THE COMSTOCK LODE. 57 



The section on Atlas-Plate 10 tlirougli the Savage stopes shows, first, the 

 gradual giving out of the red bodies near the west wall; and, secondly, a rapid 

 rising toward the surface of the east white body. The east wall has assumed 

 a double conchoidal curve, presenting a decided convex front to the lode down 

 to 210 feet below ground; then reversing, throws eastward its curve with the 

 concave side turned toward the vein. In these bends are two bodies of quartz, 

 tapering together and giving in section the form of two crescents. The sec- 

 tion of these bodies and the subdivision of fissures in depth afford one of the 

 most interesting examples of complicated structure in the whole lode. The 

 two bodies of ore are still distinct, but instead of the separating space of bar- 

 ren quartz before noticed, they have included a propylite horse. The eastern 

 side of this horse is largely decomposed, resulting in a thick band of clay 

 16 feet wide. Traces of the old west fractures may be seen in the north 

 Potosi adit in two small filaments of red quartz which cross it in an inclined 

 position. 



The east veins at this point were barren to the bottom of the first great 

 curve; from thence downward they were nearly filled with ore until they began 

 to converge. From there the sheets of quartz rapidly came together, and, 

 becoming largely intermingled with fragments of country rock and clay, grad- 

 ually lost their tenure of silver, and, below the station, narrowed, to their 

 extreme thinness, ending, at last, in a mere loose belt of clay. 



The arrangement of these quartz-masses along the east wall and concen- 

 trically ^vithin it, are excellently shown on the lower section of Atlas-Plate 11. 

 The true east wall completes a semicircle to the east. From the Chollar line 

 to the Gould and Curry, it has no quartz in contact with it. The main ore- 

 channel diverges from the wall 100 feet north from the Norcross south line 

 and follows its curvature, but lies usually about 100 feet within it. 



The ore through the North Norcross and South Savage was a zone vary- 

 ing from 15 to 35 feet in thickness, lying for the most part on the east side of 

 the quartz. The quartz itself averaged 50 feet wide, and was uniformly of 

 the sugary-fine variety. Concentrically, and to the west of this, lay a fine seam 

 of ore-bearing quartz about six feet thick. After pinching to a mere thread 



opposite the E-Street Savage shaft, where the greatest amplitude of the 

 8 



