PRECIOUS METALS. 575 



Probably there will be some hereafter who will be innocently inclined to 

 report gold discoveries in the district, others perhaps not with honest intent, 

 because of the finding of old shafts or the tracing of veins not before sus- 

 pected by the inhabitants of the country. For the benefit of all, I desire to 

 state that I have faithfully and diligently prospected the region, collecting 

 everywhere, and taking samples from even those places which no geologist or 

 mining engineer would admit to be gold bearing by any possibility. All 

 these collections, as well as those of several assistants, aggregating many thou- 

 sand specimens, have been tested in the laboratory by myself or the Survey 

 chemists, or both by them and myself, and if any gold existed in paying 

 quantities anywhere in the district it could not have escaped notice. Table I 

 shows all that has been detected by this rigid scrutiny. 



C. SPECIAL AURIFEEOUS (?) DEPOSITS. 



Diligent search has been made by the writer, in the field, for indications of 

 gold in special situations where processes of infiltration and segregation have 

 presented favorable conditions for deposition, provided that the gold has ever 

 been present within the reach of their action. No results of value have come 

 from this investigation, as will be seen by reference to the tables of analyses 

 appended hereto. The frequent excavations which have been made in search 

 'of this metal in iron ore deposits, sandstones, limestones, and granites, and in 

 other unfavorable situations, have been possible only because of the blightiDg 

 popular delusion that a knowledge of minerals and mining is unnecessary on 

 the part of those who are employed to direct such work. 



Table I gives the results of assays made in the Survey Laboratory, includ- 

 ing the 'list published in the First Annual Report. Besides these a large 

 number of unreported qualitative tests, resulting negatively, have been made 

 by the writer of quartz and other material taken from every part of the re- 

 gion. The investigation has been most thorough, and the conclusions given 

 here may therefore be relied upon as a faithful representation of the real sit- 

 uation. The Central Mineral Region, however, abounds in resources which 

 will give it far more prestige and profit than could ever come from gold 

 mining alone. 



2. SILVER. 



The economic condition of the silver areas has not materially changed since 

 the publication of the First Annual Report (1889), but it may be stated with 

 somewhat more of certainty, perhaps, that the chances are fair for the dis- 

 covery of this metal in moderate quantities in some of the ores. There is no 

 locality in the Central Mineral Region in which an extensive silver mining 

 industry can be established by itself, although there is now a prospect that 



