15 



county, would require months of hard work. I was there 

 but one week, and a rainy, cold, unpleasant week for us it 

 was in the Chinati mountains. 



I saw four large fissure veins of argentiferous galena, 

 three of silver ore and two of copper, from all of which I 

 selected specimens for the State cabinet. We intended to 

 have visited many other places, but bad weather and lim- 

 ited time prevented. A part of the mines are on the six 

 hundred and forty acres of the Anderson Company, and a 



¥ortion on lands recently located by the Central Railroad, 

 he course of the veins is not alliii the same direction, nor 

 are they all in the same plane with the strata of rocks, 

 some being rents at nearly right angles to the trend of the 

 line of upheaval, which is generally northeast and south- 

 wes't. The veins are in cretaceous rocks, and are of the 

 age of the upper cretaceous, or it may be the tertiary; fos- 

 sils of the cretaceous period, being quite abundant ostrea, 

 eicogyra, grypJiea, etc. Width of veins from two to ten 

 feet, or more, only one being as small as two feet, this 

 being argentiferous galena, and thought by Mr. Anderson 

 to be one of the best. It is on the side of a mountain, 

 whose upper portion is limestone, and the vein grows wider 

 downward. Its name is the Anderson mine. 



The silver, lead and copper mines of New Mexico, and 

 those of Chihuahua in old Mexico, yield millions of dollars 

 annually. The mineral region of El Paso and Presidio 

 counties h4s the same geological formation of similar rocks, 

 and probably will prove to be equally productive in the 

 precious metals. 



The gold and silver mines of Nevada and Colorado have 

 given the most profitable results at depths of more than 

 1000 feet. The Consolidated Virginia, one of the most 

 profitable mines in the world, has given a yield in bullion 

 the past year of $16,731,653 43, besides having $478,080 of 

 ore, as valued by assay, in the ore house and at the mills 

 at the time the annual report of the superintendent was 

 made ; all taken at depths ranging from 1200 to 1500 feet, 

 the yield from the ore averaging $98 per ton. Other mines 

 at the west ?ire now giving their best and , most profitable 

 yields of ore at depths nearly and more than 2000 feet. 

 Mines which had proved unprofitable, and some even which 

 had been abandoned, by going deeper furnish rich ores, 

 and give high dividends to their stockholders. Immense 

 bodies of ores called bonanzas were found at depths of 



