Show i l I MINING IN NIGARGUA ms s I I 1 r IQre j ClGorey J of Ogden Tells of t 1 His Trip and Location hIh in I col l I bink I etbinl IN I A PRIMITIVE REGION T think 0 i sn Eis Trip in a Big Dugout Up the UOSl rr Vaunks Hivor The Mining Region lJ is Volcanic but There Are Good n lJr a Gold Values Porphyry is the i i Formation Size of n Claim and Th f iT1 J How Title Is Secured High Prices 11 of Ordinary Artioles of TTce How 1I dW the Natives Live j < Ij 1 r atlcla Mine Nicaragua Nov 5 1900 j Editor Tribune Before leaving Utah f iI last June I promised to write mae m-ae U friends something of this country and rl its opportunities but as I havent time > to write them all I will with your < Fv permission reach them through The < I Tribune And if they dont read The I Tribune well they ought tot to-t + I arrived at Cape Graclus July Gth after a six days passage from New 1 Orleans and came up the Wanks or 136 133 S Waxmlcs river In a dugout paddled by IHlll es and loaded with 5000 pounds of IAIN 1 51 freight These dugouts are from forty to sixty feet long and carry from 1000 to CtOO pounds besides the crew of from seven to ion natives The Vnunks Is from 100 to BOO feet wide and from twenty to forty feet deep No steam whistle Is heard thereon Ve were sixteen days coming up about 200 miles via the river and perhaps half that distance In a direct line in a westerly course from the cape The river Is the line In dispute between Nicaragua and Spanish Honduras but little can he Seen from the river as It Is walled in by almost Impenetrable forests Occasionally Oc-casionally an Indian village Is passed I ahd here and there a rubber trader with a small stock of merchandise that is bartered at extortionate prices for rubber r ALL EAT BANANAS I The natives principal article of diet I Is bananas every family have their plantation of bananas cocoanut oranges or-anges lemons alligator pears yams etc but the bananas seems to be tho Htaft of life They are gathered green boiled and mashed then cold water Is added until It is about the consistency I of gravy It Is dished out In a calabash I gourd shell and drank They call It woh bUll Tho chickens hogs dogs and cattle I If they have any all seem to relish the banana The native knows that lu his banana plantation hS has a living he Is therefore inclined to be lazy As to I clothing mention there Is not enough of It to HEAVILY TIMBERED The country from the cape west 15 I low and flat and almost constantly under water from the overflow from the river but Is covered with a heavy growth of timber There Is mahogany I cedar rosewood pine the rubber tree Ironwood and a great many vaiiollcs that are strange to me The land In the lower country Is a mixture of sand and clay In the foothills foot-hills and uplands It is clay I There Is some game such as deer antelope grouse armadillo mountain I I I cow a small Animal resembling the hippopotamus and two specie of wild hog called plcary and warn turtle and land crabs with plenty of lisp and alligators alli-gators In the river As we near the foothills the river In many places has cut Into lava scoria and volcanic breccia Where there Is gravel exposed in the river banks we I find pebbles oC Cambrian quartxlte I drab magnesia limestone dolomite and marble with an occasional piece of quartz with oxidized copper stains n little tins gold and magnetic Iron UP TO GREAT FALLS At a distance of about 125 miles from the cape AC leave the Waunks and turn south up the Waspook river In about six miles wo leach Yahook falls Up to this point from the mouth of the Waunks the water is I navigable for large vessels except two months In the year February and March the dry reason We follow the Waspook for flTty miles and then take a tributary called Pie Pis which we ascend twen tylive miles to Salto Grande Great Falls Unloading our traps they are packed on the backs of oxen and we leave the liver for the mines throe miles distant through mud and numerous numer-ous small streams and as usual a drenching rain MINE FORMATION So far as I have seen this district appears to be an extinct crater which I was left filled with porphyry or lac collte and quartzporphyry and as it cooled or by earthquakes great and small fissures were opened up which In the apes that followed gradually filled with quartz and In many instances In-stances a very liberal sdpply of gold The porphyry as well as 1 the quartz in highly Impregnated with Iron A great deal of the quartz Is honeycombed honey-combed The walls of the veins are porphyry The country rock Is the same I have been In many mining dIstricts In the West but never have I seen so much porphyry as here The almost continuous rains have decomposed decom-posed It and washed it down to the 0 lower hills which no doubt accounts for so much clay as the channel Is gradual from clay to porphyry as depth is attained BIG BONANZAS The quartz vclna vary from a few Inches to 100 feet and more and In many places crop out I The bonanza onefourth of a mllo from here has been crosscut showing I a vein ninety feet wide that la a mile I long and will average half an ounce I per ton of free gold so far as It has been dcvlopcd mill Is being erected thereon and when they get it running run-ning they can put through everything but the stumps Tho ConstancUi with two arnstras has cleaned up 150000 in four years from an eightyfoot vein The SIcmpre Vive Is running on rich ore from a large vein The Colonia Con 1dla and many others are valuable properties proper-ties The gold IS worth from 11 to 10 per ounce at New Orleans There Is an export duty on it of 10 per cent A DOZEN MILLS There are about a