296 MINING INDTJSTEY. 



tant discoveries of mineral wealth has by no means passed, as the late devel- 

 opments at White Pine and in Southern Nevada plainly show, a fair idea of the 

 general features and resources of the State has been obtained. 



Many of the newly discovered districts that were at first deemed most 

 important have since proved to be bitter disappointments ; others, though found 

 to contain many productive veins and deposits of great value, must await 

 cheaper labor and materials in order to be worked profitably ; but a sufficient 

 number have been successfully developed to establish the fact that the State 

 possesses in its mineral veins the broad and substantial basis of a permanent 

 mining industry. 



It will not be attempted in this chapter to give a description of all the 

 mining districts that have been organized in the State and sufficiently devel- 

 oped to make them well worthy of attention. The late reports of J. Ross 

 Browne, esq.. United States Commissioner of Mining Statistics, and his suc- 

 cessor, R. W. Raymond, esq., cover much of the ground and furnish in their 

 descriptions a great deal of information concerning many of them. The 

 writer prefers to confine himself to some account of the more important and 

 most developed localities to which he was able to give his personal attention, 

 and even in so doing, to endeavor, by describing typical mines, the extent 

 and method of their development, and the processes employed for the 

 treatment of their ores, to convey a general idea of the condition of the 

 mining industry, rather than to make especial mention of every mine or 

 mining district that might be considered worthy of it. 



The main features of the topography and geology of the State have been 

 already briefly referred to in a foregoing chapter ; in which, also, the position 

 of the principal mining regions and their relations to each other have been 

 somewhat noticed. In this chapter the several districts described will be 

 taken up in nearly the order in which they might be visited by one crossing 

 the State from west to east. 



The western part of the State, north of the Washoe region, contains 

 some mining districts that have attracted attention from time to time, but 

 which, so far as development or the production of valuable metals are con- 

 cerned, have not yet attained much importance. An example of this class is 

 the Peavine district, about 30 miles northwest from Virginia City, and seven 



