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Show FAMOUS MINING STRIKES By THOMAS E. STEWARD tWWWWW O WVNVS Goldfield WHILE the Goldleld district failed to produce treasure In anything like the quantities obtained from the Conistock lode it yielded in the five yeurs 1003 to 1007 $19,S04,6SO worth of gold and silver, relatively little of which came from the silver. And Goldfield became the reincarnation of the roaring, rollicking mining camps of days three and four decades earlier. Goldfield in 1.903 had most of the 8.000 people living In the immediate district and by 100(5 had a population estimated at 13,000, although other camps In the neighborhood had also grown meanwhile. Many famous mines were discovered near Geldlleld, among these being the Jumbo, Florence and January mines on the Combination ledge and later the famous Mohawk from which at one time $60,000 a day in gold was being taken. In the Florence mine the very richest ore ran as much as .$0,000 and $7,000 in gold to tile ton of material. But of almost equal interest with the true strikes were the vast number of speculative and fly-by-night mining properties developed in this district. One mining company whose property, so far as is known, had never produced pro-duced an ounce of gold, was capitalized capital-ized with 2,000,000 shares which were quoted at $1.S0 per share, giving the concern a paper value of 53,000,000. Decline in the price of the slock reduced re-duced this estimate In two years to $100,000. It became the custom at Goldfield to capitalize all prospective mines at ?1,-000,000 ?1,-000,000 and then let nature take Its course. In the GoklUeld district the ore bodies that contained gold were rich, but they were also ' Irregular. Many leases and boomed tracts had no ore at all. The result was that many speculators and more poorly advised Investors lost heavily, especially when the deposits on which some of the better bet-ter mines were based began to decrease de-crease In yield. Goldfield had another curse besides speculation, that of ore thefts by miners. min-ers. This was due to the form in which the gold occurred, crumbled and loose rather than In quartz rock as at some camps. Miners refused ?20 a day on development work to labor for ffo a day iu a shaft where they could pocket some of the high-grade ore. This process was called highgrad-ing. highgrad-ing. nnd the extent to which it was carried on was almost Incredible. It was estimated in Goldfield that 52,000,-000 52,000,-000 worth of "high-grade" was stolen from the Mohawk, Red Top nnd Jumbo mines alone up to the year 1007. Other estimates say the Goldfield Consolidated Consoli-dated Mining company lost ore ut the rate of $1,000,01X1 11 year during , the height of production. Contributing ns u main factor to the careless methods that made these thefts possible was the fact that most of the companies that worked these mines leased them Instead of owning the ground outright. If a lease proved to have valuable ore, the lesse.es spared no cost or effort but strove lo extract every possible ounce of ore before the lease should expire. This led to wastefulness and dishonesty on an unprecedented scale. An Ancient Book on Mining HERBERT HOOVER, known today to every American nnd to nearly every person In the civilized world, was In 1011 an expert mining engineer engi-neer wlLh a splendid reputation among person In Hint profession, but with little or no general fame. Yet, in view of Ills widely varied Interests, It Is not surprising to learn that In that year he and Mrs. Hoover translated trans-lated and published the famous volume vol-ume "De He Motnlllca." which means In .broad translation, "About This Metal Business.'1 "De Re Metalllca" was written' In lfirii) by a Gorman who used the pen name "Agrlcolu," a Latin equivalent for his own name of Bauer, literally In English, "Farmer." Many had attempted at-tempted the translation of this work before the Hoovers saw It through, but none before thorn had shown the perseverance necessary to succeed. Agrlcola was the first to approach mining In the spirit of modern science, sci-ence, breaking away from tho superstitions super-stitions of the Middle nges. To blm Ihe science of geology owes the first explanation that the earth's crust Is built larg.'ly out of water deposits; that the shape of the earth's surface Is due to volcanic and water-wearing action, and that bodies of ore are the result of deposits loft by water In open t.paoos between the rocks of tho earth. Vlie science of mineralogy owes to Agrlcola the first attempt at a rational ra-tional rhissllioHttou of minerals and the first description of bismuth and cobalt. Magazine comment In 1011, when the book first: appeared, gave groat credit to (lie Hoovers for their successful suc-cessful translation of this famous work, which was thus made available for tho first, time to the general reading read-ing public Interested In geology. It was pointed cut that Mrs. Hoover, as well as her husband, bad completed 1 the BclenUllr course at Leiand Stun ford university and Inul eoi, tinned to give serious attention lo selenllflc n fairs. 'Ibis book by the HooveiH li now a rarity, i |