TIN    IN    TEXAS.  149 
Development  and  future. — A  frame  cabin  near  a  feeble  seep  spring  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
southeast  of  the  main  prospect  serves  as  a  working  base.  But  for  a  considerable  supply  of 
water,  wells  must  be  sunk  on  the  mesa  east  of  the  mountains,  where  an  abundant  amount  is 
available,  reached  by  wells  between  200  and  300  feet  deep,  in  which  the  water  rises  to  aboul 
180  feet  from  the  surface.  The  El  Paso  Southwestern  Railroad  crosses  the  mesa  6  miles 
from  the  prospect. 
The  principal  development  of  this  property  has  been  recorded  by  Mr.  Weed.  The  ore  w  as 
dicovered  in  1899  and  at  the  time  of  his  visit,  in  1901,  the  three  veins  then  known  had  been 
exposed  for  several  hundred  feet  along  their  length  and  a  few  pits  had  been  sunk,  the  deepest 
being  £0  feet.  Little  work  appears  to  have  been  done  on  these  veins  since  then,  although 
they  have  been  much  visited.  In  1904  two  small  occurrences  of  tin  ore  associated  with 
quartz  were  found  about  half  a  mile  apart,  the  farthest  being  between  1^  and  2  miles  north 
of  the  old  workings.  These  new  occurrences  are  similar  but  smaller  than  those  first  found. 
Development  has  not  gone  further  than  barely  scraping  the  surface  along  the  veins  for  a  few- 
hundred  feet  and  sinking  a  few  shallow  pits.  The  work  reveals  irregular  streaks  of  quartz, 
with  associated  cassiterite,  varying  up  to  2  inches  in  thickness,  in  veins  parallel  to  joints 
transverse  to  the  trend  of  the  range,  in  much  decomposed  and  broken  granite.  Locally 
slickensided  surfaces  of  granite  occur.  In  a  pit  about  8  feet  deep  on  the  northernmost  vein 
the  quartz  was  found  to  fade  away  at  a  depth  of  4  feet  below  the  surface. 
Present  developments  do  not  warrant  a  prediction  of  the  future  of  this  field;  it  may  or 
may  not  prove  to  be  of  considerable  value.  Some  of  the  ore  is  of  excellent  quality  and  the 
chief  question  concerns  its  abundance.  This  can  be  determined  only  by  further  develop- 
ment and  prospecting.  In  seeking  new  localities  for  similar  occurrences,  the  entire  granite 
outcrop  might  well  be  examined,  and  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  veins  thus  far  found 
do  not  follow  the  contacts  of  the  granite  with  the  adjacent  rocks,  but  occur  along  the  east- 
west  set  of  joints. 
