156 GEOLOGY AND GOLD DEPOSITS OF THE CRIPPLE CREEK DISTRICT. 
Besides the dominant radial arrangement, it should be noted that northwest 
and northeast veins are present together in various parts of the district, as in the 
Isabella, Molly Kathleen, and Abe Lincoln mines. The presence of both sets of 
fissures is particularly marked in the Isabella mine, in the northeastern part of the 
district, where the northeast or “cross” veins have a local radial grouping with 
northeastern convergence (fig. 44, p. 3S8). This development of intersecting sheeted 
zones is indicative of compressive stress, especially as on the whole the two systems 
seem to have formed simultaneously and do not as a ride fault each other, though 
there may be some offsets, as in the case of the Klondike and Isabella veins. 
There are many other examples of local groups of divergent fissures besides 
that of the Isabella cross veins. Thus the principal fissures of the Victor, Vindi¬ 
cator, and Golden Cycle mines show a tendency to branch or diverge toward the 
northwest. The principal lodes of Stratton’s Independence mine, on the other hand, 
diverge toward the southeast, and those of the Gold Coin to the south. 
DIPS. 
Most of tlie fissures are steeply inclined, the average dip being about 75°. 
Many are practically vertical and dips lower than 50° are rare. Fairly regular 
dips down to 1,200 feet in depth are shown by the Lillie (vertical), the Buena Vista 
(60°), Pharmacist (60°), and the Findley (85°) lodes (figs. 50 and 52, pp. 414, 420). 
There are, however, a few fissures which lie at unusually low angles, notably 
those of the Howard flat vein in the Mary McKinney and Anaconda mines, of “the 
flat vein” in Stratton’s Independence mine, and several unnamed fissures in the 
Damon and War Eagle mines. The average dip of these flat veins is probably 
about 20°. Some of those in the Damon are nearly horizontal, but others dip at 
45°. There is thus no sharp distinction, as regards dip, between the so-called flat 
veins and the nearly vertical lodes. 
While in any local group the fissures dipping in one direction usually greatly 
predominate over those dipping in the other, yet adjacent lodes seldom all dip in 
the same direction. No systematic relation has been found between the dips, on 
the one hand, and the distribution of the fissures or the general structure of the 
district, on the other. 
PERSISTENCE. 
In a district like Cripple Creek, where knowledge of the lodes is derived almost 
exclusively from underground work and where the lodes themselves are often ill 
defined, discussion of the persistence of the fissures can not entirely escape a vague¬ 
ness inherent in the subject. Miners are concerned with a fissure only so far as it 
carries, or seems likely to carry, ore. Although exploration in some cases has been 
pushed to the point where a fissure or fissure zone can no longer be distinguished 
from the irregular jointing present in nearly all rocks, in other cases the search for 
ore has been abandoned while the fissure could still be readily followed and while 
its length or depth remained undetermined. Few fissures have been explored so 
carefully that their extent in the directions of strike and dip is known. 
In the Cripple Creek district individual fissures, or fissure zones of such regu¬ 
larity and narrowness that they may be classed as lodes, are rarely known to exceed 
