaft. Here the east wall dips west from the surface to the 335-foot 

 level, then curves sharply under, assuming the regular east dip. This wall is 

 lined with the characteristic pebble-bearing clay, which thickens toward the 

 south into the immense body described in the Consolidated shaft section. 

 The quartz is more than ever shattered, and the ore dislocated and thrown 

 into broken, isolated patches. The same western-dipping seam of silver ore 

 was found, inclining from the surface 45° west, and was profitably worked 

 out. Where the west wall would be naturally expected, as in all the country 

 west of the Gold Hill mines, there is only a broken and decomposed mass of 

 rock, showing evident solfataric action, and interlaced by an infinite number of 

 fissures lined with clayey material and glazed with a coating of oxides of iron 

 and manganese. 



Next north is the important section through the Empire shaft. Here 

 the east country-rock is much decomposed and reddened at the surface, but 

 soon becomes homogeneous and normal in depth. The clay is well defined, 

 thickening at the 328-foot level to 20 feet. Quartz lies next the east clay 

 down to the lowest openings on the 1,084-foot level of the Empire-Imperial 

 shaft. As in the north Yellow Jacket, the quartz, from an extreme thickness 



