318 MINING INDUSTEY. 



stamp mill was erected, which, in the autumn, began to crush ore, affording 

 very satisfactory results to the owners of the mine. 



The vein is inclosed in quartzite. It crops out and is opened upon or 

 near the summit of Little Giant Hill. Its course is north 55° west, true, 

 dipping to the southwest at an angle of 55°. It is from one to three feet 

 wide, averaging about two feet. The gangue is chiefly quartz; this, when 

 clear, is white and hard; but it is usually intimately mixed with the ore, 

 which, being decomposed, imparts to the whole mass a dull yellow color and 

 a soft, crumbly texture. The ores near the surface are, apparently, much 

 oxidized, the products of the decomposition of other sulphureted combina- 

 tions of silver, associated, doubtless, with lead, antimony, and other base 

 metals. In depth the ore is less changed, showing sulphureted and antimo- 

 nial forms of silver-bearing minerals, which make their metallurgical treat- 

 ment more difiicult. 



On the western slope the vein has been opened on the surface, 300 or 

 400 feet below the crest of the hill, and thence upward it has been stripped 

 along its outcrop entirely across the summit of the hill and down on the east- 

 ern slope at frequent intervals. The length of Mr. Fox's claim is 1,400 feet, 

 of which some 400 feet have been developed by means of three tunnels or 

 adits. The upper tunnel, 130 feet long, is driven in on the vein from a point 

 about 60 feet below the top of the hill; the second, 60 feet lower, measured 

 on the incline of the vein, is about 100 feet long, and the third, 150 feet 

 lower, is 230 feet long. All of these tunnels have shown a good vein, regu- 

 lar in course and dip, and generally productive of good ore. Some of the 

 ground has been stoped out, though by far the greater portion opened by this 

 work was still available for future operations when visited in September, 1869. 



A portion of the ore produced, especially from the upper levels, was of 

 a docile character, easily worked by pan amalgamation, although leaving rich 

 tailings ; while the other portion, less affected by the oxidizing influences of 

 the surface, remained unworked, and ready for shipment or treatment by 

 some other process. There were on hand, at the time above referred to? 

 about 100 tons of ore of this class, of which the assay value varied between 

 $100 and $1,000 per ton, averaging about $300. The ore selected for mill- 

 ing is said to yield, on the average, $150 per ton, sometimes reaching a much 



