COPPER IN SONORA-ANTIMONY. 
291 
feet above the bed of the creek. The vein had been (c prospected ” by some adventurers, and 
two or three hundred weight of ore had been taken out and piled up. 
It is found in strings and narrow veins, distributed in a hard quartz gangue about fifteen 
feet thick. The thickest seam of ore, however, does not exceed one or two inches, but where 
several are closely combined, a thickness of eight inches of workable ore was seen. The best 
part of the ore that has been excavated will probably yield thirty per cent, of copper. The ore 
is not the common yellow sulphuret, but resembles vitreous copper and the variegated pyrites. 
It has not been analyzed, and it is uncertain to which of the two species it may be referred, 
but it is probably the former. Its color is lead-gray, and it is not harder than calcite. It 
contains a large per-centage of iron, and being very much mixed with the hard, quartzose 
gaugue, and so far from water-power and transportation, the vein does not at present offer much 
inducement for exploration. Timber can be obtained from the adjoining canons, at a distance 
of three or four miles. There is no permanent water-power in the vicinity, and the vein is 
about 60 miles from Los Angeles. 
NATIVE COPPER AND RED OXIDE OF COPPER. 
While at Fort Vuma, at the junction of the Gila with the Colorado, several large masses of 
splendid copper ore, brought from the state of Sonora, Mexico, were exhibited to me by the 
officers of the post, and Mr. Yeager at the ferry. The vein is reported to be near Altar, and a 
large pile of the ore is said to be deposited near the emigrant trail. This is probably the case, 
as many specimens are brought in by travellers who cross the Colorado at the ferry below the 
fort. This ore is principally the red oxide of copper. It is massive, and sub-crystalline, and 
contains small masses and points of native copper. Its surfaces are covered with green coats 
and incrustations of the carbonate. It is a very valuable ore, and the specimens that I saw 
would yield about 90 per cent of pure copper. 
The mine has been worked more or less by Mexicans, and the ore taken to Guaymas. The 
precise locality of the vein could not be ascertained, but probably it is readily accessible from 
the Gila, and in the event of the construction of a railroad in that vicinity the value of the 
mine will be much increased, and it will, doubtless, furnish a considerable amount of freight. 1 
SULPHURET OF ANTIMONY. 
A large vein of sulphuret of antimony exists in the granitic rocks at the head of the Tulare 
Valley, near the pass of San Amedio. It is about eighty miles distant from Los Angeles, by 
way of the nearest trail, and is most readily reached from the Tejon or Canada de las Uvas. 
The Indians and others had reported the ore to be of silver, speaking of the locality as affording 
“mucho plata,” and it was also reported that a party of men had been to the locality and reduced 
some of it in forges and furnaces of rude construction. While in Depot Camp at the Tejon, I 
made a special visit to the locality, in order to ascertain the true nature of the ore and its 
composition. 
The general direction of the trail to the mine is from the entrance to the Canada de las Uvas, 
westward, along the base of the sandstone hills to the third principal Canada, through which a 
1 Since the above was written, a company has been organized in San Francisco and a mine opened in Sonora, which, from 
the descriptions, I judge to be upon the same vein from which the specimens procured at the fort were taken. A quantity of 
the ore has been sent to San Francisco. 
