W. H. VON STREERUWITZ—PRECIOUS METALS OP TEXAS. 
23 
which kept back and keeps back to the present time the development 
of Trans-Pecos Texas, exist to-day. Among them incorrect surveys. 
Every expert and honest surveyor admits this. The survey of a min¬ 
ing claim requires great accuracy of its corners and lines. Every pros¬ 
pector understands this very well, and is not at all anxious to open a 
mine for the benefit of somebody else ; and so the incorrect surveys 
keep off and drove off some expert prospectors from very promising 
indications. There are a number of Spanish or Mexican land grants 
clouding the titles of at least 2000 square miles of the best mining 
land. Of course no prospector w T ho has only a trace of common sense 
will risk to throw his work into objects the ownership of which is not 
yet decided. Our mining law, though better than nothing, is very de¬ 
fective, and requires cumbersome descriptions and sending in of speci¬ 
mens, and what not. The price of the mining land is $25 per acre, the 
assessment work the same as in the mining districts in other States 
and Territories of the United States, and consequently expert prospec¬ 
tors (the only useful kind) prefer to prospect on United States land, 
in countries where they are not subject to so many formalities ; where 
they find reliable assayers and surveyors, and are tolerably safe that 
their claim is located where it is intended and not half a mile on the 
land of other parties. 
Besides, a number of so-called experts and prospectors from Califor¬ 
nia and Colorado and other mineral districts brought distrust on Texas 
mining lands. They were neither mining experts nor prospectors, but 
common swindlers, who, with specimens stolen from mines or collec¬ 
tions, but represented to be found in such and such a place in Texas, 
swindled parties out of hundreds, in some cases even of thousands, of 
dollars. 
Our home prospectors, with very few exceptions, are anything but 
experts ; most of them know so little of mining in general, and of ores 
in particular, that they frequently throw the best ore on dumps. They 
expect too much from little or no work at all—say about a bushel of 
coined twenty dollar gold pieces from every five feet of digging, or two 
tons of silver from every ton of ore. They are lacking in the principal 
qualifications of a prospector, to work hard, patiently and untiring, and 
to have at least a limited knowledge of mining and of the minerals for 
which they prospect A prospector who works as an employe for 
others must also be a man of undisputed honesty. 
There are other drawbacks, such as we meet frequently in other 
mining districts—for instance, scarcity of water, of fuel, difficulty to 
procure provisions; but they are not worse than in Arizona and many 
parts of New and old Mexico, and Trans-Pecos Texas has the advan¬ 
tage of not having any Indians, so that miners and prospectors can 
work and sleep in perfect safety. 
And since the surveys can be corrected, the mining laws amended, 
