300 MINING INDUSTEY. 



aggregate, $4 or $4 50 per ton. Little or no expense for timber has been in- 

 curred and no hoisting machinery employed so far. The mine is quite dry, as 

 is the surrounding country, all the water required for domestic purposes being 

 brought from the river, three miles away. This is but little, as five men at the 

 mine were able to supply the furnace, of 12 or 15 tons capacity, with ore, and 

 the teams employed in hauling ore were accustomed to carry back sufficient 

 water on their return trips. 



The superintendent of the works, Mr. Nason, estimated the supply of ore 

 in the mine at 10,000 tons, the estimate being based on the length of lode 

 exposed at the surface and the average depth assumed from that in the 

 shaft. At the date of the writer's visit the ascertained facts concerning the 

 continuance in depth of the ore-body were not sufficient to place this estimate 

 beyond question, but the developments thus far made indicated the existence 

 of a large supply. 



In the neighborhood of the Montezuma, within the district known as 

 Arabia, are a number of other ledges carrying ore like that just described, but 

 lower in value and less in quantity. The locations made on these ledges are 

 numerous, and considerable work has been done on some of them, showing 

 that they occur in series parallel to each other but quite small individually, 

 many seeming to pinch out altogether in depth. Their general course is dif- 

 ferent from that of the Montezuma, being north and south, or nearly so. 



The ledge that has been most developed and seems to promise most 

 favorably, next to the Montezuma, is the Jersey, which has a northerly course, 

 and if both veins are continuous, should intersect the Montezuma at no 

 great distance from the workings on the latter. It has been traced for several 

 hundred feet on the surface and explored by inclines to the depth of 100 feet. 

 Its ore has not thus far been as rich as that of the Montezuma, but it is believed 

 that it can be worked with profit, especially with the increased advantages se- 

 cured by the Pacific railroad, which passes within two or three miles of the 

 property. 



Montezuma Fuenaces. — The Trinity and Sacramento Company prose- 

 cuted their mining and metallurgical operations very vigorously during two or 

 three years previous to the autumn of 1868. The mine was opened as already de- 

 scribed, and a large amount of money was expended in providing smelting works 



