THE COMSTOCK MIKES. 101 



ing these on the south is a portion of the vein that, so far, has been unpro- 

 ductive, amounting in extent to about 2,000 feet, at which point begins the 

 next group of bonanzas, on which the Gould and Curry, the Savage, the Hale 

 and Norcross, and the Chollar-Potosi are situated. Further south, separated 

 from the last-named group by some 1,500 feet of ground, in which the Bullion 

 claim has been explored with a wonderful persistence, and so far without any 

 reward, is the next important and one of the most productive groups of ore- 

 bodies yet developed. Here is a series of claims, some of them very short 

 in extent, beginning with the Exchequer and Alpha and extending southerly 

 to the Crown Point, covering, in the aggregate, some 2,500 feet of ground ; 

 this portion of the vein, excepting some slight intervals, has been very pro- 

 ductive. Still further south, the Belcher and the Overman have found con- 

 siderable bodies of ore, but less important than those before referred to. 



General Method of Operation. — The earlier developments of the 

 lode were made by sinking shafts upon it or by driving adit-levels through 

 the eastern country-rock to cut the ore-bodies in depth. This latter method 

 was employed by the Gould and Curry and served in the extraction of the 

 greater portion of their workable ground. Other companies operated by 

 means of shafts, and these, in early days, were sunk upon the croppings. 

 At that time, before the structure of the vein had been discovered by actual 

 work, the false pitch of the eastern wall and a slight westerly pitch of 

 some of the ore-bodies, led to the belief that the vein would permanently 

 dip to the west. As developments proceeded, however, the eastern dip of 

 the western, or foot-wall, with the probable conformity of the eastern wall 

 to it in depth, became clearly apparent. The shafts, sunk on the croppings 

 on the northern part of the vein, reached the west wall at a depth of 400 or 

 500 feet, and penetrated the hard syenite below the vein. As the increasing 

 depth of such shafts constantly increased the distance between the bottom of 

 the shaft and the vein, and as the ground above, in the vein, was of a soft 

 character and difficult to sustain, the plan of locating deep shafts at 800 or 

 1,000 feet east of the croppings and sinking through the eastern country- 

 rock to strike the lode at a considerable depth, was adopted, first by the 

 Gould and Curry, and afterward by nearly all of the principal mines in the 

 vicinity. 



