1880] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
17 
termination would go on over a large territory at 
once, and if the policy were continuous, foxes 
would become as scarce as bears and wolves. There 
would be no unfairness in this mode of taxing, for 
the cities indirectly would be as much benefitted 
as the agricultural towns. Make poultry raising 
secure and its price is cheapened in all our cities. 
Booker/own , Ct., I Yours to command, 
Nov. 6,1879. 1 Timothy Bunkbb, Esq. 
Mines and Mining Terms. 
The United States has the richest mineral de¬ 
posits of any country in the world. The gold and 
Fig. l.—A BED BETWEEN STRATA OP BOOK. 
silver mines are now yielding nearly 80 million dol¬ 
lars yearly, and the enormous deposits of silver ore 
and gold-bearing rocks discovered within the past 
two years, promise to double this yield whenever 
the new mines shall be opened and made produc¬ 
tive. There were coined in the year ending June, 
1879, over 65 million dollars of gold aDd silver, and 
these metals to the value of 12 millions were used 
in manufactures. The coal deposits are larger than 
those of any other country, each of several of the 
States having a larger area of coal than the whole 
of Europe, while the beds of the purest iron ore, 
and the veins of copper and copper ore, are equally 
superior in extent and value to any others in ex¬ 
istence. The future development of our mining 
promises to surpass any thing previously known in 
the world. The recent wonderful discoveries of 
silver, and the rapid extension of mining, have 
created a general interest in mining, and the terms 
used by miners have passed into the periodical 
literature of the day. As every intelligent person, 
when reading of “levels,” “slopes,” “winzes,” 
“ bonanzas,” and the like technical terms used in 
mining, wishes to know their meaning, we propose 
to give such a sketch of the general operation of a 
mine as will explain and illustrate them. Mineral 
deposits are found in the shape of beds or veins. A 
bed is a deposit lying conformable to and between 
the strata of rock in which it is found, as seen at 
figure 1, in which the dark, shaded part represents 
a bed. The immense deposits of silver bearing 
Fig. 2.—A VEIN THROUGH BEDS OP ROCK. 
lead ore recently discovered in the neighborhood 
of Leadville, Colorado, are in beds, and such beds 
are not of the regular or permanent character of 
what are known as true fissure veins. Veins differ 
from beds in penetrating the rock across the strata, 
as seen at figure 2, in which the lines from a to a 
represent a vein cutting through the beds of rock, 
g , g, g. The point where the vein protrudes at the 
surface of the ground, is called the “ out crop,” 
and veins are most frequently discovered by find¬ 
ing its fragments, which are called “float,” upon 
the sides of the mountain below the vein, or at the 
bottom. When these pieces of “float” are ob¬ 
served, the “prospector” searches above until he 
finds the vein from which they came. If the vein 
is a promising one, and is found to contain valua-* 
ble mineral, a shaft is sunk to “prove” it. A 
“ discovery shaft ” is one sunk on the vein and fol¬ 
lowing its direction for the purpose of proving its 
value. When this is found to be satisfactory, a 
working shaft is sunk perpendicularly through the 
rock in such a manner as to give the greatest facili ¬ 
ty in working the vein and raising the mineral to 
the surface. The shaft is shown at 6, figure 2, and 
cuts the vein at some distance below the surface. 
A tunnel or “adit level,” c, is driven horizontally 
through the rock to cut the vein as low down the 
mountain as possible, and through the vein to the 
main shaft to carry off water and ventilate it. From 
the adit level it is usual to sink other shafts, b, to 
reach the vein at a still lower level, and other 
“levels ” are driven from the main shaft, as shown 
at d, d, to cut the vein in as many places as possi¬ 
ble to make the working more effective and profit¬ 
able. Veins are not regular in width or their direc ¬ 
tion; they “pinch” in places as at e, sometimes so 
closely that the “walls” are separated only by a 
mere thread of vein rock, while at other places the 
walls separate widely, enclosing enormous masses 
of mineral. When the ore found in such a wide 
space is rich, it is known as a “ bonanza,” and many 
millions of dollars of gold and silver have been 
taken from single mines in such places. The lower 
wall of a vein is called the “foot wall,” and the 
upper one the “hanging wall.” The wall is the 
surface of rock which is in contact with the vein, 
and is often smoothed and polished by the move¬ 
ment of the vein matter upon it pressing with 
enormous force. The rock outside of the vein is 
called the “ country rock,” and that in the vein, 
and with which the mineral is mingled, is called the 
“vein matter” or “gangue.” This is usually quartz 
in fissure veins. When the shafts have been sunk 
and levels driven, the vein is said to be “opened 
on,” and the work so far is known as exploring. 
The vein is then worked for profit. A house is built 
over the shaft for protection ( a , fig. 3), and is called 
the shaft-house. Hoisting machinery is set up, 
and pumps are put down the shaft to free it from 
water. The work on the vein differs from that on 
the shafts. Figure 3 is supposed to represent the 
workings on a vein as would be seen if one side 
was exposed to view; the shaft is seen at b, the 
these on the vein is ^called “ drifting” ; levels are 
usually driven at each 100 feet down the shaft after 
“ pay-rock ” is struck. At d is a “ winze,” which 
is an opening made perpendicularly from one level 
to another. At e the process of “stoping” is 
shown ; this consists in taking down the vein mat¬ 
ter from overhead , the rich mineral being taken 1 
out and the waste being thrown down and left to 
fill up the level. At / is an “upraise,” which is 
the reverse of a “ winze,” and is used to follow up 
a deposit of ore richer than usual, and which, when 
it runs up into the vein, is called a “chimney.” 
Such a deposit recently found in a Cali¬ 
fornia mine carried the market value of 
the stock from $6 up to $90 per share. 
The stoping on the vein goes on until 
all the valuable mineral is taken out, 
when the levels, as they are worked out, 
are abandoned. When the rock passed 
through, in a level, is loose and liable to 
fall, the level is timbered, as shown at 
figure 5. Very strong timbers are put to¬ 
gether, as there shown, a few feet apart, 
and others are laid from one of these to 
the other when required to support the 
roof. An enormous quantity of timber 
is used in a large mine, and in some 
cases the timbering has taken fire from 
the lanterns or from blasts, and has 
burned out, doing much damage. It is 
in this way that mines take fire ; and 
coal mines are sometimes thus fired, 
and the coal itself burns for months 
or years. At figure 4 are shown two 
miners descending a shaft on a tub, which is 
used to raise the rock and ore to the surface 
The Useful and Beautiful In Poultry.— 
If we are to accept the statement of Darwin—and 
no one is more careful and reserved in his expres¬ 
sions than he—no domesticated animal admits of 
so much variation, beauty of shape, and richness in 
coloring, as poultry. But we are not called upon to 
accept this solely from the multitude of facts pre¬ 
sented by this great naturalist in his work, “ Varia¬ 
tion in Animals and Plants, Under Domestication.'* 
■ Fig. 3.—HOUSE FOR THE SHAFT. 
