Show THE prospector AND HIS BURRO 1 I have been so successful this winter win terin in filling our larder with fresh meat said the prospector to his burrow and I 1 have had so much venison while you have been filling up on any thing that you could find that we are beginning to run short on salt and I 1 will soon have to go to the nearest settlement to replenish our stock of this needful commodity which is a as s necessary for your comfort as it is for mine speaking of salt by the way makes me think of salted mines a few of which I 1 have seen in my I 1 day want me to tell you of one of these do you well being that we have quit work for the day 1 I dont mind referring back for a period of four or five years when I 1 was engaged by a boston company to make a thorough examination of a mine in southern utah that was well thought of by these eastern parties one or two of those interested had already visited this property and were confident that it was the making of a bonanza considerable of the treasury stock had been sold and the sale of another large block was pending when I 1 was requested to make a careful and exhaustive examination of the mine in order to corroborate the reports made by others well I 1 went down and took a first class assayer with me I 1 began sampling the mine and was surprised sur prized to find that everything went from 4 to 46 rock that I 1 was convinced was barren assayed surprisingly high in the yellow metal and I 1 was so non over conditions that I 1 asked the assayer to test his bis I 1 flux and chemicals he did so and found them to be all right and still every sample I 1 submitted to him all carried gold never lower than 4 A little later I 1 had the he as s sayer test his materials again and this time he found that the and borax assayed from 4 up to 50 in the wall street metal antal this was enough for me the mine had been salted before my arrival and after I 1 began operations the party who was dong ing the he sa salting biting finding that he could not continue to do so without danger of being detected had bad salted the fluxes just before my departure the superintendent of the mine asked me what my report would be I 1 told him that I 1 would decide the matter of the report upon my arrival at salt lake then he said to me it if you w will ill make a favorable report you can have the management of this mine at a good salary and more I 1 have a large block of the stock of the company and I 1 will give you half of this provided your report is satisfactory is to me and this pending deal goes through 1 I answered him evasively and when I 1 reached salt lake I 1 made out my report turning the property down and explaining to the president the condition of affairs the president would not believe me as he had unbounded confidence in his superintendent and charged me with knocking his property A month or so later an eastern expert arrived and wanted me to go down to the mine with him T 1 I believe that you are right said he but to satisfy my people another examination must be made so I 1 went down with him and we made another exhaustive examination the expert took thirty eight samples and brought them with him to salt lake he also took the fluxes and chemicals that had been left at the mine by my assayer the ore samples and the fluxes were submitted to one of the best assayers in zion and his determinations showed that the ore only went from a trace to a dollar in gold while the etc showed the presence of from 4 to 40 and 0 even 50 a ton the report of the expert settled the matter and the mine has been idle ever since fact is there never was any pay ore in the property and the superintendent in from the start was playing his eastern associates with a salted mine and from being a knocker I 1 am now looked upon by the boston crowd as being about the only honest man in the mining business 1 I want to tell you old long ears continued the prospector while the majority of mining men deal honestly with their people there are still quite a number of rascals out of jail and these have a great hankering for salt so much so that they salt barren rock and palm it off onto unsuspecting easterners as ore the practice is only tco common and results in great harm to legitimate operators and to the mining industry at large at some other time I 1 will tell you of a case of mine salting and of big steal in the old mining camp of bingham |