398 MINING INDUSTRY. 



has also been sunk, with the intention of cutting the vein in depth. At 90 

 feet depth it reached the water level, and at that point a cross-cut was driven 

 to the vein, which was reached in 246 feet and cut at 160 feet below the 

 croppings, about 236 feet north of the south boundary. This was the lowest 

 point reached at the date referred to, as no efficient means were provided for 

 the drainage of the mine. The developments made by the works thus 

 far prosecuted, show a well-defined vein, varying in width from a mere 

 seam to 8 or 12 feet, and sometimes more, (in one place nearly 30) 

 filled with hard, white, quartz, which carries the silver-bearing mineral, 

 distributed through it in bunches or disseminated particles, rarely arranged 

 in banded form, as in the Reese River veins, or in large masses, free 

 from gangue. The pay-ground usually forms a belt near the hanging 

 wall, not often, though sometimes, filling the whole space between the 

 walls of the vein. The occurrence of ore also appears to be in chimneys, 

 or distinct ore-bodies, leaving other portions of the vein small and barren. 

 Thus, in the Combination, as shown in the section, the ore, so far as devel- 

 oped, occurs in one body, measuring, on the first level, about 100 feet hori- 

 zontally, and, on the second, 140. The inclination of this body is to the 

 north, dipping at about 45°. Its shorter axis, at right angles to its dip, 

 appears, from the descriptions given, to have been about 60 feet, and its 

 width varying from 2 to 12 feet, sometimes filling the whole space between 

 walls. The principal silver mineral is stetefeldtite, an argentiferous ore of 

 antimony, with which is combined sulphur, lead, copper, and iron. 



The ore produced from the mine up to the middle of 1868 appears from 

 the available records to have an average value of about $80 per ton. It is 

 divided into two classes, of which the first assays about $90, and the second 

 about $35 to $40. This will be given with more detail further on. 



The pay-ground known to exist in this mine had been nearly worked 

 out, from the surface to the water level, early in the summer of 1868, 

 and the future product depended on the discovery of new bodies of ore 

 above that level, . or in openings to be made at greater depths. For 

 this latter purpose the vertical shaft, already referred to, had been begun 

 and provided with hoisting and pumping works, consisting of an engine, 

 16 inches diameter of cylinder, with three winding reels driven by friction- 



