792 Editors’ Table. [ October, 
enormous figure,! much more remains in the earth than has been 
taken out of it. Many good mines are only commencing their 
yield, while new ones are being discovered. Of course in a busi- 
ness where the profits are large, and the risks considerable, there 
will be numerous attempts to defraud the public. This may be 
done in various ways, and one of these is by so-called reports of 
would-be scientific experts. It is of first importance to persons 
desirous of investing in mining enterprises, that they should 
examine into the characters of the authors of these alleged “ sci- 
entific” reports. In the investigation of the nature and value of 
mineral deposits, the most skillful specialists are liable to error, 
such are the difficulties of the subject. Yet there are companies 
who will publish statements from persons without knowledge or 
experience, and which are absolutely worthless, and often 
supremely ridiculous. Two notable examples of such publica- 
tions have recently come under our notice. One of these, made 
to the Iowa Gulch Mining Co., on their property in Leadville, is 
a tissue of absurdities. Its author goes so far as to state that the 
strata dip at an angle of so many degrees “F” (? Fahrenheit). 
Another is the prospectus of ‘The Arizona and New Mexico 
Mining Co.,” of which the Hon. E. Joy Morris is the alleged 
president. Several lists of mining claims are given, most © 
which are of little or no value, while the descriptive part of the 
“report” is confined to an enumeration of the productiveness of 
the mines of Mexico a century ago. The publication is flimsy 
in the highest degree, and no person of ordinary intelligence 
need be induced by it to part with any money. 
Equally absurd, although with good intention, are the compre 
hensive denunciations of silver mining enterprises indulged in by 
a number of the newspapers of Philadelphia. On their side they 
display an ignorance of the subject equal to that of the so-called 
“experts ” in question, and are in marked contrast to the press ¥ 
New York and Boston, which are generally intelligent in their 
treatment of the business. As well denounce agriculture because 
some man could not raise potatoes on the Sahara, as repudiate 
silver and gold mining because some newspaper man has lost his 
_ money in a “ wild cat.” ; 
! For the fiscal year 1879-80, the amount produced in this region was $75,206,000 > 
see report of Supt. of U. S, Mint, 
