C. H. Snoio — Turquois in New Mexico. 511 



Art. LXIII. — Turquois in Southwestern Neic Mexico / by 

 "Charles H. Snow. 



Some years ago excavations of ancient origin, the object of 

 which was unknown until recently, were noticed in the Burro 

 Mountains, southwest of Silver City, in Grant County, New 

 Mexico. During the past year, Mr. W. J. Foley, then of 

 Silver City, received a letter from a firm of Indian traders, in 

 which it was stated that the Navajos claimed that turquois 

 existed near Silver City, mines being described as having been 

 worked at some remote period in an extensive, though primi- 

 tive, manner. A search, thereupon instituted by Mr. Foley, 

 resulted in an apparent connection between this story and the 

 ruins above noted. 



The locality has since been visited by the writer, who found 

 the excavations situated upon several adjoining hill slopes. 

 Although extending over considerable territory, they occur in 

 isolated groups, and do not convey the impression of any very 

 extended single effort. The size and character of the waste 

 piles seem rather to indicate shallow works, although at one 

 point a shaft or deep pit existed, and at another, close by an 

 abruptly rising hill, either a shaft or a tunnel into the hill. 

 All adits have long since been obliterated, and the piles of 

 debris are more or less concealed by vegetation. The waste 

 rock is in large pieces, and was evidently mined by the most 

 primitive methods. It consists of gray quartz with white 

 cleavable feldspar unlike that at the locality next described. 

 Turquois was found in occasional small pieces attached to or 

 seaming the rock, the color being the same pea-green shown 

 by the u Los Cerillos stone." No metallic matter was noticed. 



Continued search by Mr. Foley resulted in the location of 

 another claim, about a mile distant from the one mentioned 

 above, and near the " Chief of the Burros " copper mine, not 

 now worked. There exists here a test pit, sunk some years 

 ago as a copper exploration, the veins of turquois having been, 

 strange to say, mistaken for veins of ores of that metal. The 

 pit has a dimension each way of about three feet. It is upon 

 the summit of a dike of a buff-colored rock traceable for some 

 at each side of the pit. The dike matter, as seen in the pit 

 and at one or more places upon the surface, contains a perfect 

 network of turquois. The layers are from a line to an eighth 

 of an inch in thickness, frequently starting in a thick layer, 

 and then forking into several finer ones, which again subdivide. 

 Where the layers are thick, a tendency of the rock to cleave 

 away at the line of contact was sometimes, but not always, 



