GOLD MINING IN COLOEADO. 52,3 



or 6, ounces per cord, or $12, coin, per ton. Concerning costs of production, 

 it is said by the president of the company that the whole expense of operation 

 is more than paid by the product of this low-grade rock, leaving value of the 

 first-class ore as a surplus of profit to the company. 



The Bobtail, Gregory, and Bates lodes have been described as having 

 convergent courses, which, if continuous, would lead them all to a union with 

 Mammoth lode. This vein extends in an east and west direction, from 

 near the western terminus, so to speak, of the Bobtail lode. It has been 

 traced thence for a distance of 2,000 or 3,000 feet, and is covered by mining 

 claims, on which work has been done, with some success, near the surface, 

 but not generally below a depth of 200 feet. The deepest of the several 

 mines on the lode is that managed by Judge Morse, of Central City, which 

 is located near the assumed point of the junction of the Gregory with the 

 Mammoth. Several shafts have been sunk on this vein, one of them over 

 300 feet, finding a large vein, but fiUed with iron pyrites that is almost en- 

 tirely wanting in the precious metals so commonly associated with this min- 

 eral in Colorado. Not much drifting has been done in depth, so that but 

 little is known of the lode except as revealed by the sinking of the shaft. 

 Extending the line of this lode in a westerly direction, but a little distance 

 beyond the point to which it has been traced, and crossing Spring Gulch, we 

 come to Quartz Hill, which has been, and still is, the scene of active mining 

 enterprise. This hill has a general east and west trend, forming the divide 

 between Nevada Gulch, on the north, and the Illinois and Leavenworth 

 Gulches, feeders of Eussell Gulch, on the south. On the east it is drained 

 by Spring Gulch, which, uniting with Nevada Gulch, just above Central 

 City, becomes thus a feeder of Gregory Gulch, about a mile above its junc- 

 tion with North Clear Creek. The hill, in that part most occupied by min- 

 ing operations, rises to an altitude of 600 or 700 feet above the level of the 

 streams at its base. These several gulches were the sources of large quan- 

 tities of gold in the early days of placer mining in these regions, and some of 

 them continue to yield liberally, under the simple operations of sluice mining. 

 The rich character of the washings of the surface naturally led to the pros- 

 pecting of the hill for the deeper sources of the metal, and many lodes have 

 been discovered, some of which have been developed to a greater depth than 



