308 MINING INDUSTEY. 



To this was at that time added — ■ 



For calcining, per ton of ore * $S 00 



For cupelhng, per ton of ore 5 00 



Making total cost of treatment, per ton of ore 34 57 



The average yield in silver alone, without taking into account the base 

 metals, was then about $70 per ton of ore. 



The foregoing statement, showing a cost of $21 57 per ton for reduc- 

 tion of the ore without refining the product, is the result of experience in 

 1867, since which time important abatements have been made ; but accept- 

 ing that as an estimate for the present, we have as the cost of a ton of crude 

 metal, $44, since the result of smelting more than 1,800 tons of ore shows 

 a product of 983 pounds of metal per ton, or 49 per cent. Adding $30 per 

 ton, freight to San Francisco, to the cost of production, we have $74 as the 

 cost of laying down a ton of the metal at the market ; against which we 



have the value of base metal, per ton $100 00 



Silver— say 100 ounces, at $1 100 00 



Makingatotal of 200 00 



Unionville and vicinity. — ^Northeast from Oreana, 28 miles distant by 

 way of the traveled roads, is Unionville, the county town of Humboldt County, 

 and the central point of an important mining district. The town is now acces- 

 sible by wagon road from the station of the Central Pacific railroad known as 

 MiU City, 296 miles from Sacramento. Unionville is 21 miles by stage road 

 south of the station referred to. It is situated in one of the canons of the east- 

 em slope of what is locally termed the West Humboldt range of mountains. 

 This range, rising in the south near the ^^sink," or basin, of the Humboldt 

 River, extends northerly to the "big bend" of that river, which there, cutting 

 through a break in the range, makes a sharp turn in its westward course, 

 and flows to the south, having the range of mountains referred to on the left, 

 or east, bank and the Trinity mountains on the right, or west, bank. The 

 higher points of the range reach an altitude of 5,000 or 6,000 feet above the 

 river at its base, and over 10,000 feet above the level of the sea. Many of 



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