122  CONTRIBUTIONS    TO    ECONOMIC    GEOLOGY,   1903.  [btjll.225. 
samples  were  being  collected.  All  the  usual  precautions  were  taken  to 
prevent  possible  mixing  or  salting  of  samples.  Over  300  pounds  of 
samples  were  taken,  and  each  was  opened  and  identified  by  the  writer 
in  the  laboratory  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  where  Dr. 
E.  T.  Allen,  of  the  Survey,  made  71  assays  of  these  samples.  None  of 
these  assays  revealed  any  gold.a 
In  view  of  the  precautions  taken  in  collecting  the  samples,  and  of  the 
great  care  with  which  they  were  assayed,  the  uniform  absence  of  even 
a  trace  of  gold  and  the  only  occasional  presence  of  a  small  quantity  of 
silver,  copper,  or  lead  admits  of  one  conclusion — that  none  of  the  pros- 
pects examined  shows  any  ore  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term,  and  that 
none  has  any  present  or  probable  future  value.  The  possible  excep- 
tions are  the  Hale  and  the  Clark  and  Bennett  prospects  in  respect  to 
copper  and  lead.  A  picked  sample  from  the  Hale  mine  showed  0.35 
per  cent  of  copper  and  a  similar  sample  from  the  Clark  and  Bennett 
yielded  3.63  per  cent  of  lead.  In  neither  case  is  any  considerable  body 
of  ore  exposed.  At  the  mine  of  the  Kiowa  Copper  Company  samples 
of  material  sacked  for  shipment  assayed  10. 81  per  cent  of  copper.  The 
mine  was  not  open  to  examination,  but  the  best  data  available  indicated 
that  the  ore  seam  was  only  from  one-half  inch  to  li  inches  thick,  and 
therefore  the  tind  is  considered  unimportant. 
Whether  future  prospecting  may  reveal  other  occurrences  which  do 
have  value  can  not,  of  course,  be  stated  with  certainty  at  the  present 
time.  It  is  believed,  however,  that  the  prospects  examined  were  fully 
representative  and  that  they  have,  in  many  cases  at  least,  been  devel- 
oped enough  to  admit  of  a  trustworthy  judgment  as  to  their  value 
In  no  case  do  they  offer  any  encouragement  whatever  for  additional 
prospecting. 
In  the  granite  mountains  west  of  Otter  Creek  there  are  certain  coarse 
pegmatites  showing  crystals  of  quartz  3  or  more  inches  long.  With  the 
quartz  crystals  are  some  small,  black,  semi  vitreous  crystals  recognized 
by  Doctor  Hillebrand,  of  the  Survey,  as  belonging  to  the  columbite- 
tantalate  group.  It  is  hoped  that  further  investigation  may  reveal  the 
presence  of  some  of  the  rare  earths. 
Molybdenite  in  small  quantity  occurs  on  one  of  the  claims  of  the 
Shawnee  Mining  Company  near  Meers. 
a  The  complete  list  of  samples  and  detailed  report  of  the  assay  has  been  published  as  Senate  Docu- 
ment No.  149,  Fifty-eighth  Congress,  second  session. 
I 