dozen mills in operation all small ones and more going go-Ing up There Is an abundance of water wa-ter power and In many cases conveniently conve-niently near the mines Some good claims are opened up and awaiting a I purchaser and still the country has 1 scarcely been scratched with the poI po-I I pectors pick Wero this district In the States there would bo 60000 people in It In a month and two or three railroads rail-roads headed for It Timber Is in abundance t DRAWBACKS But there arc drawbacks to be met I with In the first place transportation facilities are wholly Inadequate Steam Is needed on the river or a railroad fifty miles long from the head of ntivl gallon on the Walt Wah or Wasoook The rain pours down almost every day I I causing continuous floods on the rivers I As the country Is hilly and all clay the II rain runs off as from a shingle roof One must do his work In the rain and I mud and at night go to his shack I and change his clothes TUB CLIMATE The temperature range from 05 to SO deg yet the least exertion will cause 1 one to puispire freely on account of the humidity of the atmosphere The temperature I tem-perature of spring water Is 75 dog altitude about 1300 feet above sea level r One needs light clothing a coat and r vest arc as useless us anything could be A pair of light woolen blankets a quilt and pillow In hammock or on I a cot is a good bed one can sleep between I be-tween blankets every night Tho country fa healthy but little malaria ma-laria and that is principally confined to the lower altitudes I LACK OF MAIL 1 There are no mail lines In this part of the country The miners If they can be called such receive 150 per day In Nicaraguan money which is worth about tho same as the Mexican dollar I and about what Uncle Sams dollar would be worth were Bryanlsm to prevail pre-vail their board Is Included A MIXED LOT I They are a mixed lot a combination of Indian negro and Spanish but few can read or write They are from all the Central American states Islands of the Caribbean sea and British Honduras Hon-duras They would rather miss a little work than their dinner One good white miner will do the work of two or three of them Their wants are few and they are contented and seemingly happy Marriage Is something almost unknown among them When a man tires of a woman or vice versa they simply quit each other and form similar alliances with others The result is a confusion of colors and dialects HIGH PRICES Prices on every commodity are outrageously out-rageously high The following all In native money will give an idea Manufactured tobacco per pound 800 Leaf tobacco per pound 100 Whisky per bottle 500 < Good hlsky 1000 Common Overalls per pair w 400 Common cowhide shoe per pair 700 Good shoes per pair lo to 20CO CO per cent dynamite per pound 100 Pick and shovel from SS to 700 Flour per pound r 10 Beans per pound 10 Rice per pound 75 MINES AND MILLS Dimensions of mining claim 450x600 feet An Individual can locate not to I exceed three claims within a mile of any other location A company can locate lo-cate without limit but forfeits all rights if allowed to remain undeveloped for two years unless a mill Is erected by owner within 4500 feet of locations Mining both placer and quartz Is I going on on the upper Waunks Wah i Wah and Timky rivers and their tributaries tribu-taries and In tho Interior Many of the I laws and their enforcement ore farcical farci-cal One only has to see tho follies of a foreign Government to more fully appreciate i his own country I CUSTOMS DUTIESr i Duties both import and export arc very high The raising of tobacco In Nicaragua Is prohibited by law over and above 100 plants for each head of a family allowing the Government to I collect a high tariff and as men women I wo-men and children smoke the revenues must be considerable There are no duties on mining machinery ma-chinery or tools Concessions for land timber and the right lo navigate tho rivers are for sale DISTRICT OFFICIALS Each district has Its Governor com mandante and a few police Imprisonment Imprison-ment for debt Is In vogue but caution Is exercised In applying tho rule to foreigners for-eigners One big darkey when approached ap-proached by a policeman with reference to a debt stialcrhtcncd himself up and defiantly replied Is Ingllsh objlk object meaning he was a British subject He didnt go to Jail Each district has Its I mining Judge who surveys all locations advertises them for ninety days and If no adverse claims are filed issues a certificate of ownership and collects his fee of from F160 to 250 In cols If there is a contest con-test the mining judge decides the coed As he has done the surveying and hag a record of such he is supposed to know tho rightful owner The mill and mine and all other property prop-erty connected therewith Is subject to seizure and sale for Tvairea of employees = em-ployees and other liabilities COPIES OF THE TRIBUNE I have received a few copies of Tho Tribune It is like meeting an old friend to get It Tomorrow the great political battle Is on at home Six weeks will have passed before I hear I the result as my nearest postofllce la Cape Graclas and from fifteen to thirty days Is the time for the boats to get hare according to the state of the floods Everything Is carried on herein here-in a primitive way Oxen are worked with a pole strapped to their horn 4 A wagon or cart la unknown partly I presume on account of muddy roads The machette Is universally In use I In fact 1t Is almost Indispensable Truly yours C J COREY Cape Graclas Nicaragua Cure of Blue fields Steamship Company 141 DC catur street New Orleans L A |