MINES OF BATTLE MOUNTAIN, EAST GROUP. 
461 
part of the mine that are probably part of the same dike zone known in the Strong 
mine, “basalt” dikes are absent in the Independence mine. 
The northeastern part of the Independence property, particularly the ground 
under the northern part of tract A of the Wilson Creek placer location and under 
the northern half of the Wonderland claim, has not been thoroughly explored. 
Such long crosscuts, however, as have been run out into the breccia in this territory, 
on the third, fourth, and 1,400-foot levels have not been particularly encouraging. 
On level 4 (PI. V, p. 26) a long northeasterly crosscut which crosses and recrosses 
the Portland line cuts the same latite-phonolite noted in the Portland mine east 
of the No. 2 lode. The contact between this rock and the breccia which is locally 
banded, is not entirely definite, though it can in some places be determined within 
the range of a foot in distance. The massive rock is not particularly shattered 
near the contact and its contrast in texture and composition with the breccia a 
foot or so away is suggestive of intrusion into the latter. 
PAY SHOOTS AND LODE STRUCTURE. 
Bv far the greater part of the ore from Stratton’s Independence mine has come 
from that part of the breccia filling the granitic embayment and lying above the 
bench-like flattening of the contact above level 5. Good ore occurs in the granite 
in the Independence lode above level 3 in the old Washington workings near the 
surface, and in the No. 6 vein, but the amount of ore hitherto extracted from this 
rock is small indeed compared with the great tonnage obtained from the breccia. 
Between the fifth and 1,050-foot levels a large amount of ore has been mined from 
the part of the Independence lode that follows the general course of the granite- 
breccia contact. 
The ore bodies occur as pay shoots in lodes, such irregular ore masses in 
granite as occur in the Ajax and Elkton (Thompson) mines having here no exempli¬ 
fication. These pay shoots in some cases attain considerable width, the stopes 
along the Bobtail on level 4 being in places 50 or 60 feet wide. Such wide ore 
bodies are usually associated with a corresponding widening of the zone of generally 
parallel sheeting constituting the lode, or with the convergence or intersection of 
two or more definite lodes. 
The main pay shoot of the Independence lode begins at the surface, about 250 
feet south of the granite-breccia contact, and extends northward practically to the 
Portland line. Its southern limit pitches north at an angle with the horizon 
which may be generalized at about 52°, a somewhat lower angle than that of the 
granite-breccia contact. Below level 3 the ore rarely extends from the breccia 
into the granite, and then only for short distances. On levels 1, 2, and 3 the ore 
in the granite occurred in a sheeted zone apparently of the usual type found in 
this rock, though the details of the occurrence of this ore could not be studied in 
1904. Below level 3 the Independence lode between the shaft and the granite- 
breccia contact is usually a rather indistinct, narrow zone of Assuring in the granite 
or in the Independence phonolite dike, and contains practically no ore. At the 
contact the lode usually becomes rather irregular, apparently splitting into several 
branching fissures, and the ore generally begins abruptly as the breccia is entered 
and continues almost continuously to the Portland line. The ore occurs in a 
13001—No. 54—06-31 
