GOLD MINING IN COLOE^DO. 537 



would be ten tons, from which, as we have just seen, seven and six-tenths 

 tons of stamp rock are obtained, or about three-fourths of the ground broken. 

 According to this, a fathom of stoping ground produces a cord of stamp-rock, 

 which yields, on an average, six ounces of crude bullion, worth about $100 in 

 coin. The price paid for stoping varies very much, according to the character 

 of the ground. It is sometimes as low as $25, and sometimes more than $50 

 per fathom. Drifting costs from $12 to $20 per foot. Sinking the shaft, 7 

 feet wide by 14 feet long, at the date of the writer's visit in 1868, cost $52 50 

 per foot, the miners furnishing their own supplies. 



The foregoing notes concerning the operations of this mine were obtained 

 in the latter part of 1868. Shortly thereafter the company became embar- 

 rassed financially, and, when visited in 1869, but little work was in progress. 

 A few miners were at work on their own account. 



First National. — There are several claims on the Burroughs that have 

 been worked to considerable depths, but, during the past year or two, their de- 

 velopment has not been very vigorously prosecuted. The Gilpin was steadily 

 worked for a long time, but, in the summer of 1869, little or nothing was in 

 progress on that claim. The First National Company, owning several discon- 

 nected claims on the lode, resumed active operations, in 1869, on that which 

 adjoins the Ophir on the west, and have since been steadily engaged in its de- 

 velopment. Their shaft, on this claim, has reached a depth of nearly 500 feet. 

 Stoping has been in progress, during the past winter, between the 400-foot and 

 470-foot levels, furnishing ores that yield an average of SlO 50, coin, per ton. 

 A careful system of account keeping has been inaugurated in this mine, and the 

 following statements, setting forth some of the results of their operations, will 

 be found interesting, as throwing light on the relations existing between cost 

 of production and yield of the ore. It will be seen that the former exceeds 

 the latter, and the experience of this mine is one illustration of the disadvan- 

 tage under which a short claim is worked on a vein like the Burroughs, a fair 

 representative of the Colorado gold-bearing lodes. The vein is narrow, the 

 average value of the ore is low, and the pay is not uniformly distributed. A 

 vein of this character needs all the advantages that may be derived from eco- 

 nomical and systematic methods of work. Here, however, is a claim, 183 feet 



in length, working through a shaft nearly 500 feet deep, the cost of sinking 

 68 



