DEVELOPMENT. 707 



tains can not be disputed, they are not yet sufficiently developed to count them 

 with the mines; except perhaps the workings at the San Antonio Pass. 



The Hazel mine, at the foot of the Sierra Diabolo, was worked last year 

 with a reduced force, doing more preparatory work, such as shafting and 

 drifting to connect the two shafts, than working for ore. Nevertheless, I 

 found a number of carloads of good ore ready for shipment, besides thousands 

 of tons of low grade material (ten to twelve ounces of silver to the ton) on 

 dump, which under present circumstances must be regarded valueless, as the 

 scarcity of water, high freight on coal, and inconvenient conditions of com- 

 munication with the railway make it doubtful if the concentration of these 

 low grades and the shipment of the concentrates can be recommended at 

 present. But the lower shaft is sunk to about six hundred feet, and enough 

 of working tunnels are drifted to take out the ores, the existence of which 

 between the drift levels reasonably can not be doubted. 



In the Quitman Mountains very little work was done in the Bonanza mine 

 and the Alice Ray. Both are working on the same vein of argentiferous lead 

 and zinc sulphides, with occasional small quantities of copper stained material. 



Owing to the fact that the smelter in El Paso is not prepared to reduce the 

 zinc, and therefore makes deductions for this metal in other ores, the blende 

 was regarded rather a drawback, and thrown on the dumps, where carloads 

 of zinc ores, assaying from thirty to fifty-six per cent of zinc, were buried to 

 hide them from the sight of parties who might make examinations of the 

 mine with perhaps the intention to invest. Some capital will be required to 

 thoroughly develop this lead, which, as shown by the diggings at the Bonanza 

 on the east slope and the Alice Ray on the west slope, extends about three- 

 fourths of a mile across the whole ridge of the second range of the Quitman 

 Mountains. Moreover, the deepest diggings of the Bonanza are about five 

 hundred feet below those of the Alice Ray, which leads to the conclusion that 

 the vein is of very uniform character for five hundred feet vertically by three- 

 fourths of a mile horizontal length; and there are no reasons or indications 

 whatever that changes for the worse will take place in greater depth. At 

 the Alta and the Silver King, where two years ago considerable work was 

 done, only the assessment work was done last year. Most of the other pros- 

 pects located in the Quitman and Carrizo mountains were abandoned. This, 

 as mentioned already in my last Report, is due to the defective mining law, 

 the clouded titles in the shape of pretended Mexican grants, and the unreliable 

 surveys. 



That these circumstances, together with the want of experience and perse- 

 verance, more than the want of encouraging results, caused most of the pros- 

 pectors to abandon their claims, is clearly demonstrated by the analyses made 

 in the laboratory of the Geological Survey. 



