1 3 Colorado Gold Mines. [January, 



ruption, when he runs out of good ground he is sure to be 

 in unproductive ground from end to end of his claim, and 

 therefore as sure to fail financially. The evil is now, how- 

 ever, curing itself. As the mines have been sunk the water 

 has become more and more troublesome, and combination 

 has been forced upon the owners by the refusal of some to 

 pay their share of the expense of pumping. A process of 

 what is termed ' ; freezing out " has been going on for some 

 time on the principal lodes, which, by a method hardly jus- 

 tifiable, is likely to lead to the desired union of interests, 

 though at the expense of the shareholders of the companies. 

 A mine fills with water ; all returns cease ; the company's 

 affairs are liquidated, at the suit of the superintendent or 

 some privileged creditor, for perhaps a trifling sum. The 

 property is sold by the sheriff, before perhaps any of the 

 shareholders in the East are aware, and the mine passes into 

 the hands of a few men, who, if they do not acquire the 

 adjacent claims by the same process, will work in harmony 

 with those who do. The temporary suspension of many of 

 the richest mines, and the consequent decrease in production 

 of the district, is, in a measure, due to the systematic carry- 

 ing out of such schemes. Some small-claim owners are, 

 however, so fortunate that their success makes it difficult to 

 persuade others of the evil of the subdivision system. 

 There is an owner of some 30 feet on the Bobtail who stea- 

 dily refuses to join a combination, and who cannot be either 

 bought or sold out. He is down some 500 feet, and through- 

 out that whole depth he has been in good pay-ground. He 

 works for a few months, till he has taken out what gold he 

 requires, and then knocks off till he needs to make another 

 draft. As he says his gold is safer there than in any bank, 

 he refuses either to sell or exhaust his mine. It is said that 

 during the last spell of 9 months' work he extracted 500 lbs. 

 weight of retort gold, value about 100,000 dols. 



II. The second evil, viz., the failure of the companies to 

 work their own claims, is even more detrimental to the 

 future prosperity of the mines than that last discussed. As 

 a rule the affairs of the companies have been grossly mis- 

 managed. Having spent their slender capital, their super- 

 intendents have found it more conducive to their ease to let 

 the mines on tribute or on lease than to work them. The 

 mines are sure to yield enough to pay their salaries. The 

 lessees work, of course, for immediate returns ; hence there 

 are few mines in Gilpin County which — through this vicious 

 practice of " gouging," as it is termed — have not been riddled 

 in a shocking manner. To save timber the old road-ways 



