THE COMSTOCK LODE. 49 



tions have been pushed to the west and below it, no signs of a vein have been 

 found ; each tunnel has encountered western country-rock, altered propylite, 

 metamorphic, (uralitic,) schists, or quartz-propylite. 



Concerning the geological relation of the east and west veins, Raymond, 

 (Report on Mineral Resources, &c., 1869, page 46,) says: 



'■^ Sixth ore-hody. — The large body described as No. 4 of tlie Yellow Jacket, Ken- 

 tuck, Crown Point, and Belcher, extended to the depth of 400 to 500 feet vertically 

 below the surface, where a body of clayey matter, originating from a heavy dike of fel- 

 spathic porphyry, cut it off very abruptly. In the Yellow Jacket, explorations were 

 carried on for 100 feet vertically below this line, but without success in finding ore. In 

 the Crown Point, explorations were made both eastward and downward ; and the vein 

 matter to the east of where the ore gave out was found to be replaced, fi-equently for a 

 horizontal distance (east and west) of 150 feet, with various species of porphyry, of 

 which felspathic jjorphyry predominated. As the prospecting work advanced eastward, 

 the vein began to carry quartz again, and, about 450 feet east of the place where the 

 ore was abruptly cut off, this quartz began to carry ore. Fifty feet further east, in the 

 500-foot level of the Crown Point, a very flue body of ore was discovered. West drifts 

 from the first body to the west wall proved the ground to be barren. This conclusively 

 demonstrated that the vein matter had suffered a dislocation from icest to east, and the 

 ore found east was locally termed the "East Yein." This body has thus far been 

 explored and worked for a horizontal distance of 400 feet. It has its southern terminus 

 about 200 feet south of the north line of the Crown Point ; its northern limit has not 

 yet been determined. Its ui)per edge is 75 feet above the 500-foot level of the Crown 

 Point ; it dips with the east waU slightly to the east, and inclines so decidedly to the 

 north in depth that the 900-foot level of the Crown Point has not a trace of it, even at 

 the Kentuck line. (The ore has therefore made 200 feet "northing" in 400 feet verti- 

 cal depth.) The terminus of this body in depth has not yet been found. The Yellow 

 Jacket explorations (850 feet vertically below the surface) show it still continuing down- 

 ward and northward. In the Crown Point it is nearly exhausted." 



Although agreeing with Raymond in every other particular of his excel- 

 lent chapter on the Comstock ore-bodies, the writer cannot agi'ee with 

 his belief that the west quartz is a faulted mass from the east or main vein. 

 First, because there are no signs of such powerful lateral movement through 

 the propylite horse material lying between the two quartz-masses ; on the 

 contrary, the leading jointing lines and clay seams, with the exception of a 

 single sheet in the north Yellow Jacket, are up and down. Secondly, if it 

 had been faulted, the east vein would have been wanting east of it, which is 

 not the case either in the Crown Point or Yellow Jacket. Thirdly, indica- 

 tions that this west fissure is independent of the main or east vein are present 

 in the Eclipse, Consolidated, and Empire sections, where, cut through the 



