298 MINING INDUSTEY. 



the vein at that point, from which a considerable quantity of good ore was 

 taken. At the date of the writer's visit it had been explored by a cut along 

 the course of the vein from west to east, partly open and partly in tunnel, 

 having a continuous length of about 170 feet, and being about 30 feet below 

 the surface at its deepest part ; while below the level of the cut, and starting 

 from it, a shaft had been sunk, measuring on the plane of the vein 120 feet 

 in depth. Beyond the cut, along the course of the lode, are several other 

 disconnected pits extending the general explorations of the vein over a length 

 of 500 or 600 feet. The total length of the company's claim is 2,000 feet. 



The outcrop of the vein, as exposed in the long cut, had a width in places 

 of 20 feet, averaging, perhaps, from the surface to the level of the cut, about 

 10 feet. Below the cut, in the shaft, the average width was about 6 feet be- 

 tween the walls^ Along the cut the ore is said to have formed a solid mass, 

 almost entirely filling the space between the two walls ; and the sections ex- 

 posed at the time referred to accorded with that statement, the vein being 

 filled with ore, variable in quality but almost entirely free from gangue, and 

 nearly all fit to send to the furnace without assortment. The cut at that time 

 was not deep enough to give a clear exhibition of either wall, unaltered by 

 surface influences. The hanging wall is covered by an accumulation of loose 

 earth and soil several feet in thickness, and below this the wall- rock itself is de- 

 composed and doubtless considerably changed from its original character. 

 Between the wall-rock and the vein on the hanging side is a seam of soft white 

 clay, eight inches or a foot in thickness. On the foot-wall below the vein 

 there is a soft, white, brecciated mass, clayey in character, but penetrating the 

 country-rock, as if the mass of the latter in the neighborhood of the vein had 

 been thoroughly changed. Further south, on the surface, are found deposits 

 of ore and vein-material, indicating the existence of seams or branches of the 

 vein in the foot-wall. 



In the shaft, which is 120 feet deep, measured from the level of the cut 

 on the inclination of the vein, the walls are well defined. The vein is about 

 six feet wide. For 60 feet of the depth above named the shaft passed through 

 ore, fining the vein from wall to wall. Below that point the walls of the vein 

 continued as above, but the inclosed material was found to consist chiefly of 

 gangue with httle or no ore. Developments up to that period indicated that 



