<ansome.] DISTRIBUTION OF ORES WITHIN THE LODES. 99 
well authenticated by Mr. W. Crooke, the manager. For 200 feet 
below the cropping* the ore was largely sulphate of lead (anglesite) 
with some galena, and did not carry much silver. Below that level 
it changed to unoxidized galena. With increasing depth the place of 
the galena was largely taken by argentiferous tetrahedrite, and in the 
lowest workings, about 600 feet below the cropping, there was very 
Little galena found. The bottom of the pay shoot is said to have been 
reached in the lowest workings, although the fissure zone continues 
to an unknown depth and probably contains other pay shoots, which, 
however, may not be large or rich.. 
In the Polar Star mine, on Engineer Mountain, the ore, consisting 
)f argentite and proustite, is said by Mr. W. Crooke to have changed 
abruptly to iron pyrite, carrying about 12 ounces of silver per ton 
ind no gold. According to Mr. Crooke, this change was generally 
encountered at about the same level in all of the mines on this portion 
3f the mountain. The exact dcplh at which the change took place is 
not known, bu1 it must have been moderate, probably not more than 
500 feel. In the Palmetto mine, on the northeastern extension of the 
Polar Star lode, the ore near the surface ran as high as $500 per ton, 
ind contained ruby and so-called u brittle" silver (probably proustite 
ind argentite), resembling that of the Polar Star mine. The lode 
struck in the shaft at a depth of LOOoroOO feet was of low grade, and, 
is the dump shows, contained much pyrite. In this, as in the case of 
the Old Lout and Pride of Syracuse, it is sometimes asserted that the 
lode found in the deeper workings was not the same as that which 
tiad been productive above. While a mistake of this kind is not 
impossible in individual cases, the threefold repetition of such a mis- 
mance in theSilverton region maybe set down as highly improbable. 
The histories of the Pride of Syracuse mine on Engineer Mountain 
md of the San Juan Chief mine are almost repetitions of that of the 
Palmetto. The Old Lout lode, which produced rich bismuthiferous 
Dre to the extent of several hundred thousand dollars from a shaft 
sunk on the lode, proved too poor to work when crosscut by a long 
runnelfrom the bottom of Poughkeepsie Gulch, about a thousand feet 
below the croppings. The ore from this lowest level shows galena, 
3halcopyrite, sphalerites and pyrite, about equally distributed in a 
»angue of quartz with a little barite. The IT. S. Depository lode, in 
Richmond Basin, rn-oduced some galena ore in the upper workings, 
but where cut by a tunnel, at a depth of something over 500 feet, the 
Lode proved worthless. In this case the lode is well defined, but shows 
scarcely any mineralization in the lower workings. In the Uncom- 
pahgre Chief, a prospect near Mineral Point, a shaft 50 feet in depth 
has passed through ore containing an argentiferous sulphobismuthite 
of copper and lead, into an ore of which pyrite is the chief mineral 
constituent. In the Dolly Varden mine, north of Rose's Cabin, accord- 
ing to Mr. James Abbott, good ore containing tetrahedrite and 
